Marketing Incentive Programs

One of the smartest marketing ideas I have seen recently came from an unexpected place. It came in a takeout bag. When I ordered delivery from Desi Galli, an Indian restaurant in New York City, I noticed a bright red envelope tucked inside. On the front, it said: Stop. No peeking. Open only at Desi Galli with a cashier present. Naturally, this got my attention. Inside was a gift card worth anywhere from $5 to $500. But there was a catch. To find out what you received, you had to visit the restaurant in person. This is a deceptively sophisticated example of incentive design. Rather than pushing discounts or sending reminders, Desi Galli used anticipation, curiosity, and a small element of chance to encourage delivery customers to walk through the door and experience the restaurant firsthand. Why does this work? Because people are wired to resolve uncertainty. We enjoy the feeling of possibility. And when a business creates a moment of positive suspense, it does more than drive foot traffic. It builds emotional connection. The broader lesson is useful far beyond restaurants. Ask yourself: What specific action do you want your customers or clients to take? And how could you make that action more appealing, rewarding, or even a little fun? Small moments of delight often change behavior more effectively than reminders or instructions. Well done, Desi Galli. A smart strategy from a restaurant I already admired for its food.

🌶️ but true: If your loyalty program only looks good when you’re throwing heavy discounts at people, it’s not a loyalty program It’s a slow-motion margin leak In my new restaurant loyalty guide, I break down 14 programs that do it differently: KFC UK & Ireland, La Cage Brasserie Sportive, Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Subway, Panera Bread, Pret A Manger Among this there are Antavo AI Loyalty Cloud customers, and also those who I simply like to eat at (because tasty and great allergene info!) They all have one thing in common: They treat loyalty like a BEHAVIOR ENGINE, not a giveaway Stuff they are good at - Quick-earn, quick-burn rewards to keep people coming back - Rewards that feel big but don’t cost a fortune to deliver - Clear steering toward apps, delivery, kiosks where they have data & control The most interesting programs: - KFC turns every order into a chance to play & win,  but uses probability to keep discounts under control - Costa & Chipotle bake in lifestyle and values (sustainability, charity, early access), not just coupons - Panera Bread & Pret A Manger run hybrid models: free loyalty + paid subscriptions that turn daily habits into recurring revenue There’s also a simple blueprint in the article: 1. Figure out your real margins & repeat behavior 2. Pick ONE main behavior you’re trying to boost 3. Launch a lean MVP, then add fancy stuff later 📌 Comment “FOOD” and I’ll send it to you If you’re in QSR and restaurant space, and want to see what’s next for loyalty, I’d definitely recommend #restaurant #loyalty

I made a $1M ARR mistake in 2024: treating my customer journey as a line & not a flywheel. My revenue flywheel didn't start (& we couldn't have done $500k last month) until I treated our customer journey as a loop. When you first start you think you have it all figured out: Lead -> Warm Lead -> Sale -> Customer. But I was missing a step & it cost me. Then I turned that line into a loop by feeding the customer back into our sales process. It's not rocket science: find your happy customers & amplify them. But adding process to it is actually hard. Look at the incentives: - sellers are comped on closing customers - CSMs are comped on keeping customers Whose job is this - Product Marketing? Customer Marketing? the Founders? It's everyones job. If I were a VP of marketing today I would make sure (even with a small marketing team) you're incentivizing someone to surface 5 customers wins/day and cycle them back into the top of your lead funnel. Here are 3 plays we started at Warmly that would have earned me another $1M ARR if I started them a year ago: 1/ Micro grants to customer advocates Find happy champions and offer them $2k in mico grants to be an official advocate. Compensate them for 2x referral calls per month & ask the to be 100% truthful even if its doesn't always make you look good. Push them to screenshare & show *how* they're using you - not just wax about you. 2/ Public posts about wins with independent audits/reviews I think case studies are kind of dead. Can't remember the last time a prospect truly read or referenced one. Real posts from real people are the way to go. We invite agencies and reviewers to get full access to what we sell to give their honest opinion even if its not 10/10. We strive for honesty & transparency as core to our brand and that is recognized in the buying process vs our peers. 3/ Customer love wall in TINY font Screenshot all wins and add them to a never ending scroll page for your reviews (get permission of course). No one trusts G2 anyways, but they will trust an actual public post with their name tied to it On Warmly's page you can literally click into ANY of the LinkedIn posts and go read it for yourself, including the comments. You can connect with the person and double verify they meant what they said. And the best part? TINY font. I have no proof but but we make the font small to fit in more reviews. My hypothesis is that prospects scroll down and are impressed at the sea of happy champions and think "Dang I need to zoom in just to see all these great reviews!" Check out our customer page on our website! Warmly, Max #marketingtips #marketing

1+1=3 That’s the result strategic partnerships can bring.  New revenue streams with mutual benefit. In wellness and longevity, these kinds of partnerships can be the difference between staying niche or scaling into the mainstream. I’ve seen this firsthand across industries. In music, we brought Dave Matthews Band together with RadicalMail, combining a loyal fan base with interactive email tech before “engagement” was even a buzzword. In mobile, we paired Tony Hawk with AT&T, giving a major carrier cultural edge and giving fans a reason to care. In cannabis, we linked PROHBTD Media with Advertising Week, creating national content and brand opportunities when most platforms shut their doors. And now in wellness, we’ve partnered Taopatch with Nature’s Respawn to bring cutting-edge wearable tech directly into the gamer wellness space. I have dozens more examples but you get the point. Partnerships accelerate traction when they align the right audiences, technologies, and cultural currents. If you’re building a wellness brand, ask: Where can two worlds collide to create something new? That’s where some revenue magic can happen. Strategic partnerships are about creating opportunities that neither side could achieve alone. It’s a math equation I specialize in. #scalingwellness

This is the most underrated problem I've seen when trying to build or expand partnership GTM: Leadership is initially fully behind a new partnership, excited about its potential, but that enthusiasm never makes its way down to the sales teams who are expected to execute. Without alignment, even the best partnership can stall before it has a chance to succeed. Why does this happen? Sales teams are often focused on their core products, and if a partnership doesn’t clearly benefit them or fit into their day-to-day operations, it becomes an afterthought. To turn things around, you need to make sure your partnership incentives, compensation, and training are in lockstep with the teams that will be selling your product. Here’s how to align incentives and drive results: 1. Ensure your incentives are compelling enough for frontline teams. It’s not enough to excite leadership—sales teams need a clear, tangible reason to sell your product. - Introduce a financial incentive or bonus structure that’s competitive with what reps earn on their core products. This could be a one-time bonus for the first sale, or an ongoing commission that rewards consistent effort. -Tie the incentive to their existing sales goals. If your product helps them hit their targets more easily, they’ll naturally prioritize it. 2. Structure partner compensation to motivate co-selling. If your partner compensation doesn’t align with their core goals, they won’t push your product. - Design a compensation plan that aligns with both the partner’s and your business objectives. For instance, if your partner’s core offering is hardware, incentivize bundling your software as part of the sale to create a win-win situation. - Offer performance-based incentives that reward partners for hitting key milestones—whether that’s a certain number of units sold, a specific revenue target, or even customer engagement metrics. Keep it simple and measurable. 3. Provide consistent training and engagement so your product isn’t just another checkbox. Sales teams won’t advocate for your product if they don’t fully understand its value or how to sell it. - Develop ongoing, bite-sized training sessions that fit into their schedules. Instead of overwhelming them with lengthy sessions, focus on 15-minute, high-impact trainings that teach them how to identify the right opportunities. -Pair training with real-time support. Join sales calls, offer one-pagers, and provide direct assistance during key customer engagements. When they feel supported, they’re more likely to feel confident pushing your product. This kind of alignment can make the difference between a stalled partnership and a thriving one. When sales teams are motivated, equipped, and incentivized to sell your product, the partnership stops being just another checkbox—it becomes a key driver of growth.

This Omdia poll tells a story every partner leader should sit with for a moment. Partners aren’t asking for more swag. They’re asking for access, relevance, and proximity to decisions. When 40% say the most valuable non-monetary incentive is exclusive access to resources and enablement, that’s not a training problem — that’s a time-to-value problem. Partners want to be better, faster, and more credible in front of customers. --> Enablement is currency. The next tier is even more revealing. Relationship-building events, recognition, and strategy sessions with leadership all cluster tightly together. Translation: partners want to be seen, heard, and trusted. Not managed. Not processed. Included. What ranks lowest? Personalized merchandise. Swag doesn’t move pipelines. Access does. This mirrors what we see across partner ecosystems more broadly. As buying journeys fragment and deals surround themselves with more influencers, partners are optimizing for signal over stuff. They want insight before it’s public, alignment before the deal is registered, and a seat at the table before the customer decides. In fact, recognition beyond the point-of-sale is the #1 thing they are asking for. If incentives can follow, even better. The takeaway is simple: the best partner programs don’t lead with money or merch. They lead with information, influence, and intimacy. In the next era of partnerships, incentives won’t be transactional. They’ll be strategic.

IMO more orgs should tie AE comp to what happens AFTER signature. I mean, your reps get paid at close. Then they tend to disappear. CS inherits an overpromised deal. Customer realizes 8-week implementation was actually 16 weeks. ROI projection was complete bullshit. 6 months later customer submits their churn notice and your rep's already spent their commish on a bunch of On Clouds and a fancy humidor. Comp plans reward the signature. Period. Doesn't matter if customer goes live. Doesn't matter if they hit their goals. Doesn't matter if they expand or churn. Just get the signature and move on. So that's exactly what your reps optimize for. You can easily set up a 4-tier commish structure that fixes this: Tier 1 - Base commission at signature: 8% of ARR. - Rep closes deal. - Gets baseline comp immediately. Tier 2 - Go-Live bonus (+1%): Total 9%. - Customer completes onboarding within agreed timeline. - Must be actively using core features. - CS confirms product deployment. Tier 3 - Success metric achievement (+1%): Total 10%. - Customer hits outcome from business case within 90 days. - Examples: cost savings target, efficiency gain, revenue goal, etc. - Must be documented and verified. Tier 4 - Expansion unlock (+2%): Total 12%. - Customer adds seats, upgrades tier, or buys additional product within 12 months. - Minimum 20% ARR expansion from original deal. - Rep also earns standard 8% commission on the new expansion ARR. So, what changes with this? Reps start asking different questions during sale: - "What does success look like 90 days after launch?"  - "Who's responsible for implementation on your side?"  - "What would cause this to fail internally?" They stop overselling. They qualify harder. They care about customer readiness because their comp depends on it. They stay engaged post-sale. They check in with CS. They help remove blockers. They build relationships that lead to expansion. An SA member we worked with rolled this out a bit less than 18 months ago. Churn dropped 22%. Implementation time dropped 31%. Expansion revenue doubled. Same reps. Same product. Different incentives. Some reps pushed back: "Why should I get penalized if customer doesn't implement properly?" The answer: you're not getting penalized. You're getting baseline commission at close. Bonus is for making sure they succeed. If you're consistently selling to customers who can't implement or won't see value, that's a qualification problem. Fix it. Best reps loved it. They were already doing this work. Now they get paid for it. Mediocre reps weren't huge fans. They were used to dumping deals on CS and running. Suddenly they had skin in the game. Three of them quit. Fine. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. If you pay reps to care about customer outcomes, they'll start caring about customer outcomes. Plus, your CS team will appreciate not inheriting disasters anymore.

Are You Building Relationships or Just Giving Discounts? Many businesses launch loyalty programs expecting a surge in customer retention. But here’s the hard truth: points and discounts alone don’t create loyalty—connections do. A customer who sticks around just for a discount isn’t truly loyal. They’re just temporarily incentivized. So, how do you turn a transactional relationship into long-term commitment? Here’s what the best loyalty programs do differently: ✅ They go beyond just discounts Sure, discounts are nice—but if that’s all your loyalty program offers, customers will leave the moment a competitor gives a better deal. Successful brands mix in exclusive perks like early access to products, VIP events, or members-only content to deepen engagement. ✅ They make customers feel seen and valued People want to feel appreciated, not just like another number in your database. Personalization is key. Think birthday rewards, tailored recommendations and recognizing repeat customers with surprise perks. A simple "Thank You" email can go a long way. ✅ They create an emotional connection Great loyalty programs aren’t just about transactions; they tap into emotions. Brands like Sephora and Starbucks use tiered programs that encourage progression—people love working toward "elite" status. Others integrate social impact, allowing members to donate points to causes they care about. ✅ They reward engagement, not just spending Loyalty isn’t just about how much someone spends. Some brands reward customers for writing reviews, referring friends, engaging on social media, or attending events. This makes customers feel like active participants in the brand’s community. ✅ They remove friction and make it fun Ever signed up for a loyalty program that felt like a chore? Complicated rules, expiring points and difficult redemption processes kill engagement. The best programs are seamless, easy to use and even gamified—turning customer retention into an experience, not just a system. 📌 Here’s a question: If you removed all discounts from your loyalty program, would your customers still stay? If the answer is no, it’s time to rethink your approach. Loyalty is earned, not bought. Build programs that give customers a reason to stay—not just an incentive to return. What’s the best loyalty initiative you’ve seen or implemented? Let’s discuss. #retention #acquisition #customerlifetimevalue #points4purpose #loyalty ----------------------------- Points4Purpose boosts customer lifetime value while empowering member choice - redeeming cash rewards or donating to their favourite cause - seamlessly! If you like this post and would like to see more, please ring the 🔔 on my profile to receive my content directly to your LinkedIn Notifications Tab. To review my published content in one place click: #ivanschwartzpoints4purpose

FY27 Microsoft CSP Incentives (1 July 2026 – 30 June 2027) - what's new! Microsoft has released the FY27 CSP incentive guide, and there are some significant changes that partners should be aware of - particularly around recurring revenue, customer growth, AI adoption, and Change of Channel transfers. What's driving the changes? Microsoft is shifting incentives towards partners who: ✔️ Drive Copilot, AI, Data and Security adoption ✔️ Grow existing customers ✔️ Expand into strategic workloads ✔️ Deliver net-new business growth Incentives are moving away from simply retaining recurring revenue and towards creating customer growth opportunities. Maximum earning potential for indirect resellers: • AI Workforce (Modern Work / Copilot): up to 19.5% • Security (Defender / Purview): up to 19.5% • AI Business Process (Dynamics 365): up to 19.5% • Cloud & AI Platform (Azure): up to 15% The two biggest changes: 1. No incentives for Change of Channel (COCP) When a customer moves between partners within the same solution area: ❌ No Core rebate ❌ No Strategic Accelerator The new partner can still earn the Growth Accelerator, but only Growth incentives apply for the first 12 months. This is a significant shift designed to reward customer growth rather than redistribution of existing CSP revenue. 2. Retirement of Core rebates on Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 This is likely to have the biggest impact on many CSP partners. For years, Core rebates on M365 and Dynamics have formed a fundamental part of partner margins. Under FY27, Microsoft is reducing the focus on maintaining existing recurring revenue and increasing the emphasis on: ✔️ Premium SKUs ✔️ AI adoption ✔️ Security workloads ✔️ Customer expansion Partners who primarily rely on stable renewals may see reduced earnings, while partners driving seat growth, upsell opportunities, Copilot adoption and strategic workloads will be better positioned. More details from Microsoft: https://lnkd.in/eCzvgBzA Pax8 Blog: https://lnkd.in/eM6zYm4x

🔥 Rethinking Channel Partner Incentives for 2024! 🚀 As an industry leader in channel strategy and transformation, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the landscape of channel incentivization is evolving rapidly. With rising competition and a shift towards a digital-first approach, traditional cash rewards are no longer enough to keep partners engaged. Here are some of the strategies that are resonating and driving real impact: Experiential Rewards Over Cash Bonuses 🌍💥: Incentives like international trips, exclusive events, or unique experiences (think Queenstown, New Zealand!) are making a significant impact. It’s no longer just about monetary rewards; it’s about creating unforgettable experiences that deepen emotional connections with the brand. Real-Time Digital Rewards Through Apps 📲: Leveraging CRM and loyalty apps, many companies are now offering instant, real-time rewards. Channel partners can earn points for hitting milestones and redeem them instantly for products, gift cards, or special perks. This gamified approach boosts engagement and accelerates sales. Recognition and Social Validation 🏅: Channel partners today value recognition as much as they do rewards. Publicly celebrating top performers on social media, featuring them in brand stories, or awarding them exclusive titles creates a sense of prestige and drives a stronger sense of loyalty. Tiered Incentive Structures 🏆: Building tiered programs with escalating benefits (e.g., Bronze, Silver, Gold) motivates partners to strive for the next level of recognition and perks. This healthy competition fuels performance and fosters deeper commitment. Sustainability-Focused Incentives 🌱: As sustainability becomes a core focus, aligning incentives with eco-friendly initiatives (like reducing carbon footprints) is gaining traction. It’s a way to show that we care about both business growth and the environment, creating a win-win for everyone. Partnerships Beyond Sales 🤝: It’s time to look beyond pure sales metrics. Companies are now rewarding partners for collaboration, customer feedback, and brand advocacy. Building a culture of shared success strengthens relationships and sets the stage for long-term loyalty. My Take: Having implemented these strategies, I’ve seen how they not only drive engagement but also transform channel relationships into true partnerships. The key is to make your incentives meaningful, memorable, and aligned with the values of your channel partners. It’s about creating a shared journey towards success. 💬 What strategies have you seen working in your industry? Let’s discuss and learn from each other’s experiences! 👇 #ChannelIncentives #SalesStrategy #CustomerEngagement #LeadershipInsights #Partnerships #Transformation