How to Build a Great Marketing Incentive Program

Marketing incentive programs are used for a variety of reasons in an accounting firm. Most often, these programs are used to motivate a team to embrace marketing and business development activities that will, in turn, help grow the firm.  Building a great incentive program is sometimes easier said than done, so let’s start with a few basics:

Set Your Goals & Expectations

Some accounting firms jump into marketing incentive programs without knowing why they are doing it or agreeing on what they want to get out of it. One partner wants new business while others simply want to see the staff doing more marketing.  Building your incentive program starts with an agreement around your goals and expected results. Hint: if this is your first incentive program and you don’t have an established culture around growth, achieving tons of new business might be a stretch.

Reward the Right Behaviors

Once you’ve identified your goals, you will need to build a program to accomplish those goals. With an incentive program, the key is to reward the right behaviors. Right behaviors drive the results you are looking for. If getting people involved is your goal, focus on activities that will inspire involvement. Make it easy to earn incentive points the first time around. If the program is too complicated or overwhelming, it won’t work. Streamline the activities and ensure there are enough activities so that those involved can truly participate.

Continuous Communication is Critical

Don’t just create buzz and excitement when you launch the program.  Keep the energy going by regularly sharing the results of the program. This could be as simple as updating a chart in your staff break room or sending out a special email with team or individual results. Ensure that your key influencers, like your managing partners or shareholder group are on board and are reinforcing your message and accolades.

Build in Teamwork 

The best incentive programs we have seen don’t simply focus on individual contributions, they also leverage teamwork. Marketing and business development skills are best learned by observation and through the sharing of stories of successes and failures. Structure some part of the program to foster teamwork; encourage participation or reward people for working together and learning from each other.

Couple It with Training

Whenever possible, try to couple the incentive program with some sort of ongoing training, either on a formal or informational basis. Regular “lunch and learns” or marketing clubs are good venues to have participants talk about their successes and failures and to share advice. Lunch and learns are a great way to deliver training on topics like networking and the sales processes that help people find success through their efforts.

A marketing incentive program can be a great way to initiate or build a growth culture. To read about a successful program, check out our recent case study: Using a Marketing Incentive Program to Kickstart Your Growth Culture. Need help tracking your program? Download our Incentive Program Tracking Template: Master Rewards Program Tracking Template.