# BI WORLDWIDE

> Inspiring people. Delivering Results.

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#### 10 key strategies for running successful channel partner programs
Channel programs are integral to the success of many businesses, allowing them to reach broader markets and enhance brand visibility. Incentivizing channel partners further amplifies these efforts, motivating them to drive sales, promote products and foster long-term partnerships. However, the effectiveness of a channel program incentive hinges on careful planning, execution and management.
Channel programs are integral to the success of many businesses, allowing them to reach broader markets and enhance brand visibility. Incentivizing channel partners further amplifies these efforts, motivating them to drive sales, promote products and foster long-term partnerships. However, the effectiveness of a channel program incentive hinges on careful planning, execution and management.
Here are 10 keys for running a successful channel program incentive:
1. Set clear objectives
Before launching an incentive program, define clear and measurable objectives. Whether it’s increasing sales, expanding market share or launching a new product, ensure that the incentive aligns with your overall business goals. Establish specific targets, timelines and key performance indicators (KPIs) to progress and evaluate success.
2. Understand partner motivations
Take the time to understand what motivates your channel partners. While financial rewards are often effective, other incentives such as recognition, training opportunities or exclusive access to resources can also drive engagement. Tailor the incentive program to align with the needs and preferences of your partners, maximizing their buy-in and participation.
3. Design compelling incentives
Craft incentives that are attractive, achievable and rewarding for channel partners. Consider a mix of monetary rewards, performance-based bonuses, discounts and non-monetary incentives like trips, merchandise or exclusive events. Ensure that the rewards are enticing enough to inspire action without compromising profitability.
4. Communicate effectively
Transparent and consistent communication is key to the success of any incentive program. Clearly outline the program’s rules, eligibility criteria, rewards structure and performance metrics. Provide regular updates, reminders and feedback to keep partners informed and motivated throughout the program duration.
5. Provide training and support
Equip channel partners with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to succeed. Offer training sessions, product demonstrations, sales collateral and marketing materials to empower partners to effectively promote your offerings. Provide ongoing support and guidance to address any challenges or concerns they may encounter.
6. Implement fair and transparent tracking mechanisms
Establish fair and transparent mechanisms for tracking partner performance and eligibility for incentives. Utilize robust reporting tools, dashboards or partner portals to monitor sales activities, track progress towards goals and calculate rewards accurately. Ensure that partners have visibility into their performance metrics and earnings throughout the program.
7. Foster healthy competition
Leverage competition to drive engagement and performance among channel partners. Introduce leaderboards, performance rankings or incentive tiers to recognize top performers and create a sense of friendly rivalry. Encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing while maintaining a supportive and inclusive environment.
8. Evaluate and iterate
Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the incentive program against predefined KPIs and objectives. Solicit feedback from channel partners to identify strengths, areas for improvement and opportunities for refinement. Iterate on the program design, incentive structure or communication strategies based on insights gained to optimize future iterations.
9. Reward and recognize achievement
Celebrate the success of top-performing channel partners and individuals by rewarding their achievements and contributions. Recognize their efforts through public accolades, awards ceremonies or incentive trips to reinforce behavior and motivate continued excellence. Demonstrating appreciation fosters loyalty and strengthens partnerships over time.
10. Cultivate long-term relationships
View the incentive program as a means to cultivate mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with channel partners. Invest in building trust, fostering open communication and delivering value beyond the incentive program. By nurturing strong partnerships, you lay the foundation for sustained growth and success.
Running a successful channel program incentive requires a strategic approach that encompasses clear objectives, understanding partner motivations, compelling incentives design, effective communication, robust tracking mechanisms, fostering healthy competition, continuous evaluation and nurturing long-term relationships. By implementing these strategies thoughtfully, businesses can maximize partner engagement, drive sales performance and achieve their growth objectives effectively.
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#### 11 keys to running successful sales incentives or "SPIFs"
SPIFs, or special incentive promotions, can effectively drive immediate results. How do you make sure you're getting what you need out of the SPIFs you run? Let's take a closer look at what goes into them - and what you may need to think twice about.
1. Half of the money spent on rewards and recognition might be wasted ... but we don’t know which half.
The most important aspect of developing an incentive promotion is to define what the objectives of the program are and what the quantitative measures of success will be. The success of the program is measured only by the results that are achieved. The primary objectives of the program must be “hard” (meaning they can be accurately measured) and there should never be more than two or three. For example, to increase sales of [insert your specific product] by 20% vs. last year between the months of January through March. Other objectives could be set for productivity metrics (increase units per rep), market share increases or shifting product mix to support a gross profit improvement.
2. Don’t try to compete with compensation.
Budgeting for promotions can be tricky but there are some best practices worth considering. SPIFs should not overshadow the compensation plan of the audience participating in the program. A good rule of thumb is to present the audience with the ability to earn (in perceived value) approximately 5-7% of their average income for the duration of the program (for a 90-day activity, use 90-day average income for rule of thumb comparison). Another factor would be the degree of difficulty – the greater the degree of difficulty, the greater the value of potential award.
Ultimately, the key to moving forward is having a business case that shows incremental results versus what you would anticipate without a program expressed in gross profit dollars minus expenses (budget) of the program.
3. Every dollar spent on a SPIF should produce at least a dollar’s worth of response.
The idea is to get a group of people individually or in teams to respond in the form of some defined performance to the opportunities presented in the program. The goal is to maximize response by the audience at the least possible expense. An example of this is the frequent flyer mile strategy. The value (in dollars and cents) of a mile is extremely small. The response from flyers in the form of flying repeatedly on a particular airline is significant. For 1,000 miles, approximately $10 in expense to the sponsoring company, airlines and partners drive hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in response.
4. Never confuse what you pay for with what you hope for.
Rewards are only a means to an end – response is what we want. In a SPIF, there can be a tendency to focus on the specific reward, whether it’s points, travel, a TV or golf clubs. But the award is only relevant in the context of response. If the audience doesn’t respond, it doesn’t matter what the reward is or how much it costs. Focus on getting the maximum response from the audience.
5. Avoid entitlements like the plague.
When SPIFs become confused with compensation or become expected because they are done in the same form repeatedly, the audience can feel as if they are entitled to the reward. When this happens, the effectiveness of these programs is reduced significantly as they are no longer seen as earning something extra for doing the extra. Response is diminished as the audience no longer perceives that response is required to earn the award. To avoid entitlements, keep promotional initiatives fresh. Change the program rules, change the communication approach and don’t run continuous programs – have starts and stops that vary over the course of a year.
6. Optimal response is driven by emotions, not reason.
Ever wonder why people would run a 10K road race for a t-shirt but not for $20? It’s because they are emotional about the accomplishment the t-shirt symbolizes. All great things are achieved for emotional reasons, not logical ones. From this standpoint, an effective incentive strategy takes the dollars and cents off of performance. Once someone knows how much their performance is worth in dollars, the next question they ask themselves is, “Is it a good deal?” It’s all very rational. The opportunity of the reward in dollars is weighed against the effort necessary to earn it and in most cases, people rationally decide not to respond.
Think back to the frequent flyer example: If you knew the value in dollars and cents of a frequent flyer mile, the idea of going out of your way for a hotel or rental car partner would be out of the question. It’s not worth it. But you are emotional about the opportunity to earn an airline ticket and since you don’t know the value in dollars of a mile...you respond!
7. If they aren’t working toward specific, personal goals, they are not responding.
“Doing my best” is not a goal. A key success factor in an incentive program is to get people to set goals for themselves. This can be accomplished by getting them to set their sights on earning something specific that is meaningful to them or through a rules design that allows them to self-select their performance goals from a menu of options. The choice should allow for a greater earning opportunity in exchange for a higher goal selection.
8. Getting and maintaining attention is a challenge.
Don’t skimp on the communications. Nothing is more frustrating for a person than to be unaware of where they stand in an incentive promotion. Think of this as if you were advertising to customers and trying to get them to respond by buying your products and services. You would not send them a memo on letterhead. In a fiscally responsible way, we must promote to our employees or sales teams no less aggressively than we would to our customers. Awards without promotion will not only diminish the understanding of the program but more importantly, will not engage the emotions of the audience. Communicate, communicate, communicate and do it in a way that will engage your target audience’s emotions.
9. If you can’t measure response, you should find something else to do.
Incentive promotions must produce specific measurable results for your organization. If you cannot measure the response of the audience, there is a better strategy or use for the dollars in question.
10. Keep it simple.
It’s been said that the best incentive rules design (how people earn) is one you could understand if you saw it on a billboard driving by at 60 miles per hour. The easier it is for your audience to understand, the greater likelihood they will respond.
11. Most people have a difficult time running a marathon but can run a sprint.
There are exceptions to every rule but in general, people are able to focus on short term goals – 60 to 90 days. The longer the program is in duration, the more chance people will lose focus.
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#### 20 fast and easy ways to recognize employees
A recognition-rich culture allows organizations to develop, engaged, and create loyal employees.
Making employee appreciation integral to your workplace culture can be achieved through meaningful and intentional practices. 
We know that when employees are recognized, they are more committed, put more effort into their work and are inspired to achieve great things both for the company and your customers.
Review and this list of ideas you can quickly incorporate into daily practice.
Enjoy and have fun inspiring your employees!
Welcome every new hire via text a few days before their start date.
Greet each of your new employees by name the first time you encounter them on any given day. Have a conversation and show you are interested and engaged in their personal and/or professional well-being.
Get to know at least one thing about each employee on a personal level like hobbies, volunteer activities, pets, children or leisure pursuits. Once again, this shows you are interested in them as a person.
At the end of the day, ask at least one employee what went well for them that day and reinforce their success.
Use an employee complaint as an opportunity to get feedback on how things could be done differently in that specific situation and on a wider scale moving forward.
Recognize an individual or team's small successes as well as larger, more prominent ones.
Ask employees for feedback. Sometimes the best recognition you can give is to simply listen. Listening tells an employee you value their opinions and are willing to take the time to hear them out.
Hold a light-hearted "humbling" session. Ask each employee to brag about one positive contribution they make to the team or the company. It can be as simple as "I support client mailings" or "I prepare recaps to keep us organized."
Show employees how much you respect them by sharing key organizational statistics and milestones with them on a regular basis. Employees should see the connection between their work and how it impacts overall company success.
Have fun and allow people to represent their true personality. Reinforce the notion that an enjoyable work environment does not have to be at the expense of an efficient work environment.
Acknowledge employee work anniversaries every year. Make sure they know you value their loyalty.
Don't be afraid to smile and laugh at things that genuinely make you smile and laugh. It creates a bond with your team members. Attitude is contagious - both positive and negative.
Ask your employees what they need from you to do their best. Listen carefully. Reinforce that you will do your best to support their needs, but only promise what you know you can deliver.
Share messages of praise from customers, suppliers, managers and other employees. Show the message to the mentioned employee first and ask permission to post it publically inside the organization or read it at a group meeting. Never do so without their knowledge.
Tell your superiors about your special employees. This helps them get to know who may be ready for career advancement. It is also a testimony to your great management skills.
Create a short, non-intrusive survey for new employees to fill out on their first day. Include things like preferred name, previous employer, alma mater, family, hobbies, etc. Pass this information on to colleagues so everyone has some quick conversation starters when meeting the person.
When you implement a suggestion made by an employee, make sure to let their colleagues and your managers know where the idea came from. Doing this generates respect for the employee and gives you credibility throughout the company.
Help a good employee develop professionally if it's something they're interested in. Suggest specific company training classes, additional education, books to read or seminars they might attend to build their skills.
Ask employees about current work in a way that starts a conversation: "Tell me about what you are working on right now." Listen carefully. End the conversation with a "Thank you."
Be honest. When you make a mistake or can't follow through on a promise, make sure to communicate quickly and clearly with the affected employees. Although they may be disappointed, they will appreciate that you are treating them with respect.
For more information on how BI WORLDWIDE can help your organization focus on employee recognition, visit www.biworldwide.com or contact us at hello@biworldwide.com.
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#### 3 Cs of onboarding
When new hires are reminded how they impact the company, they are 2x more likely to want to stay.
I have a deck of quote cards at my desk and part of my routine is to change out the quote at the start of every week. Some of them are obscure, but some resonate. As fate would have it, I came across this one while working with a healthcare client on an employee value proposition, with onboarding as a focus:
I got to thinking about that quote. While every day is important, some are clearly more important than others. When working in the world of recruitment and onboarding, a lot of focus goes into that all-important first day.
Do new employees have a login and password?
Do they have a desk chair?
Are they feeling welcomed?
Has someone from the team besides their manager greeted them?
That first day is often fraught and full of moments of wow...or possibly even whoops.
Unfortunately, much less thought is put into the moments after that first day. Data show that it can take from six months to a year for an employee to feel truly valued and comfortable in their role, but onboarding is seen as complete when the paperwork is in and the employee is official.
They view the retention inflection point as six months when in reality, it’s all the months before. What are we doing at three months to get them to four? At four months to get them to five? And then at five months to get them to six? Most employees don’t make a big decision to leave a company one day and start somewhere new the next. There are moments in between where they are wavering, and an inspiring onboarding experience can make that work in your favor.
Whatever the numbers tell you, there are three key considerations for successful onboarding: connection, consistency and community.
Connection
Connection certainly happens on that first day, but it starts before new employees even start. Connection begins on what we call Decision Day which is all about new employees asking themselves if they’ve made the right choice by accepting a job with your company. When employees are given a clear direction on how their first weeks will look and make a connection with their manager and someone on their team, that moment reaffirms their decision to accept the offer was the right one.
Consistency
Consistency comes after connection. Companies with the most success in improving retention build in multiple checkpoints and connection opportunities. The manager is typically the one tasked with connecting. And for good reason. BI WORLDWIDE’s research found that employees who are more connected to their managers are 5.7 times more likely to feel inspired at work. However, most managers aren’t given the tools and training they need to personalize their engagement with their team members.
One important opportunity for managers is learning how and when to recognize their team. When a new hire is reminded how they impact the mission of the company, they are 2 times more likely to want to stay with the company. Timely and consistent recognition from a manager that aligns with the mission and values builds trust and connection in both the manager and your company.
We have a healthcare client that wanted to increase recognition in an employee’s first year and onboard employees to their mission. We helped support managers in recognizing their employees more frequently by sending out a monthly email that reminds them of the people on their team celebrating key milestones along with tips on how to recognize them along with questions to ask them and information to help assess the employee’s overall engagement. By the end of the year, all managers with a new hire had recognized that person within their first 60 days.
Relying entirely on the manager won’t deliver the strongest results. That same healthcare client didn’t leave it to chance and designed a year-long new hire campaign that ensured each person received a recognition moment from a leader at least six times in their first year. They not only improved retention at every key inflection point, they also saw employees and their managers engaging with recognition earlier and more frequently in their first year.
Community
Community is how you get your employees to stay. Our research finds that those who experience fair and consistent recognition are 7 times more likely to feel they belong. Managers and peers can also build community with someone newer to the organization by sharing other areas in the organization where they can build on the belonging provided by recognition.
If employees are considering leaving but have a manager, team or employee group that makes them feel they belong, the connection to community is a key factor. Programs that build community are employee resource groups, mentorship and community affiliation and sponsorship. A well-trained manager can identify those that new hires might be most interested in and share information about participating in them early and often in their onboarding experience.
Following these three Cs with a strong recognition strategy and a guide for your managers is sure to build your new hires into your brand ambassadors, increasing discretionary effort, a sense of belonging and ultimately retention.
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#### 3 strategies to drive learner engagement
Expectations for digital learning experiences are high, but the attention spans of learners are short. Keeping learners engaged and inspired while customizing courses to fit your company’s needs is an important aspect of learning, but you need more than that to keep learners interested.
Expectations for digital learning experiences are high, but the attention spans of learners are short. Keeping learners engaged and inspired while customizing courses to fit your company’s needs is an important aspect of learning, but you need more than that to keep learners interested.
Here are three strategies to keep learners engaged.
- 1 -
Act on data
Data helps inform decisions in every aspect of business, and learning is no different. Your learning platform should help you understand how users are interacting with the courses and content. It should also show where you can implement changes for the benefit of your users.
BI WORLDWIDE partners with a major automotive company to help them ensure their employees are completing their training and verifying their competencies. They created their training modules in our proprietary Chameleon platform, and data from the analytics dashboard shows the client when employees are taking courses. The client uses this improved data and works with BIW to send targeted emails and mission-based assignments to encourage learners to complete their courses throughout the year.
- 2 -
Ask for real-time feedback
Feedback is important, and many times, feedback only comes at the end of a learning course or in a follow-up email after the course. But the real magic of feedback comes from receiving it in real time. A learning platform that has an opinion poll or feedback options that allows other participants to see how their peers are answering questions and feeling in the course provides clients with actionable feedback. Instead of having to wait for responses from learners, clients can monitor and collect consolidated feedback to update courses and make changes to improve their course effectiveness.
- 3 -
Evolve with learners
The way people learn and engage is always changing, so learning platforms need to evolve as well. Sometimes learners don’t want or need a full course to get their learning needs fulfilled. Sometimes what they need is a series of small learning courses over a specific time period. One of BIW’s healthcare clients uses short Chameleon courses to teach their members how to navigate their system and access information. They pair that with the analytics campaign feature that shows them which delivery method is the most effective at driving engagement, and they’re able to use that information to maximize audience reach.
But learners don’t just learn from the courses they take with their companies. Learning happens even after courses are completed. Take a beauty client, for example. They have Chameleon training that teaches trends in makeup application and skincare. Once learners finish the courses, they are encouraged to recreate the trends on their social media using specific hashtags. The learners who post on social media have the opportunity to be selected as a favorite look and receive recognition across the field and earn reward points. The motivation of reward points gets more social media posts and brand recognition for the client, but the learners receive recognition, reward points and an opportunity to learn from each other in the process.
As learning evolves, strategy needs to evolve with it. By closely tracking data, feedback and learning outcomes, clients are able to adjust their tactics quickly and easily to remain confident in the effectiveness of the program. Continuing to evolve the learning course and strategy alongside the learners will keep them engaged and inspired.
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#### 3 ways to drive culture and strategy with HR leaders
In today’s dynamic work environment, HR professionals often find themselves managing complaints and culture clashes rather than shaping company culture and strategy. But how can HR leaders get back to focusing their influence on both short- and long-term company goals effectively? The answer lies in data.
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HR leaders might seem to have a limited set of data to gauge organizational culture, focusing on employee engagement surveys, eNPS, and exit interviews. However, if you have a recognition program in place, you possess a treasure trove of information that can drive strategic decisions and provide actionable insights for cultural transformation.
Here’s how you can be the hero at the head of the table with three crucial correlations to drive culture and strategy at your organization:
By analyzing the recognition history of employees who have voluntarily left the company, HR leaders can assess the effectiveness of their recognition strategies. This data often highlights areas where leadership may not be fully aligned with the recognition strategy.
According to The New Rules of Engagement® study conducted by BI WORLDWIDE, employees are 6.6 times more likely to feel a sense of belonging when their manager acknowledges their good work. Using belonging as a metric for cultural success allows HR leaders to pinpoint where recognition strategies need improvement.
Additionally, recognition engagement data can be used as a predictor of leaving to help identify employees who may be positively impacted by a targeted recognition strategy for retention. This also supports the case for automated recognition programs aligned with company values and behaviors, as well as campaigns to boost recognition frequency.
One way to look at whether you have a recognition-rich culture is to review giving and receiving behavior. This data reveals the time it takes for an employee to transition from receiving their first recognition to giving their first recognition.
Since most employees who give recognition have first experienced it themselves, tracking the time between these events can provide insights into the effectiveness of your recognition program. A shorter time span indicates a more robust culture of recognition, where employees feel encouraged and motivated to acknowledge their peers.
This metric can help HR leaders understand how well the recognition program fosters organic engagement growth and bring any ideas for improvement to the C-suite.
Recognition in the first year of an employee’s tenure is a key measurement point for looking at onboarding consistency and effectiveness. Silos exist in almost every organization and building a consistent and equitable onboarding experience remains a challenge.
With a recognition and rewards strategy aligned to your EVP and values, you can easily combine turnover and recognition data to identify inflection points where a targeted recognition strategy can impact early engagement for every new hire.
From there it’s easy to calculate an ROI of a targeted onboarding engagement strategy and provide leadership consistent measurement of how the targeted program has improved retention in the first year of employment.
With the right data, HR can be the C-suite hero, moving from being caretakers to what they were meant to be: strategic leaders.
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#### 4 ways to hook customers into your loyalty program
Hook your customers into your loyalty program during their first contact by removing barriers to engagement and accelerating earnings.
Across the customer lifecycle, there are moments that can negatively impact perception of your company and lead to drop off. But during acquisition, the stakes are higher. These are first impression moments, subject to snap observations that can lead to inaccurate judgments and drop-offs. When your objective is to capture true customer loyalty with sustained, long-term engagement, first impression moments are incredibly important.
These first impression moments can be perilous, especially when asking someone to take an action or provide their personal information. Maybe there’s a registration process, a request for a personal email or phone number, Terms and Conditions to accept or a login to set up. All can lead to someone dropping off before their first engagement even begins. One example of risk during acquisition showed that 14% of an audience made the effort to accept the Terms and Conditions and then dropped off, leaving free, zero-obligation rewards on the table.
When you get your customers into your loyalty solution, be sure to give them a first impression that inspires engagement. We have identified patterns across some of our most successful programs that have led us to develop a framework for reducing drop-offs at first contact and generating sustained engagement. The foundation of this framework is 1) provide the opportunity to engage, earn and redeem at first contact, and 2) make certain the earning potential is enough for a memorable redemption event.
Here are four ways to do that:
1. Remove barriers to enrollment and activation.
Avoid lengthy registration processes, ask for as little as possible and minimize the effort to engage. This encourages customers to engage with your loyalty program without dropping off. When possible, use a single sign on (SSO) for a seamless enrollment.
2. Offer plenty of initial engagement opportunities.
Onboarding, gamification, curated content, motivation, and accumulation can all be leveraged to drive initial engagement and reduce drop-offs.
3. Craft a compelling WIFM.
What a customer can earn needs to be directly correlated to what they’re being asked to do. The “What's in it for me” needs to be clear, concise and perceived to be in their favor in order to remove barriers to engage and accelerate earnings.
4. Create redemption opportunities right away.
Customers should be able to earn enough at first contact to also redeem a reward. Redemption is a critical milestone in sustained engagement. It endears someone to the program, so make it intuitive and frictionless.
By removing barriers to engage while accelerating earnings at first contact, you will hook more customers into your program and will be more likely to generate sustained engagement and true loyalty.
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#### 4 ways to motivate your channel sales
By building the proper groundwork, along with giving the proper time and attention, you can maximize your indirect channel sales partners' output.
The channel sales process typically involves promoting products and services through the channel partners and paying them when they make a sale. Where you might usually rely on a direct sales force, using a channel to market can pay off big for you. But, along with a possible big return, it can also provide big value for your buyers in the form of independent industry experts.
So what is the best way to maximize your channel and help you hit your sales numbers? Here are four ways you can motivate your channel sales to help deliver results.
1. Make sure your current marketing and sales collateral is up-to-date and easy to digest.
To most effectively utilize your sales channel, you need to make sure they have all the tools they will need to be advocates for your brand. Sales kits for your teams, marketing material for your end users...the most current and understandable information must be available.
Sales tools:
Sales training collateral can speed up growth and ensure your channel partners can intuitively communicate the value proposition of your products and services. Collateral can include competition comparisons, webinars, sales playbooks, customer testimonials and case studies.
Marketing tools:
Marketing helps to secure leads for channel sales. Specific marketing collateral helps to build awareness, but also gives the ability to control the brand message. These are key for manufacturers and vendors in the channel space.
2. Incentives, rewards and recognition help...so use them.
Incentive programs are essential for your sales channel audience. High-value awards will inspire your partners to give you the incremental effort you require. And while many channel sales partners have rewards and incentive programs, it is best to make sure yours are set up correctly to give you the most bang for your buck.
One of the first essentials for channel sales incentive programs are clearly outlined metrics. There needs to be an accurate and agreed upon evaluation of the potential for each sales channel. Understanding the number of possible customers, customer size, revenue potential, etc., are all key in setting up incentive programs.
Making sure the rewards are a fit is also critical. While cash has been a standard motivator, non-monetary awards have been proven to drive incremental revenue at a lower cost than cash. It is key to the success of your incentive/rewards program to ensure communications, tracking, reporting and analytics are set up correctly and understood by all partners in channel sales.
3. Have you communicated? You have? Do some more.
The sales channel is a noisy channel, with many messages vying for top billing and attention. Proper communication can help cut through the static of a busy sales channel. Many factors are at play and can cause difficulty in cross-channel communication. These factors range from consistency of message, availability of audience, or even confusion on the point of contact. Add to the fact that there are multiple stakeholders in channel sales, and while they all generally want the same thing, different organizations represent different perspectives. This can sometimes lead to inconsistent messaging at each stage of the channel.
Similar to when building your incentive and rewards programs, communication should be crystal clear within your channels. Partners should know who they can contact for specific issues. And these key contacts should understand and be a knowledge source for all communication. Also, encourage cross-channel communication with your partners. You can offer this to your distributor’s prospects as a means to help and not a way to take away business. Look for clarity and ease of understanding when putting together your sales channel communications. Other types of communication help can include tehnical support and offering to answer client questions when closing a deal.
4. Cross sell and upsell.
Less is sometimes more. Or better said, put quality over quantity. When looking to help improve your partners to increase sales, focus on improving your existing relationships before going out to attract new ones. Look for ways to make your current partners more effective at selling your services.
An example of how to best do this is when you order fast food. When a fast-food worker asks if you’d like to ‘super-size’ your order, or add fries, a similar technique can be used for add-on sales with your partners. Over time, incremental sales pay off huge at fiscal-end. Ask what you can upsell to your partners that will help you both in the long run.
Channel sales partnerships require time and effort to be truly maximized and are much easier to sell to than starting from scratch.
Key takeaways:
By building the proper groundwork, along with giving the proper time and attention, you can maximize your indirect channel sales partners’ output.
Here’s a recap of our four strategies to increase channel sales:
Provide all stakeholders with current, easy-to-digest sales and marketing tools.
Make sure your incentives and rewards are optimized to properly engage and drive the incremental effort/revenue needed to get your results.
Make your communications simple and easy, and communicate often.
Grow your current relationships with your partners prior to going to a new audience.
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#### 5 experiences that can transform your incentive program
Running sales contests requires planning, but once the program is announced, it’s often energizing to watch what happens. Sales reps and managers rise to the occasion, spark friendly competition, and put in extra effort to earn the awards offered.
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When a contest doesn’t generate engagement or measurable business results, the issue is often the reward, not the effort. If your last contest didn’t drive motivation, momentum, and impact on the bottom line, it may be time to rethink what you’re offering winners.
Humans are driven to excel when they are recognized and rewarded through memorable experiences: experiences they can talk about with friends and family and experiences they remember long after a contest wraps up.
The New Rules of Engagement® survey reveals compelling reasons to run sales incentives or contests that reward experiences instead of traditional merchandise or cash. Experiences create emotional connection, elevate meaning, and reinforce the behaviors organizations want to see repeated.
Crafting engaging experiences as an individual leader can be challenging. Designing the right experience requires intentional planning from concept and inspiration to execution and delivery.
To maximize impact, organizations should also leverage behavioral science principles when creating reward experiences. Concepts like re-consumption (reliving the experience) and sociability (sharing it with others) amplify the emotional value of the reward.
These hedonic luxuries make people feel genuinely valued, attributing their success to both their own effort and the organization that recognized them.
Ready to inspire your team with unforgettable experiences? Here are five experiential rewards that consistently earn five-star ratings from top performers.
Experience #1: Small team travel
Work hard as a team and celebrate achievements together. Small group travel programs bring teams of 10–12 people (and their guests) together outside the office, allowing them to form deeper connections and build loyalty through shared experiences.
Team travel creates visible impact, delivers lifelong memories, and strengthens ongoing collaboration. Curated travel packages aligned to budget allow winning teams to select destinations and timing that fit their needs. Packages often include airfare, hotel accommodations, transportation, and activity options, supported by personalized travel services that ensure everyone feels like a winner.
Experience #2: Earn-and-learn rewards
Sometimes the most powerful reward is the opportunity to learn. Earn-and-learn experiences allow participants to use reward points for upskilling and reskilling opportunities, with access to thousands of courses taught by world-class instructors.
Participants can study a foreign language, learn a musical instrument, focus on wellness for mind and body, or develop new professional capabilities, turning recognition into long-term value.
Experience #3: Curated shopping events
A curated shopping event can transform a hotel ballroom, nightclub, or even a professional sports locker room into a full-fledged shopping experience for top performers. These events can stand alone or be incorporated into larger meetings, such as a National Sales Meeting.
Top performers receive customized award tokens that can be redeemed on-site for rewards across categories like tech and electronics, fashion and jewelry, travel and leisure, home furnishings, and health and wellness. Additional nights, events, or exclusive experiences can elevate the reward even further.
Experience #4: Virtual reality rewards
Virtual reality reward experiences are designed to motivate, inspire, and recognize performance in a highly interactive way. Winners receive a set amount of time in a virtual mall to acquire as many awards as possible, creating an energetic atmosphere that builds engagement and connection.
These experiences integrate seamlessly into in-person events like National Sales Meetings or function as standalone programs. Teammates can watch winners on local monitors, cheering them on and amplifying the recognition moment.
Experience #5: Game-based digital experiences
Game-based digital experiences play like popular video games, inviting participants to enter a virtual environment where they race against time to collect awards or points. Awardees receive a link to enter the game and navigate the experience within an allotted time window.
Designed to engage a broad range of participants, these experiences rally entire teams toward the winner’s circle while honoring top performance in a fun, memorable way.
How do five-star rewards impact engagement and performance?
In today’s competitive landscape, recognizing and rewarding performance is essential to building a motivated, engaged workforce. Five-star experiences offer innovative ways to inspire performance, reinforce desired behaviors, and create lasting emotional connections.
By integrating experiential rewards into your recognition and incentive strategy, organizations can move beyond transactional motivation and create moments that truly matter.
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#### 5 ideas to get the best performance from your sales team
As sales leaders, you are always looking for ways to get the best performance out of your teams. Sometimes that involves changing their mindset and behaviors. Understanding that 77% of our decisions are driven by emotion and not reason will help change behaviors and drive results. Here are five proven ideas to improve sales team performance.
- 1 -
Design your incentive programs based on the behavioral economics principle of Prospect Theory. If you give a person two equal choices – one telling them how much they will gain and the other telling them how much they will lose – they will choose the winning option, even though it’s the same. Focus on the positive (carrot), not the negative (stick).
- 2 -
Offer hedonic awards. People love emotional and pleasurable things more than they love cash rewards. Rewards such as travel, merchandise and experiences make people feel good about what they’ve accomplished and have higher efficacy.
- 3 -
Keep it simple. Running too many incentive programs at once can lead to Tyranny of Choice – people are overwhelmed and frustrated by too many choices.
- 4 -
Ensure a mix of program structures throughout the year. Many times, incentive programs are ideal for middle performers to help them set goals and stay focused. A mix of program structures will maximize engagement, minimize program overlap and move the middle.
- 5 -
Focus on your business objectives and/or performance issues. When you can define the objectives or issues you are looking to solve for, you’ll be able to design a program that will influence the desired behavior change from your team.
Now that you know about these five ways to change behaviors, you’ll need to budget for the incentive programs you will be creating. Incentive program payouts need to be budgeted at levels that are sufficient to grab participants’ attention and achieve your program objectives while also generating an acceptable ROI. Here are some guidelines to help.
3-5% of total sales revenue
5-10% of incremental sales revenue
15-20% of incremental profit
You’ll also need to consider that each program has additional elements beyond the actual rewards such as communications and training. Make sure to make a list of these elements to determine roughly how much of the overall budget should go to each element.
It’s also important to note that these percentages are approximate and will vary based on the programs being designed. Non-reward percentages may be significantly higher for programs with very small budgets and/or small audience sizes.
Getting the best performance from your teams doesn’t have to be a struggle. Use these behavioral economics principles to change mindsets, and you’re sure to reap the rewards.
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#### 5 key channel marketing trends
For manufacturing companies, sales partners and distributors are the lifeblood for their products and solutions. Supporting them with training, communications, rewards, recognition and analytics is vital to the relationship. Over the past few years, organizations have evolved their strategies and support to make sure their message and solutions reach the right people.
For manufacturing companies, sales partners and distributors are the lifeblood for their products and solutions. Supporting them with training, communications, rewards, recognition and analytics is vital to the relationship. Over the past few years, organizations have evolved their strategies and support to make sure their message and solutions reach the right people.
Here are five current channel marketing trends companies need to be aware of and actively focus on to ensure relevancy and commitment of their channel partners.
1. Strong partner onboarding.
Throughout the past few years, especially given COVID’s impact, organizations have shifted to a strong “Everboarding” experience for new partners, knowing that bringing a new partner on is not just a one-time event. There are critical points in their relationship that should be treated with the same due diligence, care and importance as the first interactions. Finding ways to make sure to always be in front of their partners with key information is necessary, especially with ongoing turnover concerns of partners’ sales teams and Distributor Sales Representatives.
2. Channel partner training.
Although not a new concept, this stems from trying to bring training front and center to the key sellers of products and solutions when they need it, not when it is convenient for a manufacturer. Selling cycles can vary by vertical industry based on seasonality and buying cycles. It’s important to find ways to make training available that fits a seller’s needs just in time versus when it is convenient for the manufacturer.
3. Alignment to ensure mutual success.
Support your partners by showcasing how your success can also benefit their potential in your programs. Manufacturers are beginning to open up selling tools to help clients realize what hitting growth milestones will mean to both of their bottom lines and providing more tools, resources and custom online calculators to help channel partners “own” what their contributions could look like by making simple changes to align each organization’s business goals.
4. Creative incentive strategies and inspirational rewards.
The days of simply matching dollar-for-dollar competitive rebate programs are continuing to evolve and dissolve. Those that are having greater success are implementing different types of incentive solutions and trying new ways to emotionally engage their partners, distributors and sales reps. Post-pandemic, companies that are implementing new solutions involving experiences, travel and unique non-cash rewards are seeing success vs. old-school thinking of “throwing” cash at a problem to help move their products.
5. Providing fresh content and partner communication.
Developing communication streams that can be automated by sales activities and verticals and have specific information that is relevant to the intended target has resulted in an increase in engagement with their intended audience, as opposed to one-size marketing automation.
What can you be doing with your partners to help ensure these five key trends are accounted for in your go-to-market channel strategies? How can you become a better partner and/or supplier and gain engagement with your channel partners and distributors to take your relationship to the next level?
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#### 5 recommendations for supporting customer advocates
Customer advocacy is the premier indicator of true customer loyalty. What your best customers say about you and what information they share with others is extremely valuable. So, what can you do to encourage and facilitate greater customer advocacy about your brand, products or services?
Customer advocacy is the premier indicator of true customer loyalty.
What your best customers say about you and what information they share with others is extremely valuable. So, what can you do to encourage and facilitate greater customer advocacy about your brand, products or services?
Here are five ideas to recognize and reward your brand advocates.
1. Start by separating this audience segment from the rest of your customers.
They should be your best customers. Those customers who regularly purchase and use your products. Those who share their personal information with you and respond to requests you might be making of them. Customers who you’ve seen sharing and creating content about you and your products with others. And those customers who might be referring others to your brand, products and services. This audience segment is special and should be cultivated and nurtured as a real asset to your business.
2. Tell them you know who they are and why you so highly value them.
Make your communications with them personal. Tell them you appreciate them for what they have done or are doing and show them your relationship with them extends beyond transactions. Share with them you know they have done more than other customers on your behalf and you sincerely want them to know that it means a great deal to you and your business.
3. Make an effort to get their feedback.
Tell them how their opinion really matters to you and that you are eager to engage in some sincere feedback. Ask them about your product, customer service, what they value from you and how you can improve on what you’re doing or providing to them. One way to make them feel special in this regard is to offer them a direct connection to someone in your company to take their feedback. And if they do connect with you, be responsive, listen and assure them they’ve been heard. Another idea might be to do an annual or quarterly survey with this audience segment to let them continue to share and offer insights into what they feel is important to them or where you might be missing the mark. Always follow up their feedback with a communication that says thank you and that you sincerely appreciate their input.
4. Encourage them and share more with them.
Think about what else you can provide these valuable customer advocates, who can be great brand ambassadors. Look for ways to make them feel special. Give them something that can be a conversation starter with others--an example might be branded merchandise, like logo-branded apparel. Share other information about your company or products that will make them feel more like “someone on the inside.” Alert them first before a new product or service is about to be announced to the general public. Send them information or communications materials they can use to share with others or on social media. Get them a sample of a product or service you are developing to get their input or feedback. Lastly, keep up a regular cadence of communications with them that is meaningful and shows how much you value them for their continued loyalty.
5. Reward them!
Advocacy is a key indicator of a truly loyal customer. Their advocacy on your behalf is a valuable, ongoing asset to your business. It can mean real, additional future revenue—not just from what they buy but from those other potential customers they might bring into the fold for you. Don’t let that effort and support go unrecognized or unrewarded. Your customer advocates should be regularly rewarded to show them how valuable they are to you and that you appreciate their efforts on your behalf. If you have a loyalty program, you could create a special tier of those customers that might earn extra points. For certain behaviors or important milestone in their customer lifecycle you could “surprise and delight” them with a special gift, a reward commensurate with what they’ve done for you and might be doing for you in the future. Rewarding your advocates with something tangible is a definitive example of your appreciation and thanks for being loyal to you and your brand, products or services. A reward and recognition strategy for your customers can pay real dividends, especially to those in your advocacy segment. This reinforces you know, value and appreciate them.
Think about how you can be a strong advocate for your customer advocates. Building a real relationship with them throughout your customer lifecycle is how “true loyalty” is created.
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#### 5 strategies to drive long-term sales contest success
It’s a well-known fact that the most effective sales contests are built for speed: short, energetic bursts that last 90 days or less, most focused on a single quarter’s success. But what happens when the challenge demands more time?
Let's Talk
Whether you’re navigating lengthy sales cycles, delivering more complex or strategic sales, or pursuing ambitious full-fiscal-year objectives, there are times when you need a strategy designed for the marathon, not the sprint.
Here are five actionable strategies to ensure your long-term sales contest, one that goes six months or more, doesn’t just launch with a strong start, but delivers measurable results right through the finish line.
A strong theme can make or break your contest. Think beyond the generic “sales drive” language. Your theme should be memorable, inspiring, and bold enough to rally your team around a shared mission. Whether it’s a call to “Conquer the Impossible” or a journey to “Reach the Summit,” the right message creates an emotional connection that drives commitment.Pro tip: weave the theme into all contest aspects, from a launch animation to the awards offered – every touchpoint furthers your message.
Sales success isn’t achieved in isolation nor is it always a single-person mission. Often, it’s the behind-the-scenes heroes, such as marketing, operations, or customer success, who help close deals. Consider including these team members in your contest framework, rewarding for their efforts in the sales process. By giving them a stake in the game, you’re fostering collaboration and aligning everyone towards the same goals.
Monotony is the enemy of motivation. For a contest spanning six months or more, it’s crucial to mix things up. Introduce variable metrics that align with your broader goals, but shift focus each quarter. For example, one quarter might reward lead generation while the next emphasizes closing deals. This approach keeps the competition dynamic and ensures everyone has an opportunity to shine, regardless of their sales strengths.
Let’s face it: even the most dedicated teams need encouragement. Long-term contests thrive on momentum, and frequent rewards are the fuel that keeps the engine running. Celebrate small wins with on-the-spot bonuses, team shoutouts, or smaller, themed rewards (call back to the bold theme!). Think of these moments as checkpoints: mini-celebrations that re-energize your team and keep them focused on the ultimate prize.
Clarity drives confidence. If your team can’t see where they stand or how their efforts are contributing to the bigger picture, engagement will dwindle. Invest in user-friendly progress reporting that provides actionable and personalized information to their goals. Transparency isn’t just about numbers; it’s about fostering trust and giving your team the tools they need to succeed. Want to amp up the energy? Incorporate gamification elements such as heat maps or badges to add a layer of fun.
The long game
Long-term sales contests require careful planning, a clear vision, and a commitment to continuous engagement. By combining bold themes, inclusive audience identification, dynamic metrics, frequent rewards, and transparent tracking, you’re not just running a contest, you’re building a sustained and unified movement that delivers results.
As we know, time – when focused – creates traction.
And with the right strategies, your long-term sales contest will deliver remarkable returns.
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#### 5 trends shaping 2025 and beyond
As we turn the corner into 2025, workplaces are evolving faster than ever before. Technology is advancing at a breakneck pace, employee expectations are shifting, and the once-familiar rhythms of work have given way to an era of continuous transformation.
As we turn the corner into 2025, workplaces are evolving faster than ever before. Technology is advancing at a breakneck pace, employee expectations are shifting, and the once-familiar rhythms of work have given way to an era of continuous transformation.
What lies ahead is a landscape rich with possibility, where human connection, innovation and well-being take center stage.
This year isn’t just about meeting the future; it’s about shaping it. At the heart of this shift are five key trends that will define how we work, lead and thrive in the years to come. From holistic employee experiences to the integration of artificial intelligence, these trends offer a blueprint for creating workplaces that are not just functional but deeply human-centric.
Let’s explore these forces and what they mean for organizations ready to lean into the future of work.
Holistic employee experiences: thriving as whole humans
In 2025, the workplace isn’t just where we clock in and out—it’s where employees bring their full selves. Organizations are moving beyond traditional benefits packages and office perks to create environments that nurture physical, mental and emotional well-being. This holistic approach acknowledges that when employees thrive, organizations thrive too.
What does this look like?
Personalized wellness programsEmployees now have access to tailored resources, from mental health apps to on-site fitness options. Leaders are even starting meetings with moments of mindfulness to set a positive tone.
Recognition rooted in gratitudeGratitude is more than a buzzword; it’s a driving force behind employee engagement. For example, platforms that allow teams to celebrate small wins daily can help build a culture of appreciation.
Work-life integrationFlexible schedules and remote options enable employees to balance work and personal life seamlessly, fostering deeper satisfaction and loyalty.
What does this mean for leaders?
Gratitude and recognition aren’t optional anymore; they’re strategic. Start small—write a handwritten thank-you note or recognize a quiet contributor in your next team meeting.
Learning velocity: the new competitive edge
The pace of change demands that employees and organizations alike move faster when it comes to learning. Gone are the days of annual training plans. In their place? Continuous, just-in-time learning that keeps pace with technological, economic and cultural shifts.
What does this look like?
AI-driven learning platformsImagine logging into your company’s system and receiving personalized course recommendations based on the skills you need now and tomorrow. This isn’t the future; it’s happening today.
Innovation sprintsTeams are engaging in rapid learning cycles, tackling real-time challenges while developing new capabilities.
Learning as retentionCompanies like IBM have demonstrated that robust learning opportunities encourage employees to stay longer and grow deeper within the organization.
What does this mean for leaders?
Learning isn’t an add-on; it’s the loyalty program of the future. Consider this: 76% of employees say they’d stay longer with a company that invests in their professional development. What systems are you building to ensure your workforce doesn’t just survive but thrives?
Employee well-being and mental health: a strategic imperative
The past few years have taught us a lot about resilience, but one lesson stands out: organizations that prioritize well-being succeed. Employee mental health isn’t just a checkbox on a benefits survey; it’s a cornerstone of productivity, innovation and retention.
What does this look like?
Mental health as a core offeringEmployers are embedding mental health resources into the workday. From access to therapy to manager training on recognizing burnout, the focus is on building psychological safety.
Flexible work modelsHybrid and asynchronous work options allow employees to create schedules that align with their personal energy rhythms.
Mindfulness and recoveryOrganizations are embracing sabbaticals, wellness challenges and even sleep education programs to help employees recharge.
What does this mean for leaders?
Employee well-being is no longer a perk—it’s a business necessity. Ask yourself: how does your current approach to mental health support both performance and humanity?
Data-driven workplace practices: insight at the speed of change
If knowledge is power, then data is its accelerant. Organizations in 2025 are leaning into data-driven practices to create agile, responsive workplaces. This isn’t about monitoring for the sake of surveillance; it’s about using insights to craft better employee experiences.
What does this look like?
Sentiment analysis for engagementAdvanced tools analyze team sentiment in real time, giving leaders a window into morale and engagement before issues arise.
Personalized performance metricsEmployees receive actionable feedback based on clear, data-backed KPIs, fostering growth and clarity.
Dynamic workforce planningOrganizations use predictive analytics to anticipate skill gaps, plan workforce needs and align resources effectively.
What does this mean for leaders?
Data has the power to demystify the employee experience—but only if it’s used wisely. The goal isn’t more dashboards; it’s more dialogue. What does the data tell you and how will you act on it?
Integration and automation of AI: human ingenuity meets machine precision
AI isn’t here to replace the workforce—it’s here to enhance it. In 2025, the most innovative organizations are blending human creativity with machine precision to unlock new levels of productivity, personalization and possibility.
What does this look like?
Streamlined operationsRoutine tasks, from scheduling to data entry, are automated, freeing employees for strategic and creative work.
AI-powered learning journeysEmployees are receiving AI-curated development paths, tailored to their career goals and organizational needs.
Enhanced decision-makingAI tools analyze vast datasets to provide insights, helping leaders make more informed, equitable decisions.
What does this mean for leaders?
AI is a tool, not a threat. The best leaders will focus on using AI to amplify what humans do best: connect, create and innovate. How are you preparing your team to embrace AI as a partner in progress?
The big picture: a future built on connection
At the core of these trends lies one unifying truth: the future of work is deeply human. Technology and innovation are tools that enhance our ability to connect, create and thrive—but they aren’t the endgame.
Success in 2025 and beyond will come down to the organizations that put people first, building workplaces where employees feel valued, seen and empowered.
Here’s the challenge for all of us: how will you embrace these trends to shape a better tomorrow? Whether it’s fostering a culture of gratitude, investing in learning, or using data to create transparency, the future is ours to create.
Let’s make it one where everyone has the chance to thrive.
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#### 5 ways gifting can inspire your customers and employees
Surprising and delighting customers and employees can elevate your brand. So can the packaging.
Surprising and delighting customers and employees can elevate your brand. So can the packaging.
Learn 5 ways to use gifting to inspire your customers and employees.
It’s amazing how many packages the average person receives a year. According to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, the average home received 166 packages in 2021. Pitney Bowes also estimates this Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for this index is expected to grow at 5% to 10% a year through 2027. This doesn’t even include packages people receive at work.
BI WORLDWIDE has inspired millions of customers and employees with gifts of appreciation and recognition all over the world. We have decades of experience surprising and delighting people for a wide variety of Fortune 1000 clients. With this abundance of experience and a foundation steeped in the use of behavioral economics principles, we have helped clients by customizing the packaging and presentation to improve results. Here are five key areas you might want to think about for your next appreciation or recognition gifting project.
1. Focus on the behavior you are trying to drive
To effectively drive behavior change you need to focus on milestones or lifecycle touchpoints of the person you are sending something to. Are you rewarding a customer or an employee for being loyal or are you trying to acquire new customers? The packaging should tie into and reflect the behavior you are trying to drive. Here’s an example; If you are trying to acquire a new B2B customer, send a bigger package.
The bigger package accomplishes two things. It’s more likely to get past the administrative gate keeper and the recipient is far more likely to open it. Have you ever received a large package at work that you didn't open?
2. Make it vivid
This is one of the simplest behavioral economics principles to leverage. The outside of the package is incredibly important when you are trying to surprise and delight somebody. If you are going to reward and recognize someone for being a great customer, a plain vanilla cardboard box doesn’t convey anything other than curiosity. The outside of a package should reflect your brand. Make it interesting, memorable or unique in a way that gets the person excited before they even open it. This also increases the perceived value and importance of what’s in the box. There’s a reason diamond rings come in those coveted, fancy velvet boxes.
3. Make the presentation integral to the message
There is nothing worse than getting a box full of non-environmentally friendly foam packing peanuts. Remember the unboxing experience is almost as important to the recipient as the joy of the gift itself. It is critically important to include a note or a card telling the person why they are receiving this. Tell them they are valued. People will remember you, your company and your message if you speak to them in a personable way. Here’s an example. A colleague of mine once received a gift from an auto manufacturer after they bought their third vehicle from that brand. It was a gift with a nice note explaining how much they appreciate his business. What I’ve noticed is my colleague now speaks about the note and what it said, even more than the gift itself.
4. Make it personal
One important behavioral economics principle of sending a tangible gift to someone is called re-consumption. It basically means that every time the recipient recalls or comes in contact with the gift, they are reminded of why they received it. One of the ways to drive re-consumption even higher is to personalize the gift. There are many simple ways to take a gift and personalize it. Here’s an example. High quality drinkware is always a great surprise and delight gift. One of the ways we personalize drinkware is to send out custom printed coasters with the recipient’s name on them. The person will share those with friends and family forever. Just think, every time they see the drinkware with a personalized coaster, they will be reminded of their connection to you, your message and your company.
5. Don't fall into the gift card trap
Some companies will send gift cards because they might be easier to administer. However, there is a whole host of reasons why sending gift cards isn’t a good idea. There are several behavioral economics principles that explain why tangible gifts are more effective at driving behavior change. On top of that, CNBC states that almost half of all adults in the US have at least one unused gift card. They go on to state the average unused amount is now at $175 per person, up from $116 a year earlier. It is important to remember why you are sending the gift. You want to build a permanent connection between you and the customer or employee. When you send a gift card you are building a connection between the person and the retailer on the gift card. You, your company and your message are quickly forgotten.
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#### 5 ways to inspire sales motivation
Motivation is sometimes defined as the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. For some people, motivation comes naturally; it’s intrinsic. For others, it’s extrinsic; they need a little help.
Here are five keys to driving motivation in your organization.
Motivation is a huge factor in generating success from your sales and channel programs. The question is, how do you inspire and cultivate the motivation your sales team needs?
Here are five keys to inspiring and driving motivation in the workplace:
Set goals.
Celebrate milestones.
Provide feedback.
Use rewards to empower problem-solving and learning.
Experiment and learn from data.
Knowing these are effective ways to motivate people, how do you put them into motion? Running a sales incentive program is a great way to combine all five of these tools to bring you success.
Turn goals into action.
Sales incentive programs are a great way to bring your sales goals alive. By offering incentives to your sales force in exchange for the completion of specific tasks, you will increase their motivation and give them clear objectives to work toward. Leveraging points-based or non-monetary incentives allows you more flexibility in rules structures (Break the Bank, Do This Get That, etc.) and sales reward options (merchandise, airfare, hotels, experiences, etc.). These types of incentives have been proven to drive greater inspiration and results both with direct sales teams and in the channel space.
Celebrate wins and achievements.
Sales incentives should also build in recognition celebrations when your sales team achieves their goals. Offering incentives with non-monetary awards allows your achievers to choose a reward that’s personally inspiring and something they’re willing to work hard to earn. The power of choice is a big motivator that will help them reach their goals.
Provide impactful feedback.
While positive reinforcement is a solid tool for keeping your sales force motivated and engaged, attaching a little something extra with the praise can amplify the experience. Including a small reward in the form of a merchandise item can get your sales team to stand up and take notice. Positive feedback with something extra helps to show you’re committed to helping them succeed.
Reward problem solving and learning.
Innovation and process improvement are other areas where incentives can spur new thinking in an organization. When your sales team goes the extra mile to solve problems and learn more effective ways to complete their goals, they deserve to be recognized and rewarded for their efforts, as well as empowered to continue moving forward. Streamlining incentives through industry-leading platforms and tools can help make the recognition process seamless for your sales team — and lighten the load for those managing the incentives.
Use data to grow.
Along with rewarding your achievers with award choice and efficiency, you’ll also want to leverage data that allows you to experiment, steer, optimize and learn from your sales incentive program. Use the data you have at various levels to help understand the following:
Need to know: Basics of engagement i.e., how many people are logging in, how many claims have been submitted, etc.
Want to know: What levers can I pull to get the most out of my programs?
Wish to know: Future-oriented i.e., I wish I knew which employees were going to leave, I wish I knew which partners were going to be the best, etc.
Know that I know: The lessons learned during the analytics process and from the final results can trigger new, often more-focused business questions.
Motivation is sometimes defined as the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. For some people, motivation comes naturally; it’s intrinsic. For others, it’s extrinsic; they need a little help. If you think of that help as a gentle nudge toward the right destination, the five keys to driving motivation are the road signs that will get them there.
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#### 5-point plan to increase enrollment in customer loyalty programs
If your business has a customer loyalty program or if you're thinking of starting one, you will need an effective enrollment campaign to get it launched and growing.
If your business has a customer loyalty program or if you're thinking of starting one, you will need an effective enrollment campaign to get it launched and growing.
Here are five key ideas to help achieve the success you're looking for.
1. Have you clearly defined the mission and goals of your loyalty program?
And do you have the KPIs in place to measure how you’re doing? Retention, greater share of spend and referrals are examples of key behaviors that reflect customer loyalty and should be tracked. Be sure your communications and promotions are focused on those things you most value in your best customers and the behaviors that add real dollars to the bottom line. Share your mission and goals with your internal teams to make sure they understand the purpose behind the program and what future success might look like.
2. To your customers, is the value of your loyalty program clear, enticing and easy to engage?
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers — does your loyalty program offer real, tangible value? Is there an equitable value exchange for what you might be asking your customers to do and what they might get in return? The rewards for doing a certain behavior should be commensurate with the effort or “ask” required; when that occurs you have an equitable value exchange and both sides win.
Next, is the engagement process easy to understand and not too cumbersome for the customer to participate? Also, as you know, all customers are not alike. Customer segmentation work may dictate you treat certain audience segments differently in how you might communicate with them, what you might be asking them to do and how they might be rewarded. Customer tiering is one way to address this in a loyalty program design.
3. What is your opening offer to enroll in your loyalty program?
You only get one chance to make a first impression. What kind of reward can you offer to get a customer to sign up? If your loyalty program uses reward points, think about how many points you might give to a customer to take the first step and get started earning greater rewards.
A merchandise gift for signing on is another way to drive enrollment. Inone program we recently ran, we tested offering a branded merchandise item against no gift item and the results were significant. The branded merchandise item garnered a 15 times greater response in enrollment than did the audience with no merchandise incentive.
4. Once a customer is enrolled, what is your cadence of communications strategy with them?
Too many loyalty programs immediately overwhelm their customers with a relentless string of emails and other communications. Customers often regret they enrolled and will back away. Best-in-class programs clearly define when and how they will communicate with their loyalty customers. Creating a reasonable, regular cadence of communications is key to showing respect for your customers, while at the same time providing useful information and promotional offers they can enjoy.
Communications that are clear, concise and reflect your appreciation of your customer’s loyalty will go a long way in developing a strong and steadfast relationship. The more personalized your messaging can be the better. Personalization shows you know who your customers are and why they are important to you.
5. Ultimately, enrollment in a loyalty program is driven by "What's in it for me as the customer?"
Rewards are not only a key driver to enrollment, but are critical to the ongoing participation of customers sticking with your loyalty program for the long term. Again, we come full circle to our concept of an equitable value exchange. Is what you’re asking your customers to do or engage in worth their time, effort and spend?
At BI WORLDWIDE, we have studied customer behavior, incentives and loyalty. We have seen and learned a great deal about what people do, feel and act upon. We know by the results we’ve achieved that non-cash, tangible rewards motivate people.
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#### 6 benefits of showing gratitude at work
We’re all familiar with recognition and how we feel when we’re recognized. But what’s not talked about as much is how showing gratitude benefits the giver. Giving serves a far greater function than just enabling someone else to receive.
Here are six benefits of showing gratitude at work.
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Expressing gratitude has physical and mental health benefits.
For some, recognition feels like just one more thing to add to a stressful plate. But it’s helpful to know that expressing gratitude has benefits on physical and mental health. An article from the Mayo Clinic cited that expressing gratitude can improve sleep, decrease depression and anxiety and decrease difficulties with chronic pain. It also helps improve immunity and connections with others.1
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Expressing gratitude can improve physiological stress responses in work tasks.
Gratitude has been related to improved stress responses. A study placed university students who had been acquainted for a few months into groups and asked them to individually complete a task typically found in a work environment. They were then asked to collaborate to design a product, create a marketing plan and pitch the product. Once that was complete, they individually took turns delivering parts of the product pitch to a panel of judges. To raise the stakes, the teams were told that the winning team would receive $200.
Before the tasks began, the groups were split into two conditions. One half of the groups included a teammate that was expressing gratitude to the other. The other half of the groups just talked about their days. The study found that the teams who experienced the gratitude condition had superior physiological responses in both the collaborative task and the individual task compared to the control group.2
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Gratitude promotes culture.
We also see gratitude’s impact in real life, not just in university studies. BI WORLDWIDE’s annual New Rules of Engagement® research surveys employees of large organizations to better understand their experiences at work. This year, we asked questions around gratitude and we found that those who reported feeling a strong sense of gratitude at work are ten times more likely to say they belong at their organization, have a great company culture and would recommend their organization as a great place to work.3
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Giving recognition is one way to express gratitude – and it feels great too.
Those who gave recognition in the past month scored 11 percentage points higher on the item “I have so much to be grateful for.” And those who give and receive recognition experience positive emotions after the event.3
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Recognition is contagious.
More giving can create a domino effect. Those receiving recognition in the past month are three times more likely to have given recognition in the past month as well. In fact, whether someone received recognition in the past month was the best predictor of whether they gave recognition, an even stronger predictor than their typical recognition behavior.3
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Gratitude spurs prosocial behaviors.
Academic research also suggests that those viewing recognition are more likely to build connections and helpful behaviors with givers and receivers, creating the culture we want to see at work and opportunities for them to be recognized.4
So what can you do to help drive gratitude at work? Reflecting on what you’re grateful for at work – both the little things and the big things – and recognizing your teammates is important. Celebrating World Gratitude Day on September 21st as a team and setting a goal to express gratitude that day and that week can spur others to do the same.
Sources
Logan, A. (2022). Feeling grateful improves health. Mayo Clinic.
Gu,Y., Ocampo, J. M., Algoe, S. B., & Oveis, C. (2022). Gratitude expressions improve teammates’ cardiovascular stress responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 3281–3291.
Hirschfeld, M., Mezera, R., & Stern, A. (2023). BI WORLDWIDE’s New Rules of Engagement® Employee Inspiration Research Report. BI WORLDWIDE.
Algoe, S. B., Dwyer, P. C., Younge, A., Oveis, C. (2020). A new perspective on the social functions of emotions: Gratitude and the witnessing effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 40-74.
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#### 6 ways to build sales incentives your team will love
The sales landscape continues to rapidly evolve, and companies are rethinking how they inspire and reward their sales teams. Successful companies are embracing incentives that are personalized and meaningful to their teams, designed with the same level of care and intention they expect from their best performers.
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Here are six sales incentive strategies that you can use to motivate and engage your sales teams while showing them a little well-earned appreciation.
A study by Wang, Duan, and Ning showed that sales teams no longer respond to one-size-fits-all incentives. Top companies are tailoring incentive structures to individual strengths, motivators, and performance styles. Personalized rewards boost engagement, reinforce fairness, and acknowledge each salesperson’s unique contribution, making recognition feel more heartfelt and authentic.
The most effective incentive programs extend well beyond traditional cash rewards. According to a study by Dr. George John, while commissions and bonuses still matter, non-cash awards consistently deliver stronger motivational lift.
That’s why companies are expanding their reward mix to include branded merchandise, travel, curated experiences, professional development, and upskilling opportunities. These options create emotional resonance, build lasting memories, and reinforce performance more powerfully than cash alone. People remember how recognition made them feel long after the reward is redeemed. 
The result is a smarter, more strategic portfolio of rewards that drives behavior, strengthens loyalty, and aligns with how today’s workforce prefers to be recognized.
Incentive structures need variety. Tiered systems are gaining popularity because they offer something for everyone while still celebrating top achievers in a big way.
Tiered programs reward participants at multiple performance levels with increasing value as results improve. This structure works well when organizations want to motivate the full sales population instead of just the top few while still clearly differentiating high performance. Bronze, silver, and gold tiers based on revenue attainment with premium rewards reserved for top performers are an example of a tiered program.
Companies are also choosing between open and closed incentive programs based on participation goals and budget discipline.
Open programs allow unlimited winners who meet predefined criteria, making them effective when the goal is broad engagement, consistent behavior change, or reinforcing core activities across the entire sales team. An example is any rep who hits 100% of quota earns a reward.
Closed programs limit recognition to a fixed number or percentage of top performers, creating exclusivity and heightened competition. These programs are best suited for stretch goals, elite recognition, or high-impact performance moments. A program which invites the top 10% of performers to a premium incentive trip is an example of a closed program.
The right fit depends on your culture and budget, but both approaches help balance inspiration with fiscal discipline.
Experiences are becoming the “grand gesture” of rewards, signaling trust, appreciation, and investment in the people behind the numbers.
Whether it’s individual travel or group incentive trips, companies are favoring experiences that foster connection, loyalty, and unforgettable memories with 46% of companies using incentive travel as part of their reward strategy according to the Incentive Research Foundation.
These trips often outperform traditional prizes in long-term motivational impact, and they give teams something truly special to look forward to.
Incentive programs shouldn’t be emotional. Advanced analytics now play a critical role in setting smarter quotas, identifying top performers, and improving fairness with a study showing that nearly 92% of companies have measurable results from data analytics.
With better data, leaders can design incentives that are transparent, trustworthy, and finely tuned to actual performance patterns. Just beware of “analysis paralysis.” Too much data can muddy communication. Clear explanation builds confidence and keeps your team aligned.
Sales cycles are longer and more complex than ever, so companies are shifting from not only rewarding outcomes but also recognizing high-value behaviors.
Rewards for activities such as lead qualification, pipeline development, and exceptional customer engagement help sustain motivation all year long. A soft drink manufacturer did this successfully with 60,000 employees, resulting in over 34,000 qualified leads that have generated over $30 million in revenue.
Think of these as everyday gestures that build strong relationships over time and sustain trust, momentum, and performance.
Bringing it all together
At their core, sales incentives reflect how much a company values the people doing the work. The best sales incentive programs strengthen connection, loyalty, and appreciation while driving performance.
Whether you personalize incentives, introduce new experiential rewards, or rethink how you use data, each improvement can help ensure your sales team feels valued, understood, and inspired.
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#### 7 ways to make your referral program a success
The biggest challenge when launching a new sales lead-referral program is getting your customer-facing teams on board. If you can successfully motivate most of them to participate, you’re guaranteed to have an increase in revenue.
The biggest challenge when launching a new sales lead-referral program is getting your customer-facing teams on board. If you can successfully motivate most of them to participate, you’re guaranteed to have an increase in revenue.
We worked with a major telecommunications company to launch a lead-referral incentive program and successfully inspired over 80% of their customer-facing technicians to participate. The program encouraged participants to identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities when doing an in-home repair. They would then simply ask the customer if a sales representative could call them later to discuss additional products or services. As a result, they generated close to $70 million in incremental revenue for the organization.
Referral programs like this can add quite an impressive number to a company’s bottom line. If you’re considering starting a sales referral lead generation program, here are seven things to consider.
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Include target participants in the planning process
You will likely be asking both sales and non-sales employees to take on additional tasks. Including key influencers in the planning process will help them feel a sense of ownership and provide you with real “feet-on-the-street” information.
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Communicate why the program is important
Spend time explaining to participants that additional revenue helps build job security, allows the company to expand and grow and creates opportunities for long-term career success.
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Offer meaningful and appropriate incentives
The increase in sales will be incremental, so you have tremendous leeway to share the gain. Participants will be more willing to participate if they see you are being extremely fair to the point of generosity for their extra efforts.
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Publicly recognize both effort and achievement
Not every referral will result in a sale which can be discouraging for participants. Make sure you recognize and thank participants for their effort, regardless of the end result. Recognizing progress will keep participants engaged.
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Sustain participation with intermittent promotions and contests
Keep the program fresh and interesting by offering the opportunity to earn more awards during key selling seasons, for new products, during slow times or for other situations in your business. Mix it up!
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Actively communicate on an ongoing basis
Provide information, updates and reminders about the program using a variety of media. Make content relevant, providing information on how to make referrals more successful.
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Analyze and share results
You’ll gain valuable data during the program. Study it to see where improvements can be made and where successes can be repeated. Share the data with participants so they can provide additional insight and see how they are contributing on a company-wide basis.
A sales lead referral program will not only boost your revenue but will likely improve your employee engagement and customer satisfaction scores as well. When building your next program, keep these seven key factors in mind. Don’t underestimate the power of your people to help your business grow.
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#### 9 things to consider when choosing a recognition and reward program
Recognition should not be just a “nice-to-have.” It should fuel a company’s strategic imperatives. But not all recognition and reward programs are created equal.
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As organizations look to drive performance, engagement, and culture, the right partner can make all the difference. Here are nine critical considerations to help you choose a recognition and reward partner that delivers a real return on your investment.
Recognition should feel good, but it should also deliver results. Many programs focus on engagement and culture, which is important but also expected. The best ones? They go further, driving outcomes like cost savings, upselling, customer loyalty, and free cash flow.
Look for a partner that sparks behavior change through gamified missions, strategic nudges, skill-building, performance incentives, and crowdsourced innovation.
Ask vendors to show how their solution addresses your biggest business challenges. And ask yourself: Will this program generate value or just add cost?
The most expensive recognition program is the one that doesn't drive outcomes.
This one is non-negotiable. Recognition programs often involve significant financial commitments, and you need to know your investment is secure. Unfortunately, not all vendors are built to last. Some have even gone out of business, taking client funds with them.
It’s okay to ask tough questions; your investment deserves transparency. 
Ask your partner:
What is your percentage of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments to deferred revenue liability?
What is your current ratio?
If funded by private equity, what's your ratio of dividends returned to profits?
What is your equity (deficit) to assets ratio?
A trustworthy partner will welcome this level of scrutiny.
A recognition program is only as powerful as its participation. Launching a platform doesn’t guarantee engagement, especially if employees don’t know it exists or don’t see the value in using it.
Your partner should help you build awareness and excitement from day one. That means:
Strategic branding and launch planning that captures attention and aligns with your culture.
Ongoing communications that keep the program top of mind across all employee groups.
Training for employees, managers, and leaders so everyone understands the "how" and "why" of recognition.
Integration into the flow of work, whether that's Microsoft Teams, mobile apps, or physical workplaces for deskless employees.
Recognition should feel like a natural part of the employee experience, not another tool to remember.
Recognition should feel personal. That means tailoring the experience to different roles, goals, and motivations.
Your sales team isn't your finance team. Your engineers aren't your nurses.
Your program should reflect this with segmented communications, audience-smart technology, individualized goals, and experiences that uniquely resonate.
Data is only powerful if it leads to action. The best recognition programs don’t just track activity; they illuminate opportunities.
Look for a partner that delivers:
Manager insights that guide recognition best practices and prompt timely, meaningful recognition.
Administrator dashboards that highlight program adoption, identify gaps, and showcase recognition champions.
Contextual analytics that complement other employee experience data, not replace it.
Be cautious of vendors who promise that recognition data alone can tell the whole talent story. It’s a valuable signal, but it’s most effective when viewed alongside other performance and engagement metrics.
Some vendors offer a platform and a catalog and leave the rest to you. But if you’re looking for strategic guidance, communications support, and day-to-day partnership to ensure your program achieves the desired results, make sure that’s part of the package.
Recognition should be easy to manage, not another full-time job. Consider the internal resources required to run your program in the context of your overall investment.
Global reach
“Global” isn’t just about shipping rewards internationally. It’s about having people on the ground who understand local culture, language, and logistics. Does your partner have in-market teams to help you integrate recognition into platforms like WeChat in China, for example? Does your partner live there and know what works for that market?
Look for:
In-country fulfillment (no third-party markups)
Assistance in driving compliance with global best practices and regulatory factors
Local invoicing (hello, tax savings!)
Customer service in local languages and time zones
Deskless workers
Recognition shouldn't stop at the office door. Retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and field teams are essential and often overlooked.
Your partner should offer:
Mobile-first experiences
Physical communications and recognition tools
Ambassador netowrks
Tech integrations for frontline teams
Gamified engagement strategies
Vendor consolidation is top of mind for many organizations. The right recognition partner helps unify platforms, not multiply them.
Look for a platform that integrates and complements your current technology and can support multiple initiatives: communications, change management, incentives, and progress tracking. One tool, many outcomes.
Cash is easy, but it’s not always cost-effective. The most effective rewards tap into how people actually think and feel. That’s where behavioral economics comes in. Here are three powerful principles that make rewards more meaningful and more memorable:
Reconsumption: When someone earns an experience, like a weekend getaway or a new pair of skis, they don’t just enjoy it once. They relive it every time they talk about it, look at photos, or share the story. That’s lasting impact.
Vividness: The more clearly someone can picture what they’re working toward, the more motivated they’ll be. A catalog full of exciting, tangible rewards sparks imagination and drives action.
Mental accounting: People often hesitate to spend money on themselves. But when they earn a reward, they give themselves permission to choose something special, something they wouldn’t normally buy. That makes the reward feel even more valuable.
Ask your rewards partner:
What research informs your reward strategy?
How do you curate your catalog?
How do your rewards complement compensation strategies?
It’s more than adding a gift card to your wallet or submitting your weekly Amazon order. Experiential and symbolic rewards drive greater impact at a lower cost to your business.
Final thought:
Choosing a recognition and reward partner is more than a procurement decision. It’s a strategic investment in your people and your business. It shouldn’t be transactional; it should be transformational. Ask the hard questions. Expect more than a platform. And partner with someone who’s as committed to your success as you are.
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#### A blueprint for success: running a retail sales incentive program
Running a successful retail sales incentive program required more than just numbers and metrics—it required passion, vision and a genuine commitment to the success and well-being of employees.
Once upon a time in the heart of a bustling metropolis, there stood a branch of a thriving retail store named “Bright Ideas.” Across the country, the store was known for its friendly staff, quality products and vibrant atmosphere.
Behind the scenes at the corporate office, the store’s CEO, Ms. Diaz, was brainstorming ways to boost sales and motivate her dedicated team of employees. After much contemplation, she decided to launch a retail sales incentive program, but she knew it would take more than just good intentions to make it a success.
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Clarity and vision
Ms. Diaz gathered her regional managers for a meeting and painted a vivid picture of the incentive program’s objectives. She emphasized the importance of increasing sales, enhancing customer satisfaction and fostering a culture of teamwork and excellence across the country. With a clear vision in mind, everyone understood their role in achieving success.
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Structured incentive plan
With the help of her trusted managers, Ms. Diaz meticulously designed the incentive plan. They decided to offer bonuses based on individual and team performance, with targets set for sales volume, customer engagement and product knowledge. The plan was structured yet flexible allowing for adjustments based on seasonal fluctuations and market trends.
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Transparent communication
Communication was key to the success of the incentive program. Ms. Diaz made sure that every employee understood the program’s rules, eligibility criteria and potential rewards. Regular meetings were held in each store to provide updates on progress and address any questions or concerns. Transparency built trust and kept everyone motivated to achieve their targets.
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Learning and development
Recognizing the importance of product knowledge and sales skills, Ms. Diaz invested in comprehensive learning programs for her employees. Sales techniques, product features and customer service were emphasized, equipping the team with the tools they needed to excel. Continuous learning was encouraged, with opportunities for ongoing development and feedback.
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Recognition and celebration
As the incentive program unfolded, Ms. Diaz made sure to celebrate every milestone and achievement. Top performers were publicly recognized and rewarded, boosting morale and inspiring others to strive for excellence. Team outings, bonuses and special incentives were used to show appreciation for their hard work and dedication.
As the months passed, “Bright Ideas” flourished like never before. Sales soared, customer satisfaction reached new heights, and several stores became a beacon of success in their communities. The retail sales incentive program had not only boosted profits but united different teams across the company in a shared mission of excellence and achievement.
In the end, Ms. Diaz realized that running a successful retail sales incentive program required more than just numbers and metrics—it required passion, vision and a genuine commitment to the success and well-being of her employees. And with those five key ingredients in place, “Bright Ideas” continued to shine brighter than ever before.
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#### A smarter way to hire top talent
Every company wants to make better talent decisions. Leaders invest in interviews, assessments, competency models, and increasingly, AI-enabled hiring tools to identify candidates who are most likely to succeed.
Still, performance remains inconsistent.
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The issue is not a lack of information. Most organizations have more candidate data than ever. The issue is that too many hiring decisions are still built around signals that suggest potential, but do not directly measure whether someone can perform when the role demands it.
Experience, personality, confidence, and culture fit can all provide useful context. But they are not the same as capability.1 And when organizations confuse those signals with performance predictors, they create a gap between who seems right for the job and who is actually equipped to succeed in it.
Most hiring processes still rely on proxies.
A strong résumé can point to relevant experience. A confident interview can suggest communication skills. A personality assessment can help explain work style. Each data point may have value, but none of them directly answers the most important question: Can this person perform this specific role at the level required?2
That gap matters.
Personality assessments describe behavioral tendencies. They do not show how effectively someone applies judgment, persistence, adaptability, or problem-solving in the moments that matter most. Skills and competency models can help define what a role requires, but they often become too broad, too complex, or too slow to keep up with the work itself. AI-driven hiring tools may promise greater objectivity, but many still rely on generalized patterns that miss the nuance of real roles, real teams, and real performance expectations.3
The result is a familiar cycle: more tools, more data, and more confidence in decisions that still do not consistently produce better outcomes.
Top performers do not always look dramatically different from everyone else on paper. In many cases, high performers and lower performers have similar backgrounds, comparable experience, and many of the same underlying capabilities. The difference shows up in how strongly those capabilities are developed and how effectively they are applied in context.
In one B2B sales organization, high and low performers demonstrated many of the same capabilities. What separated the top performers was not a completely different skill set. It was the level at which they operated the capabilities that mattered most for success in that specific role.4
Across the most critical capabilities, high performers scored between 12 and 27 percent higher than lower performers. When those differences were viewed together, the performance gap became even more meaningful.4 The people delivering stronger results were not simply more experienced or better interviewers. They were stronger in the areas that directly drove outcomes.
That distinction is important. Performance is not just about having the right capabilities. It is about having the right capabilities at the right level for the role.
Capability Intelligence changes the way organizations evaluate fit between a person and a role.
Rather than relying on indirect indicators like past experience, personality, or perceived potential, Capability Intelligence identifies the specific behavioral and cognitive capabilities a role requires and evaluates how well an individual aligns to those requirements.
That precision matters because roles are rarely as standardized as they appear. Two employees may have the same title, but the capabilities required to succeed can vary significantly based on the organization, market, team structure, customer expectations, and performance goals. Without a clear understanding of those requirements, hiring becomes an exercise in approximation.
Capability Intelligence replaces approximation with alignment. It helps organizations define what success actually looks like in a role, identify the capabilities that drive that success, and evaluate people against a standard tied directly to performance.
For hiring teams, that creates a more reliable way to understand whether a candidate is likely to succeed. For talent leaders, it creates a stronger foundation for development, mobility, succession planning, and workforce strategy.5
When organizations evaluate talent through a capability lens, the decision-making process changes.
The question is no longer whether someone feels like a strong candidate. The better question is whether that person has demonstrated the capability to perform at the level the role requires.
That shift has practical value. It helps explain why two candidates with similar backgrounds can produce very different results. It makes the drivers of performance more visible. It gives leaders a clearer way to identify people who are ready for future opportunities, not just people who look ready based on experience or tenure.
It also helps reduce over-reliance on instinct. Intuition will always play some role in hiring and talent decisions, but it should not carry the weight of prediction on its own. Capability Intelligence gives leaders a stronger evidence base, making decisions more consistent, more defensible, and more closely tied to business outcomes.
Organizations often lose momentum with new talent strategies because they try to apply them everywhere at once. Capability Intelligence is more effective when it starts with a focused business problem.
Begin with a role where performance varies widely or where the cost of a poor hiring decision is high. Look at the people who consistently deliver results in that role, not simply those who are perceived as strong. Then identify the capabilities that differentiate them and pay close attention to the magnitude of those differences.
From there, those insights can be applied to real decisions: refining hiring criteria, targeting development, identifying future-fit talent, and improving workforce planning.
The goal is not to overhaul the entire talent strategy overnight. The goal is to make the next decision more precise, prove the value of the approach, and scale it with confidence.6
For years, organizations have made talent decisions using the best tools available: experience, interviews, assessments, manager judgment, and instinct. Those inputs are not useless. They are simply incomplete.
They were never designed to predict performance with precision.
Capability Intelligence offers a more direct path. By focusing on the capabilities that drive results and the level at which those capabilities must be applied, organizations can make clearer, more reliable decisions about who is most likely to succeed.
That matters because hiring is not just about filling a role. It is about improving the outcomes that depend on that role.7
The stronger the alignment between capability and role requirements, the stronger the odds of performance. And when organizations understand why people succeed, they are better equipped to hire, develop, and retain the people who will move the business forward.
Sources:
1. McKinsey & Company (2022). Taking a skills-based approach to building the future workforce.
2. Fuller, J. & Sigelman, M. (2024). What companies get wrong about skills-based hiring.
3. van den Broek, E., Sergeeva, A. V., & Huysman, M. (2025). New research on AI and fairness in hiring.
4. AbilityMap client data
5. Jones, R., Cantrell, S., Griffiths, M., & Hiipaaka, J. (2022). The skills-based organization: A new operating model for work and the workforce.
6. Cantrell, S., Symes, F., Watanabe, L., Dillon, V., & Caplan, H. (2026). Rethinking skills-based talent models: 4 paths to business value.
7. Noguera Lasa, A., Pedroni, A., & Komm, A. (2024). In the spotlight: Performance management that puts people first.
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#### A three-step formula to improve customer retention and drive lasting loyalty
In today’s competitive market, building strong relationships with customers is more important than ever. Customer appreciation is an effective way to increase these connections.
Here are some tips to help.
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Personalize customer appreciation.
Personalization goes beyond just using the customer’s name. Recognizing a customer for achieving a milestone or engaging in a critical touchpoint should be specifically acknowledged.
Start by gathering meaningful customer data. What kind of information are you collecting about your customers beyond their name and contact details? Are you recognizing first-time buyers, repeat customers, or long-time patrons? Do you track customers who have achieved various milestones such as anniversaries, spending levels, engagement across a full product line, learning, referrals, or other activities?
Recognizing a customer for a specific achievement, behavior, or action tells them they are important. It shows you value them and understand who they are and what they have done. The more you know, the more it shows you care. This can be a real step towards building a relationship with your customer beyond the transaction.
Make appreciation timely.
Have a plan for customer appreciation or recognition in place. Determine the critical touchpoints or milestones you can track, those behaviors important to you and your business, and then be ready to act upon them in a timely manner.
Receiving recognition for something they’ve done or achieved months after the fact lessens the importance of that customer’s engagement with you. The closer to the time a touchpoint or milestone is achieved and then recognized, the more favorable the impression will be made with your customer. It demonstrates you’re on top of things and truly value what your customer has done or accomplished.
Make appreciation rewarding.
Craft your communication so that it is personal and specific to the behavior or achievement. Try to make an emotional connection. Tell them how important they are to your business, how much you appreciate what they have done or achieved, and that you are there to serve them in any way you can to keep their business.
Make gifting part of your appreciation and recognition strategy. Studies show customer gifting can increase retention rates by more than 40%, and over 50% of businesses have reported sales increases after starting a gifting program. A well-crafted message along with a gift can surprise and delight your customers. After receiving a gift, customers are more likely to engage further with you and your company. They are also more likely to recommend your brand to others.
As the adage goes, it is not the gift that counts but the thought behind it. Being thoughtful about appreciating and recognizing your best customers can go a long way to increased retention and deeper loyalty to products, services, and brand. Budget dollars earmarked for customer appreciation and recognition is money well spent when the design of your program is personal, timely, and rewarding.
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#### AI-powered recognition: Delivering results from day one
We've always believed that recognition can transform the employee experience. When done well, recognition is timely, meaningful, and drives real behavior change. But what if we could make it even more impactful, personalized, engaging, and effortless?
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We've set out to do that by collaborating with IBM to incorporate Gen AI into our solution. Built with IBM watsonx.ai, IBM's flagship portfolio of AI products, our recognition platform is infused with intelligent, conversational AI that helps managers and peers create thoughtful, authentic messages in seconds.
In today’s hybrid and fast-moving work environments, employees crave acknowledgment, but time, writer’s block, and uncertainty often get in the way. With watsonx embedded into our recognition platform, we’re solving that.
And the results speak for themselves.
Here's what happened when BI WORLDWIDE infused AI into recognition:
20%+ increase in average daily recognitions: More people recognize more often because it's easier and intuitive.
65% of users who generate a response with AI include it in their final recognition: The use of AI isn't just a novelty - it's a practical, relevant tool that users find genuinely valuable.
7.8% decrease in session time (saving 23 seconds per recognition): That may sound small, but for every 300,000 sessions, it's saving over 2,000 hours per month!
Let’s face it, AI is everywhere. But most AI tools aren’t built for the unique nuances of workplace culture and recognition. IBM watsonx is different. It accelerates the impact of generative AI to help clients drive productivity in core enterprise workflows.
Paired with BIWORLDWIDE’s behavioral science-backed approach, this creates a seamless experience that supports busy managers, empowers recognition across the organization, and drives results.
Whether recognizing a colleague for stepping up on a project or celebrating a work anniversary, AI helps you find the words fast. No more blank screens or defaulting to “Great job!” Instead, you get meaningful messages that show people they’re truly seen and valued.
And that's what recognition is all about. In fact, hear testaments from actual employees!
"This tool is excellent. I am going to demo for our next All Hands. I suspect some people have a hard time writing meaningful recognition, but this makes it so easy. I am excited to help our recognition culture grow."
"I used the wizard today to send an appreciation that may have been postponed otherwise. Yes, I made changes to personalize it, and it was a time saver."
At BI WORLDWIDE, we’re not just following trends but creating smarter, scalable recognition systems that deliver measurable business impact.
Built with IBM watsonx, we’re helping organizations elevate how they celebrate people, every single day.
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#### Authentic recognition in an artificial world
There’s something very authentic and real about the connection created by every individual recognition moment. But with artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly growing and evolving, how do you make sure recognition stays authentic? We don’t expect AI to write evocative, meaningful and celebratory content. But we do expect it to assist in creating something detailed, accurate and relevant.
There’s something very authentic and real about the connection created by every individual recognition moment. But with artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly growing and evolving, how do you make sure recognition stays authentic? We don’t expect AI to write evocative, meaningful and celebratory content. But we do expect it to assist in creating something detailed, accurate and relevant.
Impactful recognition has four key facets and while they're different, humans and AI can play significant roles in all four.
1. Recognition must be timely
AI should be used to alert managers – and potentially employees – when someone could be recognized. This can be because they have made progress toward a goal, accomplished a goal, were recognized by someone else or have not been recognized recently. The human aspect comes in when using common sense – is this the appropriate time to recognize? Or is the recognition coming too early or too late?
2. Recognition must be as specific as possible
Sometimes employees and managers may need a nudge that they should be more detailed when writing their recognition. AI can help with this by alerting the author to be more specific about what they’re recognizing. People can take the prompt and use their creativity to create a more detailed message.
3. Recognition must be personalized
AI can help managers by informing them how their employees like to be recognized, but ultimately, it’s up to the person to use their emotional intelligence to create a recognition moment that is personalized and meaningful to the recipient.
4. Recognition must be comparable to the effort
If an award feels small in comparison to the effort put forth, employees don’t feel valued. AI can suggest appropriate awards based on the type of achievement and size of the goal, but often this is subjective. The sender must ultimately determine what recognition and reward would feel meaningful to the recipient.
A tool like BI WORLDWIDE’s Recognition Assistant helps create meaningful and authentic recognition. This personal recognition assistant includes features that detect biases, translate messages to the recipient’s primary language, correct spelling and grammar and ensure specificity and relevance.
It’s pivotal to keep the human element instead of automating recognition with AI. Attempting to remove a person from recognition risks a negative impact to a company’s culture and bottom line. And recognition is a deeply personal connection that benefits not only the receiver but also the giver.
Preserving true connections will continue to be the lifeline of an organization.
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#### Beyond swag: How strategic merchandise inspires action and strengthens brands
For marketing and sales leaders, the challenge isn’t just about brand visibility: it’s about driving action, fostering loyalty, and creating moments that matter. Merchandise and awards should do more than just bear a logo; they should solve business challenges in a way that inspires and motivates.
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It’s important to take a strategic approach to merchandise and awards, ensuring that every award serves a purpose, reinforces action, tells a story, and creates lasting connections between the recipient and the brand.
Incentives only work when they inspire action. Whether engaging employees, customers, or partners, the first question to ask is, “What’s in it for them?” The right award isn’t just to award; it’s a powerful motivator that drives behaviors aligned with business goals.
Recognition is most effective when it forms an emotional bridge back to the brand. Awards and merchandise aren’t just products; they are carefully curated to create connections to the brand and reinforce desired actions. Whether through lifestyle pieces, symbolic items, personalized kits, or custom-branded experiences, ensure each award aligns with the brand’s identity and values.
Today’s modern customer expects flexibility – not just in what they receive but in how they receive it. Offering award choice allows recipients to select items that truly resonate with them. From digital redemption options to tailored product assortments, choice enhances satisfaction and deepens engagement. Recognizing excellence shouldn’t come at the expense of responsibility. Sustainable sourcing, eco-friendly materials, and ethical production are critical considerations in the curation process. Brands that prioritize sustainability don’t just enhance their reputation; they build trust and loyalty among customers and employees who share those values.
How an award is delivered matters as much as the award itself. Flexible fulfillment options provide an experience, so receiving and unboxing the award is just as impactful as the item inside. Whether through in-person celebrations, premium packaging, or digital solutions, tailored delivery methods create a seamless, memorable experience.
Merchandise and awards should do more than just check a box. They should drive business outcomes. By designing recognition solutions that motivate action, create emotional connections, and align with today’s evolving expectations, you can turn every award moment into a lasting brand experience.
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#### Bridging the gap: strengthening leader-employee connections on Employee Appreciation Day
The disconnect between leaders and employees has become increasingly evident. According to The New Rules of Engagement® research from BI WORLDWIDE, a staggering 38% of U.S. employees feel their leaders don’t understand the typical employee.
The disconnect between leaders and employees has become increasingly evident. According to The New Rules of Engagement® research from BI WORLDWIDE, a staggering 38% of U.S. employees feel their leaders don’t understand the typical employee. This gap has been widening over the past five years, particularly around critical topics such as remote work, AI, mental health, pay disparities, and work/life balance. If you talk to leaders, they will emphatically clarify that they do value their employees. The question is, how can they better show it?
Our research at BIW shows that employees who feel understood and valued by leaders also have a strong sense of belonging, trust leadership, feel empowered to make decisions, have learning and development opportunities, and are often recognized at work.
On Employee Appreciation Day, leaders have a prime opportunity to demonstrate their appreciation by sending recognition to all employees that touches on these key factors.
For our clients, we recommend a meaningful, authentic recognition be sent from leadership to all employees through the recognition system. Ideally, this recognition would include a reward. And we would recommend each employee be given a small budget to distribute to their peers to show their appreciation for one another. This approach addresses all key drivers of feeling understood and valued:
- Belonging and Trust:
The recognition message should provide a common sense of purpose and community. Focus on how employees have contributed to the organization’s successes or helped the organization through a tough time. Sharing this appreciation with a note of the vision for the future will help instill belonging and a trust in leadership.
- Empowerment:
Empower employees to appreciate their colleagues. Giving each employee a small budget to show another employee their appreciation empowers them to reward one another. Even without budget, encouraging recognizing one another is recommended.
- Learning and Development:
Consider rewarding employees with opportunities to learn and grow. This can be through internal growth resources or rewards that they can redeem for learning opportunities that interest them outside of work. BIW clients can redeem their rewards in our Mastery Marketplace if they want to use them to learn something new.
- Recognition:
By recognizing employees directly and empowering them to recognize each other, leaders will inspire a chain of recognition that can transform culture. This not only boosts morale but also reinforces positive behaviors and achievements.
The impact is clear. In our research, those who have received recognition as part of a team are twice as likely to say that leaders understand employees and are three times more likely to feel valued. Including an award can boost the impact: those who received an award recently are four times more likely to feel valued.
We analyzed the impact of this type of promotion on recognition behavior overall across more than forty programs at BIW. In addition to helping employees feel valued, Employee Appreciation Day celebrations resulted in greater engagement with the recognition programs.
Compared to the pre-celebration period, celebration periods result in a:
This impact outlasted the promotion. In the time period after the celebration, we also saw a 23% increase in receiving recognition with points in comparison to before the celebration.
Employee Appreciation Day is a golden opportunity for leaders to connect with their employees and show how much they are valued. The ripple effect of this recognition can spur a lasting culture of appreciation within your organization. Whether you are the CEO, a front-line manager, or an individual contributor: send a note to your colleagues and let them know they are appreciated.
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#### Building loyalty in a click-and-swipe-world
In a digital world that demands seamless, instant interactions, loyalty programs must be just as convenient as any service we use. After all, our wireless devices are the first things we reach for to make payments, get “face time,” and manage our lives.
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The landscape of loyalty has undergone significant transformations due to speed of technological advancements, data availability, and customer expectations. Is your program keeping pace?
From fragmented to holistic
Today, your customers have multiple ways to connect with your brand – email, virtual meetings, texts, web- and app–based transactions, and social media platforms. This digital shift has made loyalty more about a customer’s overall experience rather than loyalty within a single channel. From a loyalty perspective, there’s an advantage to recognizing these channels and incorporating them as touchpoints in your program. Moving from a fragmented to holistic (omni-channel) approach helps increase customer engagement and build brand loyalty.
Make it personal
In the past, many programs relied on a one-size-fits-all approach to building loyalty with a mass-market campaign to drive awareness and participation. In contrast, today you have (or should have) access to data that allows you to offer a highly personalized experience based on your customer’s profile, preferences, and actions. Through deeper insights into preferences and behaviors, it’s now possible to fine tune your loyalty program so it feels like a customized, meaningful experience designed for each customer. This means tailoring communications, target goals, and promotions to the specific individual. It may seem like a daunting task, but today’s technology makes it manageable. The payoff is that customers are more likely to be loyal if you recognize and cater to their unique behaviors and characteristics.
Ease of use
Most loyalty programs require the customer to do a little work to participate. It’s not unusual to ask them to upload receipts or track their purchases in other ways. Today, automated point-of-sale data sharing is becoming more prevalent, and tracking can now take place behind the scenes while your customer goes about their day.
You certainly don’t want a passive loyalty program, but neither would you want your customers spending time on administrative details that detract from focused key behaviors and program satisfaction. Instead, connect data elements to make the customer’s input as seamless and convenient as possible to reduce friction and create a better user experience.
Align your loyalty expectations
Loyalty isn’t a fixed concept. It’s dynamic. Loyalty is earned as an outcome of the sum of all your customers’ interactions. Therefore, be proactive by using nimble, reliable technology, and program design that leverage real- or near-time information. Doing so will go a long way toward building a better experience for both you and your customers.
Your loyalty program is only as good as the technology and inputs that support it. So plan to continually review, adapt, and re-invest in the digital elements that support the user experience. With solid program design, technology, and maintenance, your loyalty program can become a powerful digital tool that encourages repeat purchases and drives long-term customer habits and brand affinity.
Embrace advances and win
Channel loyalty is no longer about a prescribed single, traditional method of engagement. Make use of multi-channel strategies, leverage data, and meet customer expectations for speed and convenience to drive success. By offering a flexible, personalized, and integrated customer experience, you can cut through and win your customers’ attention and loyalty. With these approaches, loyalty can be won in today’s increasingly digital-first world.
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#### Building relationships by enhancing your loyalty program
Enhance your loyalty program by building relationships.
Loyalty is more than just repeat business – it’s about building relationships. It’s changing the narrative from a one-dimensional exchange based on the winning discount to one that fosters engagement, emotional connections and trust. In this paradigm, loyalty is an outcome of the customer experiences – one that values each customer as an individual.
How can a loyalty program shift to a greater focus on relationship building?
Strong loyalty programs start with a solid foundation: the base earning component. This fundamental feature is the common denominator and allows everyone in the target audience to participate, ensuring inclusivity and broad engagement. However, to differentiate a loyalty program and develop deeper connections with valued customers, it’s essential to incorporate campaign overlays.
Campaign overlays enhance loyalty programs by introducing dynamic elements that go beyond the basic earning structure. They target specific behaviors, observed data points or key milestones in the customer journey. By running these campaigns alongside the base earning component, you create additional opportunities for engagement and interaction.
Here’s why campaign overlays are crucial for a successful loyalty program:
1. Relevancy and personalization:
Campaign overlays enable you to tailor offers and rewards to individual customer behaviors and preferences. This approach makes customers feel valued and understood, increasing their loyalty to the brand.
2. Enhanced customer experience:
Campaign overlays can make your loyalty program more dynamic and encourage more frequent interaction. Seasonal promotions, special events and milestone rewards add variety and surprise, enhancing the overall customer experience.
3. Behavioral targeting:
By analyzing customer data, you can identify key behaviors and data points that impact loyalty. Campaign overlays can then be designed to incentivize these behaviors, steering customers towards actions that benefit both them and your business.
4. Lifecycle milestones:
Recognizing and rewarding customers at different stages of their journey with your brand can strengthen loyalty. Campaign overlays that recognize and celebrate anniversaries or important milestones show customers you appreciate their loyalty.
Incorporating campaign overlays into a loyalty program is a powerful strategy to deepen customer relationships and drive greater engagement. By leveraging these dynamic elements, you can transform a good loyalty program into a great one, supporting long-term loyalty and sustained business growth.
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#### Business outcomes: Recognition that delivers results
When organizations recognize both performance and results, they don’t just build stronger teams. They build stronger businesses.
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"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."
- Phil Jackson, legendary NBA coach
Phil Jackson built championship teams by developing each player’s unique strengths. The same principle applies in business: when leaders recognize and develop each employee’s contributions, the entire organization performs better.
At BI WORLDWIDE, our operational expertise and global research confirm that helping employees focus on key activities (and recognizing them for results) translates directly to measurable business outcomes.
Recognition: the multiplying effect
To understand how different types of recognition drive engagement, we asked our global panel which forms of recognition they received most often.
It wasn’t surprising that recognition for daily behaviors was the most common. These opportunities occur frequently and are easier for managers and peers to deliver in real time. Recognition for top performance and career milestones, on the other hand, was understandably less frequent.
But frequency isn’t the only story. We wanted to know if variety matters. Does receiving more types of recognition in a year lead to stronger engagement?
The data says yes, emphatically.
Employees who received multiple forms of recognition were significantly more engaged than those who received one or none. Bottom line: more recognition and more kinds of recognition create stronger engagement.
Recognizing results and performance: the winning combination
Next, we looked at the impact of recognizing performance and results compared to other types of recognition.
The pattern was clear. When employees are recognized specifically for achieving results or demonstrating performance excellence, their engagement levels climb higher than with any other recognition type.
All forms of recognition boost engagement, commitment, and inspiration — but recognizing results and performance delivers the strongest return on investment.
From insights to ROI
Turning insights into business results requires deliberate design.
“As we identify opportunities with customers, we use our Impact Advisor tool to focus conversations on key business challenges like turnover, productivity, safety, absenteeism, speed to competency, and model how enterprise-wide recognition programs can address them. We quantify potential improvements, forecast ROI, and track actual impact as the culture of recognition matures.”
Danielson notes that the business case is compelling:
“When a company has developed a recognition-rich culture, they can expect measurable gains across multiple outcomes: lower turnover, higher productivity, fewer safety incidents, reduced absenteeism, and greater customer loyalty. In one global manufacturing client, we observed a 49.3% higher retention rate among employees who received recognition compared to those who did not. When recognition included an award, retention increased by 64.7%.”
That’s not just engagement; it’s economics.
Translating recognition into business performance
How do these insights translate into measurable business success?
Christina Fortier, Solution Owner for PerformIQ® at BI WORLDWIDE, outlines four key benefits of recognition programs designed with results in mind:
Efficiency isn’t luck; it’s focus. Balanced performance aligns teams, clarifies priorities, and keeps critical work front and center. Recognizing the behaviors that impact business results around that alignment drives engagement and motivation for frontline employees.
Organizations that clearly link individual goals to strategy through balanced performance frameworks report measurable improvement. On average, more than half of their key performance indicators improve within the first few years of implementation.x
When the metrics teams are measured on are not linked to strategic revenue or cost-savings goals, organizations incur hidden inefficiencies: duplicated effort, internal friction, lost opportunities. And that is a clear cost to business.
Balanced performance doesn’t just track outcomes; it accelerates them. When goals, metrics, and recognition align, growth becomes predictable and scalable. Connecting KPIs to decisive action is how you impact your business. Data doesn’t drive growth. Employee decisions do.
A case study in recognition ROI
“We implemented the Five Star Performance Program to drive efficiency, service quality, and engagement across 60,000 associates. The program emphasized personal best goals, transparent performance tracking, and monthly, quarterly, and annual recognition for achieving Five Star status in key metrics like safety, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.”
The results? Extraordinary.
“Over eight years, the program generated $950 million in incremental revenue and $527 million in cost savings,” said Fortier. “Beyond financial results, it built a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, proof that recognition-based motivation can drive both engagement and operational performance.”
From insight to impact
Recognition is more than a feel-good exercise; it's a performance multiplier.
When organizations recognize both performance and results, they don’t just build stronger teams. They build stronger businesses.
Coach Jackson would be proud: help each member of your team grow stronger, and the team becomes unstoppable.
Recognition variety amplifies engagement.
Recognition tied to performance and results yields the strongest ROI.
BIW's Impact Advisor and Perform IQ® tools link recognition directly to business outcomes.
Recognition-rich cultures deliver quantifiable results: higher retention, productivity, and profitability.
Balanced performance and recognition alignment create sustained business growth.
Hear from our expert
Christina Fortier, Solution Owner, PerformIQ®
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143230042?
Download the full case study for more details.
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#### Compensation and recognition for salespeople
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The world of sales is changing fast, and the way we compensate, motivate, and retain top performers must evolve with it.
AI is reshaping the selling process and the tools reps use to serve customers.
Diversity and inclusion are redefining what modern sales teams look like.
Information overload is fragmenting focus and productivity.
Compensation for talent is fiercer than ever.
Creating a true competitive advantage now depends on how organizations combine compensation, recognition, and development to attract, inspire, and retain top salespeople.
Understanding the sales employee value proposition
Every sales organization must answer three questions:
Through BI WORLDWIDE’s research and client work, we’ve identified 18 drivers of the sales employee value proposition, from culture and recognition to equity and career development.
Among these, incentive compensation drivers have the greatest behavioral impact.
Base salary
Variable compensation
Awards and contests
Recognition
Equity or long-term incentive (LTIs)
Career pathing and development experiences
The 3x2 framework: cash, non-cash, and time
To help sales leaders design the right mix, we use a 3x2 total rewards toolkit, a simple but powerful model that classifies rewards across two dimensions:
Cash vs non-cash (monetary vs. experiential or symbolic)
Short-, medium-, and long-term effectiveness
Short-term tools (monthly to quarterly) include commissions, bonuses, and contests.
Medium-term tools (quarterly to annual) include recognition programs, gamified challenges, and performance reviews.
Long-term tools (annual and ongoing) include promotions, LTIs, and development opportunities.
Most companies focus heavily on the short term, but true differentiation comes from mastering the full spectrum.
What salespeople value most
Public acknowledgement in meetings or newsletters
Monetary rewards like bonuses, raises, or gift cards
Personal thank yous from leaders or peers
Awards and certificates
Promotions and growth opportunities
Team celebrations and shared wins
Positive feedback from clients or customers
Recognition amplifies compensation; it adds meaning to money.
How fair pay and recognition work together
Whether salespeople feel they are paid fairly, and
Whether they feel confident their good work will be recognized.
Recognition plays an outsized role in driving engagement. Salespeople who feel both underpaid and unrecognized score dramatically lower on engagement across every metric.
Activating the levers
Retention challenge? Lean on long-term tools like LTIs, career pathing, development.
Performance challenge? Focus on short-term levers like contests, gamification, recognition.
Attraction challenge? Highlight total rewards transparency and culture alignment.
Strengthen their employer brand
Differentiate in a competitive talent market
Increase both sales performance and retention longevity
Turning insight into action
Cash motivates, but culture retains. Recognition, growth, and meaningful work transform a compensation plan into a commitment plan.
Sales compensation must evolve with technology, diversity, and shifting employee expectations.
Salespeople who feel both fairly paid and recognized are significantly more engaged.
The 3x2 Total Rewards Toolkit helps leaders balance short-and long-term motivators.
Recognition adds meaning to compensation and strengthens retention.
Aligning the right levers to the right business goals turns compensation into a competitive advantage.
Hear from our expert
Amy Stern, Vice President, Employee Performance Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143228507?
Download a full copy of The New Rules of Engagement® Global Employee Inspiration Report.
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#### Connecting gamification to business results
Beyond the inherent engagement that gamification and performance-based recognition bring to your organization’s programs, one major advantage of using gamification is the incredible amount of data that can be generated naturally within the program.
Beyond the inherent engagement that gamification and performance-based recognition bring to your organization’s programs, one major advantage of using gamification is the incredible amount of data that can be generated naturally within the program. User behaviors, such as how they engage with your program, what they are learning, their achievements, their preferred methods of communication and their retention are all insights that can be created from the engagement data generated through everyday activity. These millions of data points can turn into actionable strategy.
Below are examples of how gamification and performance-based rewards drive behaviors with significant business value, all while delivering something fun, engaging and captivating.
Affecting outcomes by influencing behaviors
In an ever-changing business landscape, the need to get the most up-to-date information to your employees can mean the difference between gaining and losing a prospective customer. One telecommunications client wanted to gamify their rewards and recognition platform to drive more engagement and develop a program that allowed them to elevate the company’s latest and greatest products and initiatives. Users were recognized for completing new available training within the first 30-days of launch with points and progression through their level structure, earning more points as they leveled up. The hypothesis was that a more informed audience would be able to deliver a better customer experience, whether it be through sales conversations in store or service technicians out in the field working on installs or repairs.
Prior to launch, the company saw an approximately 50% adoption rate of the platform over its lifespan across all roles within the company. After the program launched, word of mouth spread around about this new program and the opportunity to be recognized for consuming all the content their communications team developed; adoption began to steadily rise. Today, adoption sits consistently around 90% of the audience in the platform, with nearly 40% of the audience active in any given month. This boost to engagement within the platform and all the content consumed contributed to an 8 point rise in NPS scores after the first year.
Taking a closer look into this client’s inbound sales team (call center sales employees who were systematically directed to clients wishing to purchase service or change their current plans), we see the link of engagement leads to improved performance. After analyzing a year’s worth of sales data, we found that highly engaged employees in this group completed over 7x as many mobile-focused learning modules (missions) compared to less engaged users. When surveyed, 85% of respondents felt what they learned directly impacted their sales conversations and the data confirmed this. That highly engaged group of users delivered 70% higher performance in mobile units sold when compared to users who had engaged considerably less over the course of the year and continued to widen the gap consistently quarter over quarter.
Influencing channel loyalty with learning and performance recognition
Our clients who work with channel partners consistently have one thing at the top of their list of needs: loyalty and mindshare. In a sea of competitors, how can you capture the attention of channel partners and agents to be top of mind during conversations with their prospective clients? An agent’s time is limited and if they are going to spend any time researching a new product or personal line, you want them to spend it learning and earning with you. An insurance company wanted to gamify the experience to learn about their products and reward the time these agents were spending with their brand.
One personal and commercial lines client wanted to reward their channel partners for both writing new policies with them, as well as learning about new tools and initiatives going on at the company. They did so by developing missions around everything a new agent may want to know about: who their territory director is, what coverage options they have available, how to use their eSignature tool, how to insure specific businesses, etc. This resulted in nearly 90,000 hours of non-required education delivered to over 20,000 agents, with users getting recognized for every completion instantly. This saved the client over $6 million in projected instructor-led training costs. The client also saw a 90% year-over-year lift in policies issued after just the first year.
One of their most effective communication tools over the years has been a weekly newsletter emailed from the president of the company, highlighting the latest and greatest initiatives and products. Like most things, these can get lost in a busy inbox. After launching the gamification program and weekly missions, rewarding users for opening the newsletter and issuing a short knowledge check around its content, the newsletter web traffic increased 150% compared to pre-launch benchmarks.
Through gamification, overall mindshare and loyalty are greatly impacted. Another client in the channel space who added gamification around their training and knowledge articles surveyed their agents at the start of the program and again three months later. Over that time, agents who answered either a 9 or a 10 to the question “How likely are you to recommend us to your customers” rose by over 30% compared to the pre-survey.
Driving revenue and customer satisfaction through leaderboards and performance-based missions
Providing timely recognition around performance elevates every achievement and shows your employees or sales people how much each success means to your organization. Whether rewarding for hitting certain KPI’s or recognizing top achievers in the spirit of competition, receiving fast feedback that informs users of their progress helps them continue to do the extra.
A client in the cruise line industry wanted to gamify and recognize the hard work their call center employees were doing daily — fielding prospective client calls and helping them book the best vacations possible. To gamify this process, they implemented a performance-recognition set of missions, rewarding their employees for every perfect post-call survey score, for every booking over a certain value, keeping their average call time within a certain range and achieving certain conversion rates. They received award points to use for merchandise or experiences and saw their progress toward achieving meaningful metrics shared on leaderboards.
In the few short months after the program launched, they were seeing results. After two months into the program, employees receiving perfect post-call customer scores each month rose by 20%. The number of perfect scores earned in a month per user rose by 15%. This meant more people were delivering even higher levels of customer service, with the main change in their daily workflow being the addition of greater insight into their performance (every day) and recognizing their accomplishments in the moment.
Gamification makes it easy to both capture the attention of your audience and recognize their progress by implementing quick wins and a drive to achieve that next reward or a higher spot on the leaderboard. Visit our gamification services page to learn more about using game mechanics to drive engagement and business results.
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#### Content marketing best practices
Content marketing has become robotic and formulaic. It's time to get back to a human approach that delivers a return-on-relationship, not just clicks and views.
Annoying, intrusive, creepy, overtly self-serving...
Do any of these describe how you feel when you’re marketed to by your bank or health insurance provider?
So many brands have fallen into this MORE and ME trap.
More: Meaning more content marketing more of the time.
Me: Meaning we make this about us, serve our interests and push our customers down our customer lifecycle.
People can sense self-interest and if you’re already asking them to give more than you’re giving in return, they will almost instantaneously tune out.
Earning attention in the click economy.
You need to cut through the noise and earn meaningful interactions with your customers. Humanizing your approach to content marketing will entice short term response to stimulus, capture sustained attention and produce consistent results over time.
Here's how:
Develop a strategy that serves your customers more than it serves your self-interests, bringing balance to the give and take of your relationship.
Research what is meaningful to your targeted cohort and plot how your content can earn their attention and trust.
Entice action with a potent hook. You have less than a second to capture sustained attention. Don't cut corners, and focus your resources on making that split-second matter.
Impress with succinct, vivid, meaningful and intuitive content. If the content is not compelling and professionally developed, you risk future clicks.
Keep your word. Have a defined voice (e.g., approachable, straight-talking, empowering, present/available, not salesy but informative) and consistently hold up your side of the relationship.
Measure and monetize your impact with ROI and ROR. Every click and every second spent with your content should be monetized.
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#### Creating an inclusive culture for employees with mental illness
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat www.988lifeline.org.
Tom's story:
“I have a mental illness known commonly as depression. I take medication (Prozac) which slows the re-absorption and extends my brain’s serotonin bath. Consequently, I feel better.
I’m not weak or fragile. It’s pure biochemistry.
I am neither proud nor ashamed that I am, by definition, mentally ill. What we ALL need to be concerned about is that unlike physical illness, mental illness continues to carry a stigma that leads many not to confront it...or talk about it...or ask about it.”
Tom’s thoughtful and heartfelt story resonates with those of us who have or know someone with a mental illness.
The stigma surrounding mental illnesses, compared to physical conditions, plagues our society and, in many cases, our work communities. According to one study, when asked to consider their comfort level in discussing their own mental health with friends, family and employers, people reported being mostly uncomfortable.
56% say they’d be uncomfortable talking to friends and family about it, and 84% say they’d be uncomfortable talking to their employer.ii
This must change.
Here’s where Tom’s story, to us, gets a bit more interesting—he is a recently retired salesperson and regional manager. This message was posted (with his permission) on the company intranet of his employer.
Tom concludes:
“PLEASE keep your senses tuned to your own feelings and into the comments and behaviors of those you love... and be proactive in asking them how they are feeling. With tele-therapy on the rise and (our) employee assistance program, it’s never been easier to get help.”
Tom was the exception to the rule—his workplace gave him a platform to tell his story and, importantly, feel fully included. Tom was successful because he could belong and knew his purpose. He was supported and part of an organization that valued him.
We were interested in an employer who would endorse Tom’s message and post it on an all-company platform and it led us to ask...
How does company culture and how people feel about their work experience impact their mental (and physical) health?
A group of researchers at the University of Louisville took on this question. In a recently published study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the research team showed that workplace culture – specifically, how someone feels like they belong, or how isolated they feel at work – could influence a biological response. Using catecholamines and their metabolites as biomarkers of sympathetic nervous system activity, the research team asked participants about their unique experiences of work and tracked their overall work experience.
It turns out, work and organizational culture has a significant impact on our physical and mental health. Those who worked in environments where they were engaged and part of a community were less likely to show biomarkers that influence heart disease, hypertension and depression, among other mental and physical challenges. But the opposite was also true. Participants who felt isolated, disconnected and disengaged showed increased and elevated levels of biomarkers that influenced physical and mental illness, both in the present moment as well as in the future.
A study conducted by McKinsey & Companyiii highlights yet another business issues—those who struggle with mental health and well-being challenges are more likely to look for another employer:
Employees facing mental-health and well-being challenges are 4x more likely than others to want to leave their organizations.
In a report published last year, the U.S. Surgeon General sees an opportunity to create workplaces that support the health and wellbeing of employees:
It seems, based on these results, culture can play a significant and important role in supporting employee health and wellbeing in measurable, tangible ways. What an uplifting and hopeful finding.
For the last decade BI WORLDWIDE has been studying the factors that create engaging, inspiring workplaces, using a model called “The New Rules of Engagement®.” Here is a short description of the factors measured in the model (click to enlarge):
In a study conducted last year to update the “New Rules” insights, a representative sample of employees across North America were asked if they felt their workplace supported a healthy lifestyle. Here’s a summary of what they felt their employer was delivering in terms of their employee experience that correlated with their feeling on whether their company supported a healthy lifestyle.
Employees enjoy the work they do in a culture where they feel they can bring their "full self" to work.
Their team is properly staffed, collaborative and has complementary skills and abilities.
Employees receive meaningful training that helps them in their current role and prepares them for future growth opportunities.
They can take the lead on an important project and have achieve success in attaining a goal they set.
Employees are known, and listened to, by leadership, who helps them see how their work contributes to the mission of the organization.
They can earn a variety of rewards that inspire them.
Here are additional details, supported by the math behind the observations. According to BI WORLDWIDE’s Research Director Rob Mezera:
If employees agree that “My team’s skills and perspectives complement each other well,” they are 9x more likely to agree their employer makes it easy to live a healthy lifestyle.
We asked employees if they have received several different non-cash rewards—such as tickets to a concert or travel. When they had done a good job, and if they did receive one of these rewards, they were 2 to 5x more likely to agree their employer makes it easy to live a healthy lifestyle.
If employees agree they are “Reminded how the work you do makes an impact on your company’s mission,” they are 2.7x more likely to agree their employer makes it easy to live a healthy lifestyle.
If employees believe they sincerely enjoy the day-to-day tasks that my job requires, they are 6.7x more likely to agree their employer makes it easy to live a healthy lifestyle.
Culture matters.
And a culture that values certain outcomes really matters.
We hope this provides a roadmap for employers to improve their “healthy lifestyle” culture. Culture matters in not only creating and sustaining a productive, inspiring workplace, but one where employees like Tom can showcase their talents and skills and, in doing so, meaningfully contribute.
The Toms of the world need us. And we desperately need the Toms of the world to bring all their gifts to work.
Let’s not let them down.
i  This story is shared with the approval of the writer and has been edited for brevity.
ii  The Stigma of Mental Illness, at: Aware (mentalhelp.net)
iii  Full report at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/ our-insights/the-state-of-organizations-2023?cid=soc-web
iv  The full report and recommendations at: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ workplace-mental-health-well-being.pdf
v For a full presentation of insights, please contact Rob Mezera at rob.mezera@biworldwide.com
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#### Customer feedback is important to any loyalty program - but when is enough enough?
The average consumer sees or hears thousands of messages per day from companies trying to earn their business. But many times these companies haven't earned the right to our attention.
Today the average American household is enrolled in around 29 different loyalty programs. But, on average, they are only truly active in about 4 or 5 of them.
As a consumer, all these different companies are vying for your attention and ultimately your business. We are often bombarded with messages that fill our email accounts, our social media interactions, our phones and our mailboxes. The average consumer sees or hears between 4,000 to 10,000 messages per day! But how many of these companies have truly earned the right to your attention?
Our attention is like a currency; we get to choose how and where we’re going to spend it. Changing consumption patterns and information overload has conditioned people to have a very low attention span. A marketing message has a 3-5 second chance of engaging a customer. Content that doesn’t immediately resonate is quickly dispensed with and often leaves a negative effect if perceived as wasting a customer’s time and focus. Relevance of content and respect of a customer’s attention currency is the winning formula for engagement.
All too often after a purchase, we immediately start receiving a barrage of messages trying to interest us in other products, services and feedback. Customer surveys have become overwhelming. Minimal, everyday purchases now trigger a customer survey asking you how the experience was and include a multitude of questions where you are asked to rank numerous aspects of the product and sales interaction. Recently, I purchased two AA batteries from my local home improvement store. I was in and out of the store in about 5 minutes. The next day I received an online survey asking me all about my experience, if I would refer a friend, etc. It was a simple battery purchase that took minutes and now they were asking me to complete a survey that would have taken me 10-15 minutes to respond. They had not earned my attention and had little respect for my time. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences and this customer survey trend has probably turned off more customers than endeared them to the company, product or brand. Many of these surveys are automatically triggered to customers without any strategic thought supporting them—if you buy something, you get surveyed for your feedback.
The bottom line is we are all consumers living very busy lives with so many things demanding of our time. Companies need to really think about their messaging to customers and how it affects loyalty. Time is valuable and any content delivered should be relevant to your target audience. Customers are not all the same. They are not all in the same place at the same time in your product lifecycle. Blanket or automatically triggered surveys and irrelevant content do not endear customers to engage more. And the time and money spent on such marketing activity is better allocated to customer segmentation strategies where content is relevant and timely in terms of where that customer might be at in your lifecycle journey.
Customer attention is a precious currency with real limits. Customer surveys can be a powerful marketing tool to engage and keep loyal customers.
Make your customer feedback initiatives meaningful and limited so you don’t wear out your welcome.
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#### Cut the clutter
Unifying channel engagement is essential for improving productivity, enhancing performance, and reducing turnover. By cutting the clutter and consolidating processes, organizations can create a more cohesive and effective channel engagement strategy. The Hub serves as a model for this approach, demonstrating the benefits of a streamlined, integrated platform.
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Some quick questions: as a corporate or field leader supporting a channel network,
...to participate in programs and engage with our brand?
...between learning, incentive, and recognition activities and measurable results that validate our investment in this programming?
...with our channel partners in a consistent and brand-appropriate way?
Channel engagement is crucial for success. However, many organizations struggle with disjointed and cumbersome processes that hinder effective communication and collaboration with their channel partners.
The problem: fragmented channel engagement
Channel engagement often starts with a dealer portal, intended as a central hub for channel associates. However, these portals frequently devolve into a chaotic collection of hyperlinks, program promotions, and disorganized content. This “octopus” of channel engagement includes:
Used for certification and curriculum delivery.
Multiple sites with varying rules and rewards.
Push PR releases, corporate messaging, and updates, often without audience segmentation.
Separate portals for different departmental programs.
Display performance data, often unrelated to other metrics.
This fragmented approach leads to clutter, dissonance, and confusion for channel associates, resulting in lower productivity, reduced bottom-line results, and higher turnover.
The butterfly effect: “Fuzzy” ROI
Corporate stakeholders face constant pressure to validate the effectiveness of their programs and make efficient use of investments. However, the operational and data silos of the current model hinder these efforts. For example, a new learning program aimed at boosting sales might overlap with a consumer incentive and a recognition program, making it difficult to attribute success to any single initiative.
The impact on managers
The cluttered environment also creates headaches for channel managers. They struggle to find a single source of truth about their associates’ performance and progress. Information is often available but not organized, consolidated, or actionable. Managers need tools to align with OEM-driven certification, incentive, and recognition activities and reinforce the right behaviors.
Cutting the clutter
To address these challenges, industry leaders are moving towards breaking down OEM silos and consolidating technology, content, and rewards. The goal is to make it easy for channel partners to learn, develop, assess progress, and earn rewards. Key strategies include:
Integrate all levels and programs into a single platform.
Encourage daily participation in activities that maximize performance.
Standardize dealer performance and recognition metrics.
Provide tools to become more effective coaches.
Tailor learning, incentives, and recognition to individual needs.
The Hub: one-stop simplicity
The Hub exemplifies this unified approach. It integrates:
Annual recognition programs
Education and certification programs
Job-specific KPIs
Communications
Resources and job tools
Rewards
Social recognition
This streamlined platform improves efficiency, unifies rewards and recognition, and simplifies engagement for dealership teams. It secures the next generation of dealer associate engagement.
Unifying channel engagement is essential for improving productivity, enhancing performance, and reducing turnover. By cutting the clutter and consolidating processes, organizations can create a more cohesive and effective channel engagement strategy. The Hub serves as a model for this approach, demonstrating the benefits of a streamlined, integrated platform.
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#### Designing Medicare Advantage engagement that lasts
Enrollment is not the finish line in Medicare Advantage. It is the starting point.
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As higher-quality cut points become more demanding, benefits recalibrate, and expectations for measurable outcomes intensify, reminders alone will not sustain engagement. Members must activate early, build confidence quickly, and repeat healthy behaviors throughout the year.
The opening months of the member journey shape retention, experience scores, and early outcomes.
Confusion around when coverage starts, ID cards, PCP selection, pharmacy onboarding, or digital access creates friction that erodes trust before engagement ever begins. Conversely, simple, well-timed guidance reduces uncertainty and accelerates activation.
Based on multiple client programs delivered by BI WORLDWIDE, strong onboarding correlates directly with higher satisfaction and improved CAHPS results. Members increasingly expect proactive, plain-language direction about what to do next — and why it matters.
Early clarity builds momentum. Momentum builds retention.
Members stay engaged when communications answer three questions clearly:
What should I do?
Why does it matter to me right now?
How do I complete this easily?
Relevance is not about frequency. It is about value exchange: aligning nudges, incentives, and creative execution with what matters to the member right now.
Experience and emotion continue to influence performance metrics, even as weights shift. Programs that shape sentiment and don’t just drive task completion will create loyalty.
Retention is the outcome of year-long design. It’s more than a renewal tactic.
Engagement must be engineered to impact plan performance.
Annual wellness visits, medication adherence, preventive screenings, and chronic condition management are measurable levers tied to Stars, HEDIS, CAHPS, and cost of care.
When programs are intentionally mapped to these behaviors and reinforced consistently, outcomes follow.
Large-scale Medicare education experiences have demonstrated that seniors will engage deeply when content is accessible and purposeful, with BIW client programs reaching hundreds of thousands of members and preventive-care journeys exceeding 80% completion rates. The implication is clear: when design respects the audience, attention converts into action.
Medicare Advantage members are increasingly digital but not uniformly so. Preferences vary across age bands, regions, literacy levels, and health complexity.
The most effective engagement strategies are not digital-only or mail-only but a coordinated sequence of both online and offline touchpoints.
A well-timed physical mailer may spark attention. A digital follow-up reinforces understanding and prompts next-best action. A digital journey benefits from tangible reminders that sustain progress. When each touchpoint reinforces the next, engagement compounds. When they do not, it fragments.
Behaviorally designed physical outreach continues to unlock hard-to-reach populations. Coordinated journeys that blend digital and offline experiences produce stronger activation than isolated campaigns.
In an environment of tightening margins and rising benchmarks, sustainable performance depends on trust and repeated healthy behaviors.
Plans that intentionally design for:
Seamless onboarding that reduces friction
Clear next-best-action guidance
Orchestrated cross-channel reinforcement
Behavioral incentives aligned to measurable outcomes
Momentum metrics that drive optimization create engagement that extends well beyond enrollment season.
Enrollment wins the member. Behavior keeps them.
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#### Driving incremental sales results through employee engagement
In any organization, employees are the backbone of success. Their dedication, motivation and enthusiasm directly impact the company’s performance, especially in driving incremental sales results. However, inspiring employees to go above and beyond their job description requires more than just monetary incentives. It demands a culture of inspiration that fosters engagement, creativity and a sense of ownership.
In any organization, employees are the backbone of success. Their dedication, motivation and enthusiasm directly impact the company’s performance, especially in driving incremental sales results. However, inspiring employees to go above and beyond their job description requires more than just monetary incentives. It demands a culture of inspiration that fosters engagement, creativity and a sense of ownership.
Here’s how you can infuse this culture in your organization.
- 1 -
Communicate clear goals and expectations
Transparent communication regarding sales goals and expectations is crucial. When employees understand what is expected of them and how their efforts contribute to the organization’s success, they feel a sense of purpose. Clearly defined objectives provide them with direction and motivation to strive for excellence.
- 2 -
Provide ongoing training and development
Invest in your employees’ growth by offering continuous training and development opportunities. Equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in their roles and adapt to evolving market trends. When employees feel supported in their professional development, they’re more likely to take initiative and drive sales innovation.
- 3 -
Foster a collaborative environment
Encourage teamwork and collaboration among employees. Create an open and inclusive workplace culture where ideas are valued, and feedback is welcomed. Collaborative environments breed creativity and innovation, leading to new sales strategies and approaches that can drive incremental results.
- 4 -
Recognize and reward performance
Recognize and reward employees for their hard work and achievements. Whether through verbal praise, bonuses or other incentives, acknowledging their contributions boosts morale and reinforces positive behaviors. Celebrating successes, both big and small, encourages employees to continue striving for excellence.
- 5 -
Leverage the right award and align incentives with sales goals
Ensure that incentives and rewards align with sales goals and objectives. Create incentive programs that motivate employees to focus their efforts on driving incremental sales results. By tying the right rewards to specific metrics and achievements, you create a clear pathway for employees to track their progress, stay motivated and drive results.
Inspiring employees to drive incremental sales results requires a multifaceted approach that prioritizes communication, collaboration, recognition, empowerment and a positive work environment. By cultivating a culture of inspiration within your organization, you can unleash the full potential of your employees and achieve sustainable sales growth. Remember, motivated and engaged employees are not just assets, they’re the driving force behind your organization’s success.
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#### Driving loyalty program success: the importance of timely communications
"The single biggest problem in communications is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw
The average person consumes about 34 gigabytes of information a day1, making it a struggle to keep even our highest priorities top of mind. In today’s world, attention goes where it’s demanded. If you’re not nurturing, reminding, promoting and communicating, you can be certain someone else will.
Loyalty and incentive programs are no different than any other product in that they’re competing for attention. Without the fuel of thoughtful and well-timed communications, participation is bound to lag. So what happens when you don’t plan ongoing communications within your program?
Here are three scenarios that show the power of communication to drive participation.
1. A lack of communication leads to poor engagement results.
The first six months of the program started with a strong enrollment campaign and initial communications. But once communications stopped, program logins dramatically decreased and continued to drop despite ongoing, exciting updates to program content and reward offerings.
2. Ongoing communication is linked to greater participation.
A loyalty program used a monthly newsletter to drive participation and create behavior change. The newsletters shared information about new content that was available and other helpful information for members.
Over the course of a year, participation data showed a strong correlation between the newsletter schedule, increased member logins and higher customer satisfaction with the program.
3. A channel sales program dramatically increased engagement by adding communications.
In a channel partner program, the number of unique sellers active in the program averaged between 200-300 daily. By adding a communication plan built on personalized scorecards, the sellers were reminded of their prior sales goals and achievements. As a result, daily user numbers rose as much as 500%.
Adding communications to your program is more than just adding emails and hoping for the best. You’ll need a successful strategy.
1. Observe and adjust as needed.
A good communication plan should be fluid and responsive. Look at the open rates and click through rates along with program engagement rates. If those numbers aren’t where they should be, make changes to the plan. Look at deployment timing, test the subject lines and make sure you are delivering on all the key elements listed above.
2. Create a plan.
A great communication plan takes many things into account like new content deployment, consistent cadence, the timing of other marketing initiatives outside the program and the best days to deploy for the highest open rates.
3. Get your members' attention.
Stand out from the onslaught of communications your members receive by using vivid imagery and colors.
4. Personalize the message.
Personalize the message as much as possible with the new content that’s available for them to engage with, how close to a goal they are or how many points they have. These encourage your members to engage with your program.
5. Get to the point.
Your members are exposed to an incredible amount of information each day. Research shows that people hear around 100,000 words each day. Earn member attention by delivering relevant information in a clear and concise manner.
6. Deliver a clear call to action.
Once you have your members’ attention, make sure you are clear about what you want them to do. Include a brief but clear call to action at the end of the communication.
7. Do an SMS communication right.
Text message and SMS communications can be a great tool if used properly. Deliver important information and thoughtfully define the cadence. Be sure each message is brief and provides critical information only. It’s important to be careful not to drive that member to type “STOP” and lose that opportunity to reach them.
8. Consider offline communications.
In a world filled with digital communication, direct mail stands out. Direct mail can deliver vivid, engaging and personalized communication with a strong call to action and can drive engagement with digital content via QR codes. Dimensional direct mail that is interactive or in interesting packaging has a 5x higher engagement rate than email.
Communication can be a vital tool to engage your members and build loyalty. If you do it right, your members will understand that you know them, appreciate them and respect their time. Those members will engage and continue to engage with your program over time, helping you reach your program goals.
1. Consuming Information Research, Ask Wonder, 2022.
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#### Elevate employee recognition with IBM watsonx
Employee recognition drives retention. Learn how BIW and IBM watsonx help managers strengthen teams and drive engagement.
Employee engagement is critical to any organization’s success, helping drive retention, productivity and performance. In fact, employees whose accomplishments are recognized are 2.5 times more likely to be committed to their organization.1 To help organizations amplify effective, differentiated employee recognition and reward experiences, BI WORLDWIDE is bringing advanced AI capabilities to employees’ fingertips.
By collaborating with IBM to integrate IBM watsonx.ai, IBM watsonx Assistant and IBM watsonx Discovery into BIW’s recognition platform offering, we are helping managers strengthen their teams and drive engagement by providing meaningful and timely employee recognition, streamlining recognition tasks and enhancing recognition programs’ overall effectiveness.
How BI WORLDWIDE builds empowering work environments
Our solutions enable employees to prompt the Program Advisor (Digital Assistant) to seamlessly access a comprehensive knowledge base that is sourced using IBM watsonx Discovery, which is tailored to each client and their specific needs. This capability significantly reduces the need to parse through emails and internal client support documents for information, giving back time to deliver exceptional service to clients. Simultaneously, the Digital Assistant allows BIW employees and our clients to identify and rectify information gaps by prompting unasked questions, helping to develop more holistic understandings and drive more informed and engaged workforces.
Within ElevateTM, BIW’s comprehensive employee recognition platform solution, the BIW Recognition Assistant solution, built with IBM watsonx.ai, allows employees to use an intuitive Wizard to craft robust, meaningful communications or effortlessly enhance existing recognition messages. Utilizing IBM watsonx.ai and IBM’s Granite AI foundation models built for business, users can generate impactful recognition content in an instant, all while preserving the essential human touch. Furthermore, with our platform’s natural language understanding abilities, clients can ensure that every message radiates positivity and encouragement.
We’re also helping clients identify the most suitable nominations for special recognition programs based on the customer’s assessment criteria. Using capabilities from IBM watsonx.ai, we’re enabling clients to use and summarize historical nomination data to provide managers a comprehensive view of which employees should be nominated, when they need to be nominated and how they prefer to be recognized. This is designed not only to streamline and accelerate the selection process—reducing administrative burdens for selection teams—but also to help clients optimize nomination submissions based on data and mitigate potential biases that can arise during nominations.
Transforming the future of organizations
IBM and BI WORLDWIDE will continue to further develop our AI strategy to empower managers with additional capabilities such as comprehensive recognition summaries, eCard image generation based on recognition text and natural language querying within reporting systems. This approach aims to streamline recognition processes and make appreciation more accessible and impactful across organizations.
To learn more about how this application can enhance your program, contact us at hello@biworldwide.com.
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#### Encourage speak up culture
Speaking up is essential to bringing an inspired idea to life. Innovation requires doing something completely differently than in the past. At some point, someone went against the status quo.
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Speaking up has saved lives, prevented PR nightmares, informed managers what employees really need to be successful and preserved company culture. Right now, employees are working differently and customers are buying differently. People need to speak up to say what they need, identify problems before they materialize and offer novel ideas to solve them.
But speaking up is hard. In 1951, Solomon Asch told a group of people they would be participating in a visual perception test. One of the individuals was an actual study participant and the rest were in on the
experiment. They had no relationship to each other and no power dynamics. The participant was asked an objective, easy question: which line (A, B, or C) equaled the reference line, as pictured in figure 1. The participants who were in on the experiment sometimes insisted an obviously too short or long line was the reference line. If the group stated the wrong answer, so would the participant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA-gbpt7Ts8
If we cannot go against the group when evaluating the length of a line, how do we expect employees to speak up at work – with its complicated relationships, built-in power dynamics at play and difficult and subjective tasks?
We have found four ways to make speaking up more likely.
While some confidence is inborn, people who said they received the training they need to do their jobs well in the past year were more likely to say they would voice their opinions at work, even if they were unpopular.
People who lead projects, initiatives, or teams, or who have just been heard and taken seriously before, are more likely to speak up in the future.
Speaking up is often uncomfortable and comes with some social risk. While we can do our best to lower that social risk in our organizations through culture, we can also make it more likely for people to speak up if we ensure they really believe in what they are doing. People are more willing to protect something that is extremely valuable to them, even if protecting it comes at a cost.
Speaking up is far less scary if you know you are in a safe space and have a strong team behind you. Those who feel like they have the support of their team members and belong to that team are more likely to voice their opinions.
Ask your employees what they need and what they think the business needs. And when they answer, listen.
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#### Five strategies to drive year-over-year sales growth
Organizations across industries are always looking for ways to energize their sales teams and drive consistent revenue growth. The most successful strategies go beyond compensation, tapping into emotional motivation, recognition, and team alignment to build momentum.
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If you’re looking to elevate performance across your sales organization, consider how a well-designed incentive program can influence not only results but also the behaviors that drive them. Here are five strategies you can use to realize year-over-year growth.
Sales teams often focus heavily on top performers, but the real growth potential lies in “moving the middle,” which is the large group of reps who are performing but not at the highest levels. These reps may not always win traditional performance contests based on revenue alone, but they can be motivated by programs that reward high-value activities that lead to results.
Activity-based incentives work particularly well when the sales cycle is long or complex. By rewarding actions such as account research, proposal development, strategic outreach, or CRM updates, you reinforce the behaviors that build pipeline and drive future success. Short-term contests focus on efforts that jumpstart productivity and build new habits. Better yet, when structured to include cross-functional contributors, you foster greater collaboration and alignment across the sales process.
Success in today’s sales environment requires more than just individual effort. Many deals, especially larger or more strategic ones, depend on collaboration across departments. Other departments often play crucial roles in moving prospects through the pipeline.
By expanding your incentive programs to include these essential contributors, you reinforce a “we win together” mindset. It also increases engagement across the organization and ensures that sales isn’t seen as a silo. Whether through shared rewards, visibility in communications, or points-based recognition platforms, acknowledging the broader team effort fuels morale and accelerates deal velocity.
While broad-based programs engage most of the team, tiered recognition can motivate your best reps to reach even higher. Traditional President’s Clubs or annual sales awards are often powerful, but what happens when your high achievers plateau? They may know they’re going to qualify year after year, and without a new challenge, they may stop pushing for more. 
That’s where elite tiers come in. Create an exclusive recognition level that goes beyond the standard trip or award, something available only to those who blow past expectations. Think luxury experiences, once-in-a-lifetime events, or custom adventures that can’t easily be duplicated on their own. These high-bar incentives add prestige, inspire competitive spirit, and reinforce a culture of excellence.
New sales hires can quickly become overwhelmed by information, tools, and expectations. The faster they feel successful and included, the more likely they are to stick around and perform. By gamifying onboarding through things like adding points, recognition, and fun milestones to the early stages of training, you help them gain confidence, build momentum, and feel part of the culture.
Consider creating a “Learn & Earn” initiative where reps earn recognition for completing learning missions, shadowing calls, or contributing ideas. You can even set up team-based competitions to reinforce camaraderie. The key is to reward behaviors that will lead to long-term success while providing early visibility into incentive programs and company values.
Incentive programs fail not because they’re flawed but because they’re forgotten. Visibility is everything. If reps don’t know what they’re working toward or how to get there, they won’t engage. It’s not enough to launch a program and hope for the best. You need a communication plan with consistent cadence, energy, and clarity.
Use every channel you’ve got: kickoff videos from leaders, weekly recap emails, dashboards with progress bars, manager shout-outs, peer recognition, and even printed signage in the office. Highlight who’s winning and how they did it. Recognize progress as well as outcomes. When you promote success consistently, you reinforce behavior, build excitement, and keep the whole team leaning in.
The bottom line
Incentives are a strategic tool for transformation. By putting these principles into action, your organization can ignite performance, deepen engagement, and drive sustained growth year after year.
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#### From recognition to results
Traditional incentive programs were built to reward excellence, but they often forget to motivate improvement. Businesses need to motivate beyond the top 5% if they want to stay competitive. They need a system that inspires everyone to do their best work.
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Let’s break down the problem…and the solution.
The problem: static recognition models miss the mark
Most recognition programs still rely on outdated models.
These programs are designed for the elite few, leaving the rest behind.
Location, tenure, experience, and team structure affect performance, but static programs don’t account for that. There are many factors that contribute to success, and success is often in the context of where that participant is on their journey.
Recognition typically happens once a year or maybe once a quarter, giving participants little feedback and even less reason to stay engaged.
The result? A small slice of the audience feels motivated while the majority feels like they’re not part of the story.
The solution: gamification drives ongoing, inclusive engagement
Gamification flips the script by creating real-time, personalized, and scalable recognition experiences.
Here's how:
With a strategic gamification program, participants get instant feedback on their performance.
Micro-achievements are acknowledged within a goal to demonstrate progress and build satisfaction.
Real-time leaderboards and experience points systems make improvement and competition visible.
Managers can track and support performance in the moment, not months later, or coach someone immediately after they didn’t hit the mark.
These micro-moments keep employees engaged because the reward cycle is continuous.
Using smart segmentation, gamification programs can meet each person where they are and nudge them forward.
Great gamification programs are tailored based on user behavior, tenure, or past performance.
People progress at their own pace and unlock new missions as they improve along their journey.
A segmented approach spreads recognition across the full population, not just the top performers.
That’s how you move the middle – motivating the broad majority to grow rather than only celebrating those already at the top.
When you personalize recognition and make it timely, you don’t just boost morale, you drive real business results.
A retail customer saw performance improve when staff engaged with gamified learning to build confidence and were given micro-loyalty program goals to stay focused.
A major cruise line’s call center reduced their average call time and increased their bookings by embedding segmented goals and leaderboards via gamification into their daily routines.
An insurance customer increased broker loyalty and increased revenue by having micro-learning missions and used engagement levels to increase reward opportunities for new policies.
Major automotive brands have used gamification dashboards to grow dealership engagement, increase certifications, and drive sales outcomes.
Gamification turns recognition into an everyday strategy, one that moves the needle on productivity, loyalty, and business success.
Recognition shouldn’t be reserved for the few.
Gamification makes it possible to recognize more people, more often, in more meaningful ways. That’s how you turn engagement into results.
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#### How AI is reshaping career milestones
Most organizations don’t have a career milestone problem. They have a visibility and consistency problem.
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Career milestones – also known as service anniversaries – were never just about a date on a calendar. They were meant to honor the contribution built across years. Yet across many workplaces, anniversaries are inconsistent, rushed, or missed entirely. When they do occur, recognition often defaults to tenure rather than the work that mattered along the way.
Traditional anniversary programs were built to track dates while relying on manual effort and human memory to reconstruct years of contribution in a single moment. In a fast-moving, distributed workplace, that model doesn’t scale. What does scale are intelligent recognition systems designed to surface moments, connect context, and preserve stories, so recognition happens consistently and meaningfully.
When impact isn't visible, its power is diminished
Employees consistently rank recognition as a critical driver of engagement and performance. Yet only about one-third of employees strongly agree they received recognition or praise in the past seven days.1
Our research shows employees who receive a career milestone award feel significantly stronger belonging, inspiration, and recognition than those who don’t.2 
74% report a strong sense of belonging (vs. 56%)
67% feel inspired by their work (vs. 50%)
51% feel recognized for their contributions (vs. 28%)2
Recognition clearly matters
But meaningful contribution rarely lives in one system. It’s scattered across peer recognition moments, certifications, project milestones, promotions, honors, and everyday efforts that move the business forward. When impact data is fragmented, leaders can’t see the whole story, and if they can’t see it, they can’t reflect it back.
Shrinking tenure raises the stakes
Median employee tenure in the private sector is just under four years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.3 Five- and ten-year milestones are no longer routine. They’re significant.
That makes career milestones one of the few structured moments organizations have to pause and ask:
What impact has this person made and have we made it visible?
Gallup research shows employees are more likely to leave because they don’t feel valued or well led, not because of compensation alone.4 When anniversaries are done well, they reinforce pride, purpose, and momentum. When they’re done poorly, they reinforce invisibility. And invisibility compounds.
Inconsistency is more than a cultural issue
Recognition varies significantly by manager, team, and function. Employees consistently report wanting more frequent and meaningful recognition than they receive.5 Relying on a manual system makes that hard to do.
When recognition depends on who remembers, who has time, or who happens to be more expressive, employees doing equally meaningful work have fundamentally different experiences.
Research on organizational justice shows that when employees perceive fairness in workplace treatment, trust in leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational identification increase.6 When recognition is inconsistent, equity erodes quietly but measurably.
Intelligent systems introduce consistency without stripping away humanity. They surface context and remove the burden, so leaders can focus on what only they can do: tell the story.
Cognitive overload is the problem rather than leaders
Managers are among the most burned-out groups in the workforce, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report.4 They consistently cite lack of time and clarity as barriers to delivering meaningful recognition.
Yet we expect them to manually assemble multi-year impact narratives, pulling from emails, systems, performance notes, and memory while managing daily operations which is unrealistic.
Research on HR automation shows that automating routine administrative work improves efficiency and consistency, freeing human attention for higher-value activity.7 Applied to recognition, intelligent systems act as partners by surfacing context, prompting participation, and preserving history so leaders can focus on authenticity rather than logistics.
More celebrating. Less work.
Recognition endures when it creates meaning
Another hidden flaw in traditional career milestone programs is over-reliance on cash and gift cards. Drawing on Dr. Ran Kivetz’s rewards efficacy continuum, research shows non-cash rewards are more effective than cash equivalents at creating lasting motivation and impact.8
Psychological research helps explain why: rewards that are intentionally chosen and emotionally meaningful are more likely to stand out and endure than rewards like cash that can be spent and forgotten.9 The monetary value doesn’t last, but the meaning attached to it does.
Recognition that connects contribution over time like what someone delivered, who they influenced, and how they grew creates a story employees carry forward.
What leading organizations are doing differently
Companies that understand career milestones redesign recognition systems around visibility and intelligence.
Reliable: Milestones are proactively surfaced.
Consistent: Every year is acknowledged; significant milestones are evaluated.
Contextual: Leaders see contribution history, not just tenure.
Enabled: Systems ensure recognition happens both digitally and live so meaningful moments are never missed.
They move from reactive recognition to intelligent celebration ecosystems.
The future of service awards
The next generation of career milestone recognition will be defined by whether impact is visible or not.
Stories accumulate
Contributions build year over year
Recognition becomes a living narrative
Employees experience their careers as one connected journey
When career milestones are designed this way, they do more than mark time. They create intentional pauses: moments employees remember, carry forward, and build upon.
Gallup. The importance of employee recognition: Low cost, high impact. (2024).
BI WORLDWIDE. The New Rules of Engagement®. (2025).
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employee Tenure Summary. (2024).
Gallup. State of the Global Workplace Report. (2025).
Wickham, N. The importance of employee recognition: Statistics and research. (2025). Quantum Workplace.
Pan, X., Chen, M., Hao, Z., & Bi, W. The effects of organizational justice on positive organizational behavior. (2018). Frontiers in Psychology.
Finn, T., & Downie, A. What is HR automation? (2025). IBM.
Williams, N. The trouble with money. (2023). BI WORLDWIDE.
Kumar, A. Buy experiences instead of possessions to build social connections. (2025). Scientific American.
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#### How to create a competitive advantage with incentive compensation
Incentive compensation can help you build your brand, differentiate in a competitive talent market and, in doing so, increase your chances of success in the market.
The world is constantly changing, so the way we develop and compensate our salespeople must change as well. Let’s start by taking a look at what’s trending differently:
There are more diverse and inclusive sales organizations, where sales teams better reflect the customers to which they are selling.
Companies are fighting “information overload,” trying to figure out how to maintain the attention of their sales organization on the things that really matter.
There’s an ever-increasing pressure to attract, retain and develop top sales talent.
Many top performers are burned out and, in the spirit of “The Great Resignation” or “The Great Reassessment,” find themselves more willing than ever to entertain pitches from outside recruiters.
Sales leaders are challenged with creating a competitive advantage that will not only help them attract and develop top salespeople, but, perhaps most importantly, retain the ones who contribute to their success as an organization. Where we believe that competitive advantage lies is in the different or underutilized methods of compensation at our disposal.
To understand how these methods of compensation work together, we need to start by understanding the sales employee value proposition. Why do salespeople work for a given company? Why do they join and why do they stay? What motivates them to meet or exceed company expectations?
In our research and client work, we’ve identified 18 drivers of the sales employee value proposition, ranging from work culture and development opportunities to recognition and equity/stock options.
Of these 18 aspects, incentive compensation drivers have the greatest impact on sales employee behavior because they are performance-based. These include base salary, variable comp, awards and contests, recognition, equity/stock options (or LTIs, long-term incentives), career pathing and development experiences or programs.
There are two primary dimensions in which we look at these drivers: cash vs. non-cash and the timeframe in which they are most effective at producing results. In this framework, short-term accounts for monthly up to quarterly, medium-term accounts for quarterly up to annually and long-term accounts for ongoing programs.
Commissions, bonuses, contests and recognition are the tools most commonly used by sales organizations. But if you’re looking to create a competitive advantage that will help you attract and retain top salespeople, particularly for more than 3-4 years, you need to tap into some of the other performance drivers at your disposal: gamification, salary/performance reviews, promotions and advancement opportunities, LTIs and personal development.
As we’ve introduced this framework into client work, questions have emerged from top sales leaders looking to use this model to help them address key business challenges. The chart below can be a guide to help you think about your specific business challenges and which levers may apply:
These performance drivers should be viewed as levers or tools. If you have a retention challenge, for example, you may focus your efforts on different levers than if you have a need to drive short-term sales. The key is knowing when and where to use each one in a way that aligns with your organizational goals. The levers identified with green arrows should be your primary focus, while those in gray are your secondary areas for consideration.
Using this approach can help you build your brand, differentiate in a competitive talent market and, in doing so, increase your chances of success in the market.
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#### How to turn new hires into long-term contributors
Onboarding is more than a checklist; it’s a defining moment in the employee experience. And it matters more than ever.
Over one-third of new hires say they plan to leave their companies within the first year. But when onboarding is done right, it can flip that script entirely.
Let's Talk
Recognition plays a powerful role in onboarding. When new hires are reminded how their work impacts the company’s mission, they’re twice as likely to want to stay. Personalized recognition makes an even bigger impact. Employees who feel connected to their managers are 5.7 times more likely to feel inspired at work.
Key milestones like 30, 90, or 180 days are perfect opportunities to celebrate progress. Yet only 53% of new hires have their 1- or 3-year anniversaries recognized. Those who don’t receive early recognition are twice as likely to be job hunting.
After implementing a strategic onboarding and recognition program using their recognition platform, a large global healthcare organization saw an increase in the program overall, but especially in their entry-level high-turnover population. Personalized emails from the recognition program with links to a digital welcome kit that included culture videos showed these results:
6.4% improvement in 90-day retention
5.4% increase in recognition receiving percentage
96% of new hires logging in their first year - a 14.5% increase from prior to enacting the program
99% of employees receiving recognition in their first year
4,000+ employees engaged with the digital welcome kit
The program didn’t just hit the new hire population. A reminder on the recognition site to recognize new team members promotes a targeted welcome eCard. Managers get monthly communication with a list of new hires hitting specific milestones in their first year and links to a digital kit that shows the experience at each touchpoint.
This targeted communication led to:
100% of managers with new hires gave recognition to that direct report, compared to 73% of managers overall
2,300+ "Welcome to the Team" eCards sent in a year
1,200+ managers accessed the digital Manager Kit
An employee’s experience is a journey, and onboarding sets the tone. And it’s not just the first day or even the first week. By having intentional recognition and communication strategies around milestones in the first year that include peers and managers, new hires will:
Know their role, their peers, their leaders, and your culture
Feel like they belong at your organization
Do the behaviors that drive alignment to your values and increase performance and intent to stay
By continuously auditing and evolving your onboarding process, you ensure that new hires feel supported, valued, and inspired from the start.
Because when onboarding works, employees don’t just stay… they thrive.
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#### Is cash king?
About 50 years of studies have shown if you ask a sales person how they would like to be rewarded for performance the answer is almost always "cash."
But is cash the most effective sales performance incentive?
Learn what University of Minnesota researchers found when they pitted cash versus non-cash rewards in a $700 million business segment.
Do cash incentives work better than non-cash incentives?
On the surface it’s a relatively simple, straightforward question but in truth, it’s one of the great debates in the field of sales compensation programs — and one that requires a remarkably complex and nuanced answer.
We recently hosted a webinar on this cash vs. non-cash topic featuring Professor George John from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Over the course of his presentation, Dr. John walked through an academic study that compared the effectiveness of cash compensation versus non-cash incentives in a $700 million business segment. While we won’t go into too much statistical detail (it’s all in the webinar), here is a general overview.
Let’s start with the basics. There are three types of incentive rewards:
• Tangible – Cash in the form of commissions and bonuses, which are tied to some kind of formula based on measured performance.
• Non-cash tangible – Points redeemable for a curated catalog of merchandise or experiences.
• Intangible – Socially-visible recognition in the form of a plaque, photo, company-wide announcement, etc.
Types of incentive compensation
Commissions and/or bonuses paid for measured performance.
Merchandise, catalog "points" for measured performance.
Recognition awards (no economic cost) for measured performance.
For the purpose of his study, Dr. John eliminated intangible rewards to focus solely on cash and points, or combinations of the two. The subject of the study was a Twin Cities-based sales force that sold a national brand of frozen food to grocery stores. Their annual sales were around $700M. The company had an existing merchandise incentive plan based on what they call Ovation Points. Each Ovation Point had a real delivery cost to the company of $3.75. (Keep that figure in mind because we’ll be coming back to it.)
The sales force was rewarded with a mix of Ovation Points and cash bonuses every time they hit a series of three escalating sales targets. According to Dr. John, about 50 years of studies have shown that if you ask a sales person how they would like to be rewarded for increased performance, they nearly always want cash. Here’s Dr. John’s theory:
“Cash rewards are supposed to trump non-cash tangible rewards. Why? Because number one, from an employee standpoint, I can use the cash to do whatever I want. With the non-cash rewards, I’m limited to the items I can get from the catalog. Sure, the catalogs get bigger and there are more items there, but it’s still not as good as cash and that’s where the expression ‘cash is king’ comes from.”
In this particular conjoint study, it was determined through a variety of calculations that the sales force attributed a cash value of 55 cents to each Ovation Point. But if the real cost of an Ovation Point was $3.75, and staff only valued it at 55 cents, what was the point of offering non-cash tangible rewards at all?
This is where mental accounting and mental “buckets” came into play. Again, we’ll let Dr. John explain:
“We don’t look at our benefits or the income we have as a global construct. We actually partition it out into buckets, hence the term, mental accounting. And then we value each bucket and think about our gains and losses, relative to each bucket, before we add it up. Let me give you an example. Right now, the stock market has melted down over the last couple of months so we are painfully aware that our retirement bucket, as distinct from our spending bucket, might be different. Our spending bucket might be driven more by our salary. And as long as I haven’t lost my job, my spending bucket is more or less constant, whereas my retirement bucket just took a hit. That’s an example of different buckets. So how does this apply to our incentive plans? If people see points, those Ovation Points, and cash as different buckets, they might react differently to them.”
And that’s precisely what the study proved by converting the cash + Ovation Points reward structure into a cash-only construct.
Over a period of time, two things happened:
1) Overall sales figures dropped by 4.5% (largely through a reduction in selling effort).
2) The sales force began to view Ovation Points very differently.
When Ovation Points were removed from the equation (without warning or consultation) their perceived value skyrocketed from 55 cents to $5.70! Why? Because they were placed into different mental buckets. Points don’t get placed into the family cash bucket for use on mundane, everyday expenses; they have high discretionary value to be redeemed for wants as opposed to needs.
A final word from Dr. John:
“What’s the takeaway? Tangible non-cash plans are worth the expense — they’re more than worth the expense. Why? Because it capitalizes on our human tendency to employ mental buckets. So how do you leverage this?
Number one, buckets are more likely to be formed when you make your point programs more distinctive. Number two, there is variability across salespeople so try and offer choices, if that’s a possibility. I know that’s complicated; I know it makes administrative life miserable but it is important if we can offer choices, perhaps as a menu of two choices. You can overweight points or you can overweight cash....Try and make them distinctive, try and engage these notions of mental accounting.”
Though many have supported the maxim that cash is king, Dr. George John’s study and webinar demonstrate that to drive business results, the reality is the opposite.
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#### Is TMI Syndrome disengaging your sales force?
Information is power until it isn’t. For many sales organizations, communication has become a flood. Too much, too scattered, too impersonal. Our global research shows that “TMI Syndrome” (too much information) is one of the biggest engagement killers in sales today.
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Below are the six most common communication challenges identified by our panel, paired with proven strategies to solve them.
When sales teams don’t understand the bigger picture, engagement crumbles. Employees who believe leadership has a compelling vision are 13.2x more likely to be highly engaged. Yet 70% of sales employees say they receive conflicting messages from their employer.
Fix it: Align every communication to clear goals.
Employees who say leadership communicates clearly and concisely are 9.6x more likely to be engaged. Use personalized, data-driven scorecards to track goal progress and tie communications directly to performance.
“We recommend implementing personalized, visual, and data-driven scorecards that are updated bi-weekly or monthly. This provides tangible evidence of progress which fuels motivation. When paired with targeted nudge content, they sustain engagement and reinforce behaviors that drive results.”
- Matt Givand, VP of Communications, BI WORLDWIDE
26% of salespeople say they receive communication too frequently, while others say they receive none at all. 63% report feeling overwhelmed by information, higher than the 58% reported by non-sales employees.
Fix it: Cut the clutter.
Streamline communications through curated enablement platforms and brief, purposeful updates. Meet salespeople where they already are in the tools and channels they actually use.
“When we aligned communications with existing channels for a large commercial sales organization, participation skyrocketed.”
- BI WORLDWIDE + ProHabits Partnership
Top-down communication is a one-way street, and it kills engagement. Employees who feel their ideas are taken seriously are:
11.5x more likely to be highly engaged.
7.4x more likely to be committed.
10.7x more likely to be inspired.
Yet 40% of sales employees say leaders don't understand the typical employee.
Fix it: Build structured feedback systems like listening sessions, pulse surveys, and CRM insight reviews.
“An intentional employee listening strategy helps you confirm or dispel what you thought you knew, leveraging actionable data to drive improvement.”
- Quantum Workplaceii
And remember: when managers provide honest, constructive feedback, employees are 9.1x more likely to be highly engaged and 9x more likely to be inspired.
When teams interpret leadership messages differently, culture fractures. Employees who experience strong teamwork are:
10x more likely to be engaged.
8.9x more likely to be inspired.
Fix it: Standardize internal playbooks and communication guidelines.
Consistent, repeatable messaging across all channels ensures teams tell the same story to customers and to each other.
Sales is a pressure cooker. When leadership communication feels cold or corporate, it erodes trust. Employees who trust leadership are 11.9x more likely to be engaged and 10.9x more likely to be inspired.
Fix it: Lead with authenticity.
Empathetic, transparent communication builds trust, especially in tough times. When employees hear honesty from leaders, they’re 8.3x more likely to feel inspired.
And never underestimate the power of recognition. When employees hear “You did a great job,” they’re 8.7x more likely to be highly engaged and 7.7x more likely to feel inspired.
Over-reliance on email or static meetings leaves messages lost in translation.
Fix it: Match the medium to the message. 
Use short videos, Slack updates, and rich-media messages to keep salespeople informed in real time.
“Modern communications tech, such as BIW’s Actify platform, enables us to deliver highly personalized content tailored to each salesperson or employee. By leveraging goal progress, activity levels, and even sentiment, we ensure that messages are not only timely but also contextually relevant. These content nudges can be deployed across a client’s preferred channels, usually email or rich-media SMS, creating a more engaging and personalized communication experience.”
- Matt Givand, VP of Communications, BI WORLDWIDE
An interview focused on behavioral science and the human element
Dr. Kurt Nelson, behavioral strategist and long-time BI WORLDWIDE partner, has worked with global sales organizations to make communication more effective and more human. We asked him his thoughts on the challenges of communication with salespeople.
Here’s a summary of that interview.
Many of the organizations we work with struggle to ensure that sales representatives truly buy into the goals that are allocated to them. We find a recurring disconnect: salespeople often perceive their goals as unfair, inaccurate, or out of reach. When goals are not seen as both achievable and fair, salespeople lose trust in their incentive compensation plan, decreasing motivation and performance.
Another significant challenge is balancing a “pay-for-performance” philosophy with the reality that sales results are influenced by many factors outside of an individual’s control such as market shifts, pricing decisions, access constraints, or territory dynamics. This ongoing tension sparks debate around whether, and to what degree, incentive plans should include a “safety net,” such as a minimum earnings floor. Too little protection risks disengagement and burnout, while too much can dilute the motivational impact of pay-for-performance models.
One last challenge that we are witnessing is the rise in uncertainty, felt both at the leadership level and among front-line employees. Leaders are navigating shifting economic conditions, regulatory changes, and unpredictable market dynamics that are more chaotic than ever. Meanwhile, employees are not only impacted by these external forces but are also grappling with how the organization responds. For many, this translates into concerns about job stability and future prospects. This uncertainty drives increased stress, burnout, and a sense of languishing that is higher than we’ve seen in years past.
Understanding how the brain processes goals and the emotional impact those goals can have helps companies to communicate them in a more effective manner. Behavioral science research on goal setting and fairness shows that people are more motivated when goals are framed as challenging yet attainable, and when the process of how those goals are set is transparent.
This means that companies should not only focus on what the targets are, but also how they are explained. Clear communication, with a rationale for why goals are structured a certain way, builds trust even if the salesperson doesn’t “like” the number. Goals presented in a way that emphasizes progress, mastery, and opportunity trigger very different motivational responses than goals presented as punitive quotas. The way leaders tell the story of a plan by using concrete milestones, visual aids, and examples of past success changes how salespeople see the goals and thus respond to them.
Insights from loss aversion and psychological safety help organizations navigate the safety net debate. Humans are more sensitive to losses than equivalent gains, which means that plans designed with too much downside risk can drive fear rather than performance. At the same time, a modest earnings floor can preserve psychological safety, ensuring that salespeople stay engaged and willing to take smart risks instead of playing it safe.
Finally, behavioral science provides insights into how people deal with uncertainty and stress. We can provide behaviorally based tools and training for leaders to help their team (as well as themselves) handle and respond to this uncertainty in a way that reduces stress and anxiety.
Our communication work around incentive plans has improved how well the field understands their IC plans as well as the perception of those plans. We have seen understanding increase in some instances over 40% and overall satisfaction with a plan increase up to 15%. Those changes in understanding and perception lead to improved motivation and performance.
While uncertainty has always been a component in any business, the levels that we are hearing and the subsequent anxiety we’ve seen over the past year have skyrocketed. The impact that this will have on organizations is still being played out, but we feel that it will be significant.
When communication is clear, authentic, and continuous, it builds trust, drives performance, and keeps sales teams focused on what matters.
Misalignment and TMI are silent performance killers.
Personalization, clarity, and feedback loops transform communication from noise to impact.
Recognition and authenticity humanize leadership messages.
Applying behavioral science to sales communications improves understanding, motivation, and trust.
Hear from our expert
Ben Drake, Creative Director, Communications
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143229348?
Download a full copy of The New Rules of Engagement® 2025 Global Employee Inspiration Report.
BIW-NROE-Research-Employee-Inspiration-Report-25-6-DIGITAL-FINAL2Download the PDF

