News
Sales & Marketing Magazine Interviews Webb Communications
An Interview with John De Santis, Webb Communications
(Motivation/Incentive Section)
Carrot Picking: Unlock the hidden benefits - and costs - of your incentive plan
John De Santis, VP of Webb Communications and co-founder of BrightRewards.com was recently interviewed by Sales & Marketing Management magazine, a VNU publication read by more than 65,000 sales and marketing professionals. The article focused in part on the benefits and ROI of online sales incentive programs developed by Webb Communications as part of its www.BrightRewards.com service offering. Sales & Marketing Management wanted Webb's insight into this multi-billion dollar industry that is changing the way companies motivate and reward their employees, distributors and customers through online programs.
Article Excerpts From:
Carrot Picking: Unlock the hidden benefits - and costs - of your incentive plan.
by Julia Chang
Sales managers often dangle incentives in front of their reps to jump-start stalled sales, but it might actually be the incentive program that's in the rut. According to a recent S&MM/Equation Research survey, the most common method of choosing incentives, according to 38 percent of managers, is simply using what's worked in the past. The problem, experts say, is that those tried-and- true incentive programs may be stale and don't contribute to greater corporate goals.
Companies that must vie for distributors' attention can use incentive marketing to keep their products at the front of their distributors' minds, says John De Santis, co founder of BrightRewards.com, an online incentive program provider based in New York. One client, Italian brewery Peroni, offered high-end incentive products through a point-based program to its distributors. Resellers redeem points for items such as watches and housewares through a Web site branded with the Peroni name. In addition to increased sales, one measure of success was the number of participating distributors. "Almost everyone ultimately fulfilled their rewards;" he says. "It acted as a targeted marketing vehicle, not just a Web portal with products. It's a way to communicate your brand to the independent guys."
About BrightRewards.com
Bright Rewards programs attract new customers, drive sales, or reward employees. Bright Rewards enables leading companies and organizations to quickly and economically launch high-quality, web-based incentive programs that work. Bright Rewards is a highly scalable, secure and customizable e-Commerce platform which makes it possible for you to easily brand an entire on-line gift program to your company's identity. It is the only on-line incentive program that makes it easy for companies to add their own merchandise into a gift catalog and also post custom information related to other rewards, such as incentive vacations.
The most important benefit of Bright Rewards is that it helps organizations to effectively motivate people by making participants in the program feel valued and inspired to achieve. A Bright Rewards site helps companies do this by clearly communicating program goals and rewards and enabling participants to easily preview and access an on-line catalog of high quality award gifts.
About John De Santis
John De Santis, vice president Webb Communications and co-founder of BrightRewards.com, has developed and managed high-impact communications solutions for over 15 years in publishing, marketing and international markets. John’s experience incorporates business development, creative direction of new media content, marketing, direction of corporate and international government campaigns. John manages business development in the Italian and European markets. John also serves on the board of directors of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce.