Sales and Marketing Strategies & News

January/February 2001

Pure Choice: Give Them Flexibility

by Janine Nunes
Senior Writer

When it comes to salespeople, everybody wants to be the big dog. Big dogs get bigger bones, and so do their sales managers.

So when Xerox sales manager Tracy Chernay was choosing a gift certificate program to help to drive sales in her Greater Pennsylvania/Delaware division, it seemed like a good fit to ask Big Dogs Sportswear to help.

"There was a lot of fun associated with the Big Dogs theme," says Chernay. She used Big Dogs' products-and images-in a number of aggressive promotions, including a drive to capture competitor information and another to steal competitor accounts.

"It was an excellent experience that caused a lot of enthusiasm and was easy to administer," says Chernay.

"We're fortunate to have a brand that fits any venue, whether you're the big dogs of the airlines or the big dogs of computers or whatever," says David Wolf, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Big Dogs Sportswear, Santa Barbara, Calif. People like to think of themselves as the big dogs in any setting, and Big Dogs merchandise reinforces that proud feeling, making the award larger than just a fleece jacket or shirt, says Wolf. Big Dogs gift certificates can be redeemed online or in one of 200 nationwide stores.

Wolf thinks companies should give more thought to choosing incentives that please employees but also tie in appropriately to a specific sales campaign theme and corporate culture.

Just as more traditional companies tend to choose traditional sales awards, Information Age companies gravitate toward electronic merchandise gift certificates, says Karen Doyle, corporate awards program rep, Best Buy, Eden Prairie, Minn.

"We work with a lot of dot.com companies that use either our plastic gift cards or personalized paper certificates as rewards for specific sales contests, monthly volume awards, quarterly and yearly high achievements," says Doyle. "Good salespeople are difficult to find and hold onto. The value of gift cards is huge. What you get with a gift card is pure choice, allowing people to choose something with high trophy value. And the employer has no inventory, shipping or storage to worry about."

Many traditional companies feel they can't go wrong by presenting gift certificates from high-quality department stores to their star performers.

The debit card offered by May Dept. Stores Co., St. Louis, for example, offers $10 to $500 denominations that may be used interchangeably at Filene's, Lord & Taylor, Hecht's, Strawbridge's, Foley's, Robinson-May, Kaufmann's, Famous-Barr, L.S. Ayres, the jones store, Meier & Frank and ZCMI.

"Our gift cards are always appreciated and never returned," says Sarah Sullivan, gift card department director for Filene's, Boston. "We're a good mid-range choice offering a lot of bang for the buck."

"Part of the award is the experience of physically roaming the aisles of a fine department store and choosing a gift for oneself," says James Flattum, marketing support specialist for corporate gifts and incentives at the Minneapolis office of Target Corp.

The certificates are redeemable at Marshall Field's, Dayton's and Hudson's department stores; and at Mervyn's California and Target discount stores.

"We have the benefit of strong name recognition, high-quality merchandise and a variety of items that appeal to both men and women, all ages. Employers can stockpile our certificates or place orders as needed," says Flattum.

"Gift certificates absolutely continue to be more popular than ever," says Ross Sawai, director of incentive sales at Blockbuster Entertainment Inc., Dallas. Many companies are using movie theme tie-ins to enliven a sales motivation program, making video gift cards a perfect added-value piece, says Sawai.

"There's certainly an increased awareness on the part of corporations that it's imperative to find ways to incent their sales employees on an ongoing basis, not just in one big gift at the end of the year," says Sawai. "As the shrinking employee marketplace makes it tougher for managers to hire good people, this becomes all the more important. Video rentals provide a low-cost, high-perceived-value option for doing that."

The Web has introduced new versatility to incentive buyers that should be saving them both money and time.

"There are tremendous efficiencies provided through the Internet when it's used right," says Edward Brookshire, president, Giveanything.com, New York. "The bottom line is that a lot of companies are not bringing the efficiencies to the table that the Internet makes possible. They're charging companies setup fees and administration fees over and above product value and they aren't addressing the tax issues."

Since most successful salespeople already own the popular items they want, it's a good fit to offer them extraordinary, novel choices, says Brookshire.

"The obvious, popular stores are on our site, but so are the very obscure, specialized stores that make the browsing an adventure," says Brookshire. "You can buy everything from skydiving equipment to fiberglass cows-kosher food from 123kosher.com to specialized beer mugs from PubGear.com, for example. We give no exclusive contracts to merchants, which leaves the gamut much wider open." By the end of the year the site will boast more than 5,000 merchants. Certificates are redeemed online.

Instantaneous delivery of gift certificates is available and the print-your-own gift certificate option is hugely popular with managers who procrastinate, says Brookshire.

Incorporating more than merchandise into gift certificate options also broadens the appeal to salespeople, some of whom are better motivated by travel, dining or entertainment than merchandise, says Jackie Schneider, vice president of sales at Gift Certificate Center-A Hallmark Company, Minneapolis. "A lot of our customers use our certificates to reward for direct sales each quarter, to pump up enthusiasm during downtimes, to reward for new business prospecting or to award as the big end-of-year incentive gift," says Schneider.

About GiveAnything.com:
GiveAnything.com is a New York-based online gift solutions company offering proprietary online gift certificates redeemable at thousands of the Web's most unique online merchants; highly automated corporate rewards and incentive programs; and providing small to mid-sized online merchants with turnkey digital gift certificate enabling technology.

Contact:
Michelle Chase
PerkettPR
617/470-3309
michelle@perkettpr.com

Gina Kussman
212/252-8891
press@giveanything.com