#### Is your annual SKO your launchpad...or a liability?
Every year, thousands of companies spend millions of dollars bringing their sales teams together for the annual sales kick off (SKO). And they do it for one simple reason: your competition is trying to take your business every single day.
This isn’t golf. There’s no prize for second place. Every sales leader wants their sales organization to be more competitive in the marketplace, sharper in the field, and faster to win.
Let's Talk
The whole team looks forward to it; speeches are made to toast last year’s successes and sales leaders build hype for next year’s potential - only to watch the energy evaporate the moment reps head home.
The problem isn’t the content or the speakers or even engagement. The problem is most sales meetings are treated as events, not systems.
High-performing organizations can still struggle here, defaulting to “the meeting” instead of intentionally designing what happens before, during, and after. They move fast to plan the event. They don’t spend the time designing the system around the event that ultimately sustains business impact.
Companies that expect results don’t make that mistake. They build a three-phase performance engine: one that begins before the meeting, peaks during it, and accelerates immediately after. And if done well, the payoff is 3.2 times the investment.
If your meeting doesn’t start and end with strategy and execution, it’s a very expensive interruption. Not an SKO.
Most sales meetings still make the same fatal mistake: they expect learning to happen after people arrive. That’s backwards.
High-performing sales organizations use the pre-meeting phase to preload the brain, so the meeting itself becomes application and reinforcement, not introduction.
This is where gamification earns its keep. It’s not gimmicks or trivia for swag. Purpose-built gamification does three things:
Educates the reps on products, strategy, and priorities before they walk into the room
Signals what matters, so there's no ambiguity during the meeting
Creates momentum, not confusion
Gamification works here because it respects how adults actually learn: short bursts, clear goals, feedback loops, and visible progress like leaderboards.
By the time attendees arrive, they shouldn’t be asking, “What’s the strategy?” They should already know that. They should be asking, “How do I win with it?”
If your first keynote slide says, “Let me explain the strategy,” you’ve already lost leverage.
Here’s another uncomfortable truth: passive sales meetings create passive sellers.
In a competitive market, passivity does more than stall performance. It creates openings for competitors to win deals your team should have owned.
If your meeting is built around listening instead of doing, don’t be surprised when nothing changes afterward. Effective sales leaders deliberately inject productive tension into the meeting itself using individual competition and team-based challenges to reinforce what matters in real time and build energy along the way.
Competition works because it:
Forces attention (people lean in when there's something at stake)
Reinforces priority (what's scored is what's important)
Creates memory (competition anchors learning emotionally)
When reps compete around messaging, deal strategy, product application, objection handling, and target customer scenarios, they hear the strategy, and they practice it under pressure.
If your meeting feels calm, polite, and comfortable, you’re missing out on developing salespeople — you’re only entertaining them.
So, what comes next? The applause fades. The lights come up. It’s time to go home. And then...nothing actually changes. This moment is the most valuable and the most fragile window of the entire investment.
The goal is speed. How fast can you turn learning into action?
That’s where post-meeting sales incentives stop being “rewards” and start being execution accelerators.
Done right, post-meeting incentives put strategy into motion immediately—eliminating the “I’ll get to it later” trap—and reinforce the critical behaviors emphasized and practiced at the meeting.
These aren’t generic incentives or longtail contests that start weeks later. These are incentives that launch as soon as the meeting ends and are tightly aligned to your call to action.
They are focused on:
Priority products
Target customers
Key behaviors
Near-term pipeline actions
This is how learning becomes muscle memory and how actions produce business results.
If reps leave the meeting knowing exactly what to do next and are incentivized to do it, you’ve created a clear path to revenue growth. Companies that implement strategic sustainment see up to 23% higher quota attainment within 60-120 days of the SKO and a 19% increase in average deal size over the next 12 months.
The real question sales leaders should be asking
The question isn’t “Was the meeting engaging?” The question is “What changed on Monday?”
High-performing sales organizations understand that SKOs are about preparing teams to compete, execute, and convert strategy into revenue faster than the market moves as well as inspiring their teams.
That’s why they design the system and not just the meeting:
Phase 1: prepare the brain
Phase 2: create tension and mastery
Phase 3: convert insight into income
Anything less is theater.
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#### Levels of personalization in content strategy
When customers sift through the promotional messages that flood their inboxes and social media feeds, which ones are they most likely to give their full attention to?
In 2025, an email that begins with “Dear Sheila” — but includes no other personal touches — may not impress.
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Customers who completed a McKinsey survey equated “personalization” with “positive experiences that made them feel special.”1 Today’s customers expect relevant messages that speak directly to their unique interests and solve their pain points. And marketers now have the tools to collect detailed insights about their customers, enabling them to create personalized marketing campaigns that can:
Reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50 percent
Lift revenues by 5 to 15 percent
Increase marketing ROI by 10 to 30 percent
Here’s a look at the levels of personalization in content strategy, with examples included.
Reactive personalization is derived from personal and demographic information (such as a customer’s name, preferences, and location) and event data (a customer’s interactions with a brand). It’s a one-to-many approach that is applicable to large audience segments. Reactive personalization is easy to implement by using customer attributes like first name, event milestones like birthdays, or customer actions like cart abandonment. Other examples include:
• Personalized product recommendations:
These are based on products that other customers who purchased that same item have bought.
• Geolocation targeting:
Customers can be enticed to act in real time by sending them a push notification via SMS or email based on where they’re currently located to alert them of a sale or product availability nearby.
Reactive personalization is a good first step, but it may fall short of delivering a truly special customer experience. The next level of personalization makes a leap from “reacting” to “anticipating.”
Proactive personalization allows marketers to prepare and deliver relevant content before customers realize they want it. This one-to-some approach is applicable to smaller, targeted segments. It uses zero-party data voluntarily provided by customers through tactics such as preference surveys or interactive polls. This becomes an equitable value exchange: customers receive a benefit, such as product recommendations based on their preferences, while marketers build trust with their audience. Examples of proactive personalization include:
• Automatic booking:
If an airline customer misses a connecting flight because of a delay, the right systems can get them booked on the next flight out and authorize a flight attendant to offer extra points on their frequent flyer account.
• Dynamic content blocks:
Proactive email marketing utilizes content that changes based on user preferences. “Send” times are optimized by time zone so that messages reach customers when they’re most likely to engage.
Proactive personalization presses a lot of the right buttons for today’s audiences. But the ultimate level of personalization goes even further.
We’re a long way from “Dear Sheila” now. Hyper-personalization is a one-to-one approach in which every interaction and piece of content is personalized to a specific individual. It involves the use of real-time data, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. A customer’s every click, search, and purchase is analyzed, revealing preferences and behaviors.
The goal is for each audience member to experience a journey that is unique to them. Examples include:
• Recommendation engines:
By analyzing customers’ past purchases, browsing history, and interactions with the platform, Amazon and Netflix can make highly personalized recommendations for products or content that align with each customer’s interests.
• Personalized retargeting ads:
Retargeting ads use data from a customer’s online behavior to show them relevant ads as they browse the web. With hyper-personalization, these ads can be tailored even further based on individual preferences and interests.
A hyper-personalization campaign can deliver the highly individualized experiences that customers crave and make them more likely to engage and convert. When implemented ethically and transparently, it can also improve customer trust and loyalty.
The bottom line on personalization — at any level — is that it’s essential for your marketing strategy. When it’s done right, you’ll connect with your audience, enhance brand reputation, satisfy customers, and increase revenue.
Download the PDF version of this article.
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#### Leveraging a push/pull strategy to move your channel loyalty forward
Alignment between marketing and sales is an age-old challenge. Too many times what marketing is promoting is not what a company’s sales team is focused on selling. Even though there may be reasons for the disconnect, when the effort and investment is made to integrate, the rewards can be significant.
Alignment between marketing and sales is an age-old challenge. Too many times what marketing is promoting is not what a company’s sales team is focused on selling. Even though there may be reasons for the disconnect, when the effort and investment is made to integrate, the rewards can be significant.
In the channel, strong relationships between a company’s sales team and their distributors, dealers, or resellers are critical. They often work hand in hand selling products and services to the end user or customer. This side of the equation, often referred to as the push side, represents a lot of what sales is responsible for – cold-calling prospects, joint sales calls with channel reps, product education, or training with channel partners and customers and growing market share in a territory or region.
Foundational to the push side is sales training and product education. Those sales representatives are the front line with your first line of customer—your channel partners. Getting their attention, trust and confidence is key to building a lasting relationship and positive extension of your sales investment. Sales education is foundational to any company and any industry and one of the first opportunities to integrate with marketing. Sharing marketing strategy and objectives with skills training and product education gives sales people a bigger vision for their company and how they fit into the mix of roles and responsibilities. How marketing is positioning the brand, separating it from competition and what messages are trying to be conveyed in marketing is integral to how a sales person presents themselves to a customer.
On the pull side, marketing is creating messaging, promotions and content to support the sales force. What customers are seeing and hearing should align with sales objectives, spiffs and other in-channel activities. Joint planning between sales and marketing focused on an integrated strategy, aligned tactics and activities and a common voice to channel customers and end users/consumers is a formula for greater channel engagement and loyalty to your brand, products and services.
The power of a push/pull strategy in action
A great example of the power of push/pull integration is with one of our valued clients. They manufacture a line of products that commercial and residential dealers/contractors install and repair. This client has made a concerted effort aligning what they were doing on the sales side with their marketing efforts to their dealers. Their marketing approach features a robust channel loyalty program that offers rewards to dealers for both system and parts purchases. Sales representatives have access and line of sight to what their respective dealers are purchasing, what promotions they are participating in and what learning content they’ve engaged with. This provides powerful insights for the sales team and real measured results that validate the success of the push/pull strategy.
Here are some of the results of this program:
These are just a few of the positive effects of a carefully crafted and executed push/pull strategy.
Ongoing communications back and forth between marketing and sales as to what’s working allows for redirection if necessary, or increased emphasis on something that’s resonating well with customers. It is truly a collaborative, integrated design serving both sides of the push/pull equation.
If your channel loyalty program isn’t delivering the results you expect, your sales efforts may not be fully in sync with your marketing efforts. We have a long history of helping companies evaluate and execute sales incentive programs. Combining that with our proven channel loyalty approach and point of view could be your answer to a better ROI and more loyal customers.
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#### Leveraging sales incentives
Creating an effective sales incentive program is crucial for driving performance and achieving business goals. Here are some things to consider when designing a successful sales incentive strategy.
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Many organizations face common challenges with their sales incentive programs, such as:
Without a clear plan, incentives can become confused with regular pay and fail to motivate employees. A formal strategy helps ensure that incentives are designed to drive specific behaviors and outcomes, rather than being seen as just another part of the compensation package.
If salespeople don’t know about the incentives or don’t understand them, the program won’t work well. Clear and consistent communication is essential to ensure that all team members are aware of the incentives, understand how they can earn them, and are motivated to achieve the goals set out in the program.
This can cause confusion, conflicting priorities, and a lack of focus. It’s important to strike the right balance by offering a variety of incentives that cater to different motivations and performance levels, without overwhelming employees with too many options.
Complicated programs are hard to explain and understand, leading to low participation. Simplifying the structure of the incentives can help ensure that everyone knows what they need to do to earn rewards and can easily track their progress.
Without measuring how well the incentives work, it’s hard to see their impact. Regularly tracking and analyzing the results of the incentive program can help identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where adjustments may be needed to improve effectiveness.
To overcome these challenges, organizations need an effective strategy, such as:
These are paid for by the extra performance they generate, making the program sustainable. For example, if an incentive program leads to increased sales, the additional revenue can be used to fund the rewards, ensuring that the program pays for itself.
Incentives should add to, not replace, base pay. This distinction helps employees see incentives as a bonus for exceptional performance, rather than as part of their regular salary, which can enhance motivation.
Aim to “move the middle” by encouraging better performance from all salespeople, not just the top performers. This approach can help create a more balanced and motivated team, as everyone has the opportunity to earn rewards and contribute to the organization’s success.
Engage participants emotionally to drive both short- and long-term behavior change. Understanding what motivates employees and using that knowledge to design incentives can lead to more effective and lasting performance improvements.
Use the right rewards at the right time to motivate and recognize top performers. This could include public recognition, special privileges, or unique experiences that go beyond monetary rewards and create a sense of achievement and pride.
Different types of incentives can be used to address various goals and timeframes:
Recognize top-tier performance with programs like the President’s Club. These programs often include exclusive rewards such as trips, special events, or significant bonuses that highlight the achievements of the best performers.
Focus on immediate challenges and opportunities with specific, targeted programs. These might include contests, flash sales, or limited-time bonuses that encourage quick action and immediate results.
Drive enablement activities and behaviors through fun and engaging methods. Gamification can include leaderboards, badges, and other game-like elements that make achieving goals more enjoyable and competitive.
Promote balanced performance and steady growth with programs like consistency bonuses. These rewards are designed to encourage sustained effort over time, rather than just short bursts of high performance.
Support new product or service launches with incentives that drive awareness, knowledge, and adoption. This can include training programs, special promotions, and rewards for early adopters who help spread the word and generate initial sales.
Align all employees on key corporate initiatives with rewards based on achieving milestones. These incentives can help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals and contributing to the organization’s overall strategy.
A proven methodology can help drive behaviors and activities that produce measurable results:
Assess key business issues, understand performance drivers, and plan desired outcomes. This involves identifying the specific challenges and opportunities that the incentive program will address, and setting clear, measurable goals.
Use behavioral economics to motivate, communicate effectively, and educate participants. This step includes creating the incentive structure, communicating it to the team, and providing the necessary training and support to help employees succeed.
Track behaviors, gauge impact, and identify opportunities for improvement. Regular analysis of the program’s results can help identify what’s working well and where adjustments may be needed to enhance effectiveness.
By addressing common issues and implementing effective strategies, organizations can create sales incentive programs that drive performance, engage employees, and achieve business goals.
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#### Making a connection: How to reach the 65+ demographic
With 55.6 million adults aged 65 and older in the U.S., making up almost 17% of the total population1, this demographic continues to be a valued part of American society and of course, continues to have a lot of buying power.
With 55.6 million adults aged 65 and older in the U.S., making up almost 17% of the total population1, this demographic continues to be a valued part of American society and of course, continues to have a lot of buying power.
To reach older adults, we recommend letting go of old stereotypes. Rather than sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch as the world goes by, today’s older adults are active and engaged in their communities. In developing loyalty programs or behavior change initiatives for this audience, it’s important to acknowledge current lifestyles—and how they see themselves.
Digital seniors
Older adults are more connected and tech savvy than we give them credit for, yet highly underrepresented in digital marketing outreach. In 2019, more than half of older adults bought a new tech product such as a smartphone, laptop, or smart home device.2  And the tools aren’t just for show. Roughly 75% of older adults with an internet connection say they use it daily.3
These digital seniors go online for a number of reasons from staying in touch with friends and family (91%) to organizing their finances (87%) and improving their health and wellness (73%).4
A majority of online seniors spend at least six hours a day online and own an average of five devices.
Tips for designing behavior change and brand loyalty programs aimed at older adults:
Reach them where they are — with a multitouch approachDevelop a combination of digital and direct mail communication to initially engage your audience and to continue engagement over time.
Personalize each touch point — Deliver engaging, direct and relevant information to each individual audience member. End each piece with a clear call to action.
Entice them visually — Use vivid design and images that reflect how older adults see themselves — as active and thriving members of society.
Make your programs user friendly — Design interactions that are easy to understand, fun and leave audiences feeling the program is worthwhile.
To drive behaviors, include content like videos and digital interfaces that use game mechanics.
Break complex content into easily consumed bite-sized pieces.
Engage the power of positivity to design behavior-change activities.
Embrace the power of positivity — Laura Carstensen, Ph.D., a psychology professor and director of the Stanford Center on Longevity at Stanford University, illustrated the impact of the “positivity effect”5 on older adults in a study comparing the memory recall of younger and older adults.
When shown a variety of positive and negative images, the older adults recalled far more of the positive photos than the younger participants did.
In another study on whether older adults might be motivated to exercise more after encouragement with positive messaging, Carstensen found that positively-framed messages more effectively promoted walking than negatively-framed messages, and the effect was sustained across the intervention period.6
According to Carstensen, the idea is that informing older people about the potential benefits of walking may be more effective than warning them about the risks of inactivity. As a result, Carstensen suggests that preferences for positive information among older adults may be useful in designing effective interventions to promote healthy lifestyles.
Keep them active in their communities — Social connection is a fundamental human need — as essential to survival as food, water and shelter. Acknowledge this in your programming.
Deliver content that speaks to the benefits of social connection and encourages both face-to-face interaction and digital engagement. This can be done by:
Sharing content about available volunteer opportunities in local communities
Designing reward options around in-person experiences like cooking classes or local tours
Providing information about community resources available to avoid loneliness. 
Social isolation among older adults accounts for an estimated $6.7 billion in excess Medicare spending annually, largely due to increased hospital and nursing facility spending.7
Focus on relationships — Older adults tend to value their relationships, grow more selective in everyday choices and pursue goals that prioritize emotional meaning. Show you value older adults’ time, attention and loyalty to cultivate emotional connection and nurture engagement.
Make it worth their while — Demonstrate clearly what is in it for them to drive participation and change. Make sure to offer rewards intended for your audience, not their care givers.
Focus on health care — As 17% of the U.S. population, older adults account for 43% of total health care spending.8 A lot of this spending goes toward managing chronic conditions, an issue for 95% of older adults.9 Most of these chronic conditions could be managed or prevented by encouraging positive behavior change. A focus on healthy behaviors is likely to get this audience’s attention. Such practices could improve overall health outcomes, reduce health costs and improve patient satisfaction with both providers and payers.
 
Examples of clinical behaviors to target:
Device/medication adherence
Annual wellness visits
Chronic condition management
Gap closures
Examples of active health management (Stars & CAHPS/HOS) behavior-related content:
Plan benefit explanations
Healthy living tips
Social determinants of health (SDOH)
Social isolation remedies
Developing healthy behaviors in senior populations is critical to driving better overall health outcomes.
Older adults continue to be an important demographic to focus on for many leading U.S. companies. There’s a real opportunity to make a difference to both this audience and the businesses they engage with by reflecting the audience’s current lifestyles and values. Let go of outdated stereotypes and embrace the thriving, active roles older adults take in their communities. Integrate positive messaging into brand loyalty and behavior change programs to make the highest impact.
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#### Maximizing channel engagement through effective channel loyalty rules
The effectiveness of channel loyalty programs relies on the clarity and framework of their rules.
Establishing loyalty among channel partners is critical to driving sustainable growth and achieving successful sales goals for many businesses. Channel loyalty programs serve as powerful tools to incentivize and reward partners for purchasing your products and engaging with your brand. However, the effectiveness of these programs relies on the clarity and framework of their rules.
All programs have unique challenges, hurdles and nuances that need to be addressed when mapping out the path to channel loyalty, but this doesn’t mean the route to rewarding channel partners has to be hard.
Here are 8 best practices when structuring rules in a channel loyalty program.
1. Align rules with objectives
Before diving into the intricacies of a rule structure, it’s essential to establish overarching business goals and objectives for your loyalty program. Whether your desired outcome is to increase sales, capture mind share, gain data insights or enhance partner engagement, every program element should serve to further the foundational objectives.
2. Keep rules simple and focused
Complexity fosters confusion and can prevent partners from enrolling or actively participating in the program. Aim your focus on just a few core behaviors you want to drive while keeping the rules simple, straightforward and easy to understand. Can you clearly communicate how your program works in a few sentences? If not, it’s likely your intended participants won’t understand.
3. Define the earnings criteria
Outline the eligibility criteria and how to earn within the loyalty program in uncomplicated language. Whether based on sales volume, growth, engagement or other metrics, participants should have a clear understanding of what’s required to qualify for rewards and incentives: do this, get that.
4. Make milestones achievable
Loyalty is not created; it’s earned. Break down the journey to loyalty rewards into achievable milestones. Whether it’s reaching sales targets, completing training modules or acquiring new customers, milestones should be realistic and attainable. It’s the small victories that help motivate partners to progress through the program.
5. Capitalize on idiosyncratic fit
Use your data to create personalized milestones and customized offers to promote the feeling that the program is tailored to your partner’s specific needs and goals. Structuring the rules to allow for personalization nurtures a sense of inclusion and relevancy.
6. Offer tiered rewards
Implement a tiered structure that offers escalating benefits or rewards as participants achieve higher levels of performance. Establishing tiers is a way to segment your best channel partners and reward them differently (e.g., double points, bonus earnings, special offers, early access). Not only do tiers motivate participants to strive for improved performance, but they also provide a sense of prestige and exclusivity in the program. Diamond status anyone?
7. Provide reward options
The power of choice is a formidable instrument in the incentive toolbox. Offering your participants a multitude of reward options guarantees sustained interest and participation in your program. Cash and reloadable cards as rewards don’t generally drive results and are often used for everyday expenses such as gas and groceries. Non-cash rewards are versatile and allow you to tailor your rewards strategy to meet the preferences and interests of a wide variety of participants. Aspirational items, exclusive experiences and luxury merchandise notably enhance the perceived value of the program. These types of memorable rewards contribute to long-term engagement and foster a positive emotional impact with your brand.
8. Evaluate and evolve
Your business isn’t static, and your loyalty programs shouldn’t be either. You should regularly evaluate the performance of your channel loyalty program. Leverage program data to determine what works well and what needs to be adjusted. The most successful loyalty programs are dynamic and evolve over time. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches or promotions with your channel partners to meet an ever-evolving business landscape.
Utilizing best practices when structuring rules in channel loyalty programs paves the way to a remarkable user experience fueling maximum engagement and driving desired results.
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#### Overcoming obstacles to contest design
Picture this scenario: you’re in a meeting and sales are down. As you brainstorm ideas with your team, you suggest running a sales contest to close out the quarter strong. Your boss thinks it’s a genius idea and tasks you with designing a program to launch next week.
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Sales organizations of all shapes and sizes run sales contests, incentives, or SPIFs on a regular basis. They may seem like a simple way to motivate your team to sell more of a new, underperforming, or lagging product, but designing one that truly works is more complex than it may appear on the surface.
There are many obstacles BI WORLDWIDE has observed when designing effective contests for sales organizations. Here are eight challenges you may face as well as solutions to make your contests drive the results you’re looking for.
One of the cardinal rules of contest design is connecting the behavior or result as closely as possible to the reward. When accurate data can lag for weeks or longer, it’s hard to make that connection and celebrate success.
The best thing about a contest is that it doesn’t conflict with compensation plans, so there is limited concern about overpaying for activities. Contests are short-term in nature, allowing you to test different activities and see which lead to the strongest results.
Think of running a contest like playing a football game. When a team is down at halftime, the best coaches analyze the opponent’s strategy and make adjustments to change the momentum. Adding a contest when half the earning time has already passed can demotivate most participants and only reward those who were already achieving.
Adding contests at the end of an earning period isn’t inherently bad. However, you need to ensure your salesforce can meet the challenge. Give them enough time to make adjustments, make sure the goals are achievable by everyone and not just top performers, and have data to support the need so you can track the return on investment.
The go-to solution for quickly motivating a salesforce is to set up a leaderboard and reward the top achievers. Contests that reward only the top performers can demotivate the rest of the team, especially if the gap between winners and losers is wide. Fairness is a major concern with contests like this, as sales reps in different territories or with varying account sizes might face unequal opportunities. A contest that gives participants a clear advantage over others can create resentment and undermine team morale.
To keep morale high, it’s important to design contests that reward multiple levels of achievement or emphasize team goals. Many times, leaderboards are the perfect layer on top of a contest design that has opportunities for all levels to earn.
The last contest you ran was successful and surpassed its goals, so you decide to run it each quarter. But progressively, you see a trend of sales being lower than normal until you post the contest when you see activity increase. You realize that your audience is gaming the contest and holding back sales until the contest is live.
Avoid repeating contest schedules too often and keep things fresh. If your sales team can predict when contests occur, they might time their efforts strategically rather than fostering genuine, consistent behavior changes. Remember that variety is the spice of life, and it’s also the key ingredient for a successful contest.
Successful contests have attainable goals, but if employees feel the targets are too easy, they won't inspire the desired level of effort. Conversely, if goals are too ambitious, they start to feel demotivated.
Striking the right balance can be difficult and requires deep insights into each rep’s capabilities and past performance. Defining clear, measurable metrics that fairly capture contributions is a challenge, but it’s the best way to ensure a successful, engaged salesforce for your contest.
You’ve identified a problem, analyzed the data and designed the perfect contest with customized goals for reps to choose from. You’ve determined the ideal mix of inspiring awards and launched the contest with an email to the team. Then you wait for the anticipated results. However, you don’t send any follow-up communications, and reps have no way to track their progress. The results aren’t what you expected.
Designing the perfect contest is only one part of the formula for success. Another part is launching it with vivid, clear, and inspiring communications. Providing frequent updates so reps are aware of their status and ensuring management is included in the communications plan leads to further success of the contest. A successful contest relies on sales reps being aware of it, understanding it, and receiving regular updates on their progress.
Many times, sales contests have boring names like “Fourth Quarter Challenge” or the product name followed by the word “contest.” This works for clarity, but it doesn’t stop people long enough to gain and keep their attention.
Give your contest a memorable name. If your product works fast, incorporate speed into the name. If it does a variety of things, make it all about a winning combination. When naming a program, a play on words is often the key to getting attention. Pair it with compelling visuals, and it acts as a reminder for the sales reps. When they see the words “Market Share Monsters” and a visual of Godzilla, they won’t forget that it’s their job to go out and scare the competition!
If you ask salespeople what motivates them the most, they’ll usually say, “Show me the money!” But multiple research studies show that for short-term incentives and contests, tangible non-cash rewards are more compelling and get the most action.
Just like you should get creative with the design of the contest, get creative with the awards. Look for unique items or packages that reps can envision earning. Also think about experiences, as many studies show that experiences far outpace other awards as motivators. People talk about where they travel and the experiences on those trips, and they’ll remember those awards much longer than how they spent a cash award.
Creating a contest that inspires and delivers results doesn’t have to be difficult, and you don’t have to be a genius to make it work. It just takes a little thought, a little creativity, and the experience to know which obstacles to avoid.
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#### Peer-based and team-based competition belongs in your sales kick off
Sales kickoffs are great at creating energy. The real question is whether that energy turns into changed behavior once sellers leave the room.
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Too often, SKO momentum fades. Not because the strategy was wrong, but because inspiration alone doesn’t drive execution. Sellers need clear goals, visible progress, and enough productive pressure to move from excitement to action.1
That’s where structured peer-based and team-based competition earns its place in the sales kickoff environment.
Competition helps sellers learn by watching each other
One of the biggest myths about competition is that it distracts from learning. In reality, it can accelerate learning when it’s designed well.
Salespeople are social learners. When performance and progress are visible, people adjust faster. Behavioral science supports this: social comparison, goal proximity, and public commitment can all increase effort and follow-through.2,3
When reps can see who’s mastering new messaging, completing certifications, or applying learning in real scenarios, they don’t wait to be told what “good” looks like. They adapt.
Well-designed competition also activates the goal-gradient effect: effort increases as people see themselves getting closer to a goal. That visibility matters at SKO, where new strategies and messages need to move quickly from concept to confident execution.1
From a business standpoint, the payoff can be meaningful. Organizations that use competition tied to specific selling behaviors often see stronger productivity and faster time-to-competency than teams relying on classroom-only SKO models.4
What high-impact SKO competition looks like
The most effective sales kickoff competition programs follow a few simple rules.
Certifications, role-plays, demo readiness, and early adoption of new messaging all help drive downstream revenue while keeping more sellers engaged.
Individual competition creates urgency. Team competition creates collaboration and peer coaching. Together, they help move the middle.
Daily or weekly sprints with clear scorecards can outperform long, end-of-quarter contests because sellers can see progress while there’s still time to act.1
Scorecards and communication drive results
Competition without clarity creates confusion. Clear scorecards answer the questions every seller is already asking: What counts? Where do I stand? What should I do next?
Live dashboards, mobile updates, and visible recognition make progress tangible. When goal clarity is paired with continuous feedback, short-term energy has a better chance of becoming repeatable execution.1
Your SKO isn’t just a meeting. It’s a performance environment.
When competition is intentional, it turns kickoff energy into measurable execution that lasts.
Sources
1. BI WORLDWIDE. Sales kick off.
2. Buunk, Abraham P. Social Comparison in Organizations. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2022.
3. Pervaiz, S., Li, G., & He, Q. The mechanism of goal-setting participation’s impact on employee’s proactive behavior, moderated mediation role of power distance. PloS one, 2021.
4. BI WORLDWIDE. Sales team motivation.
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#### Personalizing channel loyalty
When it comes to loyalty programs, personalization is key. The more personalized, the greater the outcomes.
Both engagement and business results benefit at higher rates. Because of that, we start thinking about personalization right from the beginning, during program design.
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First, we create a program unique to the target customers’ needs and interests, an approach also known as idiosyncratic fit in behavioral economics. This personalized tailoring helps customers feel as if they have an advantage as they pursue maximum rewards and benefits. It encourages them to keep using the program.
From there, we add a layer at a time. At the foundation, both the core-program rule structure and earning schedule should be based on customer-specific purchase characteristics. For example, rewarding customers for year-over-year progress is much more effective than rewarding for an average or one-size-fits-all target.
Next, promotions should target and trigger based on, ideally, the “next best action” for each individual customer. For example, targeting promotions based on voids in a customer’s purchase history or complementary products tied to initial purchases. Finally, content and communications should target and trigger based on customer-specific profile information.
Program Rule Structures That Create Idiosyncratic Fit:
Knowing that personalization is critical to a program’s success, it’s not surprising that many are now interested in exploring artificial intelligence to help optimize and automate elements of personalization throughout loyalty campaigns. However, because AI relies on customer data, many companies are not in a position to effectively use it. This is especially true in the channel loyalty space. The good news is there are other options that allow you to take the first steps and build a path to AI.
AI is used in many ways, so it’s important to note that the AI we’re talking about here is the application of advanced computer analysis using techniques that mimic human intelligence to interpret data, determine outcomes, learn from previous interactions, and execute actions. With the ability to scale at massive rates and quickly distill complex variables into simple, applicable formats, AI is an ideal tool for generating fast, accurate personalization.
Here’s an example of a loyalty program for restaurant owners sponsored by a food service company that shows how to integrate AI into a loyalty program. In this scenario, AI would identify the “next best action” or promotion for each individual restaurant based on consideration of a number of different variables:
Customer-specific data including purchase history, share of wallet, size of business, purchase potential, customer lifecycle stage, and location.
Product-specific data including up-sell/cross-sell matrices, complementary product relationships, seasonality and weather factors, and product margin.
Data on the behavior of similar customers.
Essentially, AI would identify the ideal promotion for each customer individually — the ideal product with the ideal incentive at the ideal time — based on a virtually infinite number of variables.
Let’s look at the options along the path to AI. Targeted marketing and personalization can occur at various degrees of sophistication ranging from having next to no data, to a mid-level amount using data extraction, to deeply complex applications that begin with access to rich amounts of data. Opening the field to thousands of combinations, the choices may overwhelm any marketer.
The path to AI
Level 1: Zero-party data
In situations where there is little to no data on customers, personalization is possible by leveraging a zero-party data strategy: data that customers intentionally and proactively share. In this scenario, we provide an opportunity for customers to share their preferences early in the process. For instance, customers are offered a chance to select from a set of options or share their preferences. In our restaurant loyalty example, the food service provider could ask customers to opt-in for specific promotions or content or complete a survey related to characteristics, preferences, and interests that could be appended to the customer record in the database. The data collected then becomes the basis for future personalized marketing.
Level 2: Data extraction or retrieval
When you have a customer database to work with, data extraction is the easiest method to leverage for personalization. At the most basic level, an analyst manually identifies and selects target audiences aligned with the desired behavior. After the manual approach is proven, the process can be automated. A software engineer or analyst writes code that is run on demand to identify and select target audiences. With automation, data extraction becomes scalable. Costs are reduced. Speed to market is accelerated. Plus, the number of input (target audience)/output (desired behavior) combinations can be increased.
In our restaurant loyalty example, the food service provider would select a product to promote and then identify customers who have not yet purchased the product. The provider could also select products that complement each other and identify customers who have purchased one but not the other.
Level 3: Traditional application development
Traditional application development involves creating algorithms (sets of rules) that analyze multiple data points to identify target audiences that align with desired behaviors based on predetermined criteria. Each potential scenario and outcome is planned, developed, and accounted for within the source code. And every change or addition to the process must be manually added by a human in the form of additional data points or additional source code. Traditional application development can also involve the development of a predictive model where an analyst leverages data mining and statistical analysis to reveal patterns and trends. The insights are then used to predict future behaviors and outcomes.
In our restaurant loyalty example, the food service provider leverages algorithms and predictive modeling to greatly increase the number of input variables and output options. The outcomes then indicate the next best action for each segment or customer. It’s important to point out that the output doesn’t have to be a promotion. This same approach can be used to identify customers who are at risk of attrition, which would then trigger a win-back or retention campaign.
Some examples of inputs and outputs are:
Inputs:
Customer transactional data
Customer characteristics
Customer profile information
Customer engagement activity or lack of activity
Similar and ideal customer characteristics
Customer characteristics tied to retention and attrition
Product characteristics and relationships
Geographic factors like seasonality and weather patterns
Outputs:
Specific behavior or series of behaviors
Optimal promotional offer
Optimal timing
Level 4: AI
At this point we have reached the final step in the continuum: AI. Targeting and personalization leverages the predictive branch of AI versus the generative branch. Predictive AI uses machine learning to make predictions based on historical data whereas generative AI uses machine learning to create content like text, images, and sounds from large language models. Predictive AI models find patterns, develop insights, and analyze data to predict future events. The accuracy of predictive AI depends on the quality and amount of data the model is trained on. Through trial and error, the algorithm becomes better at predicting the future.1
Data considerations
As previously mentioned, data is at the foundation of targeting and personalization, regardless of where you are on the continuum. There are a number of factors to consider as you assess your readiness and develop your strategy:
The data should be relevant and current to optimize the customer experience and maximize the impact and results of your marketing.
The data needs to be clean and accurate, not only to deliver results but also to avoid potential risks associated with a negative customer experience generated from inaccurate personalization and issues tied to legal or regulatory compliance.
The data driving AI often comes from multiple data sources – internal and external. This requires integration which increases complexity and cost.
The data should follow a set of processes, standards, and guardrails to ensure the AI use case and practices are ethical and safe.
As you move up the continuum, you can significantly increase the number, complexity, and granularity of the variables used in your targeting and personalization efforts. You can also increase the timeliness of deployment up to real time. However, data hygiene, integrity, and governance also becomes more critical because there are not as many manual checks and the potential negative impact increases exponentially.
Sources:
Smith, Robert F. “Generative AI vs. Predictive AI: Distinguishing the Difference.” (2024)
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#### Points versus gift cards
The New Rules of Engagement® research shows employees who feel their organization’s incentives are exciting are eight times more likely to be inspired at work. But not all rewards drive behavior change and results.
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Here are seven stats highlighting the differences between points versus gift cards. Gift cards are often seen as a form of cash, whereas points can be used for inspirational rewards like experiences, travel and merchandise.
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#### Prevent quiet quitting by your customers
Keep your customers satisfied and prevent them from "quiet quitting."
Are your customers quietly quitting?
Customer loyalty plays a vital role in a company’s success. On many measures, your loyal customers are your most valuable asset. As competition and customer expectations continue to increase, it’s important to recognize the signs that point to your customers disengaging. By looking at the question from the perspective of the customer and evaluating your strategies for retention and engagement across the lifecycle, you can prevent the all-too-common problem of “quiet quitting.”
Why do customers quietly quit? It seems obvious, but the most common reason is dissatisfaction. This is often the result of emphasis on the transaction versus the relationship. Dissatisfaction can result at any point, but there are two key milestone triggers that deserve extra attention.
The start of the relationship
First impressions create long-lasting emotions that can greatly impact the customer experience. Frustration or pain points that prevent longer-term customer satisfaction can be caused by:
Lack of clarity about how to maximize product or program benefits
Impersonal or irrelevant communications
Confusion over where to go for help
Anniversaries
Loyal customers who reach an anniversary milestone are often hit with a price hike or ineligibility on special promotions that are only offered to new customers. This might spur your proven customers to consider exclusive new customer offers from your competitors.
Customers want to feel valued. Are your customers getting what they want and need? Loyalty is an outcome of a good relationship. Without regular engagement and recognition, customers become indifferent and may leave. And if you aren’t investing in that relationship, know that your competitors certainly are.
Is your company quietly quitting your customers?
If you're uncertain, here are three questions to consider:
1. Have you defined and optimized your customer lifecycle programs and key touchpoints?
Lifecycle marketing programs focus on nurturing customer relationships throughout the entire journey. This should include a defined approach to new customers, recognition of milestones, next-best-action or product recommendations and win-back opportunities. By understanding and addressing specific needs and behaviors at different stages of the lifecycle, you can improve customer satisfaction.
2. Do you have a well-designed onboarding program?
An onboarding program sets the stage for the entire relationship. To be successful, it needs to ensure a smooth transition, provide education, address pain points and personalize interactions. The key is to create engagement at regular intervals because customers thrive on novelty and personalization. A loyalty program that doesn’t continually evolve can quickly become uninteresting.
3. Are you maximizing your data analysis?
Your customer data provides valuable insights into behavior, preferences and engagement patterns. It can give you a deeper understanding of your audience and help you strengthen customer relationships by increasing the relevancy of your content.
Often, customers are treated as one unit — neglecting the behaviors and needs of what should be divided into distinct groups. Segmentation allows you to deliver relevant messages and offers that resonate within each segment. It also enables you to design rewards that recognize and reinforce the value of the relationship using an equitable equation.
Take stock of your current programs and act. Evaluate your methods for driving customer engagement and loyalty and invest in a robust and equitable strategy that works for both you and your customers.
A strong and balanced relationship is one that is harder to “quietly quit.”
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#### Recognition's impact on business results
At BI WORLDWIDE, we help our clients deliver real, tangible results through our recognition programs. When we ask program owners about their big goals, we often hear things like “improve culture” or “create a sense of purpose.” These are great goals, and we can certainly help with them. But that’s not what we’re asking.
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We want to know your big goals. Are you trying to launch a new product while phasing out an old one? Do you need to increase your market share or double your revenue over the next five years? Maybe you want to boost your Net Promoter Score by at least 20 points.
Big goals are labeled as such for a reason – they’re challenging to achieve. They require the full attention, focus, and commitment of every single employee. In large companies with tens of thousands of employees worldwide, all engaged in different tasks, this can seem daunting. At BIW, we have a proven framework to help you achieve these big goals.
First, let’s acknowledge that recognition impacts culture. Employees who believe their good work will be recognized are 12.4 times more likely to say they have a great company culture.
Recognition also boosts employee engagement. Employees who receive recognition and awards are more likely to feel committed, work harder, and feel inspired. A good culture and engaged employees lead to positive business results.
For example, Irrational Capital partnered with Harbor Capital to create a Large Cap ETF based on companies’ culture and engagement scores. This fund has, on average, outperformed the S&P 500 since its inception.
Our data at BIW supports this pattern, showing that companies with better culture, engagement, and employee experience also report more financial growth.
However, these are correlations. We can flip the chart and see that companies with higher financial projections also have better cultures and engagement. So does culture drive results or do results drive culture? Our research and client work suggest it’s both. Good culture drives good results, and good results make for a better culture. But even great cultures can have problems. One of our clients with high culture scores experienced a failed project launch, leading to lower scores for the teams involved.
The reality is that culture and business results influence each other. If you’re only focusing on improving culture, you won’t unlock your program’s full potential. Think of building a great basketball team: to win, you need both talented players and team cohesion. A team that focuses on individual skills OR teamwork will perform better than one that focuses on neither. But a team that focuses on both will have far greater success. The same goes for recognition. By fueling this cycle from all sides, we achieve stronger and faster results than by influencing culture alone.
 At BI WORLDWIDE, we help our clients by recognizing achievements and supporting culture while driving business results. We use our business improvement process and principles of behavioral economics to understand your strategic goals, key stakeholders, and challenges. We then design a program that communicates, educates, motivates, and updates employees as they work towards these big goals.
Using this model, we have driven big goals like improving free cash flow, increasing quarterly and annual sales, and reducing turnover.
The next time you think about goals for your recognition program, think big. What are your executive team’s priorities? What do you need your employees to do to reach these goals? Then put the model to work: educate, communicate, motivate, and update your teams to achieve something great while reinforcing your culture. You’ll create a great workplace and drive significant impact.
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#### Recognition's impact on company culture
When we think about companies with outstanding cultures, we often imagine trendy office spaces with exposed brick walls, open layouts, free drinks, and foosball tables.
Similarly, when AI thinks of a great workplace culture, it shows images of young, overly cheerful employees around a reclaimed wood table, surrounded by colorful Post-it® notes.
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But employees in large companies know these pictures aren’t reality. Even in offices with regular desks and plain walls, great cultures can thrive. So what makes a great company culture if it’s not espresso machines and other trendy stuff?
Wellbeing
The company supports their overall wellbeing, including mental and physical health.
Recognition
Recognition is provided fairly, and team members are confident that if they do good work they will be recognized.
Purpose
Team members feel a sense of purpose, are connected to the mission, vision and values, and feel a part of something larger than themselves.
Leadership
Leaders are trustworthy, listen, support team members health and wellbeing, and have a compelling vision for the future.
Belonging
It is safe to express your opinion, be unique, and there is a strong sense of teamwork.
Recognition is a key pillar that can influence the other pillars of wellbeing, purpose, leadership, and belonging. When done strategically, recognition can make employees feel more valued, healthy, connected, purposeful, and trustful of leadership. Employees receiving recognition and rewards had the biggest gains in terms of feeling valued by their companies, but they also were more likely to feel a sense of wellbeing, belonging, purpose, and a trust in leadership.
Recognition can also explicitly support your values. What gets recognized gets repeated, so it’s important to tie recognition to behaviors that reflect your company values. Analyzing recognition data can show which values might be misunderstood or underrepresented. For example, a large life sciences client found that one of their core values was only recognized 10% of the time. They launched a communications campaign to educate employees on this value and incentivized its recognition, doubling the recognition of the value and helping to embed it into the company culture.
While every company’s culture is unique, great cultures share common traits: trust in leadership, support for employee wellbeing, a sense of purpose and belonging, and effective recognition. Remember, a great culture isn’t about having exposed brick walls – it’s about creating an environment that reinforces these pillars and your specific company values.
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#### Reimagining Medicaid engagement: motivation over messaging
Most Medicaid strategies still hinge on outreach volume and care gap closure. But if the plan is “send more reminders,” you’re missing the real lever for outcomes: motivated members.
Sustainable engagement doesn’t come from more touches. It comes from designing a journey that actually moves people. When you build for motivation, behavior shifts. When you don’t, nothing changes.
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The questions Medicaid insurance leaders should be asking:
Short answer: Not anymore.
Medicaid members juggle time constraints, access issues, low trust, and competing priorities. A message alone doesn’t overcome that. Motivation does. Members take action when the experience feels personal, rewarding, and worth their effort.
Short answer: Emotion and simplicity.
Behavioral economics tells us that Medicaid members respond immediacy, clear goals, and emotional relevance. If the next step feels confusing, delayed, or buried in an app, you’ve already lost them.
Short answer: Because momentum changes everything.
When done right, gamification creates clarity and forward motion through defined goals, visible progress, achievable steps, and rewards that feel earned. Across Medicaid programs, milestone journeys – like prenatal and well-child visit paths – consistently outperform traditional outreach by 3-5x.
Short answer: The one that aligns value with effort.
Rewards work when they feel personal, meaningful, and behavioral rather than transactional. The right reward taps into how people think, feel, and choose. When designed well, it becomes part of the motivation loop, not a giveaway.
The five essentials for motivating Medicaid members:
Identify the moments that matter: onboarding, preventive care, maternal health, chronic condition management. Build journeys around those moments, not around inbox calendars.
Where programs fail:Disjointed campaigns create noise. Members get confused, tune out, or disengage altogether.
Where BIW succeeds:Programs like Baby Blocks® turn the maternal health journey into a series of achievable milestones with rewards and trusted content that drive retention.
Members should feel the effort is worth the reward.
Where programs fail:Over-incentivizing easy tasks and under-incentivizing difficult ones sends the wrong signal.
BIW approach:Tiered reward ladders that scale with member effort and health impact—fair, motivating, and measurable.
The rational brain isn’t making the decisions here. The present-biased, ease-seeking, “do I really want to do this today?” self is.
What works:Two-tap tasks, instant confirmations, progress visibility, social proof
BIW tools:Progress meters® that let members see, celebrate, and share progress which activates pride and continuity.
Meet members where they are, not where it’s convenient for you.
What works:Channel fit, language choice, modality flexibility, reward relevance.
Where programs fail:One-size-fits-all journeys ignore real SDOH constraints.
BIW method:Micro-segmentation + tailored channels + concierge nudges during life transitions.
Traditional reporting counts completions. Motivational design tracks why people complete or don’t.
What we track:Time to first action, streak length, drop-off points, and behavioral lift.
This data fuels ongoing optimization, not guesswork.
What this looks like in practice:
A milestone journey where each visit unlocks content, community tips, and a right-sized reward.
Seasonal micro-challenges with time-boxed bonuses and real member stories.
Level-up paths with recognitions members keep and streak-based incentives.
A three-step quest (welcome, PCP selection, first benefit use) with instant wins and a “pick-your-happy” reward.
A “year in review” recap that celebrates wins and makes renewing the easiest choice.
Key moves Medicaid leaders need to make now:
Your engagement partner shouldn’t just deliver a platform. They should deliver behavior change. When the strategy is grounded in motivation and behavioral science, you get measurable health outcomes, higher member satisfaction, and stronger retention.
This isn’t about “checking the outreach box.” It’s about designing experiences that members want to return to because they work.
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#### Rethinking the rebate
Rebates have long been used to influence sales results with channel partners. But should that be the only thing your company focuses on?
Businesses have long used rebates as their go-to strategy to try to influence sales results within the channel ecosystem. Rebates can certainly be a good tool to gather purchase information, capture demographic data, drive product awareness, promote trial and move inventory.
However, rebates have become ubiquitous in the channel and are not impactful in capturing the attention of channel partners or differentiating your business and products from the competition. Often rebates are hastily implemented as a reaction to a competitor’s offer of a rebate for a similar product at a lower price. What if your competitor’s products are always at a lower price point?
A rebate’s visibility frequently gets lost within the channel, lacks solid metrics when measuring effectiveness and treats all of your channel partners the same. Further, poorly structured rebate programs may result in:
Unnecessarily discounting your products and blindly paying for no noticeable results or change in purchase behavior
Conditioning your partners to only purchase when there is a rebate
Emphasizing new products/business, rather than a focus on existing customers or repeat business
Overall, rebates are viewed as a temporary price reduction; when the rebate is removed there is a negative perception of a price increase.
Are rebates effective in driving sustained purchase behavior change with channel partners? In short, no. Should you be offering rebates in your portfolio of channel incentives? Yes. Rebates serve serve a purpose within the channel. The question is how do you create a marketing plan to maximize results with your channel partners?
By allocating a portion of your channel incentive budget to a loyalty program with a diverse rewards strategy, you can drive long-term results with existing customers and promote continued purchases with new customers. Successful loyalty and brand affinity programs reduce the dollar-to-dollar comparison among competitive products allowing you to create buying habits where your brand is the default. The captive audience within a long-term loyalty program allows for a direct line of ongoing, personalized, conditional communications and content with your channel partners (both direct and indirect), with the ability to reward for transactional and non-transactional activities (e.g., brand engagement, product training).
Review your current rebate spend with the channel. Evaluate the effectiveness of those rebates. Determine if rebates are measurable and driving the results you want. Then consider allocating some of your budget to a long-term loyalty program and non-cash rewards.
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#### Take a chance on changing your employee rewards strategy
When looking at behavior and results-based recognition in your organization, partial reinforcement and probabilistic rewards are some of the most effective tools available for cutting through the static.
Variable structures can be just the layer your reward strategy needs to recapture employees' attention.
It’s increasingly difficult to keep employees’ attention and engagement. Remote work, overall life stress, burnout and competitors recruiting talent away make for a lot of noise. Companies who haven’t refreshed their rewards strategy are likely to see their ROI has gone down and it’s become part of all that background noise.
Variable rewards and structures get attention and inspire employees to do more. In the 70s, C.B Ferster and B.F. Skinner wrote Schedules of Reinforcement, which focuses on the science of behavioral reinforcement. They divided reinforcement into two categories: continuous reinforcement, which is rewarding or reinforcing each time a behavior occurs, and partial reinforcement, which reinforces a behavior occasionally. Their work would go on to be tested in educational and business settings and it turns out that partial reinforcement actually has longer staying power than continuous. It cuts through the noise more slowly but lasts longer because people will continue to perform waiting for the eventual reward.
This kind of probabilistic reward creates anticipation, giving everyone a positive feeling they can win if they do what they’re being asked to do.
A perfect example is a slot machine. The behavior is the same each time. You pull the lever or hit the button. But the result is only rewarded occasionally. Anyone who has spent any time in Vegas knows the occasional reward keeps people in their seats. They believe the reward is imminent and is worth the wait. This kind of gameplay mentality rewards the brain because it taps into the learning and reward center. It cuts through the noise, hooking people and creating long-term engagement.
Communicating this type of reinforcement is also exciting. Highlighting the reward that could be won is almost as exciting as winning. Even when they might earn less or nothing at all, employees immediately envision themselves winning the top reward. This aspirational response gives them an easy way to visualize the potential result of their behavior.
When looking at behavior and results-based recognition at your own organization, this kind of partial reinforcement also allows for better budget spread. Take, for example, a traditional stack-rank program where top employees are awarded at the end of the month. Those in the middle or bottom of the list will likely check out halfway through when they realize they aren’t close to those top. With variable awards, the budget is allocated across all who achieved the desired result, but with varying odds. The top percentile could get more chances to play or be part of a higher value pool, but those outside the top are still getting behavior reinforcement.
For example, one automotive client looking to change things up in a unique supply chain environment used variable rewards to drive sales. 92% of employees who were issued credits to play a game redeemed them and the company saw a 104% increase in sales, even with limited inventory. The best part is they spent 60% less than they had traditionally spent with cash rewards.
Variable structures can be just the layer your reward strategy needs to recapture employees’ attention. So, we’re saying there’s a chance.
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#### The change imperative: How to lead through uncertainty with intention
Managing change isn’t about avoiding discomfort; it’s about guiding people through it. When leaders address the “you go first” mentality with empathy, data, and clear communication, they build trust instead of fear.
Change done well isn’t just a process; it’s a cultural advantage.
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"Change is good. You go first."
That single phrase captures one of the biggest challenges in leadership today: everyone agrees change is necessary until they’re the ones asked to make it.
Change, especially in large organizations, is rarely smooth. It’s messy, inefficient, and often expensive. Without thoughtful planning, change efforts can leave leaders frustrated and employees demoralized.
Whether it’s implementing a new HRIS platform, launching a benefits portal, onboarding employees after an acquisition, or rolling out a new recognition program, change management must be intentional or the cost is far more than financial.
The human toll of constant change
60% of employees report experiencing constant change within their organization. When change is frequent but poorly supported, with limited training, resources, or leadership alignment, employees quickly feel overwhelmed and resistant. The result? Mistakes, service breakdowns, and disengagement.
31% of employees say they’re burnt out from ongoing change. Burnout doesn’t just reduce motivation; it corrodes trust. When change becomes chaos, people disengage, leaders lose credibility, and turnover accelerates.
Without a structured approach, organizations risk cascading problems:
Employee resistance and low moraleUnclear or sudden change breeds confusion, frustration, and pushback.
Decreased productivityPoorly supported employees can't adapt quickly, slowing down progress.
Increased errors and reworkGaps in training or communication compromise quality and compliance.
Missed deadlines and inflated budgetsDisorganization and misalignment derail timelines.
Loss of trust in leadershipWhen employees feel blindsided, it erodes confidence in future initiatives.
The B.U.I.L.D. for Change model
To help clients navigate transformation with confidence, BI WORLDWIDE developed the B.U.I.L.D. for Change model, a practical, behavioral-science-based approach grounded in the work of Harvard’s Dr. John Kotter and our long-time partner Dr. Kurt Nelson.
Each phase helps leaders anchor change in data, empathy, and measurable results.
Initiate with intention and clarity.
Define business outcomes and governance before execution begins.
Assess the current state.
Gather data and insights to benchmark employee sentiment and readiness, including perceptions of change pace and well-being.
Develop strategies rooted in behavioral science.
Turn insights into actionable programs that inspire adoption.
Support others through the transition.
Use proven principles from Kotter and Nelson to communicate, train, and measure outcomes—such as turnover, safety, or customer advocacy—before and after the change.
Evaluate and iterate.
Use evidence to continuously improve and sustain progress.
Each phase can be tailored to an organization’s unique culture and infrastructure. BI WORLDWIDE’s model can also integrate seamlessly with other established change management frameworks when clients already have one in place.
Change done right: a case study
Before working with BI WORLDWIDE, a large financial institution lacked a unified recognition strategy. Their efforts were fragmented: multiple informal programs, no connection to business goals, and inconsistent visibility across teams.
We partnered with them to design and implement a cohesive recognition and rewards program that aligned directly with desired employee behaviors and customer experience outcomes.
31% decrease in turnover
$10.4 million in cost savings
4-point increase in customer satisfaction
That’s the ROI of change done right: when people are equipped, aligned, and supported, transformation drives measurable results.
From resistance to readiness
Managing change isn’t about avoiding discomfort; it’s about guiding people through it. When leaders address the “you go first” mentality with empathy, data, and clear communication, they build trust instead of fear.
Change done well isn’t just a process; it’s a cultural advantage.
60% of employees experience constant change, and 31% report burnout.
Poorly managed change erodes morale, trust, and productivity.
The B.U.I.L.D. for Change model provides a structured, science-backed framework.
Success requires clarity, empathy, and continuous measurement.
When supported by leadership, change becomes a growth accelerator - NOT a distruption.
Hear from our expert
Mark Hirschfeld, Vice President, Consulting Services and Strategic Partnerships
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143230995?
Download the PDF version of The New Rules of Engagement® report.
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#### The evolving landscape: 5 call center trends
Call centers continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of customer service.
In the fast-paced world of customer service, call centers stand as the frontline troops, bridging the gap between businesses and their clients. With each passing year, the landscape of call centers undergoes significant transformations, influenced by technological advancements, shifting consumer behaviors and emerging industry standards. Let’s explore the prominent trends shaping the realm of call centers.
- 1 -
Emphasis on omnichannel support
When it comes to engaging and inspiring employees, BI WORLDWIDE believes in a good and useful future where companies make the right investments that bring about increased employee commitment, effort and inspiration.
- 2 -
Rise of AI and automation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation have become integral components of modern call centers. AI-powered chatbots handle routine inquiries, freeing up human agents to focus on complex issues. Machine-learning algorithms analyze customer data to personalize interactions and anticipate needs, improving overall efficiency and customer satisfaction. Additionally, AI-driven analytics provide valuable insights for optimizing processes and identifying trends.
- 3 -
Remote work and virtual call centers
The shift to remote work is here to stay. Virtual call centers, equipped with cloud-based technologies and collaboration tools, allow agents to work from anywhere with an internet connection. This flexibility not only enhances workforce productivity but also enables businesses to tap into a global talent pool, fostering diversity and inclusivity.
- 4 -
Focus on employee well-being and training
Recognizing the pivotal role of frontline agents, call centers are placing greater emphasis on employee well-being and professional development. Comprehensive training programs ensure that agents possess the skills and knowledge required to deliver exceptional service. Furthermore, initiatives promoting work-life balance, mental health support and career advancement opportunities contribute to higher job satisfaction and retention rates.
- 5 -
Personalization at scale
In the era of hyper-personalization, call centers leverage data analytics and AI to tailor interactions based on individual customer profiles. From personalized greetings to targeted product recommendations, each interaction is crafted to resonate with the customer’s preferences and history. By delivering relevant and contextualized experiences, businesses foster stronger customer relationships and drive loyalty.
In conclusion, the call center landscape is characterized by a convergence of technology, customer-centricity and social responsibility. As organizations adapt to these evolving trends, they must remain agile and proactive in meeting the ever-changing needs of their customers while fostering a supportive and inclusive work environment for their employees. By embracing innovation and prioritizing customer satisfaction, call centers will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of customer service.
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#### The New Rules of Engagement employee inspiration research report
Employees who believe their good work will be recognized are 12.4 times more likely to say they have a great company culture.
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The New Rules of EngagementDownload
Foreword
When it comes to engaging and inspiring employees, BI WORLDWIDE believes in a good and useful future where companies make the right investments that bring about increased employee commitment, effort and inspiration.
Following Asimov’s line of thinking, BIW’s annual research study explored various trends in the workplace. We dove into the role of artificial intelligence and how it impacts the way employees feel about their work experience and business outcomes. We looked at how more effective learning can help employees gain additional skills, increasing their confidence in their job performance. This tailored learning can be especially helpful for salespeople who represent their companies in the market.
With the introduction of more high-tech enablement tools, companies will have more opportunities for human interaction that is meaningful. With the help of AI tools, managers can effectively coach, recognize and reward employees. Employees can reduce mundane tasks and recognize their coworkers, heightening their sense of gratitude. And survey results can be analyzed more quickly, allowing for employees to have their voices heard.
At the heart of all this research is The New Rules of Engagement®, BIW’s proprietary model that identifies what companies can offer their employees to encourage them to stay, work hard and feel inspired at work. We update these benchmarks every year, test concepts by listening to what our clients are experiencing and adjust our research accordingly.
The New Rules of Engagement®
This year, our survey respondents spoke to many trends including recognition, artificial intelligence, communication with their leaders and employer, ESG, deskless employees, remote work, managers, survey feedback and more. All this data wouldn’t fit into one report, so we’re focusing on six keys trends this year:
Survey feedback
Recognition's impact on culture
Recognition's impact on business results
Gratitude
Artificial intelligence
Sales enablement
The research around these key topics can help build concrete strategies for your business. These strategies are grounded in real-world data and experiences and can help create a brighter, more engaged workplace.
Surveys
Conducting employee surveys won't change company culture - but here's what does.
Psychologist Dr. Donald O. Clifton believed that one of the most important things you can do as a leader is “help people feel heard – genuinely heard.” When it comes to conducting employee engagement surveys, how do you do that? It’s not just about handing out the survey but making sure employees feel their voices matter. BI WORLDWIDE found that most companies survey their employees annually or even quarterly. Technology has made it easier and more cost effective to do surveys more often and companies are doing so with greater frequency, including using focus groups or town hall meetings.
This year, BIW asked participants about the surveys they received from their companies. Ninety-two percent of those who remembered being asked to complete a survey said they provided feedback.
But some companies still worry about “survey fatigue” and lack of participation.
BIW’s research shows this isn’t an issue. Applying common sense when initiating surveys – like not starting more than two at a time – helps to ease those concerns. However the reasons as to why employees didn’t participate in company surveys varied, including:
When employees don’t see their feedback making a difference, they might feel less inclined to participate in surveys. Less than half of employees feel that meaningful changes happen as a result of the surveys.
Companies need to understand that when they conduct surveys and ask for feedback, they’re setting an expectation that something is going to happen.
Most employees realize they don’t get everything they asked for, but they do expect action. Failure to act may lead to demoralized employees.
But it’s not all bad news. When companies have meaningful conversations with employees, those employees show higher levels of commitment, effort and inspiration.
Sharing survey results helps the team go from insights to actions. BIW’s research shows that:
The key is to not delay action on survey results. Employees said the biggest barrier to taking meaningful action is the time between completing the survey and sharing the results.
If too much time passes, you risk losing momentum.
What can you do to make sure you’re making the most of your survey results?
Ensure surveys measure important, actionable outcomes.In one case, BI WORLDWIDE was able to help a health services client establish a strong relationship between their survey results and employee retention and patient satisfaction, gaining the attention of leadership.
Offer confidential feedback opportunities about their results and how they can grow.There are several tools available for employees to receive confidential feedback that can help them take greater ownership of their engagement. To be sure, creating an engaged culture must be driven by leaders and managers. Providing resources to individual contributors can also help.
Let employees know they've been heard.Create an action plan that includes communications from senior leaders to inform employees of the results. Even if some of the results are less than desirable, sharing the results and what you plan to do with them should be an ongoing approach.
Act on what counts.Using The New Rules of Engagement® model, BIW conducts an analysis to decide which areas of investment can bring the most return. For some companies, compensation is not the most important area to employees, but rather a sense of belonging and seeing their future are areas to focus on.
Train managers to take the right actions.Changing culture can take time, and managers play an important role in engaging their team members. But managers aren’t often equipped to follow up on survey results. Companies need to provide their managers and leaders with ongoing training and guidance to avoid the belief that they aren’t following up and taking these surveys seriously.
Celebrate and communicate early wins to build momentum.Make sure early wins are shared widely to help build momentum and show employees you’re listening to them.
Hear from our expert: Mark Hirschfeld, Vice President, Consulting Services and Strategic Partnerships
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1042281276
Recognition's impact on culture
Boost your company culture with evidence-based tactics.
When we think about companies with outstanding cultures, we often imagine trendy office spaces with exposed brick walls, open layouts, free drinks and foosball tables. Similarly, when AI thinks of a great workplace culture, it shows images of young, overly cheerful employees around a reclaimed wood table, surrounded by colorful Post-it® notes.
But employees in large companies know these pictures aren’t reality. Even in offices with regular desks and plain walls, great cultures can thrive. So what makes a great company culture if it’s not espresso machines and other trendy stuff?
Recognition is a key pillar that can influence the other pillars of wellbeing, purpose, leadership and belonging. When done strategically, recognition can make employees feel more valued, healthy, connected, purposeful and trustful of leadership.
Employees receiving recognition and rewards had the biggest gains in terms of feeling valued by their companies, but they also were more likely to feel a sense of wellbeing, belonging, purpose and a trust in leadership.
Recognition can also explicitly support your values. What gets recognized gets repeated, so it’s important to tie recognition to behaviors that reflect your company values. Analyzing recognition data can show which values might be misunderstood or underrepresented. For example, a large life sciences client found that one of their core values was only recognized 10% of the time. They launched a communications campaign to educate employees on this value and incentivized its recognition, doubling the recognition of the value and helping to embed it into the company culture.
While every company’s culture is unique, great cultures share common traits: trust in leadership, support for employee wellbeing, a sense of purpose and belonging and effective recognition. Remember, a great culture isn’t about having exposed brick walls – it’s about creating an environment that reinforces these pillars and your specific company values.
Hear from our expert: Amy Stern, Vice President, Employee Performance Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1042278885
Recognition’s impact on business results
How does recognition help you reach your big goals?
At BI WORLDWIDE, we help our clients deliver real, tangible results through our recognition programs. When we ask program owners about their big goals, we often hear things like “improve culture” or “create a sense of purpose.” These are great goals, and we can certainly help with them. But that’s not what we’re asking.
We want to know your big goals. Are you trying to launch a new product while phasing out an old one? Do you need to increase your market share or double your revenue over the next five years? Maybe you want to boost your Net Promoter Score by at least 20 points.
Big goals are labeled as such for a reason – they’re challenging to achieve. They require the full attention, focus and commitment of every single employee. In large companies with tens of thousands of employees worldwide, all engaged in different tasks, this can seem daunting. At BI WORLDWIDE, we have a proven framework to help you achieve these big goals.
First, let’s acknowledge that recognition impacts culture.
Recognition also boosts employee engagement. Employees who receive recognition and awards are more likely to feel committed, work harder and feel inspired. A good culture and engaged employees lead to positive business results.
For example, Irrational Capital partnered with Harbor Capital to create a Large Cap ETF based on companies’ culture and engagement scores. This fund has, on average, outperformed the S&P 500 since its inception.
Our data at BIW supports this pattern, showing that companies with better culture, engagement and employee experience also report more financial growth.
However, these are correlations. We can flip the chart and see that companies with higher financial projections also have better cultures and engagement. So does culture drive results or do results drive culture? Our research and client work suggest it’s both. Good culture drives good results, and good results make for a better culture. But even great cultures can have problems. One of our clients with high culture scores experienced a failed project launch, leading to lower scores for the teams involved.
The reality is that culture and business results influence each other. If you’re only focusing on improving culture, you won’t unlock your program’s full potential. Think of building a great basketball team: to win, you need both talented players and team cohesion. A team that focuses on individual skills OR teamwork will perform better than one that focuses on neither. But a team that focuses on both will have far greater success. The same goes for recognition. By fueling this cycle from all sides, we achieve stronger and faster results than by influencing culture alone.
At BI WORLDWIDE, we help our clients by recognizing achievements and supporting culture while driving business results. We use our business improvement process and principles of behavioral economics to understand your strategic goals, key stakeholders and challenges. We then design a program that communicates, educates, motivates and updates employees as they work towards these big goals.
Using this model, we have driven big goals like improving free cash flow, increasing quarterly and annual sales and reducing turnover.
The next time you think about goals for your recognition program, think big. What are your executive team’s priorities? What do you need your employees to do to reach these goals? Then put the model to work: educate, communicate, motivate and update your teams to achieve something great while reinforcing your culture. You’ll create a great workplace and drive significant impact.
Hear from our expert: Erin Ekstrand, Managing Director, Client Services
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1042280980
Gratitude
Gratitude benefits more than just the receiver.
We’re all familiar with receiving recognition and how we feel when we’re recognized. But what’s not talked about as much is how showing gratitude benefits the giver. Giving serves a far greater function than just enabling someone else to receive.
Here are the six benefits of showing gratitude at work:
Expressing gratitude has physical and mental health benefits.For some, recognition feels like just one more thing to add to a stressful plate. But it’s helpful to know that expressing gratitude has benefits on physical and mental health. An article from the Mayo Clinic stated that expressing gratitude can improve sleep, decrease depression and anxiety and decrease difficulties with chronic pain. It also helps improve immunity and connections with others.1
Expressing gratitude can improve physiological stress responses in work tasks.Gratitude has been related to improved stress responses. A study placed university students who had been acquainted for a few months into groups and asked them to individually complete a task typically found in a work environment. They were asked to collaborate on the product design, the marketing plan development and a product pitch. Each team member was required to deliver part of the product pitch to a panel of judges. To raise the stakes the winning team would receive $200.Before the tasks began, the groups were split into two conditions. Half of the groups included a teammate who was expressing gratitude to the other. The other half of the groups just talked about their days. The study found that the teams who experienced the gratitude condition had superior physiological responses in both the collaborative task and the individual task compared to the control group.2
Gratitude promotes culture.We also see gratitude’s impact in real life, not just in university studies. The New Rules of Engagement® annual research asked questions around gratitude, and we found that those who reported feeling a strong sense of gratitude at work are ten times more likely to say they belong at their company, have a great company culture and would recommend their company as a great place to work.
Giving recognition is one way to express gratitude - and it feels great too.Those who gave recognition in the past month scored 11 percentage points higher on the item “I have so much to be grateful for.” And those who give and receive recognition experience positive emotions after the event, including greater happiness, pride and connection.
Recognition is contagious.More giving creates a domino effect. Those receiving recognition in the past month are three times more likely to have given recognition in the past month as well. In fact, whether someone received recognition in the past month was the best predictor of whether they gave recognition, an even stronger predictor than how often they report typically recognizing colleagues.
Witnessing gratitude spurs prosocial behaviors.Academic research also suggests that those viewing recognition are more likely to build connections and exhibit helpful behaviors with givers and receivers, creating the culture we want to see at work and opportunities for them to be recognized.3So what can you do to help drive gratitude at work? Reflect on what you’re grateful for at work – both the little things and the big things – and recognize your teammates. Celebrating gratitude as a team and setting a goal to express gratitude can spur others to do the same.
Hear from our expert: Stephanie Hanlon, Senior Account Director, Life Sciences and Healthcare
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1042282489
Artificial intelligence
To bot or not to bot - embracing the hope (and the concerns) of AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are already influencing our world, especially at work. At the 2024 HR Tech Conference, industry analyst Josh Bersin said that with fewer people being born, companies will be operating with fewer employees and may need to rely on AI more often. He also said AI will be incredibly important for the labor market, employee experience and employee reskilling, pointing out that AI tools today are much more advanced than before.4
With these changes, how do employees feel about AI? What's the best way to teach them about it?
BI WORLDWIDE asked employees about AI tools like ChatGPT at work. About half of the respondents have been using AI regularly. This acceptance pattern is similar to previous digital transformations like the Internet and social media.
Participants see opportunities in AI coming into the workplace AND voice concerns.
While AI can make work more efficient and innovative, there is concern about job loss and unethical use.
More experienced users view AI in the workplace differently than infrequent users.
Hands-on experience with AI changes people’s view. Frequent users see more benefits in AI improving performance and innovation, while less frequent users don’t see as many.
When employees worry about AI taking their jobs, they are half as likely to feel committed at work. Companies need to address these fears to keep their employees.
How do we address concerns and take advantage of opportunities with such new technology? Artificial intelligence is a new tool that needs a thoughtful plan, but companies can learn from decades of digital transformation knowledge. A recent study funded by Workday identified four key elements to support using this generation of digital tools.5
Be transparent:Be open about issues like data security, bias, and job loss.
Increase training:Employees using AI feel more positive and are more likely to help with innovations.
Target communications:Create different messages for frequent versus new users of AI. Managers who have not readily embraced AI will need different messaging than individual contributors.
Listen to feedback:Use a two-way feedback loop to understand and address employee concerns that may arise.
Examples of success with AI
Along with these best practices, there are many companies using these principles and achieving important business results. For example, a large firm with a dedicated call center to address HR issues created an AI chatbot to answer common questions, freeing up employees to handle more complex issues. This has led to quicker HR response times, higher job satisfaction from the call center employees and overall satisfaction with HR responses. With the overall call center volume reduced, qualified representatives are being retrained to support important roles that weren’t being adequately staffed, easing concerns about job loss.
Another example comes from a national retail chain that saw a significant increase in how customers were being helped when calling a store. The company used a firm to monitor calls and provide performance feedback to store managers and employees. This approach had some benefits, but the solution was expensive, and some participants expressed concerns about the fairness of the coaching. Instead, the company implemented an AI tool to assess calls and provide more immediate feedback that employees felt was less biased. It also freed up managers to coach and support employees. The AI tool identified high call volume windows and routed calls to a call center to handle scheduling services, reducing costs and improving customer service.
IBM uses its own AI platform, watsonx, for productivity improvements. Steve Moss, Director of watsonx Americas for IBM, noted that 80% of their top IT issues are being addressed by AI, and over 10 million yearly interactions with HR are fully resolved by AI. IBM also saved $165 million in annualized operational savings and 26,000 hours across procurement processes using AI.6
BI WORLDWIDE used an AI tool to analyze comments for The New Rules of Engagement® survey, which is an analysis of unstructured data. The methods for analyzing unstructured data have been in place for over 80 years and are highly reliable, but the process is incredibly time consuming. BIW tested the tools against our proven methods and found them to be accurate in generating a solid draft of results to which our analysts can add their insights. Additionally BIW uses AI to support our customers in their programs, including data protection, bias elimination, program administration reduction and learning program enhancement.
AI tools are here to stay and will continue changing the workplace. Using them well and addressing concerns will create a more engaging, productive work environment. “To bot or not to bot” really isn’t the question; we’re going to use AI, so let’s do it right.
Hear from our expert: Beth Sundberg, Vice President, Technology Solutions Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1042279785
Engaging the sales audience
Genuine sales enablement – making the impossible actually possible.
There are over twelve million sales employees in the United States, making it one of the biggest job categories we study. But selling is tough, even for the best salespeople. Companies need to create a good environment for their sales reps in the market. They need their reps to build strong relationships and turn customers into advocates.
Financially successful companies have more engaged sellers.
As a part of The New Rules of Engagement® survey this year, BIWORLDWIDE asked sales representatives about their engagement levels based on the four outcomes of commitment, effort, inspiration and overall engagement. They were also asked how their companies were doing financially: better, worse or the same as the prior year.
Three in every four sales reps who said their companies are doing much better financially reported higher levels of commitment, effort, inspiration and overall engagement. Those who said their companies are doing worse than the previous year have much lower levels of commitment and engagement.
Creating a more engaging work environment can boost business success, including sales. While more engaged employees produce better business results, the relationship goes both ways. It’s more fun to sell for the winning team, so better business results also lead to more engaged employees.
The right tools help our sales representatives get the job done.
Sales reps need the right tools to sell more. With the right tools, they are fifteen times more likely to be engaged at work and ten times more likely to be committed to their job. For example, a publicly traded pharmaceutical client’s compensation plans performed well through most of the quarter, but the SPIFF wasn’t generating end-of-quarter activity. BIW reimagined the SPIFF program with inspiring non-cash rewards which gained the attention of the salespeople and produced significantly better end-of-quarter results. In the medical device and pharmaceutical fields, sales compensation programs can be complicated. There’s a good business case for more complicated plans, but they often create confusion with sales reps and sales managers regarding what to do, when to do it and why.
Artificial intelligence is an emerging trend in sales enablement. In The New Rules of Engagement® study, salespeople had less experience with AI tools on average than other groups. Half of all study participants were using AI tools monthly compared to only one third of salespeople. There are consequences for salespeople who don’t use AI tools. They are less likely to see how it can streamline their work and more likely to worry about it affecting their jobs.
Salespeople who feel a great sense of belonging are generally more engaged.
Of all the factors in The New Rules of Engagement® model, Foster Belonging has the strongest correlation to sales. Sales reps who feel they belong are far more likely to say they are committed to, inspired by and working hard for their employer.
One client launched a program to increase belonging among their salespeople. The program had received little interest or engagement because it was optional, and most employees chose the “not interested” option. One principle of behavioral sciences is to provide activities in a way where the audiences feel an idiosyncratic fit – the feeling they have a chance of being successful. Using this principle, BIW’s Research & Strategy and Communications teams developed a program that offered awareness and learning activities to address the lack of program participation.
BIW conducted pre- and post-program surveys over the yearlong duration. All engagement metrics increased by a statistically significant extent, including attitude and behavior indicators. The results also showed that when a manager was involved in the program, their direct reports were far more likely to be involved.
Salespeople who are thriving are more likely to stay.
Sales is a challenging job, and stress comes naturally with that job. But too much stress can take a toll and cause sellers to make a “happiness decision” where they leave the company. When companies are committed to helping their salespeople thrive, the salespeople are 7.9 times more likely to be committed to staying with the company.
Many times, companies create unnecessary stress. Salespeople are often inundated with communications from various parts of the company who want the attention of the sales force. The reps are often confused where to find information, who can help them and how they can access other sources of data to do their jobs.
In the previous belonging case study, BIW also studied if communications were being seen and responded to, as that would provide an early indicator of the results achieved. The belonging campaign broke through the clutter and drove participation among salespeople. The right communications plan led to increased understanding and engagement.
Salespeople who are learning produce results.
Learning and development are also tools to enable sales reps to do their jobs well.
Data from a transportation industry client shows how important learning and development is to achieving results. Over three years, the company tracked sales performance against learning completion. Sales reps that took advantage of ALL learning opportunities significantly outperformed those who took some or none of the courses. Completing learning courses dramatically increases sales success. Investing in the development of sales reps can have a huge impact on the bottom line.
Store associates of a retail client needed to learn how to introduce customers to their branded loyalty program. When customers sign up for the program, their loyalty to the brand increases, so this was an important effort for the retailer.
BIW created a learning program using proprietary gamification tools of leaderboards and missions where retail associates were educated on how to speak with customers about loyalty benefits. These missions allowed associates to earn points redeemable for non-cash rewards. When associates engaged with the website ten or more times, their loyalty enrollment rate was double those who didn’t. Those who earned and redeemed points were so inspired by the process that they were more likely to achieve their goal more quickly the second time. Associates whose managers participated were more likely to also participate, and new employees who engaged in the program were able to catch up quickly to more tenured associates. The results were the same across the retailer’s different brands, showing the power of the program regardless of the store concept.
Providing opportunities for salespeople to learn – based on what they believe to be of value – can have a significant impact on them staying and producing in the market.
What salespeople value in rewards.
BIW’s research over many years has found that redeemable rewards points are a great motivator for salespeople. One example is a direct sales organization that offered a voluntary certification program. Reps who completed the certification and received points for doing so experienced much higher sales.
Companies rely on their salespeople to present their goods and services to the market in a way that creates raving fans. They need to provide the right infrastructure and tools to support a salesperson’s efforts. It’s about creating a culture where salespeople feel they belong. It’s about cutting through the clutter and getting them the right information at the right time. And it’s about developing a learning culture where they can speak confidently to customers. Following these practices can increase the chances of making the impossible actually possible for your salespeople.
Hear from our expert: Molly Anderson, Senior Account Manager, Employee Performance Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1042281861
Conclusion
In discussing the future, Isaac Asimov concluded, "Better to make a good future than a bad one."
BI WORLDWIDE’s insights lead us to challenge each other to create that good future, one where employees:
Know how to use AI tools to be more productive and see them as trusted sources
Believe they are heard and that meaningful progress will be made based on their feedback
Can experience meaningful recognition that leads to increased business results
Will feel a genuine sense of gratitude in their workplace
Building a positive workplace culture is a continuous journey that requires commitment and collaboration from everyone in the organization to foster a culture of trust, respect and innovation. These efforts not only improve employee satisfaction and retention but also drive better business outcomes. As you implement these practices, you’ll see how small changes can lead to big improvements.
With dedication and the right tools, you can create an environment where employees are excited to come to work every day, feel valued for their contributions and are motivated to achieve their full potential.
Appendix
BI WORLDWIDE partnered with a panel company in the United States to target employees of companies with 1,000 employees or more. After completing data quality procedures, a total of 1,056 surveys were included. Employees came from over 20 different industries, including healthcare, retail, technology, transportation and finance.
The data were balanced to reflect the age, gender and ethnicity of full-time U.S. employees as outlined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Forty-eight percent of respondents were female while 52% were male. The average respondent age was 43.3 years with a standard deviation of 13.9 years.
Additional Sources
Logan, A. (2022). Feeling grateful improves health. Mayo Clinic.
Gu, Y., Ocampo, J. M., Algoe, S. B., & Oveis, C. (2022). Gratitude expressions improve teammates’ cardiovascular stress responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 3281–3291.
Algoe, S. B., Dwyer, P. C., Younge, A., Oveis, C. (2020). A new perspective on the social functions of emotions: Gratitude and the witnessing effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 40-74.
Colletta, J. (2024). Josh Bersin’s top AI headline for 2025? It’s all about the agents. HR Executive.
Kircher, A. (2023). How do employees feel about AI at work, and what can you do? Workday.
Moss, S. (2024). A Month in IBM Sales: Becoming Client Zero. LinkedIn.
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#### The New Rules of Engagement® global employee inspiration research report
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Jump to a section:
Insights behind the trends in employee inspiration
How recognition goes viral and why it matters
Can 1+1=3? When two engagement drivers multiply impact
How to lead through uncertainty with intention
From fear to force multiplier
Close the gap for the frontline workforce
Moments that shape culture and strengthen connection
The 3x2 total rewards toolkit
Why cash alone can't buy commitment
Recognition that delivers measurable results
The Linus Pauling effect: how volume fuels innovation
Is "TMI Syndrome" disengaging your sales force?
Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said,
"You have a right to your own opinion but not a right to your own facts."
Foreword
BI WORLDWIDE focuses on the facts: real data on how organizations can engage and inspire employees across every role, industry, and corner of the world. Each year, The New Rules of Engagement® pushes that research further, translating what we’ve learned into practical action.
How can we build a culture of recognition that fuels measurable business outcomes?
What makes recognition contagious?
How do we engage and inspire "deskless" employees across manufacturing, retail, and distribution?
How can cash and non-cash tools be used to attract, retain, and motivate sales producers?
What role do milestone celebrations play in strengthening connection?
How is artificial intelligence reshaping the employee experience?
How can we manage constant change while keeping employees engaged?
How do we tap into employee creativity and turn ideas into results?
In an era of nonstop noise, how do we communicate clearly enough to be heard?
There’s no single playbook for applying these insights. A manufacturer with hundreds of frontline employees faces different realities than an automotive dealership or a digital start-up. A long-tenured workforce celebrates milestones differently than a company scaling at full speed. And recognition for a patentable innovation looks different from recognition for improving a daily process.
That’s where the real challenge (and the fun) begins: turning facts into action. When organizations connect insight to execution, they don’t just improve culture; they transform performance.
Let's get started.
The New Rules of Engagement®
Each year, our research sheds new light on what truly drives engagement and what holds it back. This year’s findings reflect a workplace in motion: recognition that spreads like wildfire, artificial intelligence reshaping productivity, and managers redefining what leadership looks like in a world of constant change.
From deskless employees craving connection to salespeople balancing compensation and meaning, employees everywhere are asking the same question: “Does my work matter, and do you see it?”
The data says it does. The challenge is what you do with it.
Making inspiration go viral
Feedback and recognition
Managing change in challenging times
Artificial intelligence
Deskless employees
Celebrating milestones
Compensation for salespeople
Inspiration vs. compensation and recognition
The power of ideas
Business outcomes
Addressing the challenges of poor communication
The insights behind these trends are more than numbers. They’re proof that engagement isn’t accidental. It’s built through design, data, and discipline.
The opportunity now? Turn insight into impact.
Recognition contagion
How recognition goes viral and why it matters
Recognition isn’t a perk; it’s one of the most powerful tools for improving performance. When employees feel their successes are seen and celebrated, they don’t just feel happier; they work harder and think bigger.
The data speaks for itself:
That's not coincidence. That's causation.
If recognition is this powerful, how can we create more of it? One answer lies in a principle with deep behavioral roots: social contagion.
The Oxford Dictionary defines it as:
"the spread of ideas, attitudes, or behavior patterns in a group through imitation and conformity."i
Just like emotions or habits, recognition can be contagious.
And the data confirms it: Employees who received recognition in the past month are 2.9x more likely to have sent recognition themselves. Recognize someone, and they’re far more likely to recognize someone else. That’s the ripple effect that turns individual appreciation into an organizational movement.
To understand this dynamic more deeply, BI WORLDWIDE analyzed the recognition program of a retail company with roughly 12,000 employees. Over a 60-day period, employees sent more than 33,000 recognition messages, (an average of 539 messages per day) that was received by 64% of the workforce.
Most of these messages were public, allowing employees to view and celebrate one another’s successes. Employees could send either group recognitions (to multiple recipients) or individual recognitions (one-to-one).
“Team – I am so proud of all of you for delivering on our sales goal last week! You made such a large impact on the area’s performance, and I want to say thank you.
Thank you for your focus on the customer, on ensuring operational excellence, and on driving results! Congrats to the best team for making goal – 110%!”
Authentic. Heartfelt. Shared success on full display.
"It's officially six months today since you added me to your team. I wanted to take the time to say THANK YOU! You're an AWESOME manager and such a pleasure to work with."
Another read:
"Congrats for always being such a team player and attracting people with your smile. You are such an energetic person with a golden heart. Your laugh is so contagious and customers just vibe with your personality. Keep up the great energy."
Both types of recognition matter, but one proved far more contagious. When we compared the next several weeks of data, employees who received a personal recognition were significantly more likely to send a recognition message than those who received a group one.
Why? Because individual recognition hits a different emotional register. It says you matter, not just your team. That doesn’t mean group messages don’t belong. They’re powerful for celebrating collective success, as in the example of the manager praising their team for exceeding 110% of their sales goal. But group messages should be complemented by personal recognition because culture change happens one authentic message at a time.
Pay close attention to individual contributions.
Look for smaller moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Revisit long-tenured employees whose consistent impact may be taken for granted.
Listen to peers, customers, or partners who can reveal unseen wins.
Yes, it takes effort. But the payoff is exponential. Recognition spreads when it starts personally.
Want to make recognition more contagious? Make it personal.
Recognition doubles creative output and effort – backed by data.
Social contagion is real: recognition inspires recognition.
Individual recognition sparks stronger cultural momentum than group praise.
Group messages build unity, but personal messages build commitment.
Authenticity fuels repetition; recognition done right becomes self-sustaining.
Hear from our expert
Amy Stern, Vice President, Employee Performance Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143225517?
Feedback and recognition
Can 1+1=3? When two engagement drivers multiply impact
Can you turn pewter into gold? The alchemists of old tried (and failed) to defy nature. But when it comes to employee engagement, it turns out that combining two seemingly simple elements—feedback and recognition—can create something that feels a lot like workplace alchemy.
At BI WORLDWIDE, we see it every year in our data. Each factor matters on its own, but together, they multiply impact in ways that defy logic.
The power of feedback
In our “Make It Personal” rule, we asked employees if they receive constructive feedback about their work.
The results are clear:
Employees who agree their manager provides honest, constructive feedback are 9.1x more likely to report being highly engaged.
That aligns with outside research too. Quantum Workplace found that less than half of employees believe their organization’s approach to performance management is effective, efficient, or engaging, and two-thirds of those considering leaving their job cite dissatisfaction with performance management tools. ii
“What’s often missing from the conversation about the importance of feedback is the real reason why it matters: Feedback is a critical tool for helping employees find deeper meaning in their day-to-day work.” iii
“Employees crave feedback; they want to know where they stand. Being transparent with them about how they’re performing helps build trust and alignment.” iv
"My manager listens to me and asks how I'm doing. And even where there's opportunities for me to get better, the feedback is never hurtful. She genuinely wants to help me."
"I just had my annual review. I had a great year and got a nice pay raise! The best part is my manager meets with me regularly, so I always know where I stand. I don't feel like my annual review is ever a surprise."
"Feedback? What feedback? I rarely talk to my manager, and when I do, it's only because they need help on a project that's important to them. The annual review is just for compliance and nothing else."
"How they evaluate employees here is a joke. Management has their favorites, and the favorites are going to get the biggest raises and best opportunities. It doesn't make any difference what you do. If you're not one of the 'in crowd,' you're not getting good feedback."
Too many employees still feel feedback happens to them instead of for them.
Recognition: the amplifier
In our “Magnify Success” rule, we asked how confident employees are that their good work will be recognized. The connection between recognition and retention is undeniable.
Employees who feel confident they’ll be recognized are 8.4x more likely to say they’re committed to staying with their organization.
"(The company) recognizes employees when we do well and helps build on our strengths. I love it here and see myself thriving for a long time."
"I've worked as a service technician for several companies and I've never felt as appreciated as I do here. They truly care about their staff. It's no wonder everyone in my field wants to work here."
"I give a lot to my job, and my supervisor never offers praise. I even shared an idea to improve workflow, and he passed it off as his own. My resume's ready, and I'm out the door."
"We're treated like disposable bottles. Here today, gone tomorrow. There's no respect or appreciation for the hard work we do."
Recognition without feedback is hollow. Feedback without recognition is demoralizing. Together, they’re transformative.
The alchemy of engagement
When employees report receiving both constructive feedback and meaningful recognition, engagement skyrockets. The data shows that delivering both consistently multiplies commitment, motivation, and intent to stay far beyond either factor alone.
The message is clear: Feedback and recognition aren’t competing priorities; they’re complementary forces.
The right tools make this synergy possible. BI WORLDWIDE’s Elevate platform integrates recognition with performance management, helping leaders provide both ongoing feedback and authentic appreciation.
When organizations invest in systems and culture that support both, something remarkable happens. Performance improves. Retention strengthens. People grow.
That’s not alchemy. That’s design. Just like turning pewter into gold.
Employees receiving constructive feedback are 9.1x more likely to be highly engaged.
Employees confident they'll be recognized are 8.4x more likely to stay connected.
Feedback builds meaning; recognition builds belonging. Together they multiply impact.
Manager transparency and trust are the foundation of both.
Integrated tools like Elevate make feedback and recognition habitual, not optional.
Hear from our expert
Beth Sundberg, Vice President, Technology Strategy
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143229663?
The change imperative
How to lead through uncertainty with intention
"Change is good. You go first."
That single phrase captures one of the biggest challenges in leadership today: everyone agrees change is necessary until they’re the ones asked to make it.
Change, especially in large organizations, is rarely smooth. It’s messy, inefficient, and often expensive. Without thoughtful planning, change efforts can leave leaders frustrated and employees demoralized.
Whether it’s implementing a new HRIS platform, launching a benefits portal, onboarding employees after an acquisition, or rolling out a new recognition program, change management must be intentional or the cost is far more than financial.
The human toll of constant change
60% of employees report experiencing constant change within their organization. When change is frequent but poorly supported, with limited training, resources, or leadership alignment, employees quickly feel overwhelmed and resistant. The result? Mistakes, service breakdowns, and disengagement.
31% of employees say they’re burnt out from ongoing change. Burnout doesn’t just reduce motivation; it corrodes trust. When change becomes chaos, people disengage, leaders lose credibility, and turnover accelerates.
Without a structured approach, organizations risk cascading problems:
Employee resistance and low moraleUnclear or sudden change breeds confusion, frustration, and pushback.
Decreased productivityPoorly supported employees can't adapt quickly, slowing down progress.
Increased errors and reworkGaps in training or communication compromise quality and compliance.
Missed deadlines and inflated budgetsDisorganization and misalignment derail timelines.
Loss of trust in leadershipWhen employees feel blindsided, it erodes confidence in future initiatives.
The B.U.I.L.D. for Change model
To help clients navigate transformation with confidence, BI WORLDWIDE developed the B.U.I.L.D. for Change model, a practical, behavioral-science-based approach grounded in the work of Harvard’s Dr. John Kotter and our long-time partner Dr. Kurt Nelson.
Each phase helps leaders anchor change in data, empathy, and measurable results.
Initiate with intention and clarity.
Define business outcomes and governance before execution begins.
Assess the current state.
Gather data and insights to benchmark employee sentiment and readiness, including perceptions of change pace and well-being.
Develop strategies rooted in behavioral science.
Turn insights into actionable programs that inspire adoption.
Support others through the transition.
Use proven principles from Kotter and Nelson to communicate, train, and measure outcomes—such as turnover, safety, or customer advocacy—before and after the change.
Evaluate and iterate.
Use evidence to continuously improve and sustain progress.
Each phase can be tailored to an organization’s unique culture and infrastructure. BI WORLDWIDE’s model can also integrate seamlessly with other established change management frameworks when clients already have one in place.
Change done right: a case study
Before working with BI WORLDWIDE, a large financial institution lacked a unified recognition strategy. Their efforts were fragmented: multiple informal programs, no connection to business goals, and inconsistent visibility across teams.
We partnered with them to design and implement a cohesive recognition and rewards program that aligned directly with desired employee behaviors and customer experience outcomes.
31% decrease in turnover
$10.4 million in cost savings
4-point increase in customer satisfaction
That’s the ROI of change done right: when people are equipped, aligned, and supported, transformation drives measurable results.
From resistance to readiness
Managing change isn’t about avoiding discomfort; it’s about guiding people through it. When leaders address the “you go first” mentality with empathy, data, and clear communication, they build trust instead of fear.
Change done well isn’t just a process; it’s a cultural advantage.
60% of employees experience constant change, and 31% report burnout.
Poorly managed change erodes morale, trust, and productivity.
The B.U.I.L.D. for Change model provides a structured, science-backed framework.
Success requires clarity, empathy, and continuous measurement.
When supported by leadership, change becomes a growth accelerator - NOT a distruption.
Hear from our expert
Mark Hirschfeld, Vice President, Consulting Services and Strategic Partnerships
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143230995?
Artificial intelligence
From fear to force multiplier
A year ago, we asked employees how they felt about the introduction of AI in the workplace. The results were mixed: equal parts excitement and uncertainty.
About half of respondents had personal experience using AI at work, with engineers, managers, and technologists leading adoption.
The majority believed AI could help streamline tasks or improve efficiency.
Roughly half felt prepared to use these tools.
Many expressed concerns around privacy, security, and job replacement.
Experience mattered. Employees who had used AI firsthand felt calmer, more confident, and more optimistic about its potential.
So how do employees feel one year later?
AI adoption is rising
In 2025, the numbers are clear: employees are engaging with AI at higher rates than ever before, though 30% of our panel still report they haven’t (as far as they know) used AI tools at work.
Despite that gap, overall sentiment has improved. Employees are more prepared, more curious, and more positive about AI’s role in their daily work.
Employees now feel better equipped to use AI tools effectively.
Many believe AI will help them achieve better work-life balance.
Not everything trended upward. Concerns about data privacy and security increased slightly, and anxiety about keeping pace with AI’s evolution stayed constant. Even so, optimism outweighs apprehension, a shift that signals growing maturity in how employees view this technology.
How employees are using AI
Content creation and enhancement
Information processing and analysis
Automation and efficiency
Personalization and engagement
Customer and employee support
These patterns reflect both opportunity and evolution. As employees integrate AI into more areas of work, productivity gains (and the need for thoughtful leadership) will only increase.
Looking forward, we anticipate the next phase of workplace AI will focus on four key developments:
Fueling creativity and speed
Automating complex, multi-step tasks
Helping anticipate needs and trends
Improving systems through continuous learning
Leaders are defining the future
“AI is the defining technology of our times. It’s augmenting human ingenuity and helping us solve some of society’s most pressing challenges.” v
But technology alone isn’t enough. Culture must evolve with it.
“CEOs must foster a culture of learning and adaptation to help their workforce develop the skills necessary to thrive in an AI-driven future.” vi
That starts with open communication, consistent training, and ongoing recognition which helps employees view AI as a tool for growth, not a threat.
AI that makes recognition more human
At BI WORLDWIDE, we’re not just studying AI’s impact; we’re building it into the employee experience.
“Our first IBM watsonx-powered tool, Recognition Assistant, was deployed in January 2025 to elevate the employee recognition experience. Within IBM’s Recognition Center, employees engage with an intuitive, AI-powered wizard that guides them through crafting thoughtful messages. The assistant prompts users to reflect on the impact of their colleague’s contributions and ensures the tone is appropriate, authentic, and aligned with the user’s voice. It identifies and removes unintended negative sentiment, offers suggestions to enhance tone and clarity, and helps ensure every message feels meaningful and human. It’s not just about writing a message; it’s about making it matter.”
“Even though IBM already had a mature culture of recognition, the results have been amazing,” Imsdahl says.“We’ve seen a 20% increase in the daily number of recognitions sent. Sixty-five percent of users who generate a message with Recognition Assistant send it as their final message. And we’re saving IBMers more than 2,100 hours per month by making it easier to recognize one another.”
That’s the equivalent of one full-time employee’s worth of hours saved every month while making recognition more authentic.
AI’s real lesson: be more human.
As the data shows, AI isn’t replacing the human experience; it’s enhancing it.
By helping employees connect, personalize, and communicate with empathy at scale, AI is becoming not just a productivity tool but a cultural catalyst.
That’s why we’ve built Elevate Intelligence. Our agents can identify meaningful contributions, suggest fair awards, and alert managers when great work might otherwise go unseen. But people are still the ones sending recognition.
It turns out that when we use AI to be more human, everyone wins.
AI adoption and positivity are rising, though 30% still haven't used it at work.
Employees feel more prepared and believe AI supports better work-life balance.
Privacy and data concerns persist, but optimism now dominates.
Leadership must build cultures of learning, adaptation, and trust.
BI WORLDWIDE's Recognition Assistant proves AI can drive both authenticity and efficiency, making recognition faster, smarter, and more human.
Hear from our expert
Andrea Imsdahl, Director, Strategic Partnerships
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143229009?
Deskless employees
Close the gap for frontline workforce
Two years ago, we examined the state of deskless employees, the essential workers who keep the world running but are often furthest from corporate culture. The question then was: how do you engage a workforce that doesn’t sit behind a desk? Two years later, the question still stands.
Employees in production, manufacturing, distribution, retail, healthcare, hospitality, and some sales roles.
Those once labeled “essential” or “frontline” during the pandemic.
Employees once described as “disconnected,” a term that no longer fits, given that most now have mobile devices.
They make up the majority of the global workforce. Yet, despite being critical to business continuity, they remain undervalued and under-engaged.
The progress and the gap
Two years ago, we reported that only 36% of deskless employees received training and 34% received recognition on their mobile devices.
In 2025, those numbers have improved slightly: 42% now receive training on their device, 38% receive recognition digitally.
But the gap between deskless and office-based employees remains wide. Our research shows the consequences clearly. Employees who receive incredible recognition are 8.5x more likely to be inspired than those who don’t, and inspired employees are 6.9x more likely to say they plan to stay with their employer for the next 12 months. When recognition and training are missing, engagement lags, and turnover rises.
Deskless employees are still struggling to experience the benefits we know drive engagement. Even on fundamental cultural measures like trust, communication, and inclusion, they report significantly lower scores than their desk-based peers:
Those numbers tell a clear story: deskless employees don’t just need more messages. They need more meaningful connection.
The communication divide
Deskless employees have access to multiple communication channels, but they’re often underutilized.
Generally deskless employees feel the frequency of communications is good, but communications to this audience from executives could improve.
The fix isn’t simply “more communication.” It’s smarter, more personal communication using the right channel for the right audience, and ensuring that messages from leadership feel authentic, not transactional.
Recognition as connection
Beyond communication, recognition remains one of the most powerful engagement tools for deskless employees.
Recognizing employees for behaviors aligned with company values builds stronger connection to mission.
Written recognition from supervisors and peers increases perceived fairness and belonging.
Even simple acts like listening, acknowledging, effort, and celebrating wins serve as powerful forms of recognition.
Recognition isn’t a program; it’s a signal: You matter, even if we don’t see you every day.
Spotlight: the automotive industry
One of the clearest examples of this challenge (and opportunity) comes from the automotive industry, particularly among service technicians.
The sector is projected to grow 3% per year, and as vehicles become more complex, demand for skilled technicians will only rise. Yet, the number of open roles already exceeds the number of qualified applicants, and retirements among Baby Boomers will widen that gap.vii
In other words, engaging and retaining dealership employees is no longer optional. It’s a survival strategy.
“Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their channel partners are looking for new and inventive ways beyond compensation to attract, develop, and retain talent in an increasingly competitive and mercenary market. And, in many cases, it’s challenging them to look at areas of the OEM-to-channel relationship that were overdue for an overhaul but were easy to kick down the road when sales and talent were strong.”
He continues:
“OEMs want to change the perceived value proposition for new channel associates by creating a consistent, cohesive experience that simplifies day-to-day OEM-to-channel interaction. It all starts by cutting the clutter.”
“The industry condition Jon outlines mirrors what we saw as we started to critically evaluate how TMNA engaged and supported our dealership teams. It was an assortment of related, but disconnected touchpoints: learning and certification, rewards, sales recognition, parts and service recognition, dealer communications, regional contests. Dozens of dashboards and reporting sites.”
Patel continues:
“Each program worked fine on its own, but they were disconnected. That meant more confusion, more work for dealer teams, and ultimately lower satisfaction and higher turnover. Each internal department managed its own system independently, without considering interconnectivity.”
Her takeaway was simple:
“The audience mandate was clear: make it easy for us to understand what we need to do to be successful, what our priorities are, how we’re performing, and where to focus our day-to-day efforts.”
That insight led to the creation of the Toyota Dealership Engage Hub, developed in collaboration with BI WORLDWIDE. It’s a unified digital experience designed to simplify learning, recognition, and communication for dealership associates nationwide.viii
The result: greater clarity, consistency, and connection across the channel.
Bridging the distance
Deskless employees aren’t disengaged because they’re disinterested. They’re disengaged because they’re less connected to information, recognition, and leadership visibility.
Closing that gap requires more than technology. It takes intentional design, grounded in empathy, behavioral science, and human understanding.
When organizations invest in the experience of their deskless workforce, they don’t just improve engagement; they strengthen the backbone of their business.
Deskless employees remain under-recognized and under-trained, despite modest gains.
They lag 10-15 points behind office peers on trust, communication, and inclusion.
Recognition and authentic communication drive belonging and retention.
Automotive industry insights prove digital unification improves satisfaction and reduces turnover.
The Toyota Dealership Engage Hub is a model for connecting deskless talent through simplicity and alignment.
Hear from our expert
Jeanne Tompkins, Vice President, Automotive Solutions Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143230489?
Milestones that matter
Moments that shape culture and strengthen connection
Service anniversary recognition dates back more than a century. In the early industrial era, companies began formally honoring employees for 10, 20, or even 30 years of service which were symbols of loyalty and stability that built both pride and reputation.
What started as a gesture of longevity has evolved into something deeper: a cornerstone of culture.
In today’s workplace where tenure is shorter and loyalty is earned rather than assumed, service anniversaries remain a powerful opportunity to recognize contribution, build connection, and celebrate identity.
Recognition as a cultural pillar
Research within The New Rules of Engagement® framework consistently shows that recognition is a key pillar of culture, and service anniversaries are one of its most enduring forms.
Wellbeing
The company supports their overall wellbeing, including mental and physical health.
Recognition
Recognition is provided fairly, and team members are confident that if they do good work they will be recognized.
Purpose
Team members feel a sense of purpose, are connected to the mission, vision and values, and feel a part of something larger than themselves.
Leadership
Leaders are trustworthy, listen, support team members health and wellbeing, and have a compelling vision for the future.
Belonging
It is safe to express your opinion, be unique, and there is a strong sense of teamwork.
When employees receive a service anniversary award, they are 2.3x more likely to agree they feel connected to their company culture.
That connection runs deep. Celebrating key milestones not only reinforces engagement but strengthens relationships and belonging.
“I love working here because I feel seen and truly appreciated. Every time I hit a milestone, my team celebrates me. It’s motivating and makes me want to grow even more.”
“Being recognized for my work anniversary has made me feel valued. It’s not just about the job; it’s about the people who notice your effort.”
“When my boss called out my five-year anniversary in our team meeting, I was moved. It was so nice hearing the stories they shared about my work. I felt truly seen and appreciated.”
“When I joined, I never imagined how much my contribution would be celebrated. Every moment of celebration reminds me why I love being part of this team.”
The data behind meaningful milestones
Amy Stern, Vice President of Employee Performance at BI WORLDWIDE, recently conducted a study to understand what makes milestone moments meaningful.
BIW surveyed employees who had either received a service anniversary award or contributed to someone else’s recognition. The findings were clear:
More than a quarter of employees received zero contributions; another 29% received three or fewer. But the most meaningful and memorable celebrations had four or more contributors.
Inviting peers to participate creates inclusivity and shared ownership.
Those who received seven or more contributions reported the highest engagement levels; ten or more was best.
The conclusion is simple but profound: a celebration’s power grows with participation.
Best practices for modern programs
So how do organizations modernize service anniversaries for today’s workforce?
“Our clients are looking for programs that are personal, flexible, and easy to administer that are powered by data, aligned with culture, reinforce impact, and relevant to today’s work environment. Awards must be desirable, and the experiences should build loyalty, reinforce values, and spark meaningful connection across the workforce.”
With average U.S. tenure now around 4.1 years and even shorter in some industries, traditional five-year milestones often come too late. Early recognition is now essential to retention.
“Organizations are struggling with early turnover in the first one to two years. Younger employees expect earlier acknowledgment and faster feedback, not years of silence before a milestone.”
That’s why leading organizations are introducing new “Welcome and Belonging” milestones, recognizing employees at:
This approach builds connection before disengagement ever begins.
Looking ahead: the future of celebration
The next generation of service anniversaries will blend technology and personalization.
“The future centers on making recognition effortless, inclusive, and personal, ensuring employees are seen for their impact while leaders and peers are empowered, not burdened, to celebrate meaningfully.”
She continues:
“Our clients want reliability and consistency. With proactive reminders and AI support, our people are equipped to ensure no milestone is missed—and, with data and history at their fingertips, can craft celebrations that reflect both tenure and impact— making every recognition deeply personal and memorable.”
Tradition meets transformation
The service anniversary may be a century-old tradition, but its relevance is timeless. When done well, it doesn’t just honor time served; it celebrates impact, purpose, connection, and shared success.
A well-designed service anniversary program is more than a moment of appreciation; it’s a cultural statement. You belong here. You matter. And we see you.
Employees receiving service anniversary awards are 2.3x more likely to feel connected to company culture.
The number of contributors directly increases meaning and engagement. Seven or more is ideal.
Peer contributions are as powerful as leadership recognition.
Modern programs focus on early milestones and belonging, not just tenure.
The future of recognition combines AI, personalization, and proactive inclusion to ensure everymilestone feels meaningful.
Hear from our expert
Lori Martin, Vice President, Recognition Solutions
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143230771?
Compensation and recognition for sales people
The 3x2 total rewards toolkit(Co-authored with Rob Bentley, Managing Director, Executive and Sales Compensation, Gallagher)
The world of sales is changing fast, and the way we compensate, motivate, and retain top performers must evolve with it.
AI is reshaping the selling process and the tools reps use to serve customers.
Diversity and inclusion are redefining what modern sales teams look like.
Information overload is fragmenting focus and productivity.
Compensation for talent is fiercer than ever.
Creating a true competitive advantage now depends on how organizations combine compensation, recognition, and development to attract, inspire, and retain top salespeople.
Understanding the sales employee value proposition
Every sales organization must answer three questions:
Through BI WORLDWIDE’s research and client work, we’ve identified 18 drivers of the sales employee value proposition, from culture and recognition to equity and career development.
Among these, incentive compensation drivers have the greatest behavioral impact.
Base salary
Variable compensation
Awards and contests
Recognition
Equity or long-term incentive (LTIs)
Career pathing and development experiences
The 3x2 framework: cash, non-cash, and time
To help sales leaders design the right mix, we use a 3x2 total rewards toolkit, a simple but powerful model that classifies rewards across two dimensions:
Cash vs non-cash (monetary vs. experiential or symbolic)
Short-, medium-, and long-term effectiveness
Short-term tools (monthly to quarterly) include commissions, bonuses, and contests.
Medium-term tools (quarterly to annual) include recognition programs, gamified challenges, and performance reviews.
Long-term tools (annual and ongoing) include promotions, LTIs, and development opportunities.
Most companies focus heavily on the short term, but true differentiation comes from mastering the full spectrum.
What salespeople value most
Public acknowledgement in meetings or newsletters
Monetary rewards like bonuses, raises, or gift cards
Personal thank yous from leaders or peers
Awards and certificates
Promotions and growth opportunities
Team celebrations and shared wins
Positive feedback from clients or customers
Recognition amplifies compensation; it adds meaning to money.
How fair pay and recognition work together
Whether salespeople feel they are paid fairly, and
Whether they feel confident their good work will be recognized.
Recognition plays an outsized role in driving engagement. Salespeople who feel both underpaid and unrecognized score dramatically lower on engagement across every metric.
Activating the levers
Retention challenge? Lean on long-term tools like LTIs, career pathing, development.
Performance challenge? Focus on short-term levers like contests, gamification, recognition.
Attraction challenge? Highlight total rewards transparency and culture alignment.
Strengthen their employer brand
Differentiate in a competitive talent market
Increase both sales performance and retention longevity
Turning insight into action
Cash motivates, but culture retains. Recognition, growth, and meaningful work transform a compensation plan into a commitment plan.
Sales compensation must evolve with technology, diversity, and shifting employee expectations.
Salespeople who feel both fairly paid and recognized are significantly more engaged.
The 3x2 Total Rewards Toolkit helps leaders balance short-and long-term motivators.
Recognition adds meaning to compensation and strengthens retention.
Aligning the right levers to the right business goals turns compensation into a competitive advantage.
Hear from our expert
Amy Stern, Vice President, Employee Performance Group
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143228507?
Inspiration vs. compensation
Why cash alone can't buy commitment.
There’s a Seinfeld episode where Kramer outshines Jerry by giving Elaine the birthday gift she really wanted: a wooden bench. Jerry gave her cash. The bench won by a landslide.
It’s funny, but it also raises a real question: are people more inspired by something meaningful than by money itself?
Research suggests yes.
The science behind the wooden bench
Dr. Victoria Shaffer and Dr. Hal Arkes conducted a landmark study on employee motivation and rewards that explains this phenomenon perfectly.ix
While employees often say they want cash, their behavior tells a different story. Shaffer and Arkes identified what they called “preference reversal,” a psychological pattern where people claim to prefer one thing (cash) but are actually motivated by another (non-cash).
In other words, we’ll gladly take the cash, but we’ll work harder for the bench.
What the data says
Our latest global research shows the same pattern. Employees report being more inspired to work harder for non-cash rewards, like concert tickets or the newest tech items, than for cash alone.
And the effect holds true for sales people, too.
It’s not that cash doesn’t motivate; it’s that non-cash rewards create an emotional connection. They carry meaning, story, and memory: three things money rarely provides.
Evidence from the field
Our experience and our data consistently validate this finding.
“Numerous studies have shown that cash is not as effective in driving higher levels of performance as aspirational non-financial rewards such as merchandise, travel, and experiences.”
Across industries, non-cash rewards outperform cash in both engagement and long-term memory. People recall the trip, the experience, or the tangible item long after the check has been spent. That recall reinforces loyalty and performance.
Expanding the marketplace of motivation
Of course, not everyone wants a wooden bench. The secret lies in choice.
To inspire the widest range of employees, BI WORLDWIDE offers three diverse marketplaces filled with non-cash reward options. Our Merchandise Marketplace offers premium brands and top-tier items they’ll love. Our Experiences Marketplace helps send them on a trip of a lifetime with locations and experiences beyond their wildest dreams. And our Mastery Marketplace is filled with learning and development courses that get them excited about what they can accomplish.
When participants can choose something personal, it transforms a transaction into an experience.
The bottom line
Cash pays the bills. Experiences tell the story.
When companies balance monetary rewards with personalized, aspirational recognition, they don’t just compensate employees, they inspire them.
Give employees the opportunity to earn what they see as their wooden bench and watch performance soar.
People claim to prefer cash but are more inspired by non-cash rewards.
Non-cash rewards create emotional impact and long-term motivation.
Research confirms that "preference reversal" drives stronger engagement.
Choice amplifies meaning: the best rewards feel personal, not prescribed.
Non-cash incentives like experiences and merchandise outperform cash across all roles.
Hear from our expert
Walter Ruckes, Vice President, Client Services
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143231629?
Business outcomes
Recognition that delivers results
"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."
- Phil Jackson, legendary NBA coach
Phil Jackson built championship teams by developing each player’s unique strengths. The same principle applies in business: when leaders recognize and develop each employee’s contributions, the entire organization performs better.
At BI WORLDWIDE, our operational expertise and global research confirm that helping employees focus on key activities (and recognizing them for results) translates directly to measurable business outcomes.
Recognition: the multiplying effect
To understand how different types of recognition drive engagement, we asked our global panel which forms of recognition they received most often.
It wasn’t surprising that recognition for daily behaviors was the most common. These opportunities occur frequently and are easier for managers and peers to deliver in real time. Recognition for top performance and career milestones, on the other hand, was understandably less frequent.
But frequency isn’t the only story. We wanted to know if variety matters. Does receiving more types of recognition in a year lead to stronger engagement?
The data says yes, emphatically.
Employees who received multiple forms of recognition were significantly more engaged than those who received one or none. Bottom line: more recognition and more kinds of recognition create stronger engagement.
Recognizing results and performance: the winning combination
Next, we looked at the impact of recognizing performance and results compared to other types of recognition.
The pattern was clear. When employees are recognized specifically for achieving results or demonstrating performance excellence, their engagement levels climb higher than with any other recognition type.
All forms of recognition boost engagement, commitment, and inspiration — but recognizing results and performance delivers the strongest return on investment.
From insights to ROI
Turning insights into business results requires deliberate design.
“As we identify opportunities with customers, we use our Impact Advisor tool to focus conversations on key business challenges like turnover, productivity, safety, absenteeism, speed to competency, and model how enterprise-wide recognition programs can address them. We quantify potential improvements, forecast ROI, and track actual impact as the culture of recognition matures.”
Danielson notes that the business case is compelling:
“When a company has developed a recognition-rich culture, they can expect measurable gains across multiple outcomes: lower turnover, higher productivity, fewer safety incidents, reduced absenteeism, and greater customer loyalty. In one global manufacturing client, we observed a 49.3% higher retention rate among employees who received recognition compared to those who did not. When recognition included an award, retention increased by 64.7%.”
That’s not just engagement; it’s economics.
Translating recognition into business performance
How do these insights translate into measurable business success?
Christina Fortier, Solution Owner for PerformIQ® at BI WORLDWIDE, outlines four key benefits of recognition programs designed with results in mind:
Efficiency isn’t luck; it’s focus. Balanced performance aligns teams, clarifies priorities, and keeps critical work front and center. Recognizing the behaviors that impact business results around that alignment drives engagement and motivation for frontline employees.
Organizations that clearly link individual goals to strategy through balanced performance frameworks report measurable improvement. On average, more than half of their key performance indicators improve within the first few years of implementation.x
When the metrics teams are measured on are not linked to strategic revenue or cost-savings goals, organizations incur hidden inefficiencies: duplicated effort, internal friction, lost opportunities. And that is a clear cost to business.
Balanced performance doesn’t just track outcomes; it accelerates them. When goals, metrics, and recognition align, growth becomes predictable and scalable. Connecting KPIs to decisive action is how you impact your business. Data doesn’t drive growth. Employee decisions do.
A case study in recognition ROI
“We implemented the Five Star Performance Program to drive efficiency, service quality, and engagement across 60,000 associates. The program emphasized personal best goals, transparent performance tracking, and monthly, quarterly, and annual recognition for achieving Five Star status in key metrics like safety, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.”
The results? Extraordinary.
“Over eight years, the program generated $950 million in incremental revenue and $527 million in cost savings,” said Fortier. “Beyond financial results, it built a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, proof that recognition-based motivation can drive both engagement and operational performance.”
From insight to impact
Recognition is more than a feel-good exercise; it's a performance multiplier.
When organizations recognize both performance and results, they don’t just build stronger teams. They build stronger businesses.
Coach Jackson would be proud: help each member of your team grow stronger, and the team becomes unstoppable.
Recognition variety amplifies engagement.
Recognition tied to performance and results yields the strongest ROI.
BIW's Impact Advisor and Perform IQ® tools link recognition directly to business outcomes.
Recognition-rich cultures deliver quantifiable results: higher retention, productivity, and profitability.
Balanced performance and recognition alignment create sustained business growth.
Hear from our expert
Christina Fortier, Solution Owner, PerformIQ®
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143230042?
Ideas that drive change
The Linus Pauling effect: how volume fuels innovation
Linus Pauling, the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, was once asked how he generated so many breakthrough ideas. His answer was disarmingly simple:
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas."
How ideas begin
Our global panel reveals that organizations cultivating learning, development, and support are also the ones igniting creativity.
Provides opportunities to develop skills are 7.7x more likely to say their workplace brings out their best ideas.
Offers avenues to master important skills are 10x more likely also say their workplace brings out their best ideas.
Ensures tools, resources, and support are available are 5.8x more likely to feel inspired to contribute their best ideas.
And when employees believe, "My ideas are taken seriously," they're not just happier – they're transformational:
11.5x more likely to be highly engaged
7.4x more likely to be highly committed
5.2x more likely to give high effort
10.7x more likely to be highly inspired at work
“A climate for innovation emerges when employees experience norms and practices that reward flexibility and idea expression. By empowering employees and encouraging learning, organizations stimulate them to take charge, adapt, and build on their ability to achieve the mission.”xi
Translation? Support creativity, and you'll unleash it.
Turning insight into innovation
At BI WORLDWIDE, we’ve seen that innovation isn’t accidental; it’s behavioral. Our three-phase model helps organizations build repeatable systems for idea generation:
When organizations move through these stages with purpose, innovation becomes a habit, not a hope.
Ideas in action: Free Cash Flow Challenge
A great example comes from our partnership with a global medical device company, whose leadership embraced the power of many ideas. 
In 2020, their chairman and CEO said he was pleased by the free cash flow generated. They had set a target to improve free cash flow conversion in three years and achieved it in just one year.
“I’m particularly pleased by our free cash flow generation. We set a target to improve free cash flow conversion to 80% over a 2–3-year period, and we achieved it in just one year! We delivered free cash flow of $5.9 billion in FY19, growing at a rate of 62%. This reflects the focus of our entire organization and includes the impact of initiatives such as the Free Cash Flow Challenge.”
“The Free Cash Flow Challenge and Ideas solutions both activate the power of people — your employees. One drives operational efficiency, cost optimization, and revenue growth. The other empowers employees to surface innovative, bottom-up savings, and revenue ideas. Together, they unlock measurable financial impact and foster a culture of ownership, innovation, and recognition.”
At its core, the model rewards employees for actions, behaviors, and achievements that generate specific results aligned with company goals.
Why it matters
The formula for innovation isn’t mysterious; it’s measurable.
Organizations that provide opportunities to learn, empower employees to experiment, and take their ideas seriously don’t just get more ideas. They get better ideas and more engaged people behind them.
Want more innovation? Start by inspiring more ideas.
Innovation thrives where learning and empowerment intersect.
Employees whose ideas are taken seriously show 10x higher engagement and inspiration.
A structured model like Know, Feel, Do builds innovation momentum.
The Free Cash Flow Challenge shows measurable business impact, not just tenure.
The "Linus Pauling Effect" proves that the path to one brilliant idea begins with a hundred small ones.
Hear from our expert
Steven Mars, Solution Owner, Financial Solutions
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143231271?
Communication breakdown
Is "TMI Syndrome" disengaging your sales force? 
Information is power until it isn’t. For many sales organizations, communication has become a flood. Too much, too scattered, too impersonal. Our global research shows that “TMI Syndrome” (too much information) is one of the biggest engagement killers in sales today.
Below are the six most common communication challenges identified by our panel, paired with proven strategies to solve them.
When sales teams don’t understand the bigger picture, engagement crumbles. Employees who believe leadership has a compelling vision are 13.2x more likely to be highly engaged. Yet 70% of sales employees say they receive conflicting messages from their employer.
Fix it: Align every communication to clear goals.
Employees who say leadership communicates clearly and concisely are 9.6x more likely to be engaged. Use personalized, data-driven scorecards to track goal progress and tie communications directly to performance.
“We recommend implementing personalized, visual, and data-driven scorecards that are updated bi-weekly or monthly. This provides tangible evidence of progress which fuels motivation. When paired with targeted nudge content, they sustain engagement and reinforce behaviors that drive results.”
- Matt Givand, VP of Communications, BI WORLDWIDE
26% of salespeople say they receive communication too frequently, while others say they receive none at all. 63% report feeling overwhelmed by information, higher than the 58% reported by non-sales employees.
Fix it: Cut the clutter.
Streamline communications through curated enablement platforms and brief, purposeful updates. Meet salespeople where they already are in the tools and channels they actually use.
“When we aligned communications with existing channels for a large commercial sales organization, participation skyrocketed.”
- BI WORLDWIDE + ProHabits Partnership
Top-down communication is a one-way street, and it kills engagement. Employees who feel their ideas are taken seriously are:
11.5x more likely to be highly engaged.
7.4x more likely to be committed.
10.7x more likely to be inspired.
Yet 40% of sales employees say leaders don't understand the typical employee.
Fix it: Build structured feedback systems like listening sessions, pulse surveys, and CRM insight reviews.
“An intentional employee listening strategy helps you confirm or dispel what you thought you knew, leveraging actionable data to drive improvement.”
- Quantum Workplaceii
And remember: when managers provide honest, constructive feedback, employees are 9.1x more likely to be highly engaged and 9x more likely to be inspired.
When teams interpret leadership messages differently, culture fractures. Employees who experience strong teamwork are:
10x more likely to be engaged.
8.9x more likely to be inspired.
Fix it: Standardize internal playbooks and communication guidelines.
Consistent, repeatable messaging across all channels ensures teams tell the same story to customers and to each other.
Sales is a pressure cooker. When leadership communication feels cold or corporate, it erodes trust. Employees who trust leadership are 11.9x more likely to be engaged and 10.9x more likely to be inspired.
Fix it: Lead with authenticity.
Empathetic, transparent communication builds trust, especially in tough times. When employees hear honesty from leaders, they’re 8.3x more likely to feel inspired.
And never underestimate the power of recognition. When employees hear “You did a great job,” they’re 8.7x more likely to be highly engaged and 7.7x more likely to feel inspired.
Over-reliance on email or static meetings leaves messages lost in translation.
Fix it: Match the medium to the message. 
Use short videos, Slack updates, and rich-media messages to keep salespeople informed in real time.
“Modern communications tech, such as BIW’s Actify platform, enables us to deliver highly personalized content tailored to each salesperson or employee. By leveraging goal progress, activity levels, and even sentiment, we ensure that messages are not only timely but also contextually relevant. These content nudges can be deployed across a client’s preferred channels, usually email or rich-media SMS, creating a more engaging and personalized communication experience.”
- Matt Givand, VP of Communications, BI WORLDWIDE
An interview focused on behavioral science and the human element
Dr. Kurt Nelson, behavioral strategist and long-time BI WORLDWIDE partner, has worked with global sales organizations to make communication more effective and more human. We asked him his thoughts on the challenges of communication with salespeople.
Here’s a summary of that interview.
Many of the organizations we work with struggle to ensure that sales representatives truly buy into the goals that are allocated to them. We find a recurring disconnect: salespeople often perceive their goals as unfair, inaccurate, or out of reach. When goals are not seen as both achievable and fair, salespeople lose trust in their incentive compensation plan, decreasing motivation and performance.
Another significant challenge is balancing a “pay-for-performance” philosophy with the reality that sales results are influenced by many factors outside of an individual’s control such as market shifts, pricing decisions, access constraints, or territory dynamics. This ongoing tension sparks debate around whether, and to what degree, incentive plans should include a “safety net,” such as a minimum earnings floor. Too little protection risks disengagement and burnout, while too much can dilute the motivational impact of pay-for-performance models.
One last challenge that we are witnessing is the rise in uncertainty, felt both at the leadership level and among front-line employees. Leaders are navigating shifting economic conditions, regulatory changes, and unpredictable market dynamics that are more chaotic than ever. Meanwhile, employees are not only impacted by these external forces but are also grappling with how the organization responds. For many, this translates into concerns about job stability and future prospects. This uncertainty drives increased stress, burnout, and a sense of languishing that is higher than we’ve seen in years past.
Understanding how the brain processes goals and the emotional impact those goals can have helps companies to communicate them in a more effective manner. Behavioral science research on goal setting and fairness shows that people are more motivated when goals are framed as challenging yet attainable, and when the process of how those goals are set is transparent.
This means that companies should not only focus on what the targets are, but also how they are explained. Clear communication, with a rationale for why goals are structured a certain way, builds trust even if the salesperson doesn’t “like” the number. Goals presented in a way that emphasizes progress, mastery, and opportunity trigger very different motivational responses than goals presented as punitive quotas. The way leaders tell the story of a plan by using concrete milestones, visual aids, and examples of past success changes how salespeople see the goals and thus respond to them.
Insights from loss aversion and psychological safety help organizations navigate the safety net debate. Humans are more sensitive to losses than equivalent gains, which means that plans designed with too much downside risk can drive fear rather than performance. At the same time, a modest earnings floor can preserve psychological safety, ensuring that salespeople stay engaged and willing to take smart risks instead of playing it safe.
Finally, behavioral science provides insights into how people deal with uncertainty and stress. We can provide behaviorally based tools and training for leaders to help their team (as well as themselves) handle and respond to this uncertainty in a way that reduces stress and anxiety.
Our communication work around incentive plans has improved how well the field understands their IC plans as well as the perception of those plans. We have seen understanding increase in some instances over 40% and overall satisfaction with a plan increase up to 15%. Those changes in understanding and perception lead to improved motivation and performance.
While uncertainty has always been a component in any business, the levels that we are hearing and the subsequent anxiety we’ve seen over the past year have skyrocketed. The impact that this will have on organizations is still being played out, but we feel that it will be significant.
When communication is clear, authentic, and continuous, it builds trust, drives performance, and keeps sales teams focused on what matters.
Misalignment and TMI are silent performance killers.
Personalization, clarity, and feedback loops transform communication from noise to impact.
Recognition and authenticity humanize leadership messages.
Applying behavioral science to sales communications improves understanding, motivation, and trust.
Hear from our expert
Ben Drake, Creative Director, Communications
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143229348?
Conclusion
From insight to impact
We set out to uncover the truth about what engages people at work. Along the way, we’ve learned that engagement isn’t a program; it’s a promise. A promise that when people bring their best to work, their organization will meet them halfway.
This year’s findings reaffirm that the fundamentals still matter: recognition, feedback, purpose, and belonging. But they also reveal a deeper truth: engagement evolves as the world does. AI, hybrid work, and shifting expectations haven’t changed what people need. They’ve simply made clarity, authenticity, and trust more urgent.
When employees feel seen, they give more.
When they feel heard, they stay longer.
When they feel valued, they create impact that can't be replicated.
Facts matter. But what we do with them matters more.
Appendix
BI WORLDWIDE partnered with a United States panel company and the panel company’s global partners to target English-speaking employees of companies with 1,000 employees or more.
After completing data quality procedures, a total of 2,192 surveys were included with 1,088 of those being U.S. surveys and 1,104 being non-U.S. surveys. A total of 18 countries on five continents were represented in the surveys from twenty industries, including healthcare, consumer goods and services, technology, and finance.
The data from the United States were balanced to reflect the age, gender, and ethnicity of full-time U.S. employees as outlined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Forty-seven percent of respondents were female while 53% were male. The average respondent age in the U.S. was 42.5 years with a standard deviation of 14.1 years.
The data from non-U.S. respondents were similar, with 39% of respondents being female and 61% being male. The average age of respondents outside the United States was 37.2 with a standard deviation of 11.7 years.
Additional sources
i Christakis, N. & Fowler, J. (2011). Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives. Back Bay Books.
ii Ryba, K. (2025). What is performance management? Building a strategic performance management process. Quantum Workplace.
iii Pacheco, R. (2025). Why feedback can make work more meaningful. Harvard Business Review.
iv Ernst, C. (2025). Transparency triumphs: Why openness is key to unlocking talent success. Workday.
v 25+ powerful AI quotes from leaders of top companies about the future of AI and automation. (2024). Digityze Solutions.
vi 25+ powerful AI quotes from leaders of top companies about the future of AI and automation. (2024). Digityze Solutions.
vii Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics. (2025). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
viii Cutting the clutter to reduce turnover. (2024). BI WORLDWIDE.
ix Shaffer, V. A. & Arkes, H.R. (2009). Preference reversals in evaluations of cash versus non-cash incentives. Journal of Economic Psychology.
x Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1992). The balanced scorecard—measures that drive performance. Harvard Business Review.
xi Park, S. & Park, S. (2019). Employee Adaptive Performance and Its Antecedents: Review and Synthesis. Human Resource Development Review.
xii Ryba, K. (2025). Building your employee listening strategy: a framework to move you forward. Quantum Workplace.
Download the PDF version of this report.
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#### The power of purple shirts
Automotive OEMs have an abundance of channel data, from sales to staffing to certification. But knowing what to do with that data can be challenging. Learn how to maximize qualitative insights to drive dealer performance.
Did you know...
If dealership sales and service teams exclusively wear purple shirts, they’ll realize an average 15% increase in both new vehicle sales and dollars per repair order?
Neither did we (nor did anyone else, as far as we can tell).
So, why not?
While not always optimized or unified, automotive OEMs are replete with dealer data. Sales, operational efficiency, lead close, staffing, retention, certification — you name it. If it’s quantifiable, chances are OEMs (and their dealers) are tracking and analyzing it. But that data only illustrates results and net impact. It can’t (and doesn’t) capture the why.
• Why is Dealer X exceeding sales targets in a down market?
• Why is SSI/CSI at Dealer Y lagging behind regional and national averages?
• Why is one dealer performing radically differently than another in a quantitatively equivalent AOR?
It’s in the qualitative aspects of dealer operations – the day-to-day processes, strategies, people and behaviors – that the “why” resides.
Therein lies the challenge.
Under the current paradigm of the OEM/dealer relationship, isolating those variables of performance is nearly impossible. There are infinite reasons why one dealership succeeds while another fails. After all, they’re a collection of independent businesses bound only by broad dealer agreements that, by design, “leave it to them” to unlock keys to success within their AOR.
But that doesn’t keep the industry from trying to better communicate, train and reward on the “why”. OEMs, field organizations and a multitude of third-party firms sponsor and deploy hundreds of qualitative dealer assessment, process improvement and “standards” initiatives every year, such as:
• Customer satisfaction (CX)• Intra-departmental core process• Digital marketing• Facilities and merchandising• Certification and training• Express Maintenance
These represent hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and are often supported by dedicated departments of OEM/field oversight. And while well-intended and usually well-designed, these programs only define what dealers could and should do. Afterwards, though, it’s largely watch, wait and hope for the desired quantitative results to roll in.
The final steps in the process are typically:
• Reward and recognize the quantitative results (though often without a real understanding of what drove them).
• Perform validating research to determine program efficacy as best we can (isolate the “why”) and either re-invest or cut bait.
The critical gap here is in the measurement, analysis and application of learnings about what the dealer actually does or doesn’t do. And that represents an enormous missed opportunity.
For most, those rich qualitative insights (what the dealer did) start and end with that dealer. At best, they’re shared with the frontline field team, housed in an Excel file or group folder and infrequently make their way to the OEM as anecdotal evidence of some potential best (or worst) practice, or picked up by Automotive News for a feature article in its “Dealer Best Practices” column.
That is, by not collecting and quantifying trends in dealer performance actions and inactions in a consistent, repeatable and systematic manner, the “secret sauce” of dealer performance optimization remains forever a mystery to the network (and the OEM) at large.
Where does this leave us?
OEMs will never have an omniscient view of dealer operations and best practices (nor should they). But the way OEMs are capturing, cataloguing and using qualitative dealer performance insight to the benefit of the entire network can and should evolve.
The critical objectives:
• Make dealer business planning easier and more consistent.
• Consolidate and standardize dealer assessment, action planning and qualitative reporting across departments and programs.
• Foster more accountability and visibility to progress and follow-through. • Draw clearer lines between individual programs and their contribution to performance results.
• Capture macro trends in qualitative performance gaps or best practices that translate to more relevant learning, performance support and recognition programming.
As an OEM, understanding the “why” and leveraging qualitative insights will help you isolate variables of dealer performance that make a difference in your business.
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#### The power of social proof
Think about the recent purchases you have made or the travel you have planned. How many reviews did you look at before making your final decision? In our connected world, “non-marketing” messages such as reviews are often the strongest voice – it’s the customer speaking on behalf of a brand.
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This user-generated content, or social proof, carries significant weight in our decision-making process. In behavioral economics, social proof is the idea that people look to and are highly influenced by the action or opinions of others. Simply put, consumers use this content to validate decisions.
Social proof and loyalty programs
Overall, social proof represents the approval and reputation of your brand and programs. Loyalty programs are uniquely positioned to capture and promote social proof as content. With your loyal customers, social proof is easily leveraged to create a feedback loop and provide your consumers and your brand with valuable information.
Consumer or user-generated content provides relatable, authentic commentary from your customers’ real experiences to help solidify the decisions for other customers. Your customers have powerful voices, promoting consensus, driving popularity, and furthering your brand. How can you leverage social proof when engaging your customers?
Customer reviews are primary influences, often set apart from other forms of feedback as they are seen as more authentic and unfiltered examples of customer experiences. Loyalty programs can provide opportunities to collect reviews from loyal customers and share statistics. 
Testimonials and case studies may take the form of a written story or video – a showcase of experiences and real-world examples of your brand or loyalty program working for them. Testimonials from loyalty program members promotes engagement and new program acquisition.
Social media posts provide scale in a public forum to share experiences, generate positive feelings, and reinforce trust. Loyalty programs can create conversations by curating customer stories for the community to follow and promote.
Personal recommendations tap into the trust inherent in relationships to facilitate decision-making and foster loyalty. Adding a referral component to a loyalty program is a natural extension of customers’ participation and experience.
Integrating social proof into a loyalty program is a powerful strategy, one that fosters a community where your most loyal customers become your most important advocates. The voice of your customer delivers brand credibility and highlights the program’s value - boosting its reach to drive new acquisition while deepening relationships with your current members.
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#### The secret weapon for B2B marketing success
Nearly every marketing leader obsesses over how to encourage repeat business. But why? Well, the numbers don’t lie. A loyal customer today is worth two potential customers at the top of the sales funnel. When companies nurture their repeat customers, they generally enjoy more predictability in their sales and get a better return on their marketing efforts rather than churning through millions of prospects. This is where a thoughtfully designed, custom-made loyalty program can make a difference.
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Loyalty programs work for both consumer and B2B markets, but B2B markets are an especially good fit. This is because a lot of B2B products involve large ticket items like construction products or home appliances. While a consumer may buy only one unit during their lifetime, a B2B client may buy thousands per year.
In fact, long-term B2B customers are likely to buy more, buy regularly, and go beyond introductory offers to buy more profitable goods. But keeping these customers interested takes effort. The competition is constantly working to lure them away. Customers aren’t going to keep coming back unless they’re given a reason. Even if they genuinely prefer a certain brand, meaningful incentives that are organized in an easy-to-use platform will greatly increase loyalty over time.
The B2B loyalty program advantage
It’s hard to reach B2B clients through mainstream media, and it gets harder all the time. You can try a social media campaign, TV, or print, but B2B clients are busy. They may be tough to reach during business hours, and they may not want to think about work once they shut down for the day.
A loyalty program begins with an established contact list of customers who have already made a purchase. That in itself helps cut through advertising noise and make a connection. Instead of using the “spray and pray” method of blasting ads to a purchased list of distant prospects, B2B vendors can tap into customers who are already familiar with them. Inviting these customers to enroll in a rewards program lets them know they’re valued and the vendor is committed in the long term. Once a recipient enrolls, they quickly discover more advantages.
For instance, a loyalty program can provide efficiencies in purchase tracking, help the B2B client save money, and give the B2B client more chances to see the vendor as a great business partner. Over time, the end client begins to trust the vendor even more, and the vendor earns the right to keep communicating. All these features lead to greater B2B client satisfaction and more sales.
How behavioral economics tie in
To keep B2B clients interested, a loyalty program might use behavioral economics tools such as vividness, heuristics, and idiosyncratic fit. With bright language and vivid rewards, clients are invited to get started with the program. Incentives and ease of use then provide clients with shortcuts on purchase tracking, for example, and business advantages (idiosyncratic fit) for buying again and buying in bulk.
As clients become more familiar with the loyalty program, purchase decisions that used to be complex become simpler. With automated purchase tracking and points dashboards, clients soon find the loyalty program so convenient that it’s too good to pass up.
A loyalty program also allows marketers to evolve and grow with their B2B customers. The more they learn from the program’s key performance indicators and site analytics, the faster they can adapt to trends and tap into opportunities to boost sales.
By paying attention to what incentives B2B customers appreciate, a loyalty program can generate significant boosts in sales while keeping customers coming back for more.
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#### The seven principles of a successful gamification program
A persistent misconception surrounding gamification in the workplace is that it means introducing games or turning tasks into games. In reality, true gamification is the process of incorporating game-like elements into non-game contexts and tapping into the psychological drivers that make games engaging to motivate employees and customers.
Here are 7 principles we employ on projects that use gamification to drive results.
1. Work should be interesting and engaging.
The base game mechanic is working toward a goal, and the best games make that goal personal and easy to follow. There is no gamification without goal setting. In the workplace, our research shows employees who set goals are 6.5x more likely to stay at their job.
Think about what draws you to your favorite gaming experience. Maybe it’s being engaged in a world; maybe it’s the dopamine hit you get when you clear a level; maybe it’s the feeling of being on top of the world when you finally reach that high score.
Whatever the case, we believe the mechanics that make games interesting and engaging should be applied to work environments. Game techniques can inspire people to solve problems by guiding their behavior and getting them excited about their contributions. We want to transform the way people work, making it more enjoyable and more productive.
Those examples above are instances of intrinsic motivation and the five core motivators of any successful gamification initiative are:
Autonomy
Purpose
Progress
Mastery
Social
We often tell our clients to gamify their goals, not their platform. Tying mechanics to a desired outcome is essential to driving results. Each of those five motivators can be applied to a given situation, and as we work through the next six principles we will explain where and how each one fits in.
2. People want to contribute to their community.
As humans, we have an innate desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves—to have a sense of purpose. That sense of social community is facilitated through group belonging and cooperation. As sporting events often show, friendly rivalries between communities can be a powerful tool for engagement, and research shows employees who are given regular opportunities to check their standing with a supervisor are 5x more likely to say, “working here is inspiring.”
3. Accomplishments are habit-forming. Recognize more accomplishments to form more habits.
The broadest goal of a game might be to save the princess or get to the center of the solar system, but without clear milestones and objectives along the way it can become paralyzing to decide what to do first, second and so-forth. That’s why game designers use levels, checkpoints and checklists to guide progress, and the best designers use progressive course design to drip-feed skills and actions to players along the way.
We want to turn actions into habit. By incenting behaviors with intrinsic motivators and extrinsic rewards, it becomes second nature to overcome challenges and master tasks. We believe that small, consistent behavioral improvements lead to large organizational outcomes.
In a recent case study with a client looking to drive engagement in their learning platform, we worked with them to develop a set of program rules and a series of educational missions to break up larger learning objectives and drive engagement. By bite-sizing modules and introducing more manageable progress goals, we boosted participation from 50% to 80%.
4. Creativity and curiosity are empowering.
The most popular modern gaming experiences eschew linear structures and offer an open-world, non-linear experience. People are naturally drawn to curiosity, unpredictability and a desire for autonomy. In the workplace, we satisfy this with meaningful choices and personalized paths to achieve success. In a journey of purpose and meaning, there should never be one standard way to “win.”
5. Goals should be transparent.
Employees who know how their goals connect to the larger picture feel more inspired and are more committed. They are:
10x more likely to be motivated to take action at work
7.9x more likely to feel proud to work at their organization
6.8x more likely to recommend their organization to others
8.9x more likely to say "my job matters"
7.2x more likely to value the organization's mission
But 23% of employees say they don’t know how achieving their goals impacts the success of their organization. Putting goal structure and reward opportunity where work happens puts value and motivation in front of your customers, employees and partners. Those experiences should be mutually and clearly beneficial—it’s essential to be open about the intent of a program so users know how and why they are participating.
6. Show your work.
Back in 2005, with the launch of their Xbox 360, Microsoft introduced a new iteration on the classic high scores table with their achievements system. Whenever a player accomplishes a goal in a game, all of their friends are instantaneously notified via a small popup at the bottom of the screen no matter what game they happen to be playing. The 360 sold 84 million units vs. the previous Xbox’s 24 million, and the achievements system is credited with a large role in that growth.
We want people to be proud of accomplishing goals that contribute to a broader purpose. Sharing successes with the community fosters a sense of influence and social status. Shout it from the rooftops!
This should go beyond leaderboards and badges, which are familiar game mechanics but can lose meaning with smaller behavioral goals. One example in the customer social engagement space is using a level- up system. An individual like, comment or share is not worth much, but a trend of increased likes, comments and shares over time can lead to a significant growth in brand visibility.
Using a solution that included missions focused on desired behaviors, we created a level-up system that built reward capital based on frequency of behavior and an award system that corresponded with the significance of those behaviors. Those actions included joining groups, posting or reacting to questions or articles, watching videos and recognizing others.
Putting it into practice: A case study
To measure the effectiveness of the program, we formed two groups: a gamification group and a control group. The control group interacted in the same environment but without the gamification. Although engagement of both groups increased due to increased content, the gamification group increased significantly more over time, hitting a peak monthly action frequency of 138,550 vs. 48,992 in the control group.
In a similar study which broke down actions by type, compared to the control group, the gamification group contributed:
5x more comments
8x more posts
20x more likes
7. Use your data.
How do we know we are creating impact? We strongly believe in proving a program by measuring outcomes, not output.
In one case study, introducing gamification into a learning program resulted in a 20% bump in weekly users. That’s an output. 72% of sales consultants with a high level of gamification-based training met their sales goal vs.10% of those with a lower level. That’s an outcome.
Understanding how the goals of your gamification program align with the goals of your employees and your organization allows iterative adaptation and evidence-based learning and results that improve over time.
What goals are you setting with your team? How are you motivating them to hit those goals?
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#### The Strategic Value of a Channel Loyalty Program 
In many B2B industries, growth doesn’t hinge solely on end consumers. It is shaped every day by distributors, dealers, and contractors—the channel partners who influence product selection, brand preference, and volume decisions at scale. Yet too often, organizations rely on transactional incentives or episodic promotions to motivate these audiences. While those tactics can create short-term lift, they rarely build lasting preference or behavior change. 
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A well-designed channel loyalty program takes a fundamentally different approach. It treats channel partners not as anonymous transactions, but as long-term customers with evolving needs, motivations, and behaviors. When grounded in customer lifecycle thinking, behavioral economics, and tangible rewards, channel loyalty becomes a durable growth engine rather than a cost of doing business. 
At its core, a channel loyalty program is a lifecycle strategy. Distributors, dealers, and contractors move through recognizable stages: onboarding, engagement, growth, maturity, and—if neglected—attrition. Each stage represents an opportunity to influence behavior in ways that benefit both the partner and the brand. 
Early in the lifecycle, loyalty programs help reduce friction and accelerate activation. Clear value propositions, simple earning mechanics, and early rewards establish momentum and set expectations for the relationship. As partners progress, the program can reinforce desirable behaviors—such as increased purchase frequency, broader product mix, training participation, or early adoption of new offerings. In mature stages, recognition, tiering, and differentiated experiences protect share of wallet and defend against competitive encroachment. 
Critically, lifecycle-based loyalty programs evolve alongside the partner. They shift from “earn for buying” to “earn for growing,” aligning incentives with long-term value creation rather than one-time transactions. 
Channel partners are rational, but they are not purely rational. Behavioral economics helps explain why certain loyalty programs outperform traditional rebates and SPIFs. 
First, salience matters. Points, progress bars, tiers, and visible rewards keep the brand top of mind far more effectively than delayed or invisible incentives. A distributor who sees progress toward a meaningful reward is more likely to shift behavior today, not just reconcile margins later. 
Second, loss aversion and goal gradient effects play powerful roles. When partners are close to a tier threshold or reward milestone, motivation accelerates. Well-designed programs intentionally create these moments, nudging partners to consolidate purchases, add complementary products, or complete qualifying behaviors. 
Third, choice architecture influences behavior. By structuring how partners earn and redeem rewards—what actions are incentivized, what rewards are most prominent—brands can guide decisions without heavy-handed mandates. The result is pull-through demand that feels voluntary rather than coerced. 
While recognition and relationships matter, tangible rewards remain essential in channel loyalty—especially for distributors, dealers, and contractors who operate in competitive, margin-sensitive environments. 
The key is not simply offering rewards but ensuring equitable value exchange. Partners must clearly understand what is expected of them and what they receive in return. When rewards are relevant, aspirational, and attainable, they reinforce the perception that the brand respects the partner’s effort and contribution. 
Importantly, rewards also create a psychological contract. Once partners begin earning and redeeming, disengaging from the program—and by extension, the brand—feels costly. This “stickiness” is one of the most underappreciated benefits of channel loyalty. It transforms incentives from short-term carrots into long-term anchors. 
Perhaps the greatest value of a channel loyalty program is its ability to move relationships beyond price and availability. By capturing data, enabling ongoing communication, and rewarding non-transactional behaviors—such as training, certification, advocacy, and data sharing—brands gain insight and influence they simply cannot achieve through traditional channel structures. 
For distributors, dealers, and contractors, the program becomes more than a points engine. It becomes a reason to engage, a signal of partnership, and a reminder that loyalty is recognized and rewarded. 
In today’s environment, channel loyalty is no longer a “nice to have.” It is a strategic imperative for organizations that want to drive sustainable growth, protect share of wallet, and influence behavior across complex ecosystems. 
When designed through the lens of the customer lifecycle, informed by behavioral economics, and fueled by meaningful rewards, a channel loyalty program does more than motivate—it aligns. And alignment, in the channel, is where lasting value is created. 

#### The trouble with money
If you ask anyone, they'll say cash is more appealing. But based on years of research and practical application, we know inspiration is more powerful than money when it comes to changing behavior.
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There is a common misconception that people will work harder to earn cash than anything else. If you ask, they will say cash is more appealing. But based on academic research and practical application, we know inspiration is more powerful than money when it comes to changing behavior.
Does having inspired sales teams or employees really matter?
A study published in the Harvard Business Review revealed that inspired people:
Were more creative
Believed more in their own abilities
Had higher self esteem
Spent less time pausing, more time working
Were higher in mastery of work, absorption of ideas, and competence
Set bigger goals, display increased progress toward goals, and are more likely to attain their goals
So what’s the trouble with money?
There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s great and it’s essential, but you need a lot of it in order to deliver incremental performance. (We are not talking about base compensation and commissions here – we’re talking about over-the-top incentives, spiffs, and promotions above and beyond the base plan.)
Financial rewards put people into a calculative mindset. They ask, “How much money is it? Is it a good deal for me to exert more effort, learn a new skill, work harder, etc.?” If it’s a lot of money, the answer is yes. But if it’s not, the answer is no, and they’ll continue with the status quo and exhibit no behavior change as a result of the “incentive”.
Outside of compensation, what are the best inducements to get maximum response and drive performance? What inspires them to perform?
This model was developed by Dr. Ran Kivetz, a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Business to summarize what we continue to find in academic studies and program results: Inspirational awards are more effective at changing behavior and driving results than cash and cash equivalents (debit cards, gift cards, etc.). The shift towards experiences and travel has been exponential over the past decade. According to a study by Expedia and the Center for Generational Kinetics:
74% of Americans prioritize experiences over products or things.
The desire to travel is so powerful that 71% of Gen Z said they would get a part time job to afford a trip and 49% of Gen Z and Millennials would sell their clothes or furniture to save money for a trip.
With people willing to go to those lengths for experiences and travel, the opportunity to engage them via inspirational kinds of reward and recognition is something all organizations should be looking to tap into as means to grow their businesses.
The bottom line: more cash does not deliver commensurate incremental effort and performance. Experiences inspire action – and the type of performance that drives results.

#### There is no gamification without goals
Every gamification program is unique but all gamification programs exist to motivate the people participating to increase adoption, engagement and retention. Having goals at the center of the gamification journey allows participants to clearly understand the objective of the program and for organizations to measure the effectiveness of the audience's efforts.
Gamification is no stranger to the business world. Most business stakeholders know they need it to engage employees and partners but also find it challenging to develop and execute effective programs. Many find out quickly that simply adding badges or leaderboards to a website without a business objective yields less than desired results. In fact, Gartner® Hype CycleTM for Frontline Worker Technologiesi states:
“Organizations must recognize that simply including game mechanics is not enough to realize the core benefits of gamification.”
The fun of adding game mechanics to work environments is only part of the process—gamification needs business goals to thrive.
Since gamification is so ubiquitous to our digital ecospheres (think progress bars on an Apple Watch or levels on your favorite airline app), it is easy to think building an engaging gamification program is intuitive. Oftentimes game mechanics will be added to a platform and companies will hope their audience finds the experience entertaining enough to keep coming back. Can you imagine sticking with a game, or more importantly, a job, without knowing what to do to succeed? Of course not – and that’s why it’s necessary to have clear goals, both for the business and individuals participating, at the foundation of a gamification program.
There are three areas to focus on when building a gamification program: goals, audience and activities. To start, determine the organizational problems that need to be solved. The program must be tied to a goal or opportunity you want to drive. Are you trying to onboard people to new processes faster? Drive more sales? Retain more people in a learning program? Knowing the goals makes it easier to define who needs to participate, what activities that audience should be completing and how to measure a return on investment. The best gamification programs are mutually beneficial. The program clearly indicates to the people participating “What’s in it for me?” Will I learn something new? Will I be better at a skill that impacts my career? Will I be rewarded with something that excites me like a unique experience? Establishing your goals will allow the program to be focused on people completing the most desired activities at the right time, for the right incentive.
Next up, identify the audience. This seems obvious but with how dynamic and diverse our workforces can be, it is sometimes hard to pinpoint who needs to be included in a gamification program to make it successful. Take the goal of reducing onboarding of a new hire as an example. Obviously, we need new employees in the program but it is also well known that managers make a big impact on a new hire’s journey. Understanding that the goal is to reduce the friction a new hire faces, and that managers impact that objective, the managers also need to have an opportunity to participate in the gamification program. Having two different roles in the same program changes how a leaderboard is structured, who has the opportunity to collect badges or how points might be distributed.
Finally, establish which activities need to be included in your gamification program to drive the game mechanics. Once the goals and audience are defined, it becomes a lot easier to identify the activities and behaviors you want to motivate. Take time to consider all the different investments you have made across your digital ecosphere and how they can be incorporated into your gamification program to drive the best results. Oftentimes people think about gamification in an isolated platform; for example, when adding gamification to a learning management system. But what happens after someone has been trained? With a goal-focused approach, gamification can be applied to the training and the performance goals the training was made to reinforce.
Every gamification program is unique but all gamification programs exist to motivate the people participating to increase adoption, engagement and retention. The best way to ensure the effectiveness of a program is to tie the addition of game mechanics to organizational goals. Having goals at the center of the gamification journey allows participants to clearly understand the objective of the program and for organizations to measure the effectiveness of the audience’s efforts.
i Gartner, “Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technologies, 2021”, Leif-Olof Wallin, July 6, 2021.
Gartner disclaimer:GARTNER and HYPE CYCLE are registered trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved
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#### Top 5 ways to jumpstart your sales
The current sales landscape still contains some of the previous hurdles, but new ones have also popped up. To clear these hurdles and have success, you’re going to need to up your game plan accordingly.
1. Get in front of decision makers.
It can be challenging to get in front of people for everything from a first appointment to securing a sale. A remote or hybrid work environment means being more deliberate about coordinating schedules and clarifying the value early in the process to connect with decision-makers.
How to handle this challenge:
Personalization is key to overcoming this new challenge. Showcasing the value of a face-to-face meeting by turning your generic sales pitch to a personal one will resonate best. Non-personalized sales email blasts are quickly deleted. Reps need to ensure they’re not just researching an account; they need to come with a strong ‘point of view’ and a clear call to action. Smart research is a great way to make sure you drive interest at a personal level to help you with the next step of the process.
2. Be more than a product seller.
Moving forward, sales reps won’t be able to rely primarily on the reliability and new features of their product or service. Touting your solution’s bells and whistles and technical performance is less effective in the ‘seas of same’ characterizing the competitive landscape of most modern industries. Linking your solution to specific customer business/performance issues helps assure you’re on target and shows value to your prospective client. How is your solution going to make life easier for your customers moving forward and deliver measurable business results?
How to handle this challenge:
Leveraging a strong sales process is more important than ever to combat this challenge. Making sure you have executive buy-in and a clear ROI and business model helps assure a quicker close to the sale. A targeted solution is one critical aspect. Showing a performa on how your solution will improve the company’s business results is the other key component.
3. A buyer-first approach is the new path to success.
Prioritizing buyer interests is a big way to change the game. The concept of buyer-first—looking at how buyers want to buy versus how we choose to sell to them is a positive paradigm switch.
How to handle this challenge:
Leveraging a consultative, helpful, empathetic approach to selling is the key to handling this challenge — taking steps like listening actively and having conversations tailored to getting at the “why” behind a sale will move your conversations forward.
Avoid talking at your prospects to better adapt to this new buyer-first landscape. Your sales efforts can’t be driven by a traditional presentation-first approach anymore. Emphasize your smart research and focus on relationship building to adjust to a world where the buyer has the power.
Moving to a customer-centric selling model allows you to better partner with versus pressure your buyers. If you can plan your efforts around your prospects’ timelines as opposed to your ideal schedule, you’ll create a faster road to success.
4. Get comfortable with the group sell.
The individual buyer sale is long gone. The group sell is the new normal. According to research from Forrester, 63% of purchases have more than four people involved — up from just 47% in 2017. Buyer groups now usually involve prospects with varying degrees of authority and influence.
Gatekeepers, influencers, blockers, champions, users and decision-makers are just a few of the new participants that can make or break your next possible sale.
How to handle this challenge:
Smart research and personalization are both necessary to overcoming this challenge. It’s essential to understand the players and how to best approach each type of contact previously listed.
Just because the decision to work with you will be a group decision doesn’t change the fact that your contacts are individuals, so naturally, they’re going to be receptive to an individualized approach. Understand their priorities, personal inclinations and level of seniority at their companies. Make sure to tie your conversations with them around their individual insights along with the common denominator that connects them — the business they work for. Understanding the industry, their competition and their pain points allows you to speak to all of those elements when talking with your connections.
5. Keep 'em paying attention.
Keeping prospects engaged is a major challenge for any person on their sales journey. Your efforts can only go as far as your sales process permits. Make sure you have a clearly defined and refined process.
To help combat this inevitability, you need to keep your prospects intrigued and enthusiastic throughout the entire sales process.
How to handle this challenge:
The teamwork approach of sales leadership and their reps is critical to overcoming this challenge. Leadership needs to lay out a sales process that balances communication and timeliness.
Reps are then able to execute and effectively communicate and build rapport. As a salesperson, developing trust sooner than later with your prospects will reap dividends down the road.
Stay in touch and communicate at every stage of the sales process. Creatively break through the day-to-day clutter with helpful articles, white papers and case studies. Let your prospects know you’re there without being overly eager or obnoxious. Tactful, effective communication that provides value and new learnings to help with their day-to-day challenges illustrates your effectiveness as a partner.
Driving business forward brings its share of hurdles and challenges, but staying focused on the important areas (customer business/performance issues) will help everyone turn this year into a prosperous one.
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#### What a customer gifting program can do for your business
In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, customer loyalty is hard-won and easily lost. Brands invest heavily in digital engagement, personalized messaging, and loyalty programs. But they often overlook one of the simplest, most emotionally resonant tools available: gifting.
Let's Talk
A well-designed customer gifting program isn’t just a nice gesture; it’s a strategic lever that can drive emotional connection, word-of-mouth marketing, and long-term loyalty. Here’s why it works and why more companies should consider it.
Most customers don’t expect to receive a gift from a brand. That’s precisely what makes it so powerful. In a world of transactional relationships, a thoughtful, unexpected gift breaks the mold. It signals that your company sees the customer as more than just a data point or a revenue stream. It sees them as a person.
This element of surprise taps into the psychology of delight. It creates a moment of emotional resonance that can’t be replicated by a discount code or a loyalty point. And because so few companies do it, the impact is amplified. It’s not just memorable; it’s remarkable.
When people receive something unexpected and thoughtful, they talk about it. Whether it’s a handwritten note, a curated gift box, or a personalized experience, customers are likely to share the moment with friends, family, and followers.
In an age where social proof drives purchasing decisions, this kind of organic word-of-mouth is marketing gold. It’s authentic, credible, and far more persuasive than paid media. A gifting program turns your customers into brand advocates without asking them to be.
Behavioral economics tells us that gifts trigger a powerful psychological response: reciprocity. When someone receives a gift, they feel a natural inclination to give something back, whether that’s continued loyalty, a positive review, or a referral.
This isn’t manipulation; it’s human nature. A gifting program builds goodwill and deepens emotional engagement. It shifts the customer’s perception of your brand from transactional to relational. And in doing so, it lays the foundation for long-term value.
Gifts create memories. They mark moments. They stand out in the sea of digital noise. When a customer receives a gift, they’re more likely to remember your brand. Not just what you sell, but how you made them feel.
This emotional imprint is the cornerstone of loyalty. It’s what brings customers back, even when competitors offer lower prices or faster shipping. A gifting program doesn’t just drive short-term satisfaction. It builds lasting affinity.
Customer gifting isn’t about extravagance. It’s about intentionality. It’s about recognizing that behind every transaction is a human being with emotions, expectations, and the capacity to be surprised. When done right, gifting becomes a strategic tool for deepening relationships, amplifying brand love, and driving sustainable growth.
In a world where customer attention is fleeting, a well-timed gift can be the moment that makes your brand unforgettable.
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#### What is attention currency and why is it important?
The average person sees or hears between 4,000 and 10,000 marketing messages every day. A customer's attention has become one of a marketer's most valuable commodities. Learn how to build credible engagement and real attention currency with your customers.
Now, more than ever, we live in an attention-based economy. A customer’s attention has become one of a marketer’s most valuable commodities.
Our attention is just like a currency in many ways. We choose how and where we are going to spend it. It may not accumulate exactly like a currency but we can become predisposed to where we are going to spend it. The truth is, thanks to changing consumption patterns and information overload or infobesity, customers have a very low attention span. In fact, every brand, product and service is vying for our attention at every turn. To put this into context, the average person today sees or hears about 4,000 to 10,000 messages per day; that’s about twice the number seen in 2007. I wonder how many we pay attention to, or more likely, just ignore.
So why do some companies still market as if they have undivided attention throughout the customer lifecycle? There are many situations where companies do not put a value on a customer’s attention. In some cases, they assume too early that they’ve built a relationship with a customer. One of my favorite examples of this is when a survey pops up within seconds after you have just landed on a new website. Asking a customer to fill out a survey at this stage can severely reduce the chance of having a positive customer experience. The irony here is the survey usually asks questions that are attempting to help measure net promoter score (NPS), which is based on how likely you are to recommend the brand to others, with the opposite effect often happening as a result.
In other cases, companies take attention for granted after you have become a customer and don’t realize how quickly it can be lost. This happened to my colleague on a recent trip to a big box store. He purchased a badly needed light bulb for his refrigerator for $1.58 and chose to have the receipt emailed to him. After replacing the lightbulb (and being pleased to see inside his refrigerator again), he assumed that would be the end of the transaction. However, the big box retailer treated this transaction as important as any he had ever made before. Even though the retailer had many years’ worth of his purchase data, for items big and small, he continued to receive email after email asking him to rate the light bulb and reflect on his experience. This was only perceived as a big waste of his time and did not add to a positive customer experience.
With this in mind, marketers need to treat attention like currency and earn the right to engage. It’s critically important to design content that attracts focused attention first. Focused attention is the brain’s ability to concentrate on a targeted stimulus for any period of time. It is imperative, then, that the content be concise. Once focused attention is captured, the goal is to earn sustained attention with progressively more detailed content.
Here’s how to build credible engagement and real attention currency with your customers:
1. Ensure the content is relevant.
2. Create an idiosyncratic fit with your audience, making them feel the message is just for them.
3. Speak to each specific audience segment and where they're at in the customer lifecycle.
4. Make sure your content is compelling and vivid - the more visually enticing, the better.
When you start thinking about your customers’ attention like a currency, it becomes much easier to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. It will bring valuable clarity to your customer journey and you will be far more effective at acquiring, growing and retaining loyal customers in the long-term.
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#### What's next for work 2026
When we talk about the future of work, it often sounds far away. But the truth is, it’s already here, just unevenly distributed. Coming at us in cycles. What many people feel right now isn’t chaos. It’s transition without shared language.
Let's Talk
I’ve been talking to leaders for the past 12 months and through my research, I’ve identified five key trends shaping 2026 and beyond. These trends are about clarity, not certainty. They dig into what this means for us as leaders and co-workers.
The trends we are looking at in 2026 are:
Connecting business results to programs
Whole person health
AI: fear to fearless multipliers
Leadership and future of work
Up-skilling and constant skilling
Let’s dive into each of these areas to explore how work is evolving and what that might mean for your organization.
If your culture strategy can confidently hold its own inside a boardroom conversation about revenue, then you know it is truly strategic. This means that we cannot treat culture as a hobby. This translates to a critical shift in thinking. Leaders have to stop treating culture and recognition as optional or nice to have. Culture and recognition aren’t optional—your culture will drive business results. Most leaders want better results without changing the environment that produces those results, but it doesn’t work that way. The environment produces the pressure that drives our culture. If we want to change, we have to start by changing the environment.
One of the ways to do that is to stop protecting legacy silos; if you can shift the organization to address this, you will unlock capacity and foster collaboration across the organization. The strategy piece of this means translating human investments into business results without losing the human part.
I am the most excited about this trend, because it impacts us all. Performance is human before it’s operational and we keep seeing this repeatedly. Whole person health is the integrated state where an individual’s physical, emotional, mental, and social wellbeing are supported in a way that sustains high performance, meaning, and life satisfaction over time – it’s not about simply surviving work.
Burning people out is not grit or excellence. It’s short-term extraction with a long-term cost. That cost always shows up later. Instead, whole personal health recognizes that people do not bring a segmented version of themselves to the office. The systems interact. That translates to treating people like our most important asset by designing work that supports growth, energy, and sustainability.
When whole person health is high, burnout is lower, discretionary effort is higher, turnover is lower, creativity is higher, learning velocity is faster, and trust and belonging are deeper. If employees have to recover from work in order to live their lives, it’s not a performance problem, but rather a systems flaw. Leaders can fix this by reducing unnecessary friction at work, being kind, normalizing recovery as part of performance, creating psychological safety through clarity, and practicing compassion as a strategic leadership skill.
Short-term wins can quietly erode long-term capacity. And that is a problem.
There’s speculation that AI will replace leaders. I don’t think that will happen. Instead, AI is creating space for leaders who want to learn new ways of connecting, leading, and driving value in a changing world—and building capacity. Leaders who embrace AI accelerate possibility, impact, and capability. Leaning into AI allows us to amplify our talent and expand what we can do together. A multiplier.
Everyone is learning on a curve right now. Growth isn’t linear, and that is ok. We are building confidence as we build capability. Blended work is the future; human judgment paired with AI intelligence creates exponential scale, deeper insight, and faster strategic clarity.
Those AI fluent employees that join the organization are not a threat; rather, they are a strategic advantage. When we develop them, empower them, and unleash them, we accelerate the future.
Moving from fear to confidence is a leadership skill. We learn, we experiment, we iterate. This is not about perfection. This is about direction. Courage doesn’t mean we know everything. It means we are willing to begin.
I wonder, if AI could take 30% of your busy work off the table, what kind of capacity would that create for you and your team? How would you spend that time?
Reclaimed time only matters if it’s protected. Capacity is a strategic asset.
Leadership has shifted from control to environment design. People perform best when systems support contribution, not compliance. When leaders invest in people, people invest in the work.
People don’t disengage from hard work. They disengage from work they feel does not have a purpose and in spaces outside of their area of responsibility. When people understand the “why,” they move faster, with more intention, and with less friction. Purpose makes hard work make sense. It lives where meaning and performance meet. Context is a leadership gift that accelerates clarity and momentum.
Belonging is created when people feel like valued contributors, not passengers. When people shrink in the environment, it’s a signal the environment needs to evolve, not the person. The key is to intentionally shape the environment so people feel safe to contribute at their highest level.
Purpose is not a slogan. It’s clarity. When people know why their work matters, momentum follows.
Today, skills are decaying faster than ever and because of that, learning cannot be episodic. Organizations must become learning systems. 
Learning is the new loyal. If you want loyalty, you have to help your team truly see a future they can step into. When leaders develop people, they strengthen both capability and commitment, which creates long-term retention. In a market where compensation is easily matched, learning becomes the differentiator.
People stay when they can see a future. Visibility builds trust. 
When we build skills today for the future, we build organizations that thrive. The talent pipeline is something we intentionally craft, not something we wait to acquire. The future requires us to build capacity now…and faster than the world disrupts it. It’s about investing in growth today so your team is more confident and future-ready tomorrow.
The future of work continues to change. Here are three future-forward trends we’re seeing beyond 2026. Keep that seatbelt fastened. Lock in.
Nearly 23% of all jobs globally will fundamentally change by 2027. (World Economic Forum)
Human plus AI teams become inseparable in workflows and decision-making and blended work replaces hybrid work by 2027. (Stanford HAI, Forrester)
44% of role-critical skills will be disrupted and more than half of the global workforce will require major reskilling by 2027. (ELVTR, WEF)
The future is not coming slowly; the future of work is arriving in cycles. The organizations who plan work with experts, look for future trends, and double down on their workforce are the ones who will build capability faster than the future will disrupt it.
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#### Why cash alone can't buy commitment
There’s a Seinfeld episode where Kramer outshines Jerry by giving Elaine the birthday gift she really wanted: a wooden bench. Jerry gave her cash. The bench won by a landslide.
It’s funny, but it also raises a real question: are people more inspired by something meaningful than by money itself?
Research suggests yes.
Let's Talk
The science behind the wooden bench
Dr. Victoria Shaffer and Dr. Hal Arkes conducted a landmark study on employee motivation and rewards that explains this phenomenon perfectly.
While employees often say they want cash, their behavior tells a different story. Shaffer and Arkes identified what they called “preference reversal,” a psychological pattern where people claim to prefer one thing (cash) but are actually motivated by another (non-cash).
In other words, we’ll gladly take the cash, but we’ll work harder for the bench.
What the data says
Our latest global research shows the same pattern. Employees report being more inspired to work harder for non-cash rewards, like concert tickets or the newest tech items, than for cash alone.
And the effect holds true for sales people, too.
It’s not that cash doesn’t motivate; it’s that non-cash rewards create an emotional connection. They carry meaning, story, and memory: three things money rarely provides.
Evidence from the field
Our experience and our data consistently validate this finding.
“Numerous studies have shown that cash is not as effective in driving higher levels of performance as aspirational non-financial rewards such as merchandise, travel, and experiences.”
Across industries, non-cash rewards outperform cash in both engagement and long-term memory. People recall the trip, the experience, or the tangible item long after the check has been spent. That recall reinforces loyalty and performance.
Expanding the marketplace of motivation
Of course, not everyone wants a wooden bench. The secret lies in choice.
To inspire the widest range of employees, BI WORLDWIDE offers three diverse marketplaces filled with non-cash reward options. Our Merchandise Marketplace offers premium brands and top-tier items they’ll love. Our Experiences Marketplace helps send them on a trip of a lifetime with locations and experiences beyond their wildest dreams. And our Mastery Marketplace is filled with learning and development courses that get them excited about what they can accomplish.
When participants can choose something personal, it transforms a transaction into an experience.
The bottom line
Cash pays the bills. Experiences tell the story.
When companies balance monetary rewards with personalized, aspirational recognition, they don’t just compensate employees, they inspire them.
Give employees the opportunity to earn what they see as their wooden bench and watch performance soar.
People claim to prefer cash but are more inspired by non-cash rewards.
Non-cash rewards create emotional impact and long-term motivation.
Research confirms that "preference reversal" drives stronger engagement.
Choice amplifies meaning: the best rewards feel personal, not prescribed.
Non-cash incentives like experiences and merchandise outperform cash across all roles.
Hear from our expert
Walter Ruckes, Vice President, Client Services
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1143231629?
Download a full copy of The New Rules of Engagement® 2025 Global Employee Inspiration Report.
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#### Why cash incentives underperform
Most sales leaders already know how the reward conversation goes: ask sellers what they want—they say they want cash. End of discussion.
It feels efficient, practical, and aligned with the voice of the field. It also points many incentive programs in the wrong direction.
Let's Talk
Cash—and cash equivalents like gift cards—are often treated as the obvious choice because they’re flexible, familiar, and easy to defend. But the job of an incentive reward is to change behavior, increase effort, and lift results, not win a preference poll.
Behavior, effort, and results are different tests, and in this study, cash failed.
An insurance company tested this assumption directly. BI WORLDWIDE conducted a study over a three-month period where 1,263 independent agents participated in a controlled incentive program:
• The first group earned a $50 cash card for each policy sold.
• The second group earned $50 worth of points per policy with no visible dollar value.
• Rewards were distributed monthly.
If stated preference were a reliable predictor of performance, the cash card group should have led.
It didn’t.
The points group more than doubled the sales rate of the cash card group, reaching 212% of their performance. But the more important story is how that performance gap was created.
More sellers engaged. More sellers produced.
The points-based design not only drove output but also changed participation.
52.3% more agents participated in the points program than in the cash card program. Among those who did participate, agents in the points group sold 22.1% more policies. That combination matters.
This was a system-wide shift. More of the field chose to engage, and those who engaged delivered more. That’s what turned a reward choice into a measurable performance gap.
The mistake many teams still make
Despite results like these, many organizations continue to design incentives around a simple assumption: if sellers prefer cash, cash must motivate best.
It’s a straight-forward idea. But it’s also wrong.
Stated preference reflects how people think as consumers, focused on flexibility, bills, and convenience. Incentives operate in a different arena entirely. They compete for attention, attach emotion to effort, and shape what people remember, talk about, and pursue.
On those dimensions, cash is often at a disadvantage.
Why non-cash rewards outperform
The research points to three structural advantages that help explain the difference.
Cash disappears into everyday spending. Experiences, merchandise, and aspirational rewards stay visible. They create a mental target that keeps the incentive top of mind.
Non-cash rewards are experienced more than once. People revisit them when they use them, share them, or talk about them. That extends the motivational impact beyond the moment of earning.
Points-based systems make progress visible. They turn effort into something trackable and buildable, helping participants see what they are working toward and how close they are to getting there.
None of these advantages show up in a preference survey. But all of them show up in performance.
Reward design is a performance lever
This is where the conversation needs to shift. Too many incentive programs are built around what is easiest to explain or defend. Cash feels simple in a budget meeting, safe in a plan document, and aligned with the field. But safe is not the same as effective.
If your objective is to move a sales force, reward design needs to be a performance lever and not an administrative decision. Choosing cash out of convenience is a costly mistake.
A better question for sales leaders
Sales leaders don’t need to eliminate cash entirely, but they do need to stop giving it automatic status as the best answer. The right question isn’t “What reward do participants say they prefer?” The right question is “What reward structure gets more of the field to engage, stretch, and deliver more?”
In this study, the answer is clear. Cash didn’t fail because it lacks value. It fell short because it lacks impact on behavior, which is where it matters most. That leaves one decision: keep trying to optimize based on seller preference or start designing for performance.
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#### Why holiday retail strategies succeed or fail at the frontline
The holiday season may still feel far off, but peak retail performance is built months before seasonal hires ever step onto the floor.
For retailers, brands, and suppliers, early planning often centers on staffing, promotions, inventory, store traffic, and campaign timing. Those pieces matter. They also leave out one of the biggest variables in seasonal performance: whether the people closest to the customer are ready to influence purchase decisions in real time.
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Why early holiday readiness matters
Holiday readiness starts well before Q4 because frontline execution takes time to build.
Industry data shows 30–40% of annual retail revenue is generated during the holiday quarter.1 With so much revenue concentrated in a short window, small execution gaps become harder to absorb: unclear product guidance, inconsistent promotional messaging, or associates who are asked to perform before they feel prepared.
Seasonal associates are often onboarded quickly and expected to contribute almost immediately. They need product knowledge, promotional fluency, brand confidence, and enough context to help shoppers make decisions while the store keeps moving around them.
In retail readiness programs we’ve supported, 90% of users report improved confidence on the job.2 That matters because speed-to-competency depends on more than completing training. Associates need to feel ready to use what they learned when the customer is in front of them.
Tenured associates face their own version of peak-season pressure. They may know the floor, the systems, and the customer experience, but holiday traffic creates more opportunities for execution to slip. The stronger the preparation, the less each shift depends on memory, improvisation, or guesswork.
Where holiday retail strategies break down
Holiday retail strategies often break down between corporate planning and store-level execution.
The strategy may be clear at the retailer, brand, or supplier level. The promotion may be well planned. The seasonal message may be strong. But none of that guarantees associates know what to recommend, how to explain the offer, or which shopper actions matter most.
When preparation starts too late, the breakdown rarely looks dramatic at first. It shows up in small moments of friction:
An associate is unsure which product to recommend.
A promotion is explained differently from one store to the next.
A brand message loses clarity between planning and execution.
A shopper leaves without enrolling, upgrading, adding on, or buying.
Those moments may look minor in isolation. But across hundreds or thousands of stores, they become expensive.
Loyalty enrollment is a useful example. It often depends on whether associates understand the value, remember to bring it up, and feel comfortable making the ask. In programs using this approach, engaged users have driven 22x more brand loyalty enrollments, showing how frontline readiness can influence more than the immediate transaction.2
How seasonal associates build confidence faster
Seasonal associates build confidence faster when readiness focuses on the behaviors and messages they will use most often on the floor.
That means preparation has to be practical. Associates need to know what matters this season, which products or offers deserve attention, and how to translate that information into a useful shopper conversation.
The strongest seasonal readiness strategies answer a few questions early:
Which behaviors should associates prioritize this season?
What do they need to know before traffic peaks?
Where does messaging need to stay consistent across stores, partners, and brands?
How will engagement hold up once the floor gets crowded?
What will show whether readiness is turning into action?
The last question deserves more attention.
A seasonal readiness plan can look strong on paper and still fall apart in the final interaction between associate and shopper. Completion rates may show that training happened. Communication metrics may show that messages were sent. But those measures do not always reveal whether associates feel confident enough to act on what they learned.
Why the final shopper interaction matters
Many holiday sales opportunities are won or lost in the final interaction between associate and shopper.
That is where recommendations, promotional explanations, loyalty conversations, and add-on opportunities become real. A shopper may enter the store because of a campaign, a promotion, or a planned purchase. What happens next often depends on the associate’s ability to connect the strategy to the shopper’s need in the moment.
In programs using this approach, engaged users have sold 90% more units than non-engaged users.2 The point is not only that engagement matters. It is that associate readiness can shape the decisions shoppers make at the point of sale.
Peak-season preparation has to get closer to the floor. Associates need useful knowledge before they are overwhelmed. Key behaviors need reinforcement, not a one-time announcement. Engagement has to fit into the flow of work instead of becoming another task competing for attention.
Done well, readiness shows up in the quality of the shopper interaction. Associates are better prepared to recommend the right product, explain the offer clearly, and connect the shopper to the next best action. Over time, those moments shape whether seasonal strategy becomes store-level execution or stays trapped in the planning deck.
Retail Connect was built around this idea: the moments that shape purchase behavior often happen closest to the shopper, long after the seasonal strategy has been set.
The holiday season will come quickly. Organizations that prepare the frontline now will be in a stronger position when the stakes are highest.
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#### Why learning is trending in the workplace
Lifelong learning does remarkable things for our brains. Research has found that learning keeps brain cells working at optimum levels, which may slow cognitive and memory decline as we age.
Albert Einstein is often credited with saying, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
Lifelong learning does remarkable things for our brains. Research has found that learning keeps brain cells working at optimum levels, which may slow cognitive and memory decline as we age. The best part is learning can come in multiple forms. As long as we acquire new knowledge, we’re keeping our brain healthier.
Technology and business today are evolving so quickly that people need to sharpen their skills to stay relevant. In fact, 50% of the workforce will need to be upskilled or reskilled by 2025.
Employees want to learn, gaining the tools they need for their current job and future growth. The more opportunity they have to develop their skills, the more likely they are to feel they belong at their organization.
The New Rules of Engagement® Study found that 9 in 10 employees who state their job allows them to master the skills important to them feel like they belong at their organization.
Creating a culture of learning goes beyond offering the right curriculum. Recognizing creativity, innovation and risk-taking reinforces those values and encourages employees to strive to keep learning.
BI WORLDWIDE’s goal is to inspire the people that impact your business with the most innovative and motivating rewards possible. In addition to our Merchandise and Experiences marketplaces, a new Mastery Marketplace gives employees, salespeople and channel partners the opportunity to upskill, try something new or dive deeper into their passions.
Content designed to help everyone gain the skills needed to excel in their current role or prepare for the one they want.
Online classes taught by the world’s best, designed to satisfy the natural curiosity of lifelong learners in categories such as business, writing, food, arts and entertainment, etc.
An alliance of the leading online music education companies from around the world offer lessons from master musicians for everything from mandolin, piano to electronic music production.
Offering 61 languages from Afrikaans to Vietnamese, tailored to different learning styles; whether participants like a traditional approach, practicing on-the-go, lessons specific to kids or interacting in a VR environment.
From online personal training and yoga to brain fitness apps based on scientific research. Participants can download the apps to access anywhere.
The opportunity for employees to learn and grow professionally and personally has always been important in the workplace. Now, it has become table stakes for companies who want to motivate, inspire and retain their employees.
Kristin Chenoweth says it well: “I’m constantly learning, and that is the greatest gift of life in my opinion - to always be learning and growing.”
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#### Why onboarding, enablement, and high-value sales activities matter more than ever
The new rules of the sales game
Let’s face it: technology sales are a high-stakes, high-velocity game. Every player— whether a business development rep (BDR) making the first call, an account executive (AE) closing the deal, or a client success manager (CSM) ensuring renewals—has a direct line to your company’s growth. But here’s the twist: while most organizations obsess over the finish line, the real winners are investing where it counts—onboarding, enablement, and the daily focus on high-value activities (HVA), which lead to higher quota attainment and revenue growth.
Gamify role-based new hire onboarding
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Gamify role-based sales enablement journeys
Motivate sellers to complete learning
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Amplify new product and solution launches
Gamify role-based sales processes and activities
Motivate sellers to complete high-value activities (HVA)
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Motivate sellers to attain or exceed quota
Improve closure rates, deal size, cross-sell and upsell, renewal rates, etc.
Recognize and reward top performers and consistent quota attainment
The data is clear. Structured onboarding, robust enablement, and smart non-cash incentives aren’t just “nice to have”—they’re the difference between teams that are simply trying to hit quota and teams that redefine what’s possible.
Accelerate sales onboarding
First impressions, lasting impact
First impressions matter. In sales, they’re everything. The moment a new rep walks through the (virtual) door, the clock starts ticking. How fast can they ramp up? How soon will they deliver results? The answer: as fast as your onboarding allows.
Korn Ferry found that effective onboarding boosts quota attainment by 14% and win rates by 11%, and it speeds ramp-to-productivity by 6%. Miss the mark, and voluntary turnover jumps from 10.7% to 13.7%.1
Harvard Business Review reports companies with formal onboarding see 50% greater retention and 62% higher productivity among new hires.2
Yet, only 12% of employees believe their organization excels at onboarding.3
So, what’s the secret sauce? Gamification and recognition. Aberdeen Group found that gamified onboarding can lead to 31% higher first-year quota attainment.4
BI WORLDWIDE (BIW) helped a global tech company dramatically improve new rep engagement in the first 90 days and accelerate early milestone achievement, such as cutting time-to-first sale by 30%, while reducing early attrition by integrating badges, leaderboards and milestone rewards into onboarding.
Boost sales enablement
Sustaining excellence
If onboarding is about starting strong, enablement is about sustaining excellence. The best sales teams don’t just train once—they build a culture of continuous learning, coaching, and support. Companies with structured enablement strategies report a 9-point increase in win rates, and those using formal methodologies are twice as likely to see gains in both win rate and quota attainment.5
Gamification and incentives bring enablement to life. 83% of employees receiving gamified learning feel motivated (vs. 61% without), and 89% say they’d be more productive if their work were gamified.6
BIW partnered with a leading media and technology company to gamify enablement. The results? More than 40% of total reps engage with content monthly, completing an average of 120,000 missions or 4.6 missions per rep. During one period, engaged reps sold 90% more units than non-engaged reps.
When learning is fun, reps don’t just participate. They compete, collaborate, and strive to win.
Drive high-value sales activities
Less busy work, more selling
Here’s a reality check: LinkedIn reports that sales reps spend less than 30% of their time selling.7 The rest of the time? Meetings, admin, and everything but what moves the needle.
Prioritizing high-value activities like pipeline-building, client demos, and executive meetings isn’t just smart, it’s proven. Highspot research shows companies that identify and prioritize winning activities see a 7-point boost in win rates and a 10-point increase in rep satisfaction.8 Korn Ferry data reveals even bigger gains: focusing reps on role-specific success factors leads to 25% higher quota attainment, 17% higher win rates, and 20% lower turnover.9
Gamification and recognition bridge the gap. Aberdeen found that sales gamification doubled quota attainment, tripled engagement, and drove 11% higher year-over-year revenue growth.10
BIW engaged with a global software company to gamify aspects of its sales process and incorporate targeted incentives, boosting qualified leads by 25% and accelerating conversion speed.
Increase quota attainment
The power of incentives and recognition
Quota attainment isn’t just a metric—it’s the scoreboard. And incentives are the playbook. Gamified sales processes drive 18% higher team quota attainment, while structured incentive programs can increase performance by 25–44%, especially when sustained over time.4 BIW’s meta-analysis shows that long-term incentive strategies generate 14% higher annual quota performance.
To unlock performance, improve quota attainment, and maximize returns, incentives must go beyond rewarding only the top echelon. They must engage the middle 60%—the often-overlooked majority who represent the greatest capacity for incremental growth. When you design incentives to motivate all performance levels, not just the elite few, the result is a more energized sales force, greater growth, and a stronger return on investment.
BIW collaborated with a prominent software company to integrate all sales incentives and recognition initiatives into a unified, comprehensive program. This approach included quarterly and semi-annual global incentives, local discretionary incentives, and an exclusive group travel reward for top performers. The partnership increased revenue and grew market share while producing a return on investment of 10.4:1 or greater for each promotion.
Conclusion
Enable your sellers, growth will follow
Selling technology is complex, fast paced, and unforgiving. But the path to better outcomes is clear: invest in structured onboarding, reinforce with strong enablement, focus reps on high-value activities, and amplify it all with gamification, incentives, and recognition. The results speak for themselves: faster ramp-up, stronger productivity, healthier pipelines, faster velocity, higher win rates, and greater quota attainment. Together, they drive sustainable growth—not just for sales teams, but for the entire organization.
Mark Grimshaw and Doug Johnson. “How to Effectively Onboard New Sales Talent.” Korn Ferry Insights, October 17, 2023. https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/how-to-effectively-onboard-new-sales-talent
Gys Kappers and Sinazo Sibisi. “Onboarding Can Make or Break a New Hire’s Experience.” Harvard Business Review, April 5, 2022. https://hbr.org/2022/04/onboarding-can-make-or-break-a-new-hires-experience
Gallup. State of the American Workplace Report. 2017. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
Aberdeen Group. Gamification in B2B Sales: Is it Time? (Part I). 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2025, from https://appexchange.salesforce.com/partners/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=00P3000000P3QENEA3
Highspot. 2023 State of Sales Enablement Report. July 2023. Accessed August 25, 2025. https://community.highspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/State-of-Sales-Enablement-Report-2023.pdf
Apostolopoulos, Aris. “Gamification at Work: The 2019 Survey Results.” TalentLMS, August 19, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2025, from https://www.talentlms.com/blog/gamification-survey-results/
LinkedIn. Global State of Sales 2022. LinkedIn Sales Solutions. Accessed July 28, 2025. https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/the-state-of-sales-2022-report
Highspot. 2023 State of Sales Enablement Report. July 2023. Accessed August 25, 2025. https://community.highspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/State-of-Sales-Enablement-Report-2023.pdf
Korn Ferry. Supercharging Sales Effectiveness: From Talent Excellence to Precise Execution. Korn Ferry Sales Maturity Survey. 2024. Accessed August 25, 2025. https://www.kornferry.com/insights/featured-topics/sales-transformation/supercharging-sales-effectiveness
Aberdeen Group. Sales Performance Management: How the Best-in-Class Optimize the Front Line to Grow the Bottom Line. 2014.
Download the PDF version of this whitepaper.
BIW-Technology-Sales-WhitePaper-102025-FINALDownload the PDF

#### Why sales contests fail
Sales leaders have more ways than ever to motivate performance: compensation plans, SPIFFs, accelerators, recognition programs, contests, and more. Yet many organizations still struggle with a familiar problem: performance plateaus.
Sellers hit their number, slow down, and wait for the next quarter. Activity spikes briefly around a promotion, then fades. Incremental growth remains elusive.
Let's Talk
When sales contests are treated as short-term payouts instead of behavior-change tools, they can reinforce a phenomenon known as income targeting: the tendency for sellers to work just hard enough to reach a perceived earnings goal, then disengage. To drive real performance lift, contests need to move the middle of the performance curve, where the majority of sellers, and much of the untapped revenue, reside.1
Why compensation alone isn’t enough
Compensation plans are essential. They establish expectations, signal priorities, and define success. But even the best-designed comp plan can’t perfectly account for every strategic shift, product focus, or short-term business need.
Behavioral economics explains why. When incentives are predictable and long-term, people often adapt their behavior to optimize for comfort, not growth. A classic taxi-driver study found that drivers worked fewer hours on high-demand rainy days because they had already “made enough” for the day. Supply dropped precisely when demand increased: income targeting at work.2
Sales organizations experience a similar effect. Sellers reach quota, earnings feel “good enough,” and discretionary effort declines. No amount of commission-rate tweaking solves that on its own.
A strong sales contest gives sellers a timely reason to stretch beyond baseline performance.
The real opportunity: move the middle
• The top 20% are already motivated and will often perform regardless of contests.
• The bottom 20% may need capability, onboarding, or role-fit support.
• The middle 60% produces a significant share of revenue and holds the greatest opportunity for incremental growth.
This middle segment is where sales contests work best. When designed correctly, contests give these sellers a reason to stretch beyond baseline performance instead of stopping once earnings feel sufficient.
The goal isn’t to replace compensation. It’s to interrupt income targeting with short-term, achievable goals that feel worth the effort.
Sales contests need a distinct role
• Compensation satisfies needs and establishes standards.
• Recognition reinforces desired behaviors over time.
• Contests satisfy wants, driving focused effort against a specific performance opportunity.
Unlike compensation, contests are flexible and immediate. They can be launched at any time to address a specific business or performance issue, such as new product adoption, competitive displacement, portfolio mix, or quarter-close urgency.
That flexibility is what makes contest design so important. A contest should not simply add more payout to the same behaviors already covered in the compensation plan. It should focus seller effort where the business needs movement now.
How to design sales contests that drive incremental results
Effective sales contests share four characteristics.
Behind every business challenge is a performance issue. “Revenue is behind” is not actionable. “Sellers are avoiding Product A because it’s harder to sell” is.
A strong contest starts with who needs to do what differently. From there, leaders can decide the right audience, rules, timing, communication, and reward structure.
The most powerful contests are often built around personal improvement, not stack ranking. When sellers compete against their own baseline, more participants have a believable path to success.
Objective-based designs and step-it-up structures can outperform “top X wins” models because they create idiosyncratic fit: sellers believe the goal is attainable and worth their time. That belief is what unlocks discretionary effort beyond income targets.
Behavior change requires more than math. Effective contests use goal setting, emotional commitment, and clear progress visibility to keep sellers engaged.
When sellers commit to a goal publicly or see progress visually, effort increases because disengaging feels like a loss, not a neutral choice. The contest becomes something they are trying to achieve, not just something the company is running.
Cash is useful, but it is rarely memorable. Non-cash awards, including travel, experiences, and aspirational merchandise, create stories and social visibility. They motivate effort without anchoring a fixed “price” on a seller’s time or creating escalating payout expectations over time.
The reward does not need to be extravagant. It needs to feel meaningful enough to make the stretch worthwhile.
Common sales contest mistakes to avoid
• Become predictable and easy to game
• Reward only top performers who would have won anyway
• Double-pay for behaviors already compensated in the plan
• Set goals that feel out of reach for most sellers
• Reward activity that does not connect to a business outcome
These designs do not create incremental growth. They redistribute existing performance and reinforce income targeting. Worse, when they are removed, they can feel like pay cuts instead of tactical changes.
Turn “good enough” into “what’s next?”
Sales contests are not about excitement for excitement’s sake. When designed intentionally, they are one of the most effective tools sales leaders have to interrupt income targeting, refocus effort, and unlock growth that compensation alone cannot reach.
The biggest gains do not come from pushing the top or penalizing the bottom. They come from moving the middle 60%, where clear goals, achievable progress, and meaningful rewards can turn “good enough” into “what’s next?”
Sources
BI WORLDWIDE. Contests and Incentives.
Camerer, C., Babcock, L., Loewenstein, G., & Thaler, R."Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers: One Day at a Time." The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1997.
Download the full case study for more details.
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#### Why sales teams need a different approach to rewards and recognition
Rewards and recognition for sales teams need to do something different than a traditional all-employee recognition program.
Let's Talk
Employee recognition programs are typically designed to reinforce culture, consistency, and everyday appreciation. Sales rewards and recognition programs are designed to drive measurable performance in a competitive, variable environment. The audience, motivation, and business goals are different.
If you’re a sales leader using a platform designed to recognize corporate values, you might not have all the tools needed to drive sales performance in a competitive market.  
BI WORLDWIDE has been a leader in employee recognition for decades, but our mission has always been broader than recognition alone: inspire people and deliver measurable business results. Today, several organizations use one vendor for their all-employee recognition platform and turn to BI WORLDWIDE for sales rewards, sales contests, and performance-based recognition.
Here are four examples of how sales leaders are using targeted rewards and recognition programs to drive short-term focus and long-term performance.
For one global pharmaceutical customer, BIW set out to make sales contest progress visible, personal, and hard to miss.
As part of the contest communications campaign, we designed personalized scorecards with vivid, eye-catching creative delivered through HTML emails. Each scorecard showed contest metrics by territory, district, region, and national view, so every rep could quickly see where they stood and what progress still needed to be made.
The result was exceptional email engagement. These personalized progress reports have since become a best-practice engagement tool for the customer’s sales contests.
For another leading pharmaceutical organization, BIW delivers an annual sales top performer reward program with both individual and team-based components.
Top individual performers earn reward points they can redeem for merchandise, travel, or learning experiences. Top-performing teams also earn small-group travel opportunities, with more than 12 award trip destinations to choose from and flexible travel dates based on their team’s preference.
These team trips are designed to celebrate shared success and strengthen camaraderie. Awards include airfare, hotel, ground transportation, activities, and a food-and-beverage card allowance, creating a recognition experience that feels both personal and memorable.
For a top-tier pharma company, the goal was simple: keep the contest experience fresh so engagement stayed high throughout the first quarter and into the fiscal year.
BIW mapped a multi-phase sales contest plan that started with a fast-start month featuring airline tickets, then moved into monthly KPI-driven sweepstakes for individual travel opportunities. The first-quarter push finished with top-performer travel of the winner’s choice.
In Q3, the program shifted to a market-share focus and monthly lifestyle and experience packages. That variety helped keep the field energized while giving leaders the flexibility to support local priorities and national goals.
When a leading biopharma company wanted a true “WOW” moment to support a product-launch push, BIW built a reward experience winners couldn’t easily replicate on their own.
The program included a three-night destination celebration with a welcome reception, a high-adrenaline driving experience on a professional racetrack, and a behind-the-scenes tour of a major sports venue. The experience culminated in a private shopping event in an exclusive, access-only setting.
Winners received personalized jerseys and reward tokens redeemable for awards of their choosing, including electronics, jewelry, designer handbags, sporting goods, travel, and more. The experience earned standout feedback and delivered the once-in-a-lifetime feeling the client wanted.
Why sales rewards and recognition need their own strategy
The most common mistake is trying to use one unified rewards philosophy for every employee audience.
Employee-wide programs can feel too soft for sales. Sales programs can feel too aggressive or unfair for non-sales roles. When organizations blur the two, both audiences can disengage.
The best organizations build a complementary culture through recognition while using sales-specific rewards, contests, communications, and progress tracking to drive measurable results in a variable and competitive environment.
Sales teams need more than appreciation. They need programs designed to focus effort, create momentum, and reward the behaviors that move business forward.
Download the PDF version of this article.
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#### Why you should reconsider your "all employee" recognition program
At first glance, a one-size-fits-all recognition program sounds efficient. Everyone gets the same experience, the same rewards, the same communications. Simple, right?
But here’s the problem: your employees aren’t the same. And neither are their roles, motivations, or contributions.
Let's Talk
Every employee in your organization is working toward the same overarching goals: growth, innovation, customer satisfaction, and profitability. But how they get there varies dramatically.
A sales rep drives revenue through relationships and deals.
A customer service agent builds loyalty through empathy and resolution.
An engineer innovates through precision and problem-solving.
A plant worker ensures quality and efficiency on the production line.
Each role contributes differently. So why would we reinforce them all for the same behaviors?
When everyone receives the same experience, the same incentives, the same learning modules, and the same communications, you risk disengagement. Not because recognition isn’t happening but because it isn’t relevant.
Recognition drives what matters most to each employee in their unique role. It should guide them toward the behaviors and skills that drive your business outcomes.
We believe recognition should be as dynamic as your workforce. That’s why we design programs that are audience-smart and tailored to the needs, preferences, and realities of each employee group.
Here's what that looks like in action:
Targeted communications: Messaging that resonates with each audience, delivered through the right channels, whether that's email, mobile, digital signage, or even physical materials.
Role-relevant learning: Training that's aligned with what each group needs to know to succeed, not generic content that gets ignored.
Behavior-based incentives: Missions and nudges that drive the specific actions each role needs to take to contribute to your goals.
Barrier-aware design: Strategies that account for what might prevent employees from engaging and solutions to overcome them.
Personalized experiences: Using technology to show or hide elements based on the user so each person sees what's relevant to them and nothing that's not.
Our platform doesn’t just deliver recognition; it delivers the right recognition to the right people at the right time. Whether it’s a gamified mission for your sales team, a learning module for your frontline staff, or a social wall celebrating your engineers, every touchpoint is intentionally designed to improve employee performance.
And it’s not just about tech. Our account teams work closely with clients to design programs that reflect the complexity of their workforce. We don’t believe in templates; we believe in tailored strategies that drive real results.
Recognition should unify your workforce, but that doesn’t mean it should be uniform. When you meet employees where they are, speak their language, and recognize what matters to them, you don’t just make them feel seen. You help them see exactly how they contribute to your company’s success.
It’s time to move beyond “all employee” programs. Let’s build recognition that works for everyone uniquely.
Download the PDF version of this article.
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#### Winning the last four feet
For brands operating in retail, success is determined by the ability to “win the last four feet” – the critical interaction between the customer and the retail associate. Regardless of the advertising budget, it can all be rendered ineffective if a competitor excels in that final interaction. Conversely, outperforming competitors in those crucial moments can offset their advertising spend.
For brands operating in retail, success is determined by the ability to “win the last four feet” – the critical interaction between the customer and the retail associate. Regardless of the advertising budget, it can all be rendered ineffective if a competitor excels in that final interaction. Conversely, outperforming competitors in those crucial moments can defeat their advertising spend.
Confidence among sellers stems from being well-informed. This confidence is built through education about the brands they represent. Educated sellers are more enthusiastic about discussing your brand, leading to winning the sale in the last four feet.
Consider your last visit to a retail store when you sought assistance. Did the retail associate confidently explain the features and benefits of specific brands? Were they indifferent? Was an associate even available? Likely, a knowledgeable and confident retail associate guided your purchase decision.
A recent study1 indicates that 88% of customers finalize their purchases in-store despite conducting online research, underscoring the importance of knowledgeable retail associates who can provide valuable insights and close sales.
At BI WORLDWIDE, our Retail Connect solution is designed specifically for retail associates. By combining immersive learning and vivid communications with a gamified user experience, you ensure associates stay informed and build confidence. Additionally, rewards and status achievements keep retail associates engaged and motivated.
Ensuring brand stakeholders are informed of their retail sales and KPIs is also an important component. It’s critical to provide measurable insights into program effectiveness, sales, behavioral KPIs, and the answer to critical questions like:
"What's working?""What's not working?""How can we improve?"
These actionable insights offer clarity and direction.
In today’s competitive retail landscape, success can be measured in mere feet – the last four to be exact. What are your strategies and tactics to win this critical space?
Download the PDF version of this article.
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### Pages

#### About Us
Our mission is to turn inspiration into real results for our clients. We understand how to attract, engage, and retain employees, run effective sales contests and incentives, build dynamic customer loyalty programs, and create impactful corporate events better than anyone else.
We work with companies around the globe who know extraordinary results can only be achieved when their business is inspired by the people who make it happen. Inspired employees solve problems and create value. Inspired salespeople take risks and seize opportunity. And inspired channel partners and customers are passionately loyal to your brand.
How did we get to be so good at inspiring people and delivering results? Experience is part of it, but it also stems from our unique approach to building solutions. We design and deliver customizable employee, sales, channel and customer solutions that are grounded in the science of behavioral economics. In other words, we look at how thought and emotion combine to drive human decisions and behavior. We don't have to guess at what might motivate your employees or customers because we use scientific research and data to determine what will really inspire them to produce measurable business outcomes. Then we act on it.
We are a full-service agency, which means we develop integrated solutions. Looking for an all-employee recognition system and a way to reward your top sales performers? We can do that. Need to launch a new product at your annual dealer conference and provide learning for your corporate employees? We can do that too. Our single focus is on partnering with you to understand the problems you’re trying to solve and helping you achieve top and bottom-line results for your business.
A global company
Our world headquarters is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. With over 40 locations worldwide, our in-market local presence includes more than 25 sales offices throughout the U.S. and 18 international operations in key markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Our worldwide network of offices and partnerships not only give us unmatched local resources but also allow us to deliver culturally-relevant programs and solutions no matter where our customers and their audiences are located. 
We know what it takes to motivate
Learn more about us.
BI WORLDWIDE is certified to ISO 27001:2022 Information Security Management System; we have held this certificate continuously since 2013. ISO 27001 provides a robust framework ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of information while mitigating risks through rigorous security practices.
Our partnerships let us bring forward the best thinking and strongest solutions to solve your problems. We’ve developed relationships to ensure you have access to current research to drive your decision-making and program design. Then our technical partners ensure seamless integrations to drive enhanced results.
Our leaders, associates and trading partners work hand-in-hand advancing our mission to inspire people and deliver results while being conscientious and responsible stewards to our communities.
BI WORLDWIDE associates enjoy a welcoming, challenging and exciting corporate culture. We’re a global leader in sales incentives and employee, channel and customer engagement. We’re that leader because of our associates.

#### Accessibility Statement
Accessibility Statement
BI WORLDWIDE is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines.
This website endeavors to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly for all people.
This site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards for HTML and CSS. The site displays correctly in current browsers and using standards compliant HTML/CSS code means any future browsers will also display it correctly.
While BI WORLDWIDE strives to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.
We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. In the meantime should you experience any difficulty in accessing www.biworldwide.com, please don’t hesitate to contact us at connect@biworldwide.com. 

#### Agriculture
We engage employees, motivate sales teams, and grow loyal customers.
Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed more than $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP in 2023, more than 5.5% of the total GDP. It's an industry supported by a vast network of companies that provide various inputs and services—from large agribusiness firms to smaller suppliers and service providers. 
We serve many ag-related companies by helping them to motivate, reward, and recognize employees.  Agriculture and its related industries provide over 10% of U.S. employment, with more than 22 million full- and part-time jobs.
We provide solutions to help agribusinesses sell their inputs to growers—seed, fertilizers, pesticides, farm equipment, and technology solutions designed to improve farm management. We create solutions to drive sales, engage channel partners, and drive customer loyalty.
From farm to table, we have the experience and inspiring solutions to grow the growing business of American agriculture.

#### AI Solutions
To solve complex problems, you need the right tools. Our solution stack includes artificial intelligence on the forefront of what's possible. From real-time language translation to agentic virtual partners, learn about the AI tech behind our products and how you can leverage it to produce better business outcomes.
Explore our AI toolset
Analyze submissions for quality, values alignment, and impact. Automate recommendations to save time, and spotlight standout stories for a fairer, more inspiring recognition process.
Craft authentic and specific recognitions while suggesting behaviors, badges, and even award amounts – quickly, with natural language, and in the flow of work.
Nudge teammates and managers ahead of anniversaries and generate thoughtful messages by connecting recognition data. Turn loyalty into a shared moment of appreciation.
Make understanding impact easy. Turn data into conversation and help program owners see what’s working and where to focus next.
Recognition should be timely, specific and personal. Nothing can replace a meaningful message from a manager or teammate. But everyone can use a helping hand to get that message across. Create peer-to-peer and manager recognition that resonates and inspires.
Combine the science of behavioral economics and the benefits of a proven, reliable rules structure with artificial intelligence to create a truly personalized and rewarding incentive experience.
Move beyond the limitations of a traditional LMS. Combine gamification, personalized journeys, and real-time rewards to guide learners on a journey that is specific to them.
Streamline the process to translate entire courses into multiple languages within minutes—all languages consolidated into a single course version, simplifying quality assurance and updates.
Harness the power of gamification to engage your customers, employees, and partners to do more within the systems that matter to your business. Integrate an AI-driven mission engine built to deliver the right tasks, the right learning, and the right goals at the right time.
Whether assessing problem spaces, pre-planning for program launch, or conducting postmortem analysis on a program in order to more-effectively spin up the next, collect and wield data to make effective decisions at every phase.
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Automotive
Trusted by major automotive industry organizations to help exceed sales goals, elevate customer satisfaction, cement service retention, and maximize parts growth.
Welcome to the fast lane.
The automotive industry is complex and rapidly evolving. 
We get it. And we’re strategic partners who stay three laps ahead, so you get tangible bottom-line results.
Amp up sales in new vehicles, CPO, accessories, F&I, wholesale & retail, parts, service acquisition, retention, and dollars per RO. 
Generate excitement about new products.
Create brand loyalty and advocacy.
Fine-tune your strategies to make the most of your energy and investments.
Shift your performance culture into overdrive.
We’re industry pioneers who leverage proven incentive structures backed by the science of behavioral economics.
Our world-renowned strategies include customized programs to engage, onboard, educate, inspire, certify, recognize, and motivate your team with integrated solutions including:
Dealer events. Product launches. Experiential marketing. Incentive trips.
Turn new dealers into top dealers. Turn top dealers into superstars.
Use game mechanics to take your learning and goal setting to the next level.
Build curriculum and learning schedules that keep your brand top of mind and above board.
Inspire employees and dealer partners with aspirational goods, experiences, and learning opportunities.
Create a work environment where people want to join, stay, and do their best work. Your bottom line will thank you.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/950842762
Every metric tells a story.
9M
VINs processed annually
5M
visitors at BIW auto sites annually
12k
active dealerships participating annually
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### AwardCard
We believe that business relationships are critical, and our clients need a flexible and empowered way to create customer connections that say..."We value YOU."
Strengthen relationships and foster loyalty.
Opportunities for recognition can happen anywhere, anytime. The Elevate AwardCard provides a unique gifting solution for capturing moments that matter or expressing appreciation outside the organization.
You can use AwardCard to address common business challenges in an inspiring and motivating way. Here are some of them:
Inspiring and Motivating
Address customer retention rates
Incentivize repeat purchases
Encourage customer feedback
Build advocacy and referrals
Increase participation in promotions
Increase channel sales
Shift consumer preferences
Encourage brand advocacy
Drive attendance and engagement at events
Reduce customer acquisition costs
High-Touch With Digital Flexibility
Face-to-face delivery complemented by a streamlined digital backend for flexible award choice and easy redemption.
Effortless and Efficient
Beautifully-crafted cards, seamless redemption platform and thoughtfully selected awards.
Receive the card and visit the URL on the card.
Scratch off the unique code, and enter where prompted.
Choose an award from the curated merchandise selection.
Provide a mailing address.
Award delivered to the provided address.

#### Awards and Accolades
We have the privilege of working with some of the world’s largest brands to engage their employees, motivate their sales teams and build a loyal following of channel partners and customers.
Every metric tells a story.
83
Net Promoter Score. According to Bain & Company, a score above 80 is world-class.
9/10
average customer satisfaction score since 2014.
0
number of awards we'd have won without world-class clients. It's not about us.
Learn more about our world-class service and what our clients had to say.
biw-stats-2.2024-finalCheck it out
Award-winning work.
Our Meetings and Shows team has received two Emmy Awards: one for a product launch video we created for a large pharmaceutical client and the other for a film about AIDS Awareness in America
We have won national Telly Awards for industrial short films created for clients in the automotive, financial, sports, and healthcare industries. These shorts were developed by BIW's Meetings & Shows group, which creates large-scale events and brand experiences for our Fortune 500 clients.
Our Meetings & Shows team has been awarded Gold and Platinum MUSE Creative Awards for work with companies like Delta, Kawasaki and COUNTRY Financial.
Multi-year winner of Experience Design & Technology Awards with COUNTRY Financial for Best Stage Experience.
Our Learning & Training team has been awarded an LTEN Excellence Award for Industry Partnership, recognizing innovative and inspiring work done by life sciences training practitioners and providers.
The American Business Awards® (The Stevies) are the premier business awards program in the U.S.A.
For the last 18 years, we've earned a place on Corporate Meetings & Incentives Top 25 list of North American full-service meeting and incentive companies. 
Our Meetings & Shows team has been awarded with Communicator Awards of Distinction for their work on client videos and integrated campaigns.
Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility firm EcoVadis recognizes BIW as a Silver-rated corporate citizen, placing us in the top 25% of all companies evaluated.
We helped Coca-Cola Refreshments engage their sales team, channel and employee base with an integrated rewards, incentive and recognition plaform.
We've earned the "Above and Beyond" Award for Support of the National Guard and Reserve Department of Defense
We've earned the Titan award for embodying the spirit of innovation, pushing boundaries, demonstrating exceptional leadership, and delivering exceptional client experiences.
Awarded Silver in the category of Best Advance in Learning Management Technology for Compliance and Bronze for our product, Chameleon, in the category of Best Advance in Content Management Technology.
Awarded Gold in Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards in the category of Best Employee Value Proposition (EVP) for our work with Pizza Hut.
Our Communications Team has been awarded 4 Hermes Creative Awards. 3 for work in Public Relations/Communications, Strategic Programs and 1 in Print Media, Integrated Marketing. 
Hermes Creative Awards recognizes outstanding work of marketing and communication professionals.
There’s a reason you won’t find our name on a list of trending or emerging brands. That’s because our job is to make your brand shine.

#### Benefits
We help companies reward and recognize their employees. And we’re no exception.
401K
BIW provides a 401(k) retirement plan to assist Associates in saving for retirement. Anyone working 1,000+ hours in a 12 month period is eligible to participate immediately. There are pre-tax, after-tax or Roth contribution options. BIW matches $0.50 per $1.00 (or 50%) up to the first 6% you contribute. The maximum match from BIW is $10,000 per year. The matching contributions are subject to a five year vesting schedule. The plan offers changing investment fund options, as well as a self-directed option that provides access to funds outside the BIW plan.
Profit Sharing
For Associates not on individual bonus plans, BIW shares in its success in the form of a discretionary bonus. Profit Sharing is based on 3 factors: length of employment with BIW, eligible salary, and BIW’s success.
Health Insurance
All regular, full & part-time Associates working a minimum of 30 hours per week are eligible for health benefits, effective the first of the month following their date of hire. 
BIW offers a High Deductible/Health Savings Account Plan (HSA) administered by UnitedHealthcare. The monthly costs are as follows:
Employee - $177
Employee + Spouse/Domestic Partner - $564
Employee + Child(ren) - $527
Family - $804
By electing the High Deductible plan, you are eligible to contribute to an HSA account on a pre-tax basis. *If you become entitled to Medicare benefits, you cannot contribute to an HSA.
BIW also offers a PPO copay plan administered by Surest (UHC). The monthly costs are as follows:
Employee - $142
Employee + Spouse/Domestic Partner - $478
Employee + Child(ren) - $451
Family - $667
UnitedHealthcare creates and publishes the Machine-Readable Files on behalf of BI WORLDWIDE.  To link to the Machine-Readable Files, please click on the URL provided:  transparency-in-coverage.uhc.com
Prescription Coverage
Prescription Coverage is administered by CVS Caremark. Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums apply to the medical deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
Drugs on the HSA plan are subject to co-payments or deductible as follows:
Preventive Drugs:
Generic: $8.00 co-pay. No co-pay for diabetic supplies. 
Brand-Preferred (formulary): $45.00 co-pay.
Mail Order: 3 month supply for 2 times the monthly co-pay amount
*Non-preventive prescriptions on the HSA plan are subject to deductible and coinsurance
Drugs on the Surest PPO plan are subject to co-payments as follows:
Retail:
Generic: $10.00 co-pay. No co-pay for diabetic supplies. 
Brand-Preferred (formulary): $90.00 co-pay.
Non-Preferred brand: $120.00 co-pay
Mail Order (3 month upply)
Generic: $25.00 co-pay. No co-pay for diabetic supplies. 
Brand-Preferred (formulary): $225.00 co-pay.
Non-Preferred brand: $300.00 co-pay
Dental Insurance
BIW offers a Low and a High dental plan through HealthPartners. The Low plan covers preventive services at 100% and basic services (such as fillings) at 80% after a $50 deductible. The High plan covers preventive services at 100% and basic services at 50% after a $25 deductible. In addition it covers major restorative services (such as crowns) at 50% after a $25 deductible. Orthodontic coverage is also available under the High Plan.The monthly costs are as follows:
Low                                 
Employee: $29.02                   
Employee + Spouse/Domestic Partner: $57.77      
Employee + Child(ren): $69.21 
Family: $92.80    
High                                 
Employee: $51.82                   
Employee + Spouse/Domestic Partner: $103.92      
Employee + Child(ren): $114.28
Family: $171.89
Vision Insurance
BIW offers a vision plan through EyeMed. The plan provides a discount on lenses & contacts every 12 months, frames every 24 months and Lasik procedures. The monthly cost is as follows:
Employee: $6.92
Employee + spouse: $13.15
Employee + child(ren): $13.84
Family: $20.31
Pet Insurance
Pet Insurance provides coverage for veterinary expenses related to accidents and illnesses. Policies are available for dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, and other exotic pets. This is a voluntary benefit and cost is determined on factors such as type of animal, breed, age, and zip code.
Life Insurance
BIW provides basic life and accidental death & dismemberment insurance at one times your base salary. You may elect to purchase additional life insurance up to five times your salary (up to a max of $750K), as well as coverage for your spouse/partner, and/or children.
Short Term Disability
Short term disability coverage protects you from an illness or an injury that would cause an absence of up to 26 weeks. Benefits begin after a waiting period of 7 days (personal days can be used to supplement pay while waiting) and provide 66.67% of your weekly income, up to a maximum of $2,500/week. This is an employer paid benefit.
Flexible Spending Accounts
A Limited Use Flex (an account only used with an HSA for dental and vision expenses), Standard Flex and a Dependent Care account are available.
Supplemental Medical Insurance
Critical Illness, Accident Insurance and Hospital Indemnity
These benefits provide you additional income in the event of a serious accident, critical illness diagnosis, or in-patient hospitalization. These dollars can be used as you see fit to cover your deductible or other non-medical expense.
Costs for Critical Illness are dependent upon age.
Accident Insurance monthly costs are as follows:
EE: $6.01
EE + Spouse: $12.03
EE + Child(ren): $12.93
Family: $18.95
Hospital Indemnity costs are as follows:
EE: $13.65
EE + Spouse: $27.96
EE + Child(ren): $22.46
Family: $36.77
Employee Assistance Program
BIW’s Employee Assistance Program is provided by UnitedHealthcare. It offers referral services for simple questions to complex issues with topics ranging from health, family, money, and work to personal issues. This service is available to you and anyone that is important in your life and is completely confidential.  
AwardPoints
AwardPoints earned can be redeemed for merchandise, travel, event tickets and more.
Associate Events
Throughout the year, BIW hosts events for its Associates. Chili cook-offs, Oktoberfest celebrations, Jazz Fests, Winter Wonderlands, and Take Your Dog to Work Day are just a few examples.
Bravo
Bravo is BIW’s social recognition and incentive system and is used by all Associates to recognize each other for any number of behaviors that support our work for customers and exemplify our values. Recognition may include AwardPoints or sweepstakes entries.
Dress Code
Associates may wear jeans to work every day. We do, however, dress in business or business casual attire when interviewing, meeting with suppliers/vendors or hosting or attending customer meetings both outside and inside of BIW. 
Referral Program
When you refer a qualified candidate to BIW and they are hired, you receive $500 in AwardPoints. 
Recognition PURL™
Engages co-workers, family and friends to share comments, photos and videos to personalize the celebration of your milestone anniversary with BIW.
Gyms, Fitness, & Health
Gym DiscountsBIW partners with LifeTime to provide $100 off club fees if you work out 8 times/month.
Healthy SavingsAssociates receive a Healthy Savings discount card to save on produce at participating grocery stores.
ErgonomicsBIW offers treadmill desk conference rooms, on-site Roman chairs, and sit-to-stand desks.
Group Legal Insurance
Group Legal provides legal services from experienced attorneys for $19.50 a month.  Legal advice and services are offered for a wide range of personal legal matters including: court appearances, document review and preparation, wills, family law, and real estate matters. This is a voluntary benefit.  
Holidays
New Year’s Day – Thursday, January 1
MLK Day – Monday, January 19
Memorial Day – Monday, May 25
Independence Day – Friday, July 3
Labor Day – Monday, September 7
Thanksgiving Holidays – Thursday, November 26; Friday, November 27
Christmas Eve – Thursday, December 24
Christmas Day – Friday, December 25
One floating holiday – of your choice (if hired after July 1, holiday is awarded the next January)
Family and Medial Leave Act (FMLA)
FMLA provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Associates are eligible after 12 months of employment with BIW. FMLA leaves are administered by Voya.
Paid Time Off (PTO)
BIW supplies Associates paid time off (PTO) to use at their own discretion for family emergencies, vacation time, sick time for themselves or family members, or other personal business. PTO is based on longevity and hours worked, according to the following schedule:
Regular Full-Time Associates
120 hours (15 days) at hire
160 hours (20 days) after 1 year
176 hours (22 days) after 5 years
192 hours (24 days) after 10 years
208 hours (26 days) after 15 years
224 hours (28 days) after 20 years
240 hours (30 days) after 25 years
Up to 40 hours (5 days) can be rolled over to the next year. The maximum amount of days one can have is 5 days above your anniversary amount. 
Regular Part-Time and Seasonal Associates
PTO is prorated based upon hours worked during the year and length of employment. 
Flexible Work Arrangements
Fixed Flexible Hours:  Fixed hours per day – for example, 8:00am – 4:30pm, 8:30am – 5:00pm, or 7:30am – 4:00pm
Work from home:  Option to work remotely on Mondays and Fridays if your position and schedule permits you to be away from the office.
Work from anywhere: Option to work from any location up to 4 weeks per calendar year if your position and the work you do permits it.
Summer of Love
From Memorial Day through Labor Day BIW celebrates the Summer of Love.  During these months there is a relaxed dress code, along with other fun activities like barbecues, afternoon parties with live music, and other surprise events. Associates are also given additional time off to enjoy the summer months. 
Treadmill and Sit-or-Stand Desks
BIW provides a number of treadmill desks on campus and in conference rooms. These are available for all associates to use for walking meetings or individually. Associates working at our MN locations are also provided with a powered stand-or-sit desk. 
Parental Leave
BIW will provide up to 6 weeks of paid parental leave for parents immediately following the arrival of a new infant or for adoptive parents with new children up to age 18. This benefit is in addition to short-term disability, if applicable.
Long Term Disability
Long term disability coverage protects you from an illness or an injury that would cause an absence of 26 weeks or greater. Benefits begin on the 180th day and provide 60% of monthly wages, up to $15,000/month. This is an employer paid benefit.
Identity Theft Coverage
ID Theft coverage services are provided by ID Watchdog. Services are provided for a wide range of protections such as Tri-Bureau Credit monitoring, SSN monitoring, financial account monitoring as well as restoration in case of an identity theft event. The monthly costs are as follows:
Essentials
Single: $4.90
Family: $8.90
Platinum Plus
Single: $6.90
Family: $12.40

#### Block Unlock
Block Unlock® is a gamified system that drives engagement, behavior change, and progress by motivating audiences to complete actions and unlock rewards.
Unlock what’s next.
Connect with your customers in the most exciting way imaginable. Block Unlock® is a gamified system that drives engagement, accelerates lifecycle progression, and fuels behavior change by motivating audiences to complete actions and unlock rewards.
Block Unlock transforms the user experience into a fun, dynamic journey that keeps customers coming back for more. Let’s unlock your brand’s true potential and inspire real action.
Explore our loyalty offerings.
Engage your customers, employees, and partners to do more within the systems that matter to your business.
From the moment customers discover your brand to the point they become your biggest advocates, we help you craft programs that inspire action, foster connection, and drive measurable results
Real loyalty takes more than points and perks. We dig deeper, driving the behaviors that matter, fine-tuning every stage of the journey, and sparking emotional connections that last. Wherever your customers are, we make sure they stick with you.

#### Branded Merchandise
What works for another brand may not work for yours. We build a merchandise strategy that resonates with your employees and customers to keep your brand top of mind.
We design branded products that people love, use, and keep around for years. How? By staying ahead of trends and connecting with your audience’s lifestyle. From everyday essentials to standout items, we create collections that your customers, channel partners, and employees will proudly wear, use, and talk about.
We'll help you create a branded merchandise campaign through:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/394010638
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Building Supply
Foster loyalty with a strategic blend of customer insights, targeted marketing tools, and compelling rewards.
The challenge:
Attract new customers, upsell and cross-sell to existing customers, and create a fiercely loyal following for your brand.
The solution:
Reward them.
Join North America's most recognizable building products brands in a program designed to uphold brand integrity while generating exponential selling power.
Contractor Rewards targets general contractors and sub-contractors in both residential and commercial construction. Enrollment is simple and contractors amass points with the purchase of participating products. These points can be redeemed for more than 350,000 items from an online awards catalog.
As for you? You'll benefit from preferred brand status as well as a wealth of customer data. We believe that successful brand managers know who buys their products and why they buy it. These insights facilitate highly targeted marketing campaigns to maximize return on your marketing dollars.
The bottom line: Discounts don't win. Loyalty wins.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1059037029
Measure twice. Take your cut.
450k
invoices processed quarterly
95.6%
invoice acceptance rate
1.6
days to process invoice, on average
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Bunchball Service Level Agreement
Bunchball Services SLA
Download this SLA document.
Bunchball Services SLADownload
This Service Level Agreement (the "SLA") sets forth certain additional terms and conditions under which Bunchball will provide hosting, maintenance, and technical support for the Bunchball Services. This SLA was last updated on October 27, 2023.
Definitions
1.1 "Patch" shall mean a fix to equipment and/or software to resolve an Error.
1.2 "Error" shall mean a reproducible instance of an error of any kind in the operation of the Bunchball Services or the inability of the Customer or its End Users to use the Bunchball Services.
1.3 "Error Resolution" shall mean Bunchball providing a solution to an Error in the form of a Patch or other fix or workaround that is reasonably acceptable to Customer.
Response Times; Status Updates and Error Resolutions
2.1 Bunchball will provide the following Response Times, Status Updates and Error Resolutions for each Error reported by the Customer under the procedure set forth below:
Severity LevelResponse TimeStatus UpdatesTarget Error Resolution Time*Severity Level 1: Critical. The Error is having a critical impact on Customer's ability to operate the Program.1 hour; work commenced immediatelyOnce every hour until issue resolution1 daySeverity Level 2: Severe. The Error is having a severe impact on Customer's ability to operate the Program, but there is a capacity to maintain necessary business operations.3 hoursOnce every 5 business daysNext scheduled releaseSeverity Level 3: Moderate. The Error is having a medium-to low impact on Customer's ability to operate the Program that involves partial, non-critical functionality loss. Customer's operations are impaired but functioning.1 business dayOnce every 10 business daysWithin the next 3 scheduled releasesSeverity Level 4: Cosmetic.  Superficial problem not preventing delivery of the Bunchball Service(s).2 business days
*Commencing upon Bunchball's confirmed receipt of Error report
2.2 General usage questions will be responded to within two (2) business days and treated with a lower priority unless questions directly impact work timelines or implementation of critical functionality.
2.3 Bunchball shall report any unscheduled errors or server failures to Customer whether they impact Customer's program and/or they are reported by Customer.
Planned Outages
TypeDetailsPlanned Maintenance- Total of 8 hours per each one-month period.- Bunchball will notify Customer no less than 72 hours in advance of any such planned outages impacting the Bunchball Services.- Bunchball will ensure that planned outages take place between the hours of 9 PM and 5 AM PST on Friday or Saturday evenings.Emergency Maintenance- A total of 2 hours per each one-month period.- Bunchball will notify Customer no less than 24 hours in advance of any such planned outages impacting the Bunchball Services.- Bunchball will ensure that planned outages take place between the hours of 9 PM and 5 AM PST.
SLA Exclusions
This SLA does not cover resolution of Errors where such Errors result from (i) the Program Data as transmitted by End Users or Customer Servers to Bunchball Servers, or (ii) the failed transmission of the Program Data.
Reporting and Customer Requirements
5.1 If Customer discovers an Error, Customer must report the Error to Bunchball including the nature of the problem/issue. Likewise, if an Error event is detected by Bunchball, Bunchball must report/document to Customer the nature of the problem/issue.  If the Error is of a Critical nature, the discovering party will first contact the emergency contact of the other Party, report the issue, then follow up with an email documenting the Error, per the instructions below.
If the error is of a CRITICAL nature:The -critical support email address is bunchballsupport@biworldwide.com - In the subject of your email, include the word "EMERGENCY" and CC your Client Services contact. This starts an escalation procedure.
If the error is NOT CRITICAL: Non-critical issues should be logged by submitting an email to BunchballSupport@biworldwide.com per normal procedures.
The problem must be detailed as much as possible, specifically including:
Date Problem Identified
Problem Title
iii. Severity Level – As indicated in Section 2.1
Reported By (this is the person who discovered the problem / issue)
Detailed Problem Description- including the steps leading up to the problem occurrence
Impact– this is the impact the problem has on Customer services and/or business. This is very important and will help Bunchball and the business owners understand why this problem / issue is at the severity level chosen.
vii. Possible Reasons – any ideas on why the problem is occurring. This may or may not be known.
viii. Possible Solutions – this may or may not be known.
Service Availability
6.1 Uptime
Bunchball will ensure that Bunchball Services are operational and available to Customer 99.9% of the time, as calculated on a monthly basis.  This excludes maintenance as set forth in Section 3.
6.2 Credits
Monthly Uptime PercentageDays of service to be added to term of License Agreement at no additional charge to Customer< 99.9% - > 99.0%3< 99.0% - > 95.0%7< 95.0%10
In order to be eligible to receive a Service Credit, Customer must request such Service Credit no later than thirty (30) days following the end of any month in which Customer believes that the Uptime was not met. Request must include applicable estimated downtimes and must be submitted to BunchballSupport@biworldwide.com. Service Credits not requested within such thirty (30) day period will be automatically forfeited. Service Credits shall be the Customer’s sole remedy for Bunchball’s failure to meet Uptime. Service Credits shall not be redeemable in cash.

#### Careers
For starters, we take these things to heart. Work hard, play hard, celebrate. Make work meaningful. Magnify successes. 
You're smart. You're skilled. You're up for a challenge.
Still reading? This is a good sign.
We're a global leader in sales incentives and employee, channel and customer engagement. We're that leader because of our associates. We hire the best:
Passionate problem solvers who tackle big business challenges
Bright minds who want to create the best solutions for our clients
Movers and shakers who can see the big picture and all the details
Overall hard workers who can get work done and have fun on the job
BI WORLDWIDE associates enjoy a welcoming, challenging and exciting corporate culture. We're not all suits either. You'll be impressed by the diverse skillset of your coworkers, and everything we can accomplish together. One day you could be on the phone with an Event Manager, the next day you could be discussing the latest in tech with a Creative Director.
Current Positions
From Minneapolis to Shanghai, we’re always looking for talented professionals to join us. Check out our current career opportunities.
Current Openings
Learn more about us
Our mission is to turn inspiration into real results for our clients. We understand how to attract, engage, and retain employees, run effective sales contests and incentives, build dynamic customer loyalty programs, and create impactful corporate events better than anyone else.
We are on a journey to organize and maximize our social responsibility efforts at BI WORLDWIDE. Our leaders, associates and trading partners work hand-in-hand advancing our mission to inspire people and deliver results while being conscientious and responsible stewards to our communities.
We help companies reward and recognize their employees. And we’re no exception.

#### Chameleon
Chameleon is our proprietary eLearning development tool for crafting dynamic, interactive, accessible and translatable eLearning, microsites, and presentations that adapt to any device.
Personalize. Engage. Inspire.
Learners’ needs and expectations are constantly evolving. Chameleon evolves to meet these needs and expectations. Our web-based, user-friendly platform delivers eLearning that adapts to brand, language, role, or region – all from a single course version.
Chameleon makes it possible to create engaging eLearning content without prior technology experience.  Choose from professionally designed layouts or build from scratch. Add interactive quizzes, branching scenarios, and custom navigation with ease.
Powered by Fusion AI, Chameleon brings intelligent automation to simplify workflows and support accessibility and localization – helping you deliver dynamic learning faster than ever.
Chameleon automatically adapts layouts and interactivity to optimize the user experience on laptop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Chameleon simplifies course creation and updating. Course editors can build pages from pre-existing layouts, from scratch, or a mix of both - using dozens of media and activity components.
Objectives, linking pre-test and final quiz questions together, allow learners to concentrate on specific topics, and enhance the learning experience.
Tailor learning experiences for different roles or groups within a single course. Content can vary by region, business unit, functional area, leadership/employee, or channel.
Chameleon's integrated reporting capabilities and detailed analytics data collect learner responses and feedback without the need for a separate database.
Create engaging learning experiences faster with intelligent automation. Fusion AI powers tools like our Component Assistant, Writing Assistant, and Media in Minutes (audio generator, image generator, media enhancer) to help you build polished content and visuals without technical expertise.
Deliver global learning effortlessly with our built-in localization Simple Translate tool. Step up to SmartCat Translate to enable rapid, accurate translations. Whichever translation tool you use, all languages are consolidated into a single course version.
Chameleon allows the distribution of a single course package tailored for multiple languages, devices, and learner roles, simplifying management and updates. And you can make changes post-LMS deployment without the need for re-uploading.
Chameleon adheres to accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA. Features like alternate text, transcripts, and keyboard navigation enhance user engagement, ensuring inclusivity for all learners.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1157606493?
Every metric tells a story.
40+
Global 2000 brands use Chameleon
1.1M
users in 169 countries
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Channel Engagement
Forge powerful, long-lasting relationships with your channel partners. By driving incremental sales, fostering ongoing engagement, and creating deep loyalty, we help ensure your brand stays top of mind and ready to thrive in the marketplace.
Build a network of loyal partners.
When you understand your partners better, you win.
Targeted learning and data-powered messaging keep your brand on their radar.
Customers follow the crowd--and the crowd is social. Turn influencers into your loudest advocates.
Spark loyalty with creative promotions and inspiring rewards. Get your channel emotionally invested for the long haul.
Every metric tells a story.
11.2%
average annual increase in channel sales
1M
sales representatives engaged annually
83
Net Promoter Score - according to Bain & Co, above 80 is world-class
Integrated Solutions
We'll help you build your channel sales strategy.
Nothing sustains and elevates a brand like authentic customer loyalty. And that starts by building loyalty in your channel with engaging loyalty platforms.
Your distribution channel represents a variety of different brands every day. Let's make your brand as important to your channel representatives as it is to you.
Whether it’s an annual meeting or an exciting new product launch, we create events that help your dealers see how they fit into the big picture.
We customize learning solutions that inform, engage, and educate your entire distribution channel.
Innovative strategies designed to capture and keep their attention, and stand out from the noise.
Motivate true channel loyalty with an effective gamification program that taps into their desire to succeed.
We turn channels into growth engines.
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Communications
The amount of information your customers, employees, and sales teams is presented with every day, hour, and minute continues to grow. Capture and keep their attention, and stand out from the noise.
We serve up inspiration daily to our audience — strategic solutions made up of digital, print, environmental and experiential tactics — that change behavior and perceptions.
Our dream team is a diverse and talented group of individuals who are experts in their craft and have the 100+ creative awards and 180,000+ global campaigns to prove it. Our award-winning team has been recognized by Brandon Hall, How Design, Hermes, and recently received a Gold Stevie for employee marketing.
Employee Experience
We help employees fall in love with companies for the first time — or rekindle their passion for work. As a result, performance levels skyrocket. We drive employee engagement, connectedness, inspiration, and performance with recognition branding and creative content that amplifies the employee value proposition (EVP) and elevates the employee experience — no matter where they are on their employee journey.
Sales Experience
Sales audiences today are barraged with information vying for their attention, a reality we call infobesity. So, we offer a trimmed down approach that cuts through the noise with clear messages salespeople can easily digest. Salespeople fall head over heels for it.
But it’s not all from the heart. We also employ Fastbrain Communications™, which is our own unique neuroscience-based messaging framework that helps us design emotional triggers and messages authentic to each audience so they can retain important information and act on it.
By using our proprietary sales and channel research, applied behavioral economics concepts, and deep marketing expertise we have the power to captivate and change behavior. Our tailored solutions care for how audiences need to consume information based on business/revenue goals and how they spend their day.
Problems we solve.
Branding
Content strategy and journey design
Sales engagement campaign strategy
Employer branding and EVP design
Behavior-change frameworks (change management)
Manager and influencer engagement
Deskless employee engagement
Meeting and event promotion and pull-through (pre- and post-event)
Studio solutions: audio and video (pre- and post-) - motion graphics, live-action, remote, live
Full-service digital - web apps, microsites, platforms, email marketing, dashboards, leaderboards, tracking maps, 360 rooms
Full-service print - collateral, mailers, packaging, kits, workspace, environmental
Fabrication and install
The numbers tell a story.
180k
projects completed last year
350%
average increase in desired activity
100+
creative and industry awards earned
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Communications, Media, and Entertainment
Educating, engaging, and inspiring your frontline associates to positively change behaviors that drive incremental effort that increases sales results, employee loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Problems we solve.
Motivate all sellers
We inspire your entire sales team to drive positive change, profitability, and sales growth by:
Shortening the ramp-up time to awareness and understanding of key initiatives to drive incremental goal achievement across the entire sales force.
Keying in on high-value behaviors that correlate to sales initiatives.
Leveraging gamification to educate your sales force on key knowledge and skills to best position your value proposition to end-users.
Optimizing your sales incentive and recognition investment.
Engage and inspire your employees
We help you attract, inspire, and retain a high-performing salesforce by:
Recognizing key behaviors and achievements.
Connecting employees to your culture and purpose.
Improving your employee experience.
Rewarding employees for living the culture on a daily basis.
Making employees feel valued for their contributions.
Increase partner loyalty
We assist you in fostering strong, enduring relationships, and boosting sales and profitability with distributors, resellers, and solution providers by:
Analyzing and segmenting the performance of channel partners.
Identifying initiatives to drive growth and profitability, thereby maximizing your channel marketing ROI.
Securing mindshare among channel partners and keeping your business at the forefront.
Promoting channel sales enablement and high-value activities.
Elevating channel partners' knowledge, skills, and ability to position your value proposition and sell your solutions effectively.
Motivating, acknowledging, and rewarding channel sales growth across all segments and/or tiers of channel partners.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Consumer Goods and Services
We partner with leading companies in the consumer goods industry by designing solutions that engage diverse audiences, including manufacturing, distribution, sales, and corporate employees.
Solutions that drive results.
Our programs boost commitment, effort, and inspiration, tailored specifically for your industry. From manufacturing to distrubution, from food and beverage to cosmetics.
Go beyond existing behaviors to motivate more of the new behaviors you want. Our expertise in sales incentives enables us to design the structure and rewards to best lift your numbers.
Whether employees need to learn about a new product, safety, compliance, or setting up a product display, our engaging learning approaches motivate employees to become their best.
Attract, engage, and retain top talent in this competitive, high turnover industry with an EVP and employer brand that inspires brand love from your employees.
Our segmented communications ensure your audiences are reached with relevant messages in the right medium to drive action.
We design programs that motivate the very different audiences in this industry around common organizational goals.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Contests and Incentives
We craft strategic, engaging incentives to drive maximum impact without blowing your budget. Transform your sales team from good to great with rewards that matter.
Take your sales team to another level.
If your sales incentive program is built to give your top 10% a bonus and a gift card, it’s not much more than expensive applause. Rewarding the people who would have performed anyway won’t change the trajectory of your business.
Our approach is built on behavioral science. Leverage the right contests and incentives to disrupt complacency, activate the middle performers in your sales organization, and hardwire the behaviors that actually drive revenue.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/452242721
Find the right tool. Engineer business outcomes.
A comp plan can only do so much. The right incentives at the right time inspire reps to go above and beyond. And that looks different for every organization. That's why we maintain the most robust collection of rules design and incentive options in the industry.
Learn how we align sales goals with the bigger picture, engage your sales reps with the most upside, and target growth across your entire team.
The world’s only sales incentive design with proven results that uses AI to drive incremental sales with dealers, wholesales, and agents. A self-selected goal matrix and all-or-nothing reward structure drive achievement and control budget. Perfect for short-term initiatives.
Build a program culture that moves beyond comp plans. Blend the personal goal setting of GoalQuest® with a base earnings component and allow participants to earn incremental rewards, even if they don’t hit their chosen goal.
Use quick-hit gaming rewards and variable ratio reinforcement to leverage social and positive behavioral conventions—reinforce behaviors, reward outstanding performance, and keep participants working to earn “one more play.”
Sometimes the best programs are the simplest. Set 3-5 goal plateaus and reward participants based on the level they achieve at program’s end. Flexible, easy to understand and administer, and ideal for quick spin-up and execution.
Reward participants for successful training completion. Leverage a proven Do This, Get That structure. Run a limited-time promotion for short field-wide learning needs, or build a 12-month program for extensive learning curricula.
Reward participants each time they meet specific criteria. Open ended structure keeps participants motivated throughout the program period. Flexible for short- or long-term initiatives, and useful when different sale types or activities require unique award values.
Accelerate payouts as key milestone levels are met and create a push to reach the highest level. Rewards can be issued as earned, or at program’s end. Great for all performance levels, but especially motivating for top performers.
A short-term incentive structure that incentivizes a varied sales matrix to keep reps from focusing strictly on “easy sales.” Use leaderboard variants, such as a BINGO-style card, to keep competition fresh. Tap into fixed or open-ended budget structure so match business goals.
Wield a probabilistic reward structure to drive simple activities across a large audience without blowing through your budget, and allow program sponsors to issue special spot rewards.
Rank participants on defined program metrics at one or more pre-set times and foster friendly competition in your sales force. Define audience segments to address higher- and lower-performing groups, and drive business outcomes on a fixed rewards budget.
Blend Do This, Get That and Plateau/Tiered reward structures for a program where participants earn cumulative awards as they hit key performance targets. Scale for short- or long-term initiatives and run promotions that keep energy high throughout the organization.
Create urgency and open up your incentive pool on a first come, first serve basis. Participants rush to hit defined metrics and earn rewards—when the pool runs out, the promotion is over. Perfect for programs spanning up to two months.
Heat Maps transform performance data into a vivid, visual experience that’s far more powerful than a spreadsheet—sparking immediate action and healthy competition by making performance visible and comparable. By leveraging behavioral science like relativity bias, the spotlight effect, and loss aversion, heat maps motivate individuals and teams to close gaps, change behaviors, and drive measurable business outcomes.
Program Enhancements
Add motivators to any program with top performer awards and recognition. Motivate historically strong performers with bonus rewards for exemplary performance. A fixed budget minimizes budget exposure.
Layer a sweepstakes component on top of any program to introduce probablistic rewards to keep low- and middle-performers engaged to the very end. When anybody has a shot to win something, everybody works to keep their name in the game.
Drive focus on key metrics by doubling or tripling base program earnings if certain performance goals are met. Reward individuals or incorporate team-based competition to encourage your reps to collaborate.
More Incentive Solutions
Transform your workplace and culture with one powerful ecosystem. Elevate® is the complete solution that offers all elements of employee and sales engagement.
The world’s only sales incentive design with proven results that uses AI to drive incremental sales with dealers, distributors, wholesalers and agents.
From the hottest brands and luxury getaways to hard-to-get sports tickets and learning opportunities—whatever ignites their passion, find it in Rewards Marketplace.
Take sales incentives for top performers to the next level with Warehouse Windfall. Motivate your sales force with the opportunity to earn a once-in-a-lifetime run through a warehouse packed full of high-end merchandise. 
Your teams can experience our most inspiring reward anywhere, any time with a virtual reality version of our legendary Warehouse Windfall experience.
Rewards Adventure is an online incentive video game designed to motivate, inspire and honor top performers. When you need an alternative to gathering in-person, Rewards Adventure brings the celebration to your achievers.
Whether you’re looking to reinforce behaviors that drive your business or recognize specific goal achievements, Game Arcade is a simple and fun way to reward the outstanding performance of your sales teams.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Corporate Social Responsibility
We are on a journey to organize and maximize our social responsibility efforts at BI WORLDWIDE. Our leaders, associates and trading partners work hand-in-hand advancing our mission to inspire people and deliver results while being conscientious and responsible stewards to our communities.
A commitment to the future.
One of our company's core values is "in it for the long haul." We understand the impact of our decisions on the environment, our employees and our customers.
Our commitment to the environment.
Our commitment to the environment is supported by our Sustainability Team - an employee-led group that sponsors events and education for BI WORLDWIDE. Some recent accomplishments include:
Learn about our corporate environmental policy.
biw-corporate-environmental-policyDownload
Our commitment to our employees.
Our commitment to our employees continues with a variety of employee resource groups, ongoing training and leadership support:
Learn about our Human Rights Policy
human-rights-policy-2024Download
Our commitment to our customers
Our commitment to customers continues with multiple areas of support:
Our New Rules of Engagement survey continues to identify ways to hire and retain the best employees by creating a culture of purpose and belonging.
Our Design Center has welcomed hundreds of customers for brainstorming and strategy sessions around employee onboarding, engagement, leadership development, learning and recognition. This year we added sustainable business strategies to that list.
Our company sponsored, and our Events team produced, the Martin Luther King Jr Day Breakfast event, benefitting the United Negro College Fund.
Learn about our Supplier Code of Conduct
Supplier Code of Conduct 2025Download
We continue to challenge ourselves to set the highest standard for corporate social responsibility and supporting our own, and our customers', ESG efforts. To quote another one of our values, "change is inevitable, so get on with it!"
Read our most-recent Corporate Social Responsibility report and learn more about how we are building toward a better, more equitable future.
BIW CSR 2025Download

#### Customer Loyalty
Real loyalty takes more than points and perks. We dig deeper, driving the behaviors that matter, fine-tuning every stage of the journey, and sparking emotional connections that last. Wherever your customers are, we make sure they stick with you.
Lifecycle optimization
The blueprint for lasting loyalty.
Turn awareness into action—and action into loyalty. Lay the groundwork to win customers from day one.
From onboarding to upselling, your customers are your most valuable assets. Build a lasting relationship.
Transactions are just the beginning. Build recognition and trust to keep them coming back for more.
Turn happy customers into vocal fans. Fuel advocacy and spark meaningful engagement.
With your customers every step of the way.
We don’t do ordinary loyalty programs. We redefine them. Our solutions evolve with your audience, delivering results that are fast, measurable, and powered by the science of behavioral economics.
Capabilities
Strategy and program design
Analytics and insights
Full creative services
Technology development
Printing and fulfillment
Call center (IB, OB, and IVR)
Email and SMS
Mobile Wallet objects
Incentives and rewards
Solutions
Customer loyalty programs
Channel loyalty programs
Behavior change programs
Member/patient engagement
Customer appreciation and gifting
Lifecycle marketing
Interactive marketing
Direct marketing
Omni channel campaigns
Every metric tells a story.
15.3%
average increase in customer engagement
$100M
annual incremental revenue by loyalty solutions
83
Net Promoter Score - according to Bain & Co, above 80 is world-class
Solutions
Build a merchandise strategy that resonates with your employees and customers to keep your brand top of mind.
Harness the power of gamification to engage your customers, employees, and partners to do more within the systems that matter to your business.
Capture and keep their attention, and stand out from the noise.
Combine customer appreciation and recognition, marketing strategy, rewards, creative services, production, procurement, and analytics to drive long-term loyalty.
Loyalty shows.
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Digital Learning Content Services
Digital learners’ needs and expectations are constantly evolving. They require access to relevant content on demand, on any device, in their native language, and they expect it to be easy to navigate. Compelling and relevant learning is essential for capturing attention, retaining information, and inspiring meaningful behavior change.
We combine cutting-edge technology with the deep expertise of our instructional designers and developers to craft dynamic, personalized learning experiences that make your employees active participants in their learning.
Following three basic principles, “Is it relevant? Is it accessible? Does it inspire?”, our learning services seamlessly integrate with your business to drive measurable learning outcomes.
Where innovation meets adaptability
No matter your digital learning goals or how you prefer to collaborate, we’re built to flex. We can bring your vision to life, whether you need a full curriculum, bite-sized microlearning modules, localized content for global teams, or gamification tied to rewards.
Our team of instructional designers, creative specialists, and project managers ensures a smooth, end-to-end development process. We work across a wide range of authoring tools – including Articulate Storyline, Rise, and others -– to match your platform and preferences.
Take your learning content to the next level with our proprietary ChameleonTM tool.  Chameleon fuses function with innovation. With it, we can create dynamic, interactive, role-based, accessible and translatable eLearning, microsites, and presentations that adapt to any device. 
From full-service support to flexible collaboration -– the possibilities are endless.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1131341817?
Proposal/SOW
ID Content Review
Client Kick-off
Creative Prototype
ID/Client Scripting
Course Production
Internal/Client Review
Revisions
Package to Client
Smart Solutions That Drive Real Learning
We don’t just build content -– we engineer experiences. Our solutions span the full spectrum of digital learning strategies, designed to meet your learners where they are and take them further.
Explore what’s possible:
AI-powered translations and writing assistance - Accelerate global reach and streamline content creation with intelligent automation.
eLearning and Microlearning - Deliver impactful training in formats that fit today's fast-paced workflows.
Learning microsites - Create branded, centralized hubs for seamless access and engagement.
Interactive HTML5 resources (PDF++) - Transform static documents into dynamic, clickable learning tools.
Gamification and AI-driven leadership development - Boost motivation and build skills through immersive, data-informed experiences.
AR/VR and business simulations - Bring complex concepts to life within virtual environments.
Software tutorial and leaderboards - Guide users step-by-step and spark friendly competition to reinforce learning.
Whether you're looking to modernize existing content or launch something bold and new, we’ve got the tools, talent, and tech to make it happen.
Learn more about our learning solutions
Chameleon is a web-based, user-friendly platform that delivers eLearning that can be personalized by brand, language, role or region – all from a single version of a course.
We put everything your employees and sales teams need to stay up-to-date into one user-friendly portal. Scattered information means missed information. Let’s make it easier on everyone.
We design learning for people. We intentionally craft learning experiences that inspire people to care — that make them want to do something — and give them a reason to rally.
Boost your brand’s sales and loyalty by empowering retail associates to become confident, enthusiastic sellers. With Retail Connect, brands can “win the last 4 feet” through an engaging and fun solution that blends personalized learning paths, gamification, seamless communication, and actionable insights.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Elevate
Transform culture, ignite behavior change, and accelerate results through one powerful ecosystem.
Elevate® is a next-generation behavior-change ecosystem that unites recognition, incentives, and intelligence to deliver measurable business outcomes.
Powered by AI and behavioral science, Elevate makes it easy to celebrate success, reinforce key behaviors, and drive sales, service, and performance outcomes that move your business forward.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/854875531
Elevate Intelligence
Human connections. Smarter with AI.
Utilize a suite of AI-powered agents embedded into the Elevate ecosystem that reduce friction, personalize the experience, and drive behavior change. Transform recognition into a strategic advantage with AI agents that simplify every step. Turn recognition into a daily habit that fuels performance and strengthens culture.
Elevate feature sets
Whether it’s nailing a customer presentation, fostering collaboration, or exceeding quarterly sales targets, Elevate allows you to recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate it all.
From service anniversaries to birthdays and everything in between, honor individuals or teams at work with heartfelt celebrations that will leave a lasting impact.
Celebrate and honor your team members’ commitment and loyalty through Elevate’s Service Awards. Recognize important service milestones and create a culture of appreciation.
Elevate’s Learning module allows easy access to continuous growth. Knowledge is power; we provide your team with a gateway to essential learning objectives and personalized skills courses.
Whether it's quality merchandise, unforgettable experiences or adding new skills, our diverse rewards options will keep your team motivated, engaged and inspired.
Drive your workforce towards success! Set challenging yet attainable goals and motivate your team to become a highly engaged and motivated powerhouse.
Drive the value of your recognition travel programs with sustained promotability, engagement, and performance. Keep top talent aligned to your goals through a series of strategic activations and communications - maximizing ROI and reinforcing the behaviors that matter most.
Encourage well-being in your team by fostering health and happiness through challenges, goals, and rewards.
Missions are thoughtfully designed to encourage early tool adoption and foster engagement. By completing a variety of bite-sized tasks, your team can earn redeemable points while setting the stage for a successful journey ahead.
BI WORLDWIDE's Bunchball Nitro platform is covered by one or more of U.S. Patent 8,768,764 and U.S. Patent 9,779,421.
Recognition Assistant
https://vimeo.com/922565626
Recognition should be timely, specific and personal. Nothing can replace a meaningful message from a manager or teammate. But everyone can use a helping hand to get that message across.Recognition Assistant, our AI recognition engine, provides four tools to create peer-to-peer and manager recognition that resonates and inspires.
While analysis shows bias is rare in a recognition scenario, our background artificial intelligence algorithm detects and mitigates biased language in messaging.
One in four adults has problems with everyday spelling. That shouldn't deter anyone from giving recognition. Recognition Assistant provides comprehensive spelling and grammar checks to clean up errors in your message.
The difference between good and great recognition is specificity and relevancy. The Enhance feature assists the user in crafting an on-target message with clear call-outs and tags to ensure the recipient knows you appreciated their contributions.
In a truly global company, leaders work with teams that may not speak their native language. Our translation engine allows the sender to create their message in the recipient's primary language while ensuring accurate spelling and grammar.
20%
average increase in daily recognitions
65%
of users who generate a response using the recognition engine go on to include it in their final recognition message 
7.8%
average time saved due to a more efficient recognition experience - for a total of over 2,111 hours of time savings each month across users
Thought Leadership
Check out our latest articles and case studies on employee engagement and recognition.

#### Employee Engagement
Imagine if every employee were excited for Monday.
Change behaviors. Solve problems.
We are experts in the science of behavior change. Our job is to understand your business or performance issues and create a solution rooted in behavioral economics to solve it. Some common challenges we address include:
Recognition and Appreciation
Turnover
Performance
Communication
Career Development and Upskilling
Burnout
Culture
Management and Leadership Development
Wellbeing
Inclusion and Belonging
Recruitment
We deploy these solutions across the employee experience journey.
Make every moment count.
Give candidates a backstage pass to your business. Once they see your mission, values, culture, and future plan, they'll be eager to jump in and make their mark.
Solutions include:
Employer branding
Talent acquisition campaigns and events
New talent welcome experiences (pre-First Day)
Help them own day one. Make new hires feel like they’re already making an impact with an unforgettable welcome and a clear roadmap to success.
Solutions include:
Onboarding programs
New hire kits
Early achievement recognition
New talent manager enablement
New talent welcome experience
Some days won’t be perfect. But when you show employees their work matters, a job becomes much more.
Solutions include:
Employee recognition and rewards
Employee engagement research, analytics, and strategy
Employee and manager training
Communication strategies and campaigns
Corporate meetings and events
Employee surveys
Shout out the ones who bring their A-game every day. Anniversaries and big wins deserve more than a nod—they deserve the spotlight.
Solutions include:
Results-based recognition and rewards
Service anniversary awards
Individual and group travel
Make your employees your biggest fans and they'll want to tell everyone why your place is the place to be.
Solutions include:
Employee referral programs
Customer referral programs
Post-employment research
Retiree awards
Every metric tells a story.
4.7x
increased odds of feeling valued by their company when receiving recognition
19
Million recognitions sent every year (that's one every two seconds) 
83
BIW’s Net Promoter Score: world class, according to Bain & Company
Employee Engagement Solutions
Recognition separates average companies from great ones. It builds loyalty and drives performance.
Inspiring rewards motivate. Personal, memorable, unique rewards ignite performance like nothing else.
Through extensive global research, we’ve identified 12 key factors that shape an employee’s relationship with their company.
When employees feel their best, they do their best. We’ll help you seamlessly blend wellness into your rewards and recognition strategy—so your team stays motivated and energized.
Stop employee turnover before it starts. Keep new hires engaged, reduce attrition, and get them up to speed faster. Knowledge is a silver bullet for inspiration.
With data-driven insights and a seamless interface, Elevate inspires your team, sparks behavior change, drives productivity, and delivers remarkable business outcomes.
We build a merchandise strategy that resonates with your employees and customers to keep your brand top of mind.
The amount of information your employees are presented with every day, hour, and minute continues to grow. Capture and keep their attention, and stand out from the noise.
The research couldn’t be clearer: meaningful and memorable moments spark inspiration, boost motivation, deepen engagement, and drive action.
Reward your team with priceless memories, meticulously planned individual travel packages or unique experiences for those who prefer to choose their own adventure.
If you’re asking for exceptional performance, you need to motivate with exceptional rewards.The research doesn’t lie: Nothing motivates employees like aspirational travel experiences. And no one knows incentive travel like we do.
See how inspired employees make an impact.
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Energy and Chemicals
Understanding the diversity within your channel and end users and having line-of-sight into the data is key to delivering programs that drive awareness and purchase volume. 
Unearthing valuable data resources.
In order to optimize channel effectiveness, it’s critical that your solutions incorporate the entire channel working together to drive results.  Data is highly valuable in understanding purchase behaviors, targeting key customers, and determining next-best actions.  Engaging your distribution channel is the first step in structuring a program where they are rewarded for surrendering sell-through data. A comprehensive approach includes developing a push/pull strategy that then motivates end users for their purchases.
Problems we solve.
Understanding the partners and opportunities within your channel.
Channel activation and engagement.
Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
Capturing data and making data-driven decisions.
Whether you're looking to engage distributorships, distributor sales reps, installers, retailers, retail counter reps, contractors, or end users, we have solutions and expertise to deliver results.
The data tells a story.
69%
average distributor sales rep engagement
5.7%
average sales volume increase from new customers in a client program
100%
distributor sell-through data provided
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Experiences Marketplace
Featuring a wide variety of ultra-motivating, ultra-customizable award options for your employees, channel reps and customers. They'll have the opportunity to make unforgettable memories where they live and where they travel to around the world.
Something for everyone.
With more than 20 different categories of experiences to choose from, points can be redeemed for things like skip-the-line tour passes, dinner cruises, day trips, cooking classes, movie tickets, landmark sightseeing tickets and tours, theater or concert tickets, a weekend getaway and more. There truly is something for everyone in the Experiences Marketplace.
We offer more than 140,000 options, locally and worldwide, for your audience to get out and experience something. They'll make lasting memories—and come back seriously motivated.
Experiences
Every metric tells a story.
350k
Experience options worldwide
550k
Hotel and vacation rental options
100k
Event options that surprise and delight

#### Financial Services and Insurance
In the highly regulated financial industry, our world-renowned strategies are designed for to-the-letter compliance with extraordinary results for banks, insurance agencies, investment houses, financial advisors, analysts, investment managers, and brokers.
Performance you can count on.
We tailor customized programs to engage, onboard, educate, inspire, certify, recognize, and motivate your team with integrated solutions.
Results-based recognition
Our hybrid approach combines qualitative behavior change initiatives with quantitative, results-driven incentives. In the highly regulated financial industry, our programs drive results while ensuring compliance. We focus on long-term customer relationship development, avoiding transactional payouts. This strategy expands portfolios, benefiting both business profitability and individual consumer gains, creating a win-win for financial institutions in B2B and B2C verticals.
Onboarding and retention
We offer programs to attract world-class talent and retain experienced banking professionals. Our initiatives celebrate key milestones throughout the Employee Lifecycle, from recruitment to retirement. By integrating recruiting with training, milestone recognition, and rewards, we foster a culture that onboards employees to the culture quickly and motivates and appreciates them across their employment journey.
Culture-based strategies
We design recognition programs that engage all employees, regardless of tenure. By celebrating above-and-beyond achievements and peer support, we ensure everyone feels valued. Managers can use audience-smart technology to create tailored programs that align with departmental and organizational objectives, ensuring budget efficiency and employee engagement.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Free Cash Flow Challenge
Imagine if every employee committed to the company’s top priorities—and actually delivered on them.
Unlock financial performance by  activating the power of your people. The Free Cash Flow Challenge is a proven engagement strategy designed to help organizations educate employees on the importance of free cash flow and connect their daily decisions to measurable business outcomes.
Through a structured approach - Understand, Commit, Act - teams gain clarity on financial goals, pledge actionable steps, and celebrate progress together.
By aligning workforce behavior with corporate objectives, companies not only improve cash flow but also strengthen culture, accountability, and long-term growth. It’s more than a financial metric—it’s a movement that transforms strategy into results.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1169950396?
Activation Framework
Behavior mapping to company, team, and role/individual.
Executive sponsor launch. Conveys priority.
A one-stop hub for content, activities, tracking, rewards.
Launch with leaders, reinforce with managers and peers.
Visualize desired activity and KPIs.
Rules Structure: Recognize and Reward
Visit, view, and learn.
Learn, commit, recognize, and track.
Achievement of goals.
Why it works
Managers drive recognition, making it personal.
Encourages a culture of appreciation.
Employees receive rewards that align with their preferences.
Create a meaningful pause to reflect on accomplishments and future possibilities.
The data is clear
96%
Strategy activation achieved through targeted engagement
125%
Higher earnings per share by highly engaged companies 
87%
Less likely to leave their job when employees feel connected to company strategy
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Game Arcade
Whether you’re looking to reinforce behaviors that drive your business or recognize specific goal achievements, Game Arcade is a simple and fun way to reward the outstanding performance of your sales teams.
Games are everywhere.
Games and gaming culture have officially become mainstream. Why does this matter to you? Because you can use the popularity of games to elevate business performance and provide serious – and seriously fun – sales team motivation.
At a purely social level, games are popular because they’re fun. But there’s more to it than that. Games have the ability to surprise and delight, compelling us to want more. They tap into the part of our brain that loves a little hit of dopamine (that feel-good hormone) and we can’t get enough.
The unexpected nature of a great game means you might have no idea how much you might win, because the amount (or the scale) of the reward changes randomly from game to game. This setup is intended to keep you playing because there’s always the chance that next time you might get the big prize.
This gaming technique is known as Variable Ratio Reinforcement and it’s what keeps you coming back for “just one more” game…and then another…and another. That effect could be a little problematic if it keeps you playing until 3 a.m., but the effect can be leveraged for positive action, too.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/591591116
With Game Arcade, everyone wins. Literally.
Game Arcade features ten different game options, each with its own vivid and lasting game-play experience. Games can be offered individually as “instant plays” or include the entire arcade to let players select the game of their choice. Whichever approach you choose, Game Arcade offers a non-skill based method to reward the outstanding performance of your sales team.
Fun, fast, and easy games.
Round and round and round it goes. Where it stops, nobody knows! Just spin the wheel and there’s a big win in your future.
Prepare to enter the Drop Zone! Pick a letter, any letter. Well, as long as it’s P L I N Q or O!
Drive for show. Putt for points! See the ball. Be the ball. Putt the ball. It’s in the hole!
Luck is just a click away. Click START when you feel ready. Click STOP when you feel lucky!
The Match Game that’s out of this world! Move your Martians to match at least three in a row or column.
Heyyyyy batter, batter! Swing batter, batter! Swing for the fences. Knock it out of the park and win big!
Three doors. Three choices. Click BEGIN, move the key to one of the three doors. Your prize will appear when the door opens!
Put a positive spin on things. Spin the same three symbols and you win, win, win!
Keep your head above water! Stay high and dry as you jump from ledge to ledge to claim your reward at the top.
What a catch! Don’t let this be the one that got away. Hook the big one and reel in your reward.
Choose a country, then ride your luck all the way to victory. Hit BOOST for an unstoppable finish!
Select your route from the playbook, then take it all the way for a touchdown to collect your prize! (Only available in landscape mode when playing on mobile or tablet.)
How Game Arcade works:
Participants can earn game plays for performing or completing desired activities.
They'll be notified of available plays through a Game Play email and a banner posted on their program website.
Each play has a winner and award levels are based on a pre-defined game payout matrix (so there are no budget surprises).
Participants will earn points that can be redeemed for awards through our Rewards Marketplace.

#### Gamification
Gamification is adding game mechanics into non-game environments, like a website, online community, learning management system or business’ intranet to increase participation. The goal of gamification is to engage with consumers, employees and partners to inspire collaborate, share and interact.
Harness the power of gamification to engage your customers, employees, and partners to do more within the systems that matter to your business. Take something that already exists - a website, a training tool, a CRM, an online community, or other enterprise system - and integrate game mechanics to motivate participation, adoption, and loyalty.
Use gamification to fuel measurable business results.
Gamification in sales adds game mechanics to a digital experience such as a work process, social interaction, or learning activity and uses big data collected from online activities, to motivate high-value action by sales employees and sustain meaningful engagement.
Employee collaboration in a professional context has the power to create a dynamic and more productive work environment, especially in large organizations and among remote workers. Persistent engagement powered by gamification turns your community into a thriving center of sharing, learning, and profitability with measurable results.
When customers seek help, they want to experience your company at its best. If your service and support teams experience high turnover and lack motivation, your customers will know it. Engage service and support teams with gamification.
Effective professional development and robust learning communities can have real, measurable impacts on productivity, compliance and retention. Adding gamification in training and learning adds value across the enterprise, improving the experience for employees, managers and executives.
A successful channel partner strategy requires partners who are engaged, inspired and motivated. Channel partner tools and portals can be powerful, but partners have to be motivated to use them. Motivate true channel partner loyalty with an effective gamification program that taps into their desire to succeed and attain status to sell more.
Gamification in loyalty programs turns casual visitors into loyal customers. Leverage the latest research on human motivation and data generated by your customers as they interact with you, to empower your business to motivate, engage, and create true customer loyalty.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1062901168
The metrics tell a story.
60%
average increase in product education utilization
20%
average increase in revenue from those highly engaged in missions
20x
average increase in online community engagement
Explore gamification solutions
Bunchball Nitro is BI WORLDWIDE's enterprise engagement software. Engage your users where they already are with the most secure and scalable gamification platform available.
An embeddable gamification dashboard built on years of expertise, featuring an AI-driven mission recommendation engine. Designed for optimal user experience, it integrates seamlessly into your application, is quick to launch, fully responsive, and customizable to your brand - all while ensuring accessibility and global localization.
Take our embeddable gamification block design and elevate it to a standalone platform. Fully mobile responsive, it integrates with SSO for seamless access and adds additional features like peer-to-peer and manager recognition blocks. Built on years of gamification expertise, Impact+ delivers an optimal user experience without the need for embedding, ensuring flexibility and comprehensive engagement.
Partner with BI WORLDWIDE's consulting and professional services experts to fine tune your gamification strategy, expertly plan and execute programs and map your business goals to your audience's needs.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### General Contact
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If you need assistance with an order or have questions about redemption, please call 1-800-211-4718.
Hours of Support:  Monday – Friday, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM CT
Alternatively, you may submit your request using the form below, and a representative will contact you on the next business day.
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#### GoalQuest® AI
GoalQuest® AI is a proven, pay-for-performance rules structure that only awards incremental gains, making it a perfect fit for your organization.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/686383593
Personalization
GoalQuest® AI combines the science of behavioral economics and the benefits of a proven, reliable rules structure with artificial intelligence to create a truly personalized and rewarding incentive experience.
Audience-smart
GoalQuest AI provides an unprecedented level of granularity for each participant and increases their idiosyncratic fit. Now more than ever, participants can feel a greater ownership and connection to their goals. Because GoalQuest AI uses their own unique sales data and not a grouping, they are competing with themselves to achieve their personal best.
Target setting
Using our expansive incentive database and proprietary AI, we create solutions customized to your business needs.
Set individual baseline and target data using a variety of data points.
Accurately predict outcomes, budget, and ROI based on forecasted modeling.
The story is in the data.
57%
of participants' performance exceeds baseline
1.4M+
participants
4:1
pay for performance
AI Insights
Automated analysis personalized to managers and program owners as performance data is processed.
Provides analysis at a scale that human analysts cannot.
Identifies patterns, correlations, short/long-term trends, and historical context for performance data.
Data-driven decisions, consistency across the organization, and manual process reduction.
Generates human-readable insights suitable for various communication channels.
Identifies exceptional performance, specific achievements, and their broader impact.
Spots early warning signs and provides recommendations for targeted coaching.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Group Incentive Travel
The research doesn’t lie: Nothing motivates employees like aspirational travel experiences. And no one knows incentive travel like we do.
Let's see just how far your employees can go.
Nothing motivates performance like the promise of an unforgettable experience. And we've got the international relationships and local staff to plan and manage trips down to the last detail. Intimidated by the logistics of incentive travel? Don’t be. We manage all the details but you have complete control: Set the budget. Decide who gets the chance to be rewarded. Know exactly what to expect.
Done well, travel incentives unleash a whole new level of ambition and drive—not just among your top performers but also among your mid-tier employees with untapped potential. We create customized programs with personalized touches that maximize impact.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/285901955
The numbers don't lie.
76k
travelers each year
1k
unique incentive travel programs
98%
rate of repeat business
Awards
Award-winning work honored by industry experts.
An unbeatable collection of merchandise, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, travel, and personal enrichment.
See all awards
CMI
Top 25
EcoVadis
Silver Sustainability Award
9.9
Customer Satisfaction Rating 
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Home
Inspired employees solve problems and create value, inspired sales people take risks and seize opportunity, and inspired channel partners and customers choose your brand every time.
Let's Talk
We know what it takes to motivate.
Inspire your sales teams, employees, channel partners, and customers.
We help Fortune 500 companies achieve their business goals. Learn more about how we drive results for the largest organizations across the globe.
Explore our solutions
The data is clear.
83
BIW's Net Promoter Score: world class, according to Bain & Company
9.7M
participants inspired to change their behavior
18
global offices, supporting participants in 183 countries
WHO WE SERVE
Delivering inspiration across industries.
Our expertise means we understand the nuances of your business to design the solutions that resonate and drive results.
Agriculture
Automotive
Building supply
Communications, media and entertainment
Consumer goods and services
Energy and chemicals
Financial services
Life sciences + healthcare
Manufacturing
Retail
Technology
Explore industry solutions
Who is BI Worldwide?
We turn inspiration into results.
A moment of inspiration can make a day, spark an idea, solve a problem, and change a perspective. BI WORLDWIDE uses inspiration to motivate your people to think boldly, take risks, and seize opportunity to transform your business.
Hear our story
Expertise from our brightest minds.
View all thought leadership articles
Awards
Award-winning work honored by industry experts.
We are consistently recognized for outstanding results-driven solutions and creative by both our clients and industry peers.
See all awards
2
Emmy Awards
24
Telly Awards
16
MUSE Creative Awards

#### How We Help
We’re not product sellers, we’re problem solvers. It all starts by partnering with you to understand your business and its unique challenges. We deep dive into your brand and what makes you special. Then we work closely with your team to create solutions that make a real impact and drive results for your business.
Let's Talk
Explore our solutions
Combine platforms, communications, incentives, and research to create end-to-end programs that produce business outcomes.
From real-time language translation to agentic virtual partners, learn about the AI tech behind our products and how you can leverage it to drive results.
We stay ahead of the trends to put your brand on products people actually want and are proud to show off.
Deliver messages that resonate, at the right time, in the right format, to inform and inspire your audience.
Rules structures and rewards that motivate behavior change and results, from the new salesperson to your top performer.
Engage and educate by tapping into the psychological drivers that motivate employees, sales teams, and customers.
Reward top performers with unforgettable individual and group travel experiences.
Engaged learners perform better. Create a solution that upskills, reskills, and gets results.
Build strong, lasting relationships that keep your audience coming back.
Plan events people look forward to, with seamless creative and execution on and off the stage.
Keep your audience engaged and connected with solutions that drive loyalty.
The most expensive recognition program is the one that doesn't deliver business outcomes. Recognition separates average companies from great ones. It builds loyalty and drives performance, all while turning great work into unstoppable momentum.
Make smarter decisions with data-driven insights that lead to real outcomes.
Inspire performance, celebrate success, and value loyalty with merchandise, memorable experiences, and learning rewards.

#### Ideas
Unlock growth and expense reduction opportunities by tapping into the collective genius of your employees.
Empower employees to share actionable ideas that drive measureable business impact. By combining behavioral science with recognition strategies, the Ideas platform helps organizations create a structured, collaborative environment where every voice matters - whether it's reducing costs, streamlining processes, or sparking new revenue opportunities.
Motivate participation, ensure the best ideas rise to the top, and capture insights from across the enterprise, turning everyday observations into transformative outcomes.
It's not just about collecting ideas - it's about creating a culture of continuous improvement and shared success. 
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1186269717?
Why it works
When people know their contributions matter, they become active problem-solvers and champions for change.
From cost savings to process efficiencies, every idea has the potential to deliver tangible results.
This creates momentum for ongoing progress, ensuring your organization stays agile and competitive. 
The data is clear
20%
Cost savings with structured idea systems
3.5x
More likely to outperform peers with strong idea cultures
5x
More likely to achieve sustained innovation success
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Individual Incentive Travel
Reward your team with priceless memories, meticulously planned individual travel packages or unique experiences for those who prefer to choose their own adventure.
Nothing motivates sales performance like individualized incentive travel. Nothing.
We’ll let you in on a trade secret: cash really isn’t the most powerful motivator. Research — and our extensive practical application — proves that people work harder to earn an experience than they do for cash. It’s about earning the right to indulge, unwind and restore. It’s about treating themselves and their families to something out of the ordinary. We design, manage and measure exceptional individual travel programs. We hear every day how our incentive trips are disruptive in the most positive way: they change the game by motivating and inspiring all kinds of sales teams.
Why does incentive travel matter? Experiences create memories.
Travel incentives are undeniably effective but what’s all the fuss about individual incentive travel? An awesome incentive trip is just that, right? Well, that’s not always the case. Think of it this way: A sun-and-fun trip to the Caribbean is a classic crowd-pleaser, but it leaves something to be desired for foodies with a sophisticated palate. A luxurious cruise may be relaxing but adventure seekers may find themselves missing out on the action.
The secret to pleasing everyone is the power of choice. Individual Travel provides a whole new level of independence by allowing individual achievers to pick their own experience and travel dates. Suddenly, their hard work doesn’t just get them something amazing…but something amazing that they choose!
The data tells the story.
8.5k+
travelers awarded annually
250+
programs delivered annually
55+
countries where travel was booked last year
Awards
Award-winning work honored by industry experts.
An unbeatable collection of merchandise, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, travel, and personal enrichment.
See all awards
CMI
Top 25
Silver
Sustainability Rating
9.9
Customer Satisfaction Rating
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### L•EARN LXP
We put everything your employees and sales teams need to stay up-to-date into one user-friendly portal. Scattered information means missed information. Let’s make it easier on everyone.
Looking for a smarter way to learn? Choose an LXP that engages and rewards.
Move beyond the limitations of a traditional LMS. A Learning Experience Platform (LXP) is built for modern learners. Combine gamification, personalized journeys, and real-time rewards to drive deeper engagement and better outcomes.
Unlike static LMS systems, an LXP turns learning into a motivating experience with points, badges, and leaderboards to encourage progress and celebrate achievements. The result? Higher completion rates, stronger retention, and a learning culture that grows organically.
Discover a platform that makes learning feel like winning.
L•EARN Features:
Personalized learning to get the most relevant training
Responsive design to make everything as user-friendly as possible
Custom UX to create a user experience unique to your brand
Gamification to boost engagement
Mastery advisor (AI) to guide learners on a journey specific to them
Learn-and-Earn to reward for completing learning objectives
Streamline your sales process and accelerate results with an LXP.
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Learning
If learning isn’t interesting or convenient, it won’t be effective. That’s why we’re constantly evolving our solutions to be more interactive, more immersive, and much easier to access—anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Go from information to transformation.
No two people learn the same way. And they shouldn’t. That’s why the best learning solutions are created to engage people at a time and place that’s convenient for them.
Whether you need to empower employees and sales teams or energize your entire distribution network, we create the kind of solutions that inspire real behavior change, fuel performance, and deliver results that matter. Live training. Workshops. Virtual. eLearning. We do it all.
Engaged learners perform better. So, why not build the kind of learning that fuels that engagement? Let’s work together to build a program that fits your team and gets results.
Our metrics tell the story
100+
custom learning projects created for Fortune 500 last year
11
of the World's Top 25 Most Valuable Brands have BIW learning programs
9.8
out of 10, average client satisfaction rating
Learning Solutions
Short on time? We’re all over it. Chameleon is next-level eLearning with powerful, interactive courses. Build dynamic content that captivates, inspires, and works on any device—no tech skills required.
We put everything your employees and sales teams need to know into one user-friendly portal. Scattered information means missed information. Let’s make it easier on everyone.
We design learning for people. We intentionally craft learning experiences that inspire people to care -- that make them want to do something -- and give them a reason to rally.
combine cutting-edge technology with the deep expertise of our instructional designers and developers to craft dynamic, personalized learning experiences that make your employees active participants in their learning.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Life Sciences and Healthcare
Trusted by major life sciences and healthcare industry organizations to change behavior and drive business results with key audiences such as employees, sales teams, members, physicians, and patients.
Intelligent solutions, made easy
The life sciences and healthcare industries are changing at warp speed. We get it.
 We’re strategic partners who stay in-step with our clients' needs and deliver tangible, industry-leading bottom-line results.
Recognize and reward sales individuals and teams to drive results
Engage members and patients through behavior change strategies, loyalty programs and campaigns
Challenge managers to help attract, retain, engage, and motivate top talent in a changing workplace
Promote and reinforce company culture through communications and recognition campaigns
Produce creative and integrated product launch events and programs, targeting sales teams, employees, and healthcare professionals
Train employees to improve efficiencies and enhance the patient experience
Educate and support patients to achieve healthy outcomes while reducing costs
https://player.vimeo.com/video/867215630
Every metric tells a story.
18
months to achieve a client's 3-year cost savings goal, on average
500k
employees impacted last year alone
90+
active life sciences customers
Solutions
Take your team from good to great.
A game-changing sales contest engine.
Unique experiences with positive impact.
Create meaningful engagement in digital environments for work, learning, and social.
Customized to your brand and products.
Inspire your team with expertly coordinated meet-ups, custom crafted every time.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Live and Virtual Learning
We design learning for people. We intentionally craft learning experiences that inspire people to care -- that make them want to do something -- and give them a reason to rally.
Progression of Learning and Engagement (PLE)
Our focus on emotional engagement and learning empowers us to bridge the gap, transforming what people know into what they actually do. The methodology to our craft is called the Progression of Learning & Engagement – PLE for short. Our Progression of Learning & Engagement is a phased, blended learning framework. We integrate training, engagement, technology, measurement, and rewards into a seamless experience.   We constantly work to understand your business objectives and anchor on what we want people to KNOW, FEEL, & DO – it’s our unrelenting commitment to Learning and Engagement that makes us an invaluable partner.
We constantly work to understand your business objectives and anchor on what we want people to KNOW, FEEL, & DO – it’s our unrelenting commitment to Learning and Engagement that makes us an invaluable partner.  
Live and Virtual Learning Solutions
Pre > Ignite
From onboarding to ongoing, we craft a cadence of learning and engagement leading up to training events to increase baseline knowledge and skills.   We provide the expertise needed to assess, strategize, design and deploy digital and virtual learning experiences.
During > Activate
We craft hands-on virtual and in-person experiences that give people the opportunity to reinforce knowledge and build mastery.   Our learning features real-world activities and simulations in which people assess the situation, choose a course of action and experience the consequences and benefits of those decisions — all in a safe, practice environment.
Post > Sustain
This phase of the PLE is critical to sustain the learning and achieve behavior change. We prescribe specific assignments designed to reinforce key objectives and activate on our rally cry.   We look to measure new behaviors, skills or knowledge transferred and address any areas needing remediation.
Our Work
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Loyalty
Successful customer loyalty demands a unique perspective. We focus on driving the behaviors that matter, optimizing every stage of the customer lifecycle, and building genuine emotional connections. Because real loyalty isn’t just earned, it’s cultivated at every step.
Don’t just build customer or channel loyalty—optimize every phase of the journey. From the moment customers discover your brand to the point they become your biggest advocates, we help you craft programs that inspire action, foster connection, and drive measurable results.
Set the bar high for programs that earn loyalty.
What turns customers and channel partners into loyal brand advocates?
Is it a B2B loyalty program? An incentive program? A combination of the two?
You don't have to have the answers - that's where we come in. We apply our expertise in cross-channel ecosystems and behavioral economics to design customized loyalty programs that speak directly to your customers and partners. The goal? Eliminate wasted resources. Facilitate long-lasting engagement. Maximize ROI.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Manufacturing
Our approach is rooted in the principles of behavioral economics, ensuring that our strategies effectively motivate and engage your workforce.
Our Expertise.
Incentive programs: Crafting customized incentive structures that drive operational efficiency and productivity on the shop floor.
Recognition programs: Implementing systems to celebrate and reward employee achievements such as service anniversaries.
Loyalty programs: Building long-term loyalty through meaningful and personalized rewards that resonate with your manufacturing team.
Behavioral economics: Leveraging scientific insights to design programs that align with the unique dynamics of the manufacturing environment.
Why choose us?
Industry focus: Deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the manufacturing sector, from supply chain complexities to workforce management.
Proven strategies: Utilizing evidence-based methods to achieve measurable improvements in employee performance and engagement.
By integrating these targeted programs, we help manufacturing companies enhance their workforce's motivation, productivity, and loyalty, driving overall excellence in operations.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Mastery Marketplace
Mastery Marketplace® is where growth happens. It helps your employees, sales teams, partners, and customers pick up new skills and get excited about what they’re doing.
The act of learning is one of the most gratifying and exciting experiences in life.
it's our goal to inspire the people that impact your business with the most innovative and motivating rewards possible.
From cooking courses to language programs, music lessons to health and wellness sessions, Mastery Marketplace has relevant classes from the biggest names in the industry.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/854872056
90%
of employees say career well-being resources are important or essential
15x
Employees who say their jobs allow them to master skills that are important to them are 15x more likely to feel inspired at work
2x
Those employees are twice as likely to feel they belong at their organizations
Unlock a suite of potential.
Access to the learning tools and services that allow growth and mastery is one of the most crucial resources an organization can offer:
Content designed to help everyone gain the skills needed to excel in their current role or prepare for the one they want.
Online classes taught by the world’s best, designed to satisfy the natural curiosity of lifelong learners in categories such as business, writing, food, arts & entertainment, etc.
An alliance of the leading online music education companies from around the world offer lessons from master musicians for everything from mandolin, piano to electronic music production.
Offering 61 languages from Afrikaans to Vietnamese, tailored to different learning styles; whether participants like a traditional approach, practicing on-the-go, lessons specific to kids or interacting in a VR environment.
From online personal training and yoga to brain fitness apps based on scientific research.  Participants can download the apps to access anywhere.

#### Meetings and Events
The research couldn’t be clearer: meaningful and memorable moments spark inspiration, boost motivation, deepen engagement, and drive action.
Simplified Planning. Exceptional Execution.
BI WORLDWIDE is a global, all-in-one partner for award winning creative, production, and event management. With a single point of contact, cross-team collaboration, and one easy invoice, we take the hassle out of planning while delivering show-stopping results.
Discover why Delta Air Lines partners with BI WORLDWIDE.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1061037150
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1062917378
The metrics tell the story.
3000
events delivered annually
30+
countries where events were delivered
98%
client retention rate
Creative & Production
Storytelling with purpose.
We create moments that matter—stories that move, messages that stick, and experiences that inspire. From concept to execution, we make it easy for you while ensuring your audience hears, understands, and acts on what truly matters.Our event production services include:
Creative Direction
Agenda and Content Development
Scenic Design and Staging
Speech Writing and Coaching
Speaker and Talent Management
Technical Direction
Video, Motion Graphics, Animation, Design, and Production
Graphic Design and Development
Emerging Technologies (AR, VR, Holography, Interactive)
SHOWBOX™ Virtual and Hybrid
Experiential Marketing
Event Management
When an event is thoughtfully planned, you can feel the difference. Fussy details fade into the background and your story comes to life. When your event flows seamlessly, your audience has the freedom to connect. Engage. Understand. Remember.It feels like magic. But it couldn’t be more deliberate.Our full-service corporate event planning teams create engaging, memorable meetings and events that go off without a hitch and deliver on your objectives. (Seriously.)This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. We take the time to understand exactly what you want to get out of your event. Go ahead, set big goals—we can handle it.We tackle everything from big-picture strategy to meticulous execution. Our unparalleled global network of supplier partners mean we’re always local.If you aren’t getting a positive return, your event wasn’t an investment. It was an expense. Do it right. Let us help.Massive, all-company destination meetings? Small corporate events? CSR? Themed? It’s all in our wheelhouse. Here’s a sampling of what we can take off your plate when it comes to corporate event planning. The best part: It’s fully tailored to you. Choose the areas you need help with most (or choose them all):
Venue Sourcing (single and multiple cities)
Registration Services
Customized Communication and On-site Branding
Transportation Logistics
Room gifts and recognition items
Team Building and Off-site Activities
Customized Menu Planning
Corporate Social Responsibility Events
Themed Events and Decor
Let's give your audience something to remember.
Awards
Award-winning work honored by industry experts.
New York Festivals, Telly Awards, US Int'l Film and Video Awards, Event Marketer Ex Awards, EM Experience Awards, Communicator Awards, C&IT Global Awards, CMI Top 25, Muse Awards, Emmy Awards. We win prestigious industry creative awards year after year for our customers.
See all awards
2
Emmy Awards
24
Telly Awards
16
MUSE Creative Awards
Our Work.
Business Meetings
Every meeting is an opportunity to inspire. Whether it’s a National Sales Meeting, Global Leadership Summit, Conference, Dealer Meeting or an All-Employee event, we craft experiences that captivate, engage, and leave a lasting impression—all while staying within your budget.
Tradeshows, Breakouts, Expos, Awards Shows, Corporate Milestones, and Everything In-Between
Engagement is everything. Large-scale events demand fresh ideas to keep attendees excited. With strategic creativity, we transform every session, expo, networking moment, recognition and celebration into an experience they’ll remember—and one they’ll want to return to.
Product Launches
Big or small, high-tech or heavy-duty—we bring launches to life. From the newest automobile, motorcycle, airplane or tech innovation to the latest in life-saving medicine and devices, we specialize in creating launches that leave a sustained impact.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/950842762
https://player.vimeo.com/video/332735176
Experiential Marketing
Turn moments into movements. Experiential marketing puts consumers at the heart of your brand, creating authentic engagement that sparks loyalty and word-of-mouth buzz. With cutting-edge tech and cultural insights, we transform passive audiences into passionate advocates.
Our capabilities include:
Strategy
Pop-up Retail
Mobile Marketing Tours
Sponsorship Negotiation and Activation
Music Tours and Festivals
Grassroots Marketing
Sampling
Content Creation
PR Stunts
Street Teams
Sports Marketing
Immersive Storytelling
Influencer Strategies
Social Media Amplification
https://player.vimeo.com/video/332521102
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1062199000
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Merchandise Marketplace
Rewarding your team just got easier with a tailored, handpicked selection of top brands.
Service and logistics, handled.
These are the kinds of rewards they’ll talk about for years and we’ll go the extra mile to make it happen. Our customer service teams are not outsourced, they’re located right in our offices around the world and staffed by our employees.
We make sure your experience is as rewarding as the marketplace itself:
Superior Service: Our customer service teams work closely with our buying teams and fulfillment partners to provide fast, thorough support.
Supply Chain Expertise: Close collaboration with buying teams and fulfillment partners ensures smooth, efficient service.
Multilingual Support: Customers can connect with us in core languages tailored to each region.
Brands they'll love.
Just a few of the premium brands featured in our US marketplace.
Yeti's ultra-durable coolers, drinkware, and bags are the pinnacle of performance and built for every-day use. Get the gear that performs when it matters most.
From desktops to laptops to tablets to watches to premium audio to VR, find all your favorite premium tech.
Comprehensive home security and tech stacks that support modern lifestyles and give peace of mind whether home or away.
Experience the latest in sound innovation. Find your favorite headphones, speakers, soundbars, and more.
An unrivaled selection of bold, rich colors in a range of finishes and materials. Cook, bake, and serve memories for friends and family with our exclusive selection.
Whether upgrading, splurging or simply buying something new - Merchandise Marketplace offers your sales teams, customers and employees the chance to enjoy an unbeatable collection of cool merchandise.
Meticulously tested. Relentlessly engineered. Discover top of the line home care, hair care, and air care products from the industry leader.
Experience the leading edge of games and entertainment with day-one access to consoles, games, and accessories that put you in the experience and in the conversation.
Metrics tell a story.
800k
Unique products worldwide
2,000
Name brand options
29
Charitable donation options in the US alone
Rewards. Anytime. Anywhere.
Wherever you are, we’re local. We have regional headquarters in seven countries and another 13 offices around the world. At each of our headquarters, our local buying teams are continuously updating our assortments to offer culturally-relevant and motivating rewards no matter where your audience calls home.
We have awards available in nearly 190 countries and over 90% of our orders ship without customs or duties due to our vast network of fulfillment partners.
Simple technology.
Our Merchandise Marketplace has an intuitive user interface making it easy for anyone to browse rewards and place an order.
Each country-specific site is optimized for mobile and tablet usage.
Each site offers locally-relevant stories designed to highlight new, seasonal, exciting award options.
Problem? No problem.
We want you and your audience to have an awesome experience with our marketplace and we’re willing to go the extra mile to make sure that happens. Our customer service teams are not outsourced - they’re located in our BIW offices around the world and staffed by BIW employees.
Let’s make your participants around the world smile.

#### Multi-Channel Marketing
Work with our Customer Engagement Group to identify critical touchpoints and build a unique approach designed to move the needle on your key performance metrics.
Always be on your customers' radar.
Looking to connect with prospects? Win new business? Nurture relationships? Studies show it can take six to eight interactions to cut through the noise and get attention. We combine email, engaging digital content, direct mail, and more to reach key audiences and encourage them to take action that brings them closer to you. Whether you'd like to see customers register for your online program, book an appointment, take a survey, purchase product, or (for your own sales teams) sell more product, we can help.
For positive reinforcement, we build in rewards. From small gift kits and swag to merchandise options like sports equipment, home entertainment, appliances, luggage, and jewelry to travel, event tickets, and more, personalized rewards motivate customers to take the next step and motivate sales teams to become top performers.
Take a multi-faceted approach to drive results.
We help drive the results you need through data and analytics that address key business and program issues throughout the program lifecycle.
The amount of information your customers, employees, and sales teams is presented with every day, hour, and minute continues to grow. Capture and keep their attention, and stand out from the noise.
Motivating your audience with amazing rewards doesn’t have to be complicated. From the hottest brands and getaways to hard-to-get sports tickets, local staycations, tours, sightseeing, and learning opportunities—whatever ignites their passion
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### News

#### Our Partners
Our partnerships let us bring forward the best thinking and strongest solutions to solve your problems. We’ve developed relationships to ensure you have access to current research to drive your decision-making and program design. Then our technical partners ensure seamless integrations to drive enhanced results.
Industry Partnerships
Through a variety of partnerships and integrations with best-in-class products, our customers can simplify their access to BI WORLDWIDE solutions, seamlessly transfer participant and program data between multiple systems, and gain better insight into program performance.
AbilityMap is a data-driven workforce intelligence platform that enables organizations to improve productivity, retention, and employee satisfaction while reducing costs. They deliver science-based insights across the talent lifecycle — enabling smarter hiring, targeted development, internal promotions, and clearer understanding of team performance, aligning workforce decisions directly to business outcomes.
IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, cloud solutions, and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.
ProHabits uses short, bite-sized nudges to help your people practice key behaviors in a safe, non-disruptive way. ProHabits unlocks the potential of its users (and their organizations) by distilling complex concepts into short nudges that reinforce a “learn by doing” approach. You don’t learn to ride a bike by reading a guide or attending a seminar – you get on and you start pedaling. ProHabits takes the same approach, prompting action through nudges.
Quantum Workplace helps organizations make work better every day by creating a culture of employee success. Their employee success platform empowers organizations to understand employee experience, inspire employee impact, and create a magnetic culture that attracts and retains top talent. Solutions include employee surveys, 1-on-1s, goals, recognition, feedback, talent reviews, succession planning, and the nationally renowned Best Places to Work contest.
Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, helping customers adapt and thrive in a changing world. Workday applications for financial management, human resources, planning, spend management, and analytics are built with artificial intelligence and machine learning at the core to help organizations around the world embrace the future of work.
Academic Partners
We've partnered with expert academics to ensure our customers' sales incentive, loyalty and employee engagement programs utilize psychology, research, and the scientifically proven principles of behavioral economics.
Professor and Program Director, Human Resources and Organizational Development Program, University of Louisville; Co-Founder, OrgVitals; Owner, LEAD Research, LLC
Dr. Brad Shuck is an internationally recognized business thought leader, entrepreneur, and academic in the areas of employee engagement, leadership development, and organizational culture. He is the author of Employee Engagement: A Research Overview (Routledge, 2020) and has published or presented more than 350 scholarly articles, book chapters, and invited presentations. Shuck holds five US Copyrights for his research-driven, intellectual property on employee engagement and culture management. His work has been featured in US-based international media outlets including Forbes, The Washington Post, and TIME, as well as international outlets such as Business World Online, India’s Economic Times, and the Hindu Times. He has given Keynote addresses on four of the seven continents including these countries: China, Spain, India, Panama, the United Kingdom and across the United States for some of the world's largest and most admired companies. Shuck is a tenured Full Professor and Co-Founder of OrgVitals, a purpose-built culture management software company. He is a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels and holds advanced degrees in Counseling, Student Affairs, Human Resource Development, and Adult Education.
Professor of Marketing and C.T. Bauer Chair in Marketing, University of Houston
In addition to Mike's roles at the University of Houston, he is also the Research Director of the Sales Excellence Institute. Mike’s research has primarily focused on improving the performance of salespeople and sales organizations. He has published over 40 articles in leading journals and was recently recognized by the American Marketing Association as one of the ten most productive research scholars in the field of marketing. His research has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, Business Investors Daily, Fox News, INC Magazine and many other news outlets.
General Mills/Paul S. Gerot Chair, Professor of Marketing, University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management
Professor John received his bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1974 and his MBA from the University of Illinois in 1976. After earning his Ph.D in Marketing from Northwestern in 1981, he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin. 
In 1987, he moved to the University of Minnesota. He is the General Mills/Paul S. Gerot Chair in Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. His interests center around distribution channels and high tech marketing. Specifically, he is interested in the strategic and efficiency aspects of governance choices in these settings. 
His academic honors include an American Marketing Association award for his Ph.D dissertation in 1981, and his selection in 2003 as a "Highly Cited Researcher" in the Business/Economics category by Thomson Reuters Web of Science. 

#### Our Work landing page
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Our Meetings and Shows team has received two Emmy Awards: one for a product launch video we created for a large pharmaceutical client and the other for a film about AIDS Awareness in America
Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility firm EcoVadis recognizes BIW as a Silver-rated corporate citizen, placing us in the top 25% of all companies evaluated.
In the last decade, we've been named a Top Workplace every year we've applied. Inspired employees lead to inspired customers, and we believe in practicing what we preach.
Our Learning & Training team has been awarded an LTEN Excellence Award for Industry Partnership, recognizing innovative and inspiring work done by life sciences training practitioners and providers.
Our Meetings & Shows team has been awarded Gold and Platinum MUSE Creative Awards for work with companies like Delta, Kawasaki and COUNTRY Financial.
Our Communications Team has been awarded 4 Hermes Creative Awards. 3 for work in Public Relations/Communications, Strategic Programs and 1 in Print Media, Integrated Marketing. 
Hermes Creative Awards recognizes outstanding work of marketing and communication professionals.

#### PerformIQ
PerformIQ® isn't just a tool, it's a game changer. It brings clarity, creates alignment, and connects people to purpose.
PerformIQ is our proprietary balanced performance solution that delivers real-time performance visibility and transforms data into actionable insight, tracking progress at the individual, team, and organizational level, giving participants and leaders immediate visibility into productivity, engagement, and goal achievement.
Integrated with personalized goal targeting, AI-driven coaching, and automated recognition and awards, PerformIQ not only measures performance—it activates it. Goals are dynamically adjusted based on performance trends, ensuring targets remain relevant, attainable, and focused on maximizing improvement. The result is a performance ecosystem that drives continuous incremental growth and sustainable business results.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1215235347?
Balanced performance drives:
When the frontline understands how their work contributes to the overall objectives, team members can focus more effectively on essential tasks.
Aligned processes mean less rework, fewer distractions, and more meaningful progress.
With a clear sense of direction, teams can pivot with confidence and adjust to change.
When people see the impact of their work, they feel more motivated and deliver higher-quality work.
The data is clear
20-40%
improvement in employee performance by adopters due to clearer expectations.
45%
reduced KPI-related conflict and mismanagement, leading to more unified decision making.
4.2x
more likely for organizations to outperform their industry peers in operational efficiency.

#### Portfolio Solutions
Achieve big, complex goals with the full power of our expertise and solution suites. Portfolio Solutions combine platforms, communications, incentives, and research to create end-to-end programs that produce business outcomes.
Explore our Portfolio Solutions
Align workforce behavior with corporate objectives to improve cash flow. Strengthen culture, accountability, and long-term growth and transform strategy into results.
Empower employees to share actionable ideas that drive measurable business impact. Whether it's reducing costs, streamlining processes, or sparking new revenue opportunities, turn everyday observations into transformative outcomes.
Align your frontline. Use a balanced performance framework with personalized goal targeting, AI-driven coaching, and automated recognition and awards to drive continuous incremental growth and sustainable business results.
Boost your brand's sales and loyalty by empowering retail associates to become confident enthusiastic sellers. Win the last four feet with personalized learning, gamification, communication, rewards, and actionable data insights.
Sales kick off is a three-phase performance engine - one that begins before the meeting, peaks during it, and accelerates immediately after. If your meeting doesn’t start and end with strategy and execution, it’s not an SKO; it’s a very expensive interruption.

#### Privacy Notice
Why personal information about you will be collected.
You (defined in this Privacy Notice as “You” or “Your”) may be asked to provide personally identifiable information when completing a form (defined in this Privacy Notice as “Marketing Enquiry” or “the Marketing Enquiry”) via this corporate website defined in this Privacy Notice as “the Website”.If You choose to complete and submit the Marketing Enquiry, then BI WORLDWIDE (defined in this Privacy Notice as “BI WORLDWIDE” or “BIW”) has a legitimate interest in the collection and processing of Your personal information to follow-up on Your Marketing Enquiry.
Personal information about You that will be collected.
BI WORLDWIDE may already legitimately possess some personal information about You that may be combined with additional personal information that is collected in connection with the Marketing Enquiry. BI WORLDWIDE will collect and use personal information about You to:
communicate with You by phone, e-mail or otherwise
register You in sales or marketing support platforms such as salesforce.com
provide Your information to a Business Development Director or Sales Manager at BIW for purposes of follow-up for possible business transactions with Your company
The following types of personal information will be collected and processed:Name, Job Title, Company Name, Company Address, Business Phone Number, Business Email Address, IP Address
Collection, processing, and storage of personal information are required to follow-up on the MarketingEnquiry.
You have the right to not provide Your personal information. If You choose not to provide Your personal information when requested, BIW may not be able to follow-up on Your Marketing Enquiry.
Personal information is saved for the length of time that is required for BIW to follow-up on Your Marketing Enquiry.
Use of cookies by the Website
Cookies are small text files that are either stored in memory while You are connected with a website and then are deleted immediately afterward (“Session Cookies”), or placed on Your device by websites that You visit to store some useful information that can be used on future visits to help “remember” specific choices or data entries You have made previously (“Persistent Cookies”). Cookies are widely used to help websites function as efficiently as possible, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website in some cases.
The table below provides greater detail regarding the cookies used by the Website.
How personal information about You will be used
BI WORLDWIDE respects the privacy of Your personal information and will not be sharing it with third parties, except where necessary to respond to the Marketing Enquiry.
Your personal information will only be used for the intended purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, or for a closely related purpose in conjunction with the Marketing Enquiry.
Your personal information will be used by BIW to the extent required to:
allow BIW to follow-up on the Marketing Enquiry
assure You are provided with the Marketing Enquiry content which is relevant to You
notify You about changes relevant to the Website or related services
When it is necessary to share personal information from the Marketing Enquiry with a third party, Your personal information will be properly protected, only the minimum personal information required will be shared, and it will be shared only on a need-to-know basis.
Your personal information may be shared:
with employees of BI WORLDWIDE on a need-to-know basis
with other companies within BI WORLDWIDE’s corporate group
with BI WORLDWIDE’s suppliers and sub-contractors in conjunction with the Marketing Enquiry
if BI WORLDWIDE is under a legal duty to disclose Your information (for example, as required by law enforcement or a court order)
if BIW must enforce a contract
if BIW must protect the rights, property, or safety of You or anyone else
with providers of analytics services as described in the next paragraph
Sponsor will collect the following types of information and use analytics services to help make improvements to the Marketing Enquiry and/or the Website, or to troubleshoot problems:
personal information – the IP address assigned to Your computer (an IP address is a unique number assigned to Your computer when You use the internet)
technical information – browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and device type
performance information – information about Your use of the Marketing Enquiry Website, including the date and time You connect, the pages of the Website You view, how long it took to display each page You viewed, errors, and the length of time You spent on certain pages
Your personal information is securely stored within the United States of America.
When it is necessary to transfer Your personal information outside of the country in which it is stored, BI WORLDWIDE takes steps to make sure adequate levels of privacy protection in line with applicable data protection laws are in place. These privacy protection measures are contractually required of all parties involved in the transfer.
Your rights regarding Your personal information
BI WORLDWIDE respects Your rights to access and control Your personal information which include:
1) Right to information – This right provides You with the ability to ask BI WORLDWIDE for information about what personal information about You is being processed and the rationale for such processing.2) Right to access – This request provides You with the right to see or view Your own personal information that is being processed, as well as to request copies of Your personal information.3) Right to rectification – This right provides You with the ability to ask for modifications to Your personal information if You believe that Your personal information is not up to date or accurate.4) Right to withdraw consent – This right provides You with the ability to withdraw previously given consent for processing of Your personal information for a specific purpose. Your request would then require BI WORLDWIDE to stop the processing of Your personal information that was based on the consent provided earlier.5) Right to object – This right provides You with the ability to object to the processing of Your personal information. Normally, this would be the same as the right to withdraw consent, if consent was appropriately requested and no processing other than legitimate purposes is being conducted. However, a specific scenario would be when You ask that Your personal information not be processed for certain purposes while a legal dispute is ongoing in court.6) Right to object to automated processing – This right provides You with the ability to object to a decision based solely on automated processing. Using this right, You may ask that Your input (for instance, a questionnaire You completed) to be reviewed manually, because You believe that automated processing of Your responses may not consider Your unique situation.7) Right to be forgotten – Also known as right to erasure, this right provides You with the ability to ask for the deletion of Your personal information. This will generally apply to situations where You no longer participate in the Marketing Enquiry. It is important to note that this is not an absolute right, and also must take into consideration BI WORLDWIDE’s rights.8) Right for data portability – This right provides You with the ability to ask for transfer of Your personal information. As part of such request, You may ask for Your personal data to be provided directly to You, or transferred to another data controller other than BI WORLDWIDE. When doing so, Your personal information must be provided or transferred in a machine-readable electronic format.
Who to contact with data privacy questions or to exercise Your rights
Under applicable data protection laws, BI WORLDWIDE is a “Data Controller” of Your personal information.
Data Controllers make decisions about how and why Your personal information is used by the Marketing Enquiry, and have a duty to ensure Your rights are protected.
The Marketing Enquiry and the Website are both owned and operated by BI WORLDWIDE (BIW) with headquarters located at 7630 E. Bush Lake Road, Minneapolis, MN 55439.
If You have any questions or concerns related to how Your data is used by the Marketing Enquiry, You should contact BI WORLDWIDE directly by sending an email with Your name and contact information to: DPO.US@BIWorldwide.com
If You are not happy with the response You receive from the Data Controller You have contacted, or You believe that protection of Your personal information or privacy rights have been infringed, You should contact Your country’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) or the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. You can search for Your country’s DPA by entering the name of Your country combined with the words “data protection authority” or “privacy office” into an Internet search page such as www.google.com.

#### Privacy Policy
In this Privacy Policy (“Policy"), BI WORLDWIDE declares its commitment to comply with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
BI WORLDWIDE has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (“EU-U.S. DPF Principles”) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and from the United Kingdom (and Gibraltar) and in reliance on the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF.
BI WORLDWIDE has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (“Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles”) with regard to the processing of personal data received from Switzerland.
The “EU-U.S. DPF Principles” and the “Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles” shall be collectively referred to as the “DPF Principles”. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the DPF Principles, the DPF applicable Principles shall govern.
To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework Program, and to view our certification, please visit the Data Privacy Framework website.
I. SCOPE
BI WORLDWIDE provides business-to-businesses services. This Policy applies to the processing of personal data that BI WORLDWIDE processes in the United States relating to individuals who reside in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, as applicable, (collectively “Personal Data”).
This Policy does not cover data from which individual persons cannot be identified or situations in which pseudonyms are used. (The use of pseudonyms involves the replacement of names or other identifiers with substitutes so that identification of individual persons is not possible.)
II. RESPONSIBILITIES AND MANAGEMENT
BI WORLDWIDE has designated its legal department, data privacy managers, and information security officers (“Security & Privacy Team”) to oversee its information security program, including its compliance with the EU Data Privacy Framework, UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and Swiss Data Privacy Framework program. BI WORLDWIDE’s Security & Privacy Team shall review and approve any material changes to this information security program as necessary. Any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this Policy also may be directed to Privacy.Office@biworldwide.com.
BI WORLDWIDE will maintain, monitor, test, and upgrade information security policies, practices, and systems to demonstrate its commitment to protect the Personal Data that it processes. BI WORLDWIDE personnel will receive training, as applicable, to effectively implement this Policy.
III. RENEWAL / VERIFICATION
BI WORLDWIDE will renew its EU Data Privacy Framework, UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and Swiss Data Privacy Framework certifications annually unless it subsequently determines that it no longer needs such certification, or if it employs a different adequacy mechanism.
Prior to re-certification, BI WORLDWIDE will conduct an in-house verification to ensure that its attestations and assertions about its treatment of Individual Personal Data are accurate and that the company has appropriately implemented these practices. Specifically, as part of the verification process, BI WORLDWIDE will undertake the following:
Review this Policy and its publicly posted website privacy policy to ensure that these policies accurately describe the practices regarding the collection and use of Personal Data.
Ensure that the publicly posted privacy policy informs customers and Individuals of BI WORLDWIDE's participation in the EU Data Privacy Framework, UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and Swiss Data Privacy Framework, and where to obtain a copy of additional information (e.g., a copy of this Policy).
Ensure that this Policy continues to comply with the Data Privacy Framework principles.
Confirm that customers and Individuals are made aware of the process for addressing complaints and any independent dispute resolution process(BI WORLDWIDE may do so through its publicly posted website, each separate customer contract, or both).
Review its processes and procedures for training BI WORLDWIDE Personnel about BI WORLDWIDE's participation in the Data Privacy Framework program and the appropriate handling of Individual Personal Data.
IV. COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL DATA
BI WORLDWIDE collects Personal Data directly from Individuals when they register with one of our websites, login to their account, participate in reward and recognition programs, participate in meetings, events, and travel programs, redeem award points for individual travel or merchandise, request information, or otherwise communicate with us. BI WORLDWIDE also receives Individual Personal Data indirectly from its business customers in its role as a service provider. In our capacity as a service provider, we will receive, store, and/or process Personal Data. In such cases, we act as a “data processor” and will process the Personal Data on behalf of, and under the direction of our customers acting as a “data controller”. The Personal Data that we collect from individuals in this capacity is used to provide services to the individual as requested by the data controller.
The Personal Data that we collect may vary based on the Individual’s interaction with one or more of our websites used to provide the services as agreed under contract with our business customers. In general, BI WORLDWIDE collects the following types of Personal Data either directly from Individuals, or indirectly from BI WORLDWIDE business customers: contact information, including, a contact person's name, work email address, work mailing address, delivery address for merchandise award delivery, work telephone number, title, and company name. Individuals have the option to log into their accounts online and request assistance via an online form or through a live support option such as chat or telephone, collectively “Portals”. In such cases, we will collect information that they choose to provide to us through these Portals.
When Individuals use our services online, we will collect their IP address and browser type. The information that we collect from Individuals is used for providing services, managing transactions, reporting, other operations related to providing services and products to the Individual and/or to a BI WORLDWIDE customer in accordance with their contract.
BI WORLDWIDE uses Personal Data that it collects directly from Individuals, or indirectly from our customers in our role as a service provider for the following business purposes, without limitation:
delivering and providing the requested products/services, and complying with its contractual obligations related thereto (including managing transactions, reporting, and other operations related to providing services to our customers and Individuals);
satisfying governmental reporting, tax, and other requirements (e.g., import/export);
storing and processing data, including Personal Data, in computer databases and servers located in the United States;
verifying identity (e.g., for online access to accounts);
as requested by the Individual;
for other business-related purposes permitted or required under applicable local law and regulation, and
as otherwise required by law.
BI WORLDWIDE does not disclose Personal Data to third parties for purposes that are materially different than as specified as the original purpose. Should this change in the future, we will provide affected individuals with the option to opt-out.
V. DISCLOSURES / ONWARD TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL DATA
BI WORLDWIDE discloses relevant Personal Data only to a Third Party who reasonably needs to know such Personal Data, and only under a contract with the Third Party that provides that such data may only be processed for limited and specified purposes consistent with the consent provided by the Individual and for no other purpose. Third Party recipients must agree to provide the same level of protection as the Data Privacy Framework principles and will notify BI WORLDWIDE if it determines that it can no longer meet this obligation. The Third Party contract must provide that when such a determination is made, the Third Party must cease processing or take other reasonable and appropriate steps to remediate.
BI WORLDWIDE may provide Personal Data to Third Parties that act as agents, consultants, and contractors to perform tasks on behalf of and under our instructions. For example, BI WORLDWIDE may store such Personal Data in facilities operated by Third Parties. Such Third Parties are required to use such Personal Data only for the purposes for which the Third Party has been engaged by BI WORLDWIDE and they must either:
comply with the Data Privacy Framework principles or another mechanism permitted by the applicable EU, UK, & Swiss data protection law(s) for transfers and processing of Personal Data;
or agree to provide adequate protections for the Personal Data that are no less protective than those set out in this Policy;
BI WORLDWIDE also may disclose Personal Data for other purposes or to a Third Party when a Data Subject has consented to or requested such disclosure. Please be aware that BI WORLDWIDE may be required to disclose an individual's personal information in response to a lawful request by public authorities such as for national security or law enforcement requirements. BI WORLDWIDE is liable for appropriate onward transfers of personal data to third parties.
VI. SENSITIVE DATA
In general, BI WORLDWIDE does not receive or collect Sensitive Data from Individuals. Within specific services provided by BI WORLDWIDE, and as contractually required and directed by a BI WORLDWIDE customer, some sensitive data may be processed. In such cases, Individuals will be provided with information to explain why that data is required and the Individuals’ explicit consent will be obtained unless other legal grounds exist for the processing of Sensitive Data.
VII. DATA INTEGRITY AND SECURITY
BI WORLDWIDE uses reasonable efforts to maintain the accuracy and integrity of Personal Data and to update it as appropriate. BI WORLDWIDE has implemented physical and technical safeguards to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. BI WORLDWIDE also employs access restrictions, limiting the scope of Personnel who have access to Personal Data. Further, BI WORLDWIDE uses secure encryption technology to protect certain categories of personal data. Despite these precautions, no data security safeguards guarantee 100% security all of the time.
VIII. NOTIFICATION
BI WORLDWIDE notifies Individuals residing outside the United States about its adherence to the applicable Data Protection Framework principles through this policy which is accessible via BI WORLDWIDE’s Data Privacy Framework certification list (https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/list) and from each applicable website hosted by BI WORLDWIDE.
IX. ACCESSING PERSONAL DATA
BI WORLDWIDE personnel may access and use Personal Data only if they are authorized to do so, only for the purpose for which they are authorized, and they are granted access only to Personal Data relevant to the purpose of processing.
X. RIGHT TO ACCESS, CHANGE OR DELETE PERSONAL DATA
Right to Access. Individuals have the right to know what Personal Data about them is included in the databases and to ensure that such Personal Data is accurate and relevant for the purposes for which BI WORLDWIDE collected it. Individuals may review their own Personal Data stored in the databases and request to have it corrected, erased, or blocked, as permitted by applicable law and BI WORLDWIDE policies. Upon reasonable request and as required by the DPF principles or US data privacy laws, as applicable. BI WORLDWIDE allows Individuals access to their Personal Data, in order to correct or amend such data where inaccurate. Individuals may edit their Personal Data by logging into their account profile or by contacting BI WORLDWIDE by email or other means provided by the website. In making modifications to their Personal Data, Data Subjects must provide only truthful, complete, and accurate information. To request erasure of Personal Data, Individuals should submit a written request via email to the Data Controller listed within the Privacy Notice of the website managed by BI WORLDWIDE containing the Individual’s Personal Data. If the website does not include a Privacy Notice with contact information of the data controller, the Individual may submit their written request via email to: Privacy.Office@biworldwide.com.
Requests for Personal Data. BI WORLDWIDE will track each of the following and will provide notice to the appropriate parties under law and contract when either of the following circumstances arise: (a) legally binding request for disclosure of the Personal Data by law enforcement authorities having jurisdiction over BI WORLWIDE’s compliance unless prohibited by law or regulation; or (b) requests received from the Data Subject.
Satisfying Requests for Access, Modifications, and Corrections. BI WORLDWIDE will endeavor to respond in a timely manner to all reasonable written requests to view, modify, or inactivate Personal Data.
XI. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
This Policy may be amended from time to time, consistent with the DPF principles and applicable data protection and privacy laws and principles. We will make Personnel aware of changes to this policy either by posting to our intranet, through email, or other means. We will notify affected Individuals if we make changes that materially affect the way we handle Personal Data previously collected, and we will allow them to choose whether their Personal Data may be used in any materially different manner.
XII. QUESTIONS OR COMPLAINTS
Individuals may contact BI WORLDWIDE with questions or complaints concerning this Policy at the following email address: Privacy.Office@biworldwide.com.
XIII. ENFORCEMENT AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF, BI WORLDWIDE commits to cooperate and comply respectively with the advice of the panel established by the EU data protection authorities (DPAs) and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) with regard to unresolved complaints concerning our handling of personal data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF. at no cost to you.
The Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over BI WORLDWIDE’s compliance with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF).
BI WORLDWIDE will promptly respond to inquiries and requests by the U.S Department of Commerce’s International Trade Association (ITA)
Finally, as a last resort, BI WORLDWIDE will commit to binding arbitration through the Data Privacy Framework Panel if at the request of an EU, United Kingdom, or Swiss Individual.
XIV. DEFINED TERMS
Capitalized terms in this Privacy Policy have the meanings assigned or the following meanings, as applicable:
"Individual" means an Individual from the United States, EU, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. The term also shall include any employee of a BI WORLDWIDE customer where BI WORLDWIDE has obtained Personal Data from such Individual as part of the customer’s business relationship with BI WORLDWIDE.
"Data Subject" means an identified or identifiable natural living person. An identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to a name, or to one or more factors unique to his or her personal physical, psychological, mental, economic, cultural or social characteristics. For Individuals residing in Switzerland, a Data Subject also may include a legal entity.
"Personnel" means an employee (whether temporary, permanent, part-time, or contract), former employee, independent contractor, or job applicant of BI WORLDWIDE or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries, who is also a resident of a country within the European Economic Area.
"Europe" or "European" refers to a country in the European Union.
"Personal Data" means data that personally identifies or may be used to personally identify a person, including an individual's name in combination with country of birth, marital status, emergency contact, salary information, terms of employment, job qualifications (such as educational degrees earned), address, phone number, e-mail address, user ID, password, and identification numbers. Personal Data does not include aggregate or anonymous data that does not personally identify an individual. For Switzerland, the term "person" includes both a natural person and a legal entity, regardless of the form of the legal entity.
"Sensitive Data" means Personal Data that discloses a Data Subject's medical or health condition, race or ethnicity, political, religious or philosophical affiliations or opinions, sexual orientation, or trade union membership.
"Third Party" means any individual or entity that is neither BI WORLDWIDE nor a BI WORLDWIDE employee, agent, contractor, or representative.
BIW Privacy Policy effective 2/29/2024
BI WORLDWIDE adheres to the EU-U.S. DPF Principles with regard to personal data transferred from the European Union and the United Kingdom, and the Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles with regard to personal data transferred from Switzerland.
BI WORLDWIDE is certified to ISO 27001:2022 Information Security System; BI WORLDWIDE has held this certificate continuously since 2013. ISO 27001 provides a robust framework ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of information while mitigating risks through rigorous security practices.

#### Recognition
Recognition programs have positively impacted culture and engagement for decades. We believe they can do more.
Your partner to drive engagement, culture, and business results
Traditional recognition programs have long been known to drive culture and engagement, but we believe they should drive more. Our solutions take the best of these recognition programs and add the future of recognition: driving business results like increased sales, customer satisfaction, innovative ideas, and profitability.
We don't just recognize behaviors that are already happening - we proactively drive the behaviors that improve business results. While others focus only on culture and engagement with the hope that these will translate to business outcomes, we ensure that our strategies directly impact your bottom line.
We are more than a tech platform and rewards fulfillment – we’re a strategic partner. Let’s streamline your recognition programs to reduce expenses. Let’s design a sales incentive to increase revenue. Let’s produce an event to launch your new product. Whatever your vision, we’ll power it with strategic insights and innovative ideas that others can’t match.
Your recognition strategy shouldn't be just another expense on your business. It should deliver measurable business results.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1112331696
Solutions to recognize your employees
With data-driven insights and a seamless interface, Elevate inspires your team, sparks behavior change, drives productivity, and delivers remarkable business outcomes.
We believe that business relationships are critical, and our clients need a flexible and empowered way to create customer connections that say…”We value YOU.”
Reward your team with priceless memories, meticulously planned individual travel packages or unique experiences for those who prefer to choose their own adventure.
Nothing motivates performance like the promise of an unforgettable experience. And we’ve got the international relationships and local staff to plan and manage trips down to the last detail.
Celebrating service should go beyond counting years – it should honor impact and embrace the feeling that employees belong and matter.
Motivate your sales force with the opportunity to earn a once-in-a-lifetime run through a warehouse packed full of high-end merchandise. 
Your teams can experience our most inspiring reward anywhere, any time with a virtual reality version of our legendary Warehouse Windfall experience.
The gaming rewards experience that allows you to recognize and reward top performers wherever they are located in a unique, energetic atmosphere.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Research and Data Analytics
We help drive the results you need through data and analytics that address key business and program issues throughout the program lifecycle.
Leverage data and analytics to optimize engagement.
Whether assessing problem spaces, pre-planning for program launch, or conducting postmortem analysis on a program in order to more-effectively spin up the next one, we help our partners collect and wield data to make effective decisions at every phase.
Need states include:
Business case assessment - uncovering the hidden impact of engagement
Program modeling - understanding the potential impact of each engagement solution
Program improvement analysis - identifying what's working, what's not, and opportunities for program improvement
Attrition analysis - understanding the potential cost savings of a recognition program
Return on Purpose® - providing holistic assessment of events, training, and communications to drive engagement
ChannelWISE™ - segmentation analysis to identify your best, worst, and highest potential customers
QuitRisk - predicting employees who are most likely to leave
Addressing key issues with data.
Program structure
Program modeling
Pre-program analysis:
What is the value of changing behaviors?
Should segments of the target audience be motivated differently?
How much will we spend on the proposed initiative?
Program engagement
Program performance
Program optimization
Ongoing program analysis:
How does performance vary across segments?
To what extent is the engagement solution driving targeted results?
Behavior change
Business impact
Post-program analysis:
What was the value of the program?
How effective was the rule structure, and what are areas of improvement?
What behaviors/activities align with higher performance?
The metrics tell the story
100
Fortune 1000 companies using our decision sciences
$900M
improvement in business results last year, across all clients
39%
average reduction in incentive program costs
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Resources
Filter resources

#### Retail
We are experts in behavior change with proven results to help retailers expand your omnichannel customer base and inspire your employees throughout the organization.
The Retail Environment can be complex, handling multiple audience types that can be both captive and non-captive. BIW is uniquely situated to engage and grow in all segments of your business. We are experts on behavior change with proven results to help you exceed Key Performance Indicators throughout your omnichannel strategies. We customize our strategies to engage, onboard, educate, inspire, recognize, and motivate the audience that matters the most to you, to turn a complex environment simple. From apparel and fashion to electronics and tech, to home goods and home improvement, to health and beauty, to sports and recreation (and more!), our clients turn to us for fresh ideas and expert execution time and time again.
From the first day to every day.
Boost your brand’s sales and loyalty by empowering retail associates to become confident, enthusiastic sellers. With Retail Connect, brands can “win the last 4 feet” through an engaging and fun solution that blends personalized learning paths, gamification, seamless communication, and actionable insights. Drive key retail KPIs and elevate your brand’s performance at the point of sale.
From dynamic training events and custom curriculum development to scalable virtual learning environments, we create immersive learning solutions that drive real results. By integrating gamification, we enhance engagement, making learning more interactive and enjoyable. Because when learning is fun and rewarding, performance follows, and engagement soars.
Whether you're looking for your next Chief Logistics Officer or hiring for the seasonal rush, we help HR departments recruit, onboard and retain top talent.
Elevate your brand with meaningful programs and awards for your channel partners and customers that build strong, lasting relationships and loyalty.
We design gamified incentive programs that drive retail KPIs, enhance customer loyalty and motivate and inspire retail associates.
Powerful employee engagement and rewards programs that inspire employees to love what they do and love your brand.
Create memorable brand moments that capture attention and set you apart from the competition. We combine on-site engagement, content capture, and social amplification to create powerful experiences.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1070072068
Metrics tell a story.
90%
average increase in units sold for highly-engaged users
75%
increase in credit card applications year-over-year
50%
reduction in turnover for 1+ year-tenured associates
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
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#### Retail Connect
Take retail associates' brand loyalty, learning, and earning to the next level of success to create great customer experiences and convert more often at the point of sale.
Boost your brand’s sales and loyalty by empowering retail associates to become confident, enthusiastic sellers. Win the last 4 feet through an engaging and fun solution that blends personalized learning paths, gamification, seamless communication, rewards and actionable insights. Drive key KPIs and elevate your employee performance.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1189412147?
Drive behavior change through mission design and gamification. Add game mechanics to motivate high-value action by sales employees and sustain meaningful engagement.
No two people learn the same way. And they shouldn’t. That’s why the best learning solutions are created to engage people at a time and place that’s convenient for them. Use targeted micro-learning opportunities to deliver the right lessons at the right time.
The amount of information your sales people are presented with every day, hour, and minute continues to grow. Reinforce your messaging through strategic communications, capture and keep their attention, and stand out from the noise. 
Cut through the noise in a way customers and sales people can easily digest. Personalize information through audience segmentation and applied behavioral economics concepts to design emotional triggers and messaging authentic to each audience.
Use milestone awards and rewards programs to motivate your sales people. When retail associates love what they do and love your brand, they're inspired to spread the love.
Collect meaningful data to inform decisions and unearth actionable insights you can use to improve your retail sales strategy quarter over quarter, and year over year.
The data is clear.
90%
average increase in units sold for highly-engaged users.
75%
increase in credit card applications year-over-year.
50%
reduction in turnover for 1+ year-tenured associates.
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Rewards Adventure
The gaming rewards experience that allows you to recognize and reward top performers wherever they are located in a unique, energetic atmosphere.
The power of gaming + rewards.
Rewards Adventure is an online incentive video game designed to motivate, inspire and honor top performers. When you need an alternative to gathering in-person, Rewards Adventure brings the celebration to your achievers.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/575514688
How does it work?
Program winners enter an island maze and get an allotted amount of time to run around this adventurous world to “grab” as many awards or points as possible.
Participating winners will receive a map and award list to strategize their route ahead of time, before being transported into this rewarding world.
Each participant also completes a learning tutorial and practice round in the maze, where an expert team of staff help them become comfortable with the game controls and navigating their desired rewards route.
When it’s time for the live event, friends, family and coworkers can watch, interact and cheer the winner on as they race around collecting awards!
Check out some of our other contests and incentives solutions
Take sales incentives for top performers to the next level with Warehouse Windfall. Motivate your sales force with the opportunity to earn a once-in-a-lifetime run through a warehouse packed full of high-end merchandise. 
Your teams can experience our most inspiring reward anywhere, any time with a virtual reality version of our legendary Warehouse Windfall experience.
Whether you’re looking to reinforce behaviors that drive your business or recognize specific goal achievements, Game Arcade is a simple and fun way to reward the outstanding performance of your sales teams.

#### Rewards Marketplace
Motivating your audience with amazing rewards doesn’t have to be complicated. From the hottest brands and getaways to hard-to-get sports tickets, local staycations, tours, sightseeing, and learning opportunities—whatever ignites their passion, find it in Rewards Marketplace.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/908735653
Reward stories are the most powerful stories.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/757641072
Every metric tells a story.
350k
Experience options worldwide
800k
Merchandise options worldwide
17.3k
Mastery options worldwide
The Marketplaces
Give them the opportunity to make unforgettable memories where they live and where they travel to around the world.
Rewarding your team just got easier with a tailored, handpicked selection of top brands.
Help your employees, sales teams, partners, and customers pick up new skills and get excited about what they’re doing.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Ripple CX
Our approach to customer appreciation and recognition creates a ripple effect for both you and your customers, winning them over now and setting them up to spread the word and keep coming back. ​
Whether experiencing new touchpoints or enhancements to existing ones, customers remember such standout moments and respond with repeat business — generating a high, significant, ​return on investment for you.
These moments lead to desired behavior ​ completion and optimized purchase ​behaviors in the short term, as well as ​improved retention, NPS, and ​lifetime value in the long term.
The behavioral economics of customer appreciation and recognition
High efficacy rewards and experiences
The most effective rewards are repeatable, promotable, and sociable — these are the characteristics of high efficacy rewards. They produce a ripple effect of positive sentiment and behaviors from the recipient.
The endowment effect
When you give someone a physical gift, it often becomes more than just an object — it can hold emotional value that goes far beyond its cost. ​ If the gift is rare or hard to find, its limited availability makes it feel even more special and desirable. This idea doesn’t just apply to items — it works for memorable experiences, too!
Reciprocity
Giving a gift triggers a desire to return the favor.
An investment that pays back in waves
Immediate customer sentiment
Optimal purchase behaviors
Other targeted/desired behaviors
Retention
Lifetime value
Long term customer sentiment/NPS
Effortless end-to-end solutions
We’ll work in partnership with you to design surprise-and-delight moments that happen at the right time, with the right expression of appreciation — with your logo and branding — personalized for your customer.
Strategy development
Discovery
Program strategy
Program design
Campaign design
Applied behavioral economics
Lifecycle mapping
Financial assessment
Post-launch
Proactive analytics-based insights
Program expansion and evolution
Program design support
Rule structures
Modeling and proformas
Forecasting
Program analysis
Performance tracking
Prescriptive and predictive analytics
Data visualization
Reward Marketplaces
Merchandise
Travel and experiences
Mastery classes
Choice-based redemption
Reward Design
Reward sourcing
Reward collection curation
Customization and brand expression
Reward Fulfillment
Recipient experience
Fulfillment and delivery
Customer service
Ad-hoc
ADA compliance (WCAG AA 2.1)
Art direction and graphic design
Brand awareness and identity
Content and creative strategy
Copywriting
Value proposition development
Digital and print
Animations and videos
Brochures
Direct mail
Emails
PDFs
Social media assets
Development
Website and communications
Program rules and logic
CMS and administration
Audience smart
Segmentation and targeting
Email and SMS
Mobile wallet objects
WCAG AA 2.1
Security
Participant and program database
Data integration point
Print
Offset
Digital
Shipping
Domestic
International
Fulfillment
Dimensional mailings
Mass mailings
Bulk
Secure data handling
Personalized
Variable
Domestic and international fulfillment and shipping
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Sales kick off
Most sales kickoffs create memorable moments. The best ones drive transformation.
We believe that when you invest time, energy, and dollars to bring your sales organization together, your SKO should do far more than motivate. It should:
- Align the organization around clear business priorities
- Build confidence in how to win, not just what to sell
- Drive measurable behavior change that shows up in accelerated performance
A memorable on-site event experience is critical. It’s also just one part of a successful kickoff. What should your teams know, feel, and do when they return home? How will they apply what they’ve learned, and how will you measure the impact of your investment?
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1198060691?
To deliver more than a great experience, your SKO needs a thoughtful, strategic overlay, designed to turn the event itself into a catalyst for business change.
Sales kick off is a three-phase performance engine - one that begins before the meeting, peaks during it, and accelerates immediately after. If your meeting doesn’t start and end with strategy and execution, it’s not an SKO; it’s a very expensive interruption.
By the time attendees arrive at your sales meeting, they shouldn’t be asking, “What’s the strategy?” They should be asking, “How do I win with it?”
Educate reps on products, strategy, and priorities before they walk into the room, and prime your sales force to show up ready to absorb your message with gamified missions, goals, and leaderboards.
Build excitement, anticipation, and clarity around your business goals
Activate healthy competition, team‑based and individual
Deliver learning and pre‑work through gamified, social, and rewarded experiences
Signal what matters and create momentum so your meeting becomes reinforcement, not introduction.
Passive sales meetings create passive sellers.
Drive active participation, connect your message to actionable goals, and inspire your sales teams to take ownership of the vision.
Deliver clear and consistent messaging that appeals to emotion, and ties directly back to your goals
Engage your teams through immersive workshops, simulations, and practice that builds confidence
Launch post-SKO incentives, instantly connecting the message to performance
People lean in when there’s something at stake. Use individual challenges to drive personal accountability, and competitive groups to create peer pressure and anchor learning in emotional impact.
If you don’t actively sustain your message, 80% of SKO content is forgotten within two weeks.
If your teams are leaving without clear next steps, your investment dies with applause. Don’t let the momentum fade with the memories of last night’s dance party.
Develop a clear 30/60/90‑day roadmap for sustained success
Conduct ongoing behavior measurement to identify skills, knowledge, and confidence gaps
Reward performance with award packages that matter to your teams
Post-meeting incentives put strategy into motion immediately and reinforce the same behaviors discussed at the meeting. Reps leave the meeting knowing exactly what to do next and are incentivized to do it now.
Launch your sales year with clarity, energy, and staying power, and with the tools to guarantee a measurable impact.
The numbers don't lie.
20%
higher win rates when companies use structured SKO events.
3.2x
Return on Investment when a well-structured SKO includes sustained engagement strategies with additional 30/60/90-day activations.
$2.5M
average annual investment in sales meetings. (Don't you want to know if it's working?)
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Sales Team Motivation
Keep them engaged, motivated, and connected to your brand with rewards, incentives, gamification, and learning. Help them thrive.
Up your sales game.
Let’s hit the pause button for a second. Ask yourself: What’s the game plan? What’s the goal? And what’s keeping you from making it happen?
You need the right foundation—information, content, tools, and a boost of confidence. Give salespeople the support they need to connect with customers in a big way.
Money only gets you so far. Salespeople are driven by emotion. Challenge them, reward them—then watch them deliver results.
Measuring progress is key to getting better. Take a look at what’s working and what isn’t, and use that data to keep raising the bar.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1137720031?
Motivate your sales team.
The stars of your salesforce are easy to motivate. Not a huge surprise. But what about the new hires finding their footing? Or those solid, middle-tier performers who could do so much more with the right nudge? That’s where we come in.
We’re your go-to partner for tackling sales challenges head-on. With a mix of behavioral science and data-driven insights, we create tools and programs designed to motivate, educate, and reward your entire sales team in ways that actually work.
Tailored incentive programs. Learning solutions. Travel incentives. Gamification. We help you design the most creative strategies that go beyond compensation plans. Together, we’ll help your team think bigger, push harder, and, most importantly, sell more.
Solutions
We craft strategic, engaging incentives to drive maximum impact without blowing your budget. Transform your sales team from good to great with rewards that matter.
Sales contests should motivate. Turn the energy into results that impact your bottom line.
Reward your team with priceless memories, meticulously planned individual travel packages or unique experiences for those who prefer to choose their own adventure.
Harness the power of gamification to engage your customers, employees, and partners to do more within the systems that matter to your business.
Engaged learners perform better. So, why not build the kind of learning that fuels that engagement?
Inspire your team with expertly coordinated meet-ups, custom crafted every time.
Proof that motivated people sell more.
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Salesmaker
Sales contests should motivate. Turn the energy into results that impact your bottom line.
Sales contests made easy.
Sales contests work—but only if they're easy to set up, understand and execute.
SalesMaker is the leading all-in-one platform that makes running contests a breeze by helping you:
Set Clear Goals: Define rules and structure effortlessly.
Engage Your Team: Keep everyone motivated and focused.
Reward Success: Offer personalized, impactful rewards.
SalesMaker is built on real-world experience and behavioral science, so you can:
Motivate: With rewards like travel, experiences, and exclusive merchandise.
Run Multiple Contests: For teams or individuals—however you need it.
Get Full Support: Design your own or rely on our expert team.
Nine Proven Contest Structures to drive results:
Award Them Now: Instant rewards with no tracking.
Challengepoint™: Self-set goals with earned rewards.
Do This Get That: Immediate rewards for specific actions.
Double Down: Quarterly goals with monthly rewards.
GoalQuest®: Self-chosen goals with all-or-nothing rewards.
Leaderboard: Rankings with rewards for the top performers.
Learn2Earn: Reward learning and competency.
Objectives: Personalized goals with tailored rewards.
Step It Up: Reward higher performance levels.
The SalesMaker app lets your team track progress and claim rewards—anytime, anywhere. Watch your sales climb.
Every metric tells a story.
24%
average increase in sales revenue within the first year
64
coordinated sales team events in 2023
30M+
additional revenue generated by teams using Salesmaker
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Service Anniversary
Celebrating service should go beyond counting years - it should honor impact and embrace the feeling that employees belong and matter.
Service is more than just time.
Employees bring more than tenure; they contribute skills, support, training, achievements, and leadership. When we recognize service, we celebrate the journey, not just the time. We believe every year should be acknowledged and milestones should be celebrated.
Acknowledge every year. Celebrate milestones. Drive engagement.
Every year of service matters. HR leaders play a critical role in fostering a culture of appreciation. When you recognize each year of commitment, celebrate key milestones, and acknowledge growth, you reinforce loyalty, motivation, and a connection to the organization.
Why this matters for HR leaders:
Strengthens employee engagement and retention
Aligns with Total Rewards strategy
Reinforces an employee-first culture
Creates meaningful, memorable moments
Key milestones and recognition strategy
Take the first step in the journey.
Lay the foundation for engagement.
Strengthen commitment.
Acknowledge long-term impact.
Celebrate leadership and tenure.
What meaningful recognition looks like
Managers drive recognition, making it personal.
Encourage a culture of appreciation.
Employees receive rewards that align with their preferences.
Create opportunities to recognize accomplishments and future possibilities.
Meet local needs and ensure equitable experiences across the organization.
What makes our Service Anniversary programs different
We transform time-based transactions into moments employees value and remember. We celebrate time and personal impact to create a stronger connection between your employees and your organization. With flexible award options - from curated collections to point-based marketplaces - and global execution, we help you build loyalty and elevate the recognition experience.
Account Support
More than awards and a platform, we provide partnership. A dedicated account team helps your team make informed decisions, and provides ongoing guidance across the globe.
True Global Presence
We have employees in international markets, which allows us to provide localized support, duty-free delivery, and in-country invoicing for tax advantages. Tailor your program to meet regionalized needs while ensuring equitable experiences, compliant disciplines, and broad organizational oversight.
Impactful Programs
Transform how people perceive and connect with your culture in a positive way. We study human behaviors, understand what motivates and matters, and then apply those theories to our solutions, recommendations, awards, and technology.
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Style Guide

#### Technology
Trusted by major technology companies to drive better business outcomes by attracting, inspiring, and retaining a high-performing workforce; increasing sales force effectiveness; boosting partner loyalty; and energizing event audiences.
Engage employees
We help you attract, inspire, and retain a high-performing workforce by:
Increasing employees' sense of belonging
Strengthening your culture
Connecting employees to your culture and purpose
Improving your employee experience
Making employees feel valued for their contributions
Motivate sellers
We engage and motivate sellers across four critical areas—accelerating onboarding, boosting enablement, driving high-value activities, and driving quota attainment—by leveraging gamification, incentives, and recognition to help SaaS and technology companies improve their sales pipeline health, velocity, profitability, and overall growth.
Gamify role-based new hire onboarding
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Gamify role-based sales enablement journeys
Motivate sellers to complete learning
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Amplify new product and solution launches
Gamify role-based sales processes and activities
Motivate sellers to complete high-value activities (HVA)
Recognize and reward desired behaviors
Motivate sellers to attain or exceed quota
Improve closure rates, deal size, cross-sell and upsell, renewal rates, etc.
Recognize and reward top performers and consistent quota attainment
Boost partner loyalty
We help you build strong, lasting relations with distributors, resellers, and solution providers by boosting their engagement, sales, and loyalty. Whether it's partner segmentation analysis, traditional sales incentives, learning solutions, or a learn and earn combination, we help create opportunities for your channel partners to effectively communicate your company's value proposition and keep your business top of mind by:
Analyzing and segmenting channel partner performance
Identifying initiatives to drive growth and profitability that will maximize your channel marketing ROI
Gaining channel partners' mindshare and keeping your business top of mind
Driving channel sales enablement and high-value activities
Increasing channel partners' knowledge, skills, and ability to position your value proposition and sell your solutions
Inspiring, recognizing, and rewarding channel sales growth across all channel partner segments and/or tiers
Energize event audiences
We help you design and execute world-class events that will energize and inspire your audience by:
Bringing fresh thinking, ideas, and solutions to elevate the overall experience
Delivering holistic, audience-centric thinking and solutions - beyond just creative, production, and logistics - to inspire audiences and maximize the impact of every event
Providing a one-stop-shop approach that simplifies the demands of planning, coordinating, and operating world-class events
Leveraging our extensive global footprint, resources, and local-market expertise to execute global events that accommodate the unique needs of each market
Numbers tell a story.
24
of the largest global technology companies count on us
550k
program participants
10:1
or greater ROI on sales incentives
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Terms
Terms of use
The information contained in this Web site is the property of BI WORLDWIDE™ and its providers and is protectable under applicable copyright law. You agree not to reproduce, retransmit, disseminate, sell, distribute, publish, broadcast, circulate, or commercially exploit the Information in any manner without the express written consent of BI WORLDWIDE and other relevant providers.
BI WORLDWIDE™ provides no warranty of merchantability, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, and no warranty of non-infringement. There is no warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the information contained in this Web site.
Neither BI WORLDWIDE™ nor its agents, representatives, or contractors transmitting information over this Web site shall be liable to anyone else for any consequential, incidental, special or indirect damages (including lost profits and damages that may result of inconvenience, delay, or loss of use of the information, or for omissions or inaccuracies in the information) even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
Occasionally, changes in the various insurance and benefit plans may occur.  BI WORLDWIDE™ reserves the right to design the provisions of a plan and modify, amend, or terminate any of the benefit plans provided at any time and for any reason without prior notice to Associates as allowed by law. 
Copyright © 2025 BI WORLDWIDE™
BI WORLDWIDE™ is a trade name of Schoeneckers, Inc.

#### The New Rules of Engagement
The New Rules of Engagement® research study is an ongoing annual study, designed to understand the current work experience and how to make it better for employees and create better outcomes for employers.  
Creating a great company culture starts here.
Through extensive global research, we’ve identified 12 key factors that shape an employee’s relationship with their company. Understanding which of these matter most to your team is essential in building a strong employee value proposition.
The New Rules of Engagement®
12 rules to follow on your way to a world-class company culture.
Great managing is a matter of intense understanding of each unique individual—knowing their abilities, their aspirations and how they work best. Success on this rule is critical for achieving all the others.
Money isn't everything. But companies that mishandle this emotional area will make it a bigger deal than it has to be.
Never have work, personal life and health been so inextricably connected. Protecting employees’ holistic wellbeing doesn’t just reduce costs—it invigorates them and your business.
 Employers are expected to provide growth opportunities. Offering tools, learning and development for employees to be successful will grow your top talent.
Employees cannot fully commit to a company they do not feel a part of. Fostering a sense of belonging within the organization, the team, and the work itself is critical for employees to stay and do exceptional work.
Often, the best ideas come from employees. So listen with an open mind and use those ideas to shape the vision for the future.
People need to be part of something bigger than just a job and a paycheck. Meaning drives higher performance.
What people do today is largely motivated by where they think it will take them in the future. Companies that are deliberate about helping employees chart that future will be rewarded with those people's best work.
What a company recognizes gets repeated. Making a big deal of employees' accomplishments ensures the victories will be multiplied.
People have always been willing to take one for the right team, but only if they feel others will do the same. It's never been more important to create conditions that foster strong collaboration.
True empowerment comes from a place where ideas are seriously considered. Don’t just encourage them to take a risk, support them if it doesn’t go as planned.
Your best employees are eager to accomplish something incredible together. Challenge, rally, and support them wholeheartedly and you'll be struck by what they can do.
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Thought leadership
Thought Leadership

#### Virtual Meetings Playbook
Bring the best strategies, practices, and processes to your team and empower them to master and execute virtual training meetings with ease. Our playbooks come 95% pre-built, with the final touches customized to fit your needs.
Virtual meetings made easy. Every single time.
Our Virtual Meeting Playbooks simplify virtual learning by combining expert insights and proven strategies into ready-to-use guides.
Why Choose Our Playbooks?
Streamline workflows in a virtual environment.
Master available tools and know when to use them.
Enable consistent, accurate decision-making.
Centralize processes for seamless execution.
Fast & Flexible Customization
95% pre-built and tailored to your organization in as little as two weeks.
Personalize branding, terms, meeting platforms, and roles.
Two Expert Levels
Evolve from Virtual to Vital – Advanced tools for learning and event teams, including content adaptation, scripting, virtual activities, and more.
Leading with Virtual – Perfect for beginners, covering virtual meeting basics like platforms, etiquette, and success tips.

#### Warehouse Windfall
Take sales incentives for top performers to the next level with Warehouse Windfall. Motivate your sales force with the opportunity to earn a once-in-a-lifetime run through a warehouse packed full of high-end merchandise. 
Motivation you can see and feel.
Chances are good that at some point in your life, you’ve dreamt of going on a guilt-free shopping spree. Warehouse Windfall is an award experience unlike any other that rewards participants by turning that dream into a reality. Your top performers will earn the chance to run through our warehouse full of merchandise ranging from electronics, to luxury jewelry and handbags, sporting goods, kitchen appliances, kids' toys and everything in between.
We’ll start by deploying targeted communications to promote the opportunity and generate measurable sales lift during the earning period. You won’t just be funding a silly pipe dream; you’ll be generating real ROI…and undeniable buzz.
Once the incentive period is over, we’ll bring your top earners to the warehouse on our corporate campus for a day they’ll never forget. They’ll leave energized, engaged and ready to take on the next challenge you send their way.
Let’s treat your top performers to an unbeatable experience… and your bottom line to a significant lift. 
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1015733727
Our work speaks for itself
View All Case Studies

#### Wellness
When employees feel their best, they do their best. We’ll help you seamlessly blend wellness into your rewards and recognition strategy—so your team stays motivated and energized.
The best way to build a healthier culture.
A thriving workforce depends on energy, focus, and resilience. Employee wellness is critical to making that happen. And while reduced healthcare costs are a bonus, the true value lies in creating a team that’s performing at its best.
We apply behavioral economics to design programs that align rewards, guidelines, and communication to drive real, lasting behavior change. No quick fixes. No one-size-fits-all solutions. We help you build sustainable habits for a healthier, more engaged team.

#### Who We Serve
Our expertise means we understand the nuances of your business to design the solutions that resonate and drive results.
Let's Talk
Agriculture is a growth industry for us. We engage employees, incentivize sales teams, and build a loyal customer base.
Trusted by major automotive industry organizations to help exceed sales goals, elevate customer satisfaction, cement service retention, and maximize parts growth.
Foster loyalty with a strategic blend of customer insights, targeted marketing tools and compelling rewards.
Educating, engaging, and inspiring your frontline associates to positively change behaviors, driving incremental effort that increases sales results, employee loyalty, and customer satisfaction.
We help leading companies in the consumer goods industry to design solutions that engage diverse audiences, including manufacturing, distribution, sales, and corporate employees.
We design solutions that make it easy to understand and reach your entire channel, resulting in data-driven decisions that engage your target audience. 
In the highly regulated financial industry, our world-renowned strategies are designed for to-the-letter compliance with extraordinary results for banks, insurance agencies, investment houses, financial advisors, analysts, investment managers and brokers.
Trusted by major life sciences and healthcare industry organizations to change behavior and drive business results with key audiences such as employees, sales teams, members, physicians and patients.
Our approach is rooted in the principles of behavioral economics, ensuring that our strategies effectively motivate and engage your workforce.
We are experts in behavior change with proven results to help retailers expand your omnichannel customer base and inspire your employees throughout the organization.
Trusted by major technology companies to drive better business outcomes by attracting, inspiring, and retaining a high-performing workforce; increasing sales force effectiveness; boosting partner loyalty; and energizing event audiences.
Not seeing your industry?
We work with teams across almost every industry. If your field isn’t currently listed, we’d love to talk to you!
Let's talk

#### Windfall VR
Your teams can experience our most inspiring reward anywhere, any time with a virtual reality version of our legendary Warehouse Windfall experience.
Unreal experience. Real rewards.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/237091103
Meet Windfall VR – an immersive incentive award experience designed to motivate, inspire and reward your top performers. Our latest reward offering combines the best our Warehouse Windfall solution with all that VR has to offer in a one-of-a-kind experience.
How exactly does it work? We bring the technology to you and your team. Participants gear up and race the clock to digitally ‘grab’ as many awards as possible in a futuristic, virtual environment packed full of real merchandise. We’re talking the hottest electronics, sporting goods, luxe jewelry and handbags, kitchen appliances and more!
Cutting-edge technology and swoon-worthy merchandise only tell part of the story. Windfall VR offers a variety of benefits that make it a truly strategic incentive and reward solution:
Unforgettable. No one forgets being immersed in a futuristic, other-worldly shopping experience. It's unlike anything they've seen before.
Buzzworthy. It takes a lot to wow people these days. Windfall VR brings the wow. They won't believe their eyes.
Portable. Skip the expense of transporting your achievers. Windfall VR comes to you and your team.
Social. Windfall VR is shareable. Literally. Coworkers, executives, family members, and friends can cheer participants in real time. The experience can even be live-streamed, replayed, and posted to social channels.
Aspirational. Even those who don't qualify can witness the action in person or via live stream.
Flexible. Incorporate into a wide range of occasions and business purposes - think: national sales meetings, training, or a new product launch.
Predictable. Personalized programming enables control of per-winner budgets so there are no unpleasant surprises.

### Case Studies

#### A purpose worth banking on
Most businesses understand the value of knowing "their WHY" and most leaders realize that having a clear purpose ignites passion, sharpens focus, and drives results. But over and over, we see companies leaving their real value on the table.
Results
Connecting employees to a bigger purpose ignites passion, sharpens focus, and drives results. This recognition strategy put the company's purpose in the spotlight and saved $10.4 million in turnover-related costs.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Recognition
Rewards
Communications
Technology
Engagement platform
Live your purpose
Most businesses understand the value of knowing “their WHY” and most leaders realize that having a clear purpose ignites passion, sharpens focus, and drives results. But over and over, we see companies leaving their real value on the table.
When we started working with a large financial services company, we discovered they had a strong, inspiring statement of purpose: “Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being.” This company is passionate about helping clients, teammates and communities achieve financial confidence, with a personal touch.
But they wanted to know if this passion was resonating with employees. Was it shaping their behavior? Was it producing results?
To find out, we interviewed employees from different parts of the company and asked each one what “Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being” meant to them. Did they know this was the company’s purpose? Did they know how to bring it to life in their day-to-day interactions? Was their performance being measured against it?
What we found was a disconnect between the visionary purpose statement and the boots-on-the-ground work. Not everyone knew how to activate the company’s purpose, so very few employees were. And without purpose, employees can feel disillusioned, distracted, bored, replaceable—all the things that eventually lead to looking for a job somewhere else.
Ignite passion and sharpen focus
BIW proposed a recognition strategy that would put our client’s purpose in the spotlight.
The goal was two-fold:
Fire up their workforce - increase engagement, boost morale, and ultimately reduce turnover.
Win over customers by truly "Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being."
The client saw the value and jumped right in. We named their recognition program myPurpose. We created Purpose Points. We established key recognition behaviors to support their purpose statement—like putting the client first, fostering trust, working with precision, and showing a passion to win.
Drive results
Just one year after the official launch and in conjunction with other internal strategies, two key business results were already clear.
Employees were staying. In the first year, turnover dropped by almost 31%. With turnover costs at about $8.500 per employee, this saved them $10.4 million in the first year alone.
Customers were happier. A second, incredibly important results was the astounding jump in customer experience scores. The company had been aiming for a four-point gain in the first three years of the program which was a massive swing. Within 12 months of the program being in place, they'd already reached that goal - two years early.

#### A rise in employee engagement
A major cruise line was challenged to increase employee engagement and retention as well as increase sales performance. The specific challenge was to keep the sales representatives from leaving the company and to drive overall sales performance from two segments: cruise specialists and personal vacation planners.
Results
With a 54:1 ROI, the client saw increased employee retention, increased engagement, and better customer service.
Industry
Entertainment
Problem space
Employee engagement
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Gamification
Rewards
Technology
Nitro by Bunchball
Navigating rough waters
A major cruise line was challenged to increase employee engagement and retention as well as increase sales performance. The specific challenge was to keep the sales representatives from leaving the company and to drive overall sales performance from two segments: cruise specialists and personal vacation planners. The sales performance metrics they wanted to focus on were increased bookings, improved conversion rates, and decreased average handling times.
Turning the tide
A gamification strategy was designed, and we integrated Nitro technology into the client's current technology platform. Strategies for each segment were created, and with the support of the Bunchball team, the client was able to create missions that drives performance and sales goals while increasing retention and engagement.
The platform was launched on a global personalized mobile responsive program with regional weekly and monthly missions and contests.
Smooth sailing
Retention and engagement with the program was over 75% of the total audience, which was 110% over the engagement benchmark. The audience was approximately 900 people, and 66% of the audience sent over 10,000 recognitions, driving engagement and program retention.
Those in the engaged user groups generated $27M in revenue, and the client's ROI was 54:1.

#### A targeted approach
A financial services firm was losing 200-300 of their business banking clients each month and needed to renew their focus on retaining clients.
Impact
The multi-channel approach exceeded the client's expectations, resulting in new opportunities, increased revenue, and a 17:1 ROI.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Channel engagement
Services
Creative services
Customer gifting
Marketing strategy
Multi-channel marketing
Print and production
Stop attrition in its tracks
A financial services firm was losing 200-300 of their business banking clients each month and needed to renew their focus on retaining clients. Their goal was to minimize attrition and drive growth by engaging targets via zero-party data collection and one-on-one conversations with bank relationship managers. The ultimate goal was to renew and deepen those client relationships.
A multi-touch approach
We developed and delivered a multi-touch reengagement campaign to C-suite decision makers to build awareness and motivate reengagement behaviors through multiple touchpoints. We also rewarded them if they completed a survey. The touchpoints included:
Launch outreach: email
Non-responder outreach: email and direct mail kit
Online client surveys
Gifts awarded for survey completion
Exceeding growth expectations
The campaign exceeded the client's expectations. The combination of touchpoints had a positive impact with 134 new opportunities identified, over $1.6M in new business, 58 business solutions won, and an ROI of 17:1.

#### Accelerating sales, driving results
A luxury automotive manufacturer had been experiencing a drop in sedan sales as customers shifted their attention towards SUVs and trucks. They partnered with us to reignite their luxury sedan sales, resulting in a massive increase in sales.
Results
Sales reps sold 15,000+ luxury sedans during the program compared to the 2,000 sold in the two months prior to the program's launch. Monthly sales increased by 250%, and sales doubled in the two months post-program compared to the two months pre-program.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Communications
Contests
Group travel
Technology
Custom technology platform
Rev up sales of luxury sedans
A luxury automotive manufacturer had been experiencing a drop in sedan sales as customers shifted their attention towards SUVs and trucks. The market was still ripe; it just required a fresh focus. The company partnered with us to help reignite their luxury sedan sales. BIW designed a program that addressed their challenges in a simple, affordable and highly effective way.
Steering results through smart design
To understand why this program produced such impressive results, there are some key dynamics to consider. In the car industry, cash is king. For most sales promotions, sales managers receive extra cash for achieving certain types of sales. In this case, we disrupted the status quo with an entirely different approach.
Instead of cash, sales managers had the chance to win a luxury vacation for two to Los Cabos, Mexico with 50 winners nationwide. This shift had multiple benefits. First, behavioral economics research confirms that earning a memory-packed, emotion-filled experience can be far more motivating than cash which can get lost in the mix of daily financial obligations. Because this reward was so different from the usual incentives, it stood out as exciting and special.
In addition, this particular group of dealership managers hadn’t met face-to-face in some time, and the chance for a shared experience with other top performers – including a prestigious recognition dinner – was highly motivating for them.
Another dynamic at play was having each dealership competing as a team instead of defaulting to rewarding reps for individual performance. Winning dealerships would then choose who on the team would receive the vacation package.
To account for differentials in size, market and sales capabilities, larger dealerships were given more opportunities to win than smaller dealerships. Pitting like performers in head-to-head competition gave everyone a chance to earn. Instead of competing against the entire pool of 710 dealerships, each dealer competed in one of four quartiles based on their sedan sales the previous year at the same time. By leveling the playing field, the competitive spirit was amped up.
Finally, instead of running the program for the typical one or three months, the program ran for five months, building traction and momentum throughout the program with a steady stream of communications and performance updates.
Where the rubber meets the road
15,000+ sedans sold during the five-month incentive period compared to 2,000 in the two months leading up to the program.
Monthly sales increased 250%.
Sales doubled compared to what they were two months before the program began.
Had this been a typical cash-drive program, the budget would have soared to $3 million in cash incentives; these results were achieved at one-fifth of that cost.

#### Align, learn, compete
Sales associates struggled to adopt a new product and needed clearer understanding of its purpose, components, target audience, and how to sell it. Leadership also needed stronger field alignment and a way to drive consistent steps‑to‑the‑sale behaviors.
RESULTS
The program drove 91% engagement and major activity growth, with client meetings up 550%, concepts up 860%, and proposals up 850%. Motivation remained strong, with 94% driven by points, 85% by leaderboards, and 96% enjoying the overall experience.
Industry
Consulting services
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Communications
Gamification
Learning
Rewards
Technology
Bunchball Impact
Challenge
Sales associates struggled to adopt a new product and needed clearer understanding of its purpose, components, target audience, and how to sell it. Leadership also needed stronger field alignment and a way to drive consistent steps‑to‑the‑sale behaviors.
Solution
We launched a two‑phase gamification program: learning missions to build product fluency, followed by performance missions to convert knowledge into action. Points, leaderboards, and a grand‑prize incentive kept motivation high and aligned the field around the new solution.
Results
The program drove 91% engagement and major activity growth, with client meetings up 550%, concepts up 860%, and proposals up 850%. Understanding improved significantly—99% felt confident in the solution, 96% in its components, and 93% in its target audience. Motivation remained strong, with 94% driven by points, 85% by leaderboards, and 96% enjoying the overall experience.

#### Answering the call of the Warehouse Windfall
Inspire your sales team to stay motivated and connected to your brand with a variety of proven sales incentives, rewards, gamification and training solutions.
RESULTS
The program consistently delivers 10–15% sales lift, generates $15–20 million in incremental revenue annually, and maintains a 5–10% ROI. Participation remains near 100%, and more than half of all winners each year are first‑timers—proof that the program effectively moves the middle, not just the top performers.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Challenge
A major telecommunications company needed a high‑impact incentive to motivate inbound call center reps, boost sales, and keep energy high throughout the year. Traditional rewards weren’t delivering the excitement needed to sustain performance across top, mid‑level, and newer reps.
Solution
We proposed a Warehouse Windfall, an immersive reward experience where top performers travel to a warehouse stocked with merchandise and grab as many prizes as they can within a timed run. The program includes recognition events, travel experiences, leaderboards, and promotional campaigns to drive engagement throughout the entire contest period.
Results
The program consistently delivers 10–15% sales lift, generates $15–20 million in incremental revenue annually, and maintains a 5–10% ROI. Participation remains near 100%, and more than half of all winners each year are first‑timers—proof that the program effectively moves the middle, not just the top performers.

#### Answering the call to increase sales
A major telecommunications company needed to increase call center sales. Their long‑standing approach—cash rewards tied to a basic tiered structure—wasn’t driving performance. They wanted to test whether GoalQuest® could outperform the tiered model and whether experiences and merchandise would inspire stronger results than cash.
RESULTS
GoalQuest paired with experiences and merchandise delivered the strongest outcome at 87% over baseline. GoalQuest alone lifted performance 31% over baseline, and experiences/merchandise outperformed cash by a wide margin—43% over baseline versus cash underperformance.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Challenge
A major telecommunications company needed to increase call center sales. Their long‑standing approach—cash rewards tied to a basic tiered structure—wasn’t driving performance. They wanted to test whether GoalQuest® could outperform the tiered model and whether experiences and merchandise would inspire stronger results than cash.
Solution
We ran a 60‑day controlled study with four conditions: GoalQuest with experiences/merchandise, GoalQuest with cash, tiered with experiences/merchandise and tiered with cash. GoalQuest required reps to self‑select stretch goals with “all‑or‑nothing” rewards, while the tiered model paid at any level achieved. Each structure tested how goal‑setting and reward type influenced behavior and lift
Results
GoalQuest paired with experiences and merchandise delivered the strongest outcome at 87% over baseline. GoalQuest alone lifted performance 31% over baseline, and experiences/merchandise outperformed cash by a wide margin—43% over baseline versus cash underperformance. Tiered structures with cash even produced negative results for most rep segments, confirming that goal‑setting and non‑cash rewards drive significantly higher performance.

#### Banking on big results
A major financial institution needed help with their annual summer promotion to attract new customers over a 10-week period. Using behavioral economics principles and contests, the client surpassed their goal by 35%.
Results
As a result of the promotion, there were 24,000 new accounts opened in the first 10 weeks. In the second promotion, an additional 27,000 new accounts were opened. The results were 50% higher than any previous promotion, and there was a reduced cost per new account.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Rewards
Sweepstakes
Technology
Sweepstakes
Breaking through the banking barrier
In the world of banking, one of the best ways to attract a new customer is with a free direct deposit checking account. Once a person has their paycheck automatically deposited in a new account, they usually stick around. However, this isn’t an easy sell.
A major financial institution came to BI WORLDWIDE for help with their annual summer promotion to attract new customers. Their stretch goal was to attract 18,000 new customers over a 10-week period.
Engage and win
We approached the issue in three different ways to help make the program successful. First was to help reduce the costs and maximize the results. In previous promotions, the company would offer new customers a cash bonus of $150. We took that concept and applied behavioral economics, rewarding a chance to play an instant-win game to see how much cash they could win. Potential customers slid a digital decoder over a concealed graphic, revealing an amount between $75 and $150. The company saved money by lowering the total amount of money but had stronger results because no matter what dollar amount was revealed, the behavioral economics theory of loss aversion kicked in, and potential customers were far more likely to open an account in order to not lose the money they just “won.”
We also added a high-profile sweepstakes to attract a maximum amount of attention. The sweepstakes offered the chance to win a new Tesla Model S or $100,000 cash. The “big want/hedonic luxury” drove click-throughs to the instant-reveal game and generated buzz in the Wall Street Journal.
Finally we changed how we connected with their target audience. The target audience for free checking accounts is young, social and digitally connected. The company’s previous focus was direct mail, so we shifted it to mobile advertising since that’s where the audience was. Customers were able to complete the entire process – from revealing the cash bonus to activating their new account – directly from their mobile device.
Blasting past goals
This campaign was so successful that the company asked us to repeat the promotion the following summer. We refreshed the concept and surpassed the goal - and previous results.
24,000 new accounts in the first 10 weeks
27,000 new accounts in the second promotion
50% higher results than any previous promotion
Reduced cost per new account

#### Boosting agent performance
An insurance company wanted to drive loyalty among their 30,000 agents across the country. They wanted to improve engagement, increase learning, and increase sales.
Results
The gamification platform increased learning among insurance brokers, resulting in a 20% increase in policies written year over year.
Industry
Insurance
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Gamification
Learning
Rewards
Technology
Bunchball
Keep agents engaged
An insurance company wanted to drive loyalty among their 30,000 agents across the country. They wanted to improve engagement, increase learning, and increase sales.
Incentivize success
They came to us for help, and we created a Bunchball gamification program into their existing broker portal. Missions were created for learning and marketing materials, and brokers were rewarded with points and branded merchandise.
Mission(s) accomplished
The company saw incredible results. They had over 20,000 agents active in the program, and they completed over 1.3 million missions, averaging over 2,900 per day. This was almost 88,000 hours of education! 85% of the agents completed more than 5 missions, 44% completed more than 50 missions, and 28% completed over 100 missions.
All of these mission completions resulted in a 20% increase in insurance policies written year over year.

#### Boosting core sales during slow seasons
350 sales reps needed to grow a core product line over one slow summer month. Leadership needed a simple, motivating structure to lift performance quickly.
RESULTS
The team delivered 17% growth over baseline (beating projections by 10%), 52% exceeded baseline, and the sprint returned a 6.5:1 ROI.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
SalesMaker
Challenge
350 sales reps needed to grow a core product line over one slow summer month. Leadership needed a simple, motivating structure to lift performance quickly.
Solution
A one‑month GoalQuest program established personalized stretch goals tied to individual baselines, encouraging concentrated effort.
Results
The team delivered 17% growth over baseline (beating projections by 10%), 52% exceeded baseline, and the sprint returned a 6.5:1 ROI.

#### Championing a head-to-head sales incentive
A large telecommunications client came to us to create a fun incentive program for the fourth quarter to help close out the year strong. They were looking to increase their average number of mobile lines sold per agent which was one per week prior to the program’s start.
Results
There was a 10% increase in the inbound close rate, a 14% increase in the retail close rate and a 5% increase in the number of lines entered per person. This led to $360 million in incremental revenue and a 331:1 ROE.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Gamification
Recognition
Rewards
Technology
Engagement platform
Nitro by Bunchball
Close it out strong
A large telecommunications client came to us to create a fun incentive program for the fourth quarter to help close out the year strong. They were looking to increase their average number of mobile lines sold per agent which was one per week prior to the program’s start.
A competitive program design
The program we created was a head-to-head matchup for retail, inbound sales, chat, and business partners. Teams and leagues were set up and paired based on channel and performance. Teams in each league were re-racked weekly during the entire incentive period. Agents received daily game plays worth 5-15 points based on individual results. At the end of the incentive period, each member of the winning team would receive 2500 program points.
Champion-level results
Not only did the client get to witness the competitive spirit across the divisions and within the channels, but the entire sales organization also saw an improvement in performance as a result of this head-to-head program. There was a four-week window where the agents averaged six lines per week per person across all channels, a 20% increase over baseline.
Overall, there was a 10% increase in the inbound close rate, a 14% increase in the retail close rate and a 5% increase in the number of lines entered per person. This led to $360 million in incremental revenue and a 331:1 ROE.

#### Changing the game
A large telecommunications company had missed their numbers three years in a row and needed a huge fourth quarter to close out the year. They called us in with a challenge: boost sales nationwide in Q4 to make our year-end results.
Results
Through focused communications and real-time results based on real-time activity, this incentive delivered 54,000 incremental unit sales.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Gamification
Recognition
Rewards
Technology
Engagement platform
Nitro by Bunchball
Here's the challenge
This large telecommunications company had missed their numbers three quarters in a row and needed a huge fourth quarter to close out the year. They called in BIW with a challenge: boost sales nationwide in Q4 to make our year-end results.
We took that challenge and recommended a dramatically different approach to engage their inbound sales teams. Instead of running multiple decentralized regional programs, as they had always done, we proposed a single, unified, national promotion. As an alternative to gift cards or cash, we would use award points that could be redeemed for merchandise, event tickets, travel and experiences. And rather than reps competing individually, teams would compete against each other for the win.
These changes were significant—and they required many independent regions to agree—but this entertainment provider was all in.
Everyone is all in
We designed the program with a few more features to maximize results:
First, we matched teams with similar track records in head-to-head competitions—so they’d only have to beat one specific team to win.
Second, to keep engagement high throughout the entire quarter, we awarded winners and reset the head-to-head challenges every two weeks.
Third, we created a fun social element where teams could lightheartedly "smack talk" each other and amp up competitiveness.
Finally, we kept the competition top of mind with leaderboards, videos, and a steady stream of communications.
Beating the sales goals
Not only did this company hit their national sales goals for Q4, they made up their losses for the first three quarters and came out ahead of their year-long goals. All in just ONE quarter.
In three short months, we helped this provider generate $32 million in revenue with 54,000 incremental unit sales. Reps increased their close rate by 2.9% and not only made up the gap from Q1, Q2 and Q3, but exceeded the year-long goal.
And that’s not all.
For the second year in a row, this provider found itself with a gap to fill in Q4 and called us. We developed another national incentive—this time using a “do-this/get-that” structure with daily promotions and rewards. We achieved 100% participation in the program and history repeated itself. With the Q4 promotion, this entertainment provider once again achieved their sales goals for the entire year.

#### Creating a high-performing culture
A global healthcare technology company wanted to determine if there was a connection between recognition activity and how employees feel at work.
Impact
Data showed employees felt recognized, valued, and empowered if they received three recognitions in the three months leading up to the company's organizational health survey.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Communications
Recognition
Research and strategy
Technology
Engagement platform
How does recognition impact an organization?
A global healthcare technology company wanted to determine if there was a connection between recognition activity and how employees feel at work. We compared their organizational health survey (OHS) results with our global recognition program activity and then used this information to make data-driven recommendations on how to optimize their recognition program.
Inspiring employees around the world
We paired the OHS survey results with six months of recognition activity preceding the survey. The over 40,000 individuals included in our research needed to be employed for the entire six months to be considered. The recognition data included in our research were special occasion, peer-to-peer, manager discretionary, recognition with points, and service anniversary.
We also implemented a regular cadence of campaigns to spotlight recognition. Campaigns incorporated segmented communications and messaging based on the employee’s level of engagement with the program with specific calls to action. Recognition tips based on the OHS research findings were also incorporated into leader and manager communications. To ensure employees felt connected and the campaigns resonated globally, all communications were translated and the employee received the messaging in their preferred language.
Recognition impacts culture
The data revealed a positive impact on those who receive 3 recognitions in 3 months leading up to OHS. 
If employees say they are often recognized, they are six times more likely to recommend the company to others as a great place to work.
Employees who say they are often recognized are 6.2 times more likely to say their manager leverages differences as a strength.
Those who receive recognition are 3.7 times more likely to give recognition as well.
Those who say they are often recognized are 6.6 times more likely to say they are encouraged to find new and better ways of working.
Those who feel recognized are 4.1 times less likely to think about leaving.
Employees who receive three or more recognitions in six months score 10 percentage points higher on feeling "recognized for great performance."
Those who feel recognized are 7.8 times more likely to say they "go above and beyond" their normal duties.
During the recognition campaigns, the client saw great results.
Over 730,000 total recognitions sent - up 11% over the previous year
Over 9,000 first-time recognition givers
Over 15,000 first-time recognition receivers
81% of employees logged into the recognition site
97% of managers gave recognition
89% of employees receive recognition

#### Dialing up success
A large telecommunications client was looking for a way to drive sales of their highest margin product within their call center audience.
Results
Productivity of the call center reps resulted in an increase in productivity and revenue with a 17:1 ROI.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Individual travel
Turn sales reps into champions
A large telecommunications client was looking for a way to drive sales of their highest margin product within their call center audience.
Win, play, travel
We designed a travel-themed incentive lasting three months that awarded sales consultants with game plays and drawing entries when achieving their weekly targets. Game plays awarded points that were redeemable for hundreds of thousands of awards, and drawing winners would receive their choice of a travel getaway package.
We launched the incentive with a vivid, personalized animation that explained the rules that included the participant's name to make it inspiring and memorable. We also built a custom scorecard that was updated daily with individual progress to keep participants on track.
Off the charts results
At the end of the three-month incentive, 41% of consultants improved their productivity over baseline and drove $11 million in revenue. This resulted in a 17:1 ROI.

#### Drive awareness with branded merchandise
An original equipment manufacturer came to us to help drive overall awareness and sales of their branded merchandise. They wanted to do this through a series of seasonal and market-driven tactics.
Impact
Because of an increased awareness of branded merchandise, the client saw an increase in sales and email open rates.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Branded merchandise
Drive awareness
An original equipment manufacturer came to us to help drive overall awareness and sales of their branded merchandise. They wanted to do this through a series of seasonal and market-driven tactics.
Show your merch
We partnered with them and provided an ongoing series of marketing efforts including:
Quarterly catalog mailers
Black Friday discounts
Monthly promotional banners touting new and seasonal award choices
Monthly digital newsletters
Pop-up events
BOGO promotions
Exemplary customer service
Rev up results
The results were exceptional:
By changing from yearly to quarterly catalogs, the OEM increased sales by 30% year over year.
Their Black Friday sales brought the biggest sales month each year, giving them the opportunity to sell their obsolete merchandise.
Their monthly email promotions are being read, with an open rate of over 50%.
The "free gift with purchase" promotion increased their consumer sales by 20%.

#### Driving digital adoption across the dealer network
A truck manufacturer needed to accelerate dealer adoption of a new eCommerce ordering system to improve efficiency and tracking. Identifying the right influencers across a complex dealer structure was critical.
RESULTS
Champion engagement reached 90%, eCommerce sales improved $5M (24% lift), and the program returned a 14:1 ROI, validating the champion model for digital adoption.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
A truck manufacturer needed to accelerate dealer adoption of a new eCommerce ordering system to improve efficiency and tracking. Identifying the right influencers across a complex dealer structure was critical.
Solution
We launched a GoalQuest program for 146 assigned champions, mapping them to dealer groups and rooftops with field‑leader input. Personalized goals encouraged growth in digital ordering behavior.
Results
Champion engagement reached 90%, eCommerce sales improved $5M (24% lift), and the program returned a 14:1 ROI, validating the champion model for digital adoption.

#### Driving recognition and financial focus
A healthcare organization faced two simultaneous challenges: increasing employee recognition and engagement while also managing toward a critical year-end margin goal. Learn how the results exceeded the organization's expectations.
RESULTS
The results exceeded expectations: 1,800 nominations submitted; 1,006 individual employees nominated; and more than doubled the margin goal.
Industry
Life sciences
Healthcare
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
DayMaker
Rewards
Technology
DayMaker
A complex operational environment
A healthcare organization faced two simultaneous challenges: increasing employee recognition and engagement while also managing toward a critical year-end margin goal. In parallel, they needed to improve financial operations by accelerating the collection of outstanding accounts receivable and resolving long-standing payer issues.
The solution was a custom nomination program to drive recognition while also creating an incentive with points awards for performance.
Strategic recognition program implementation
To support engagement goals, the organization launched a nomination-based recognition program within their recognition platform. The program focused on three key pillars: Financial Value, Quality, and Process Improvement. The objective was to recognize at least 60% of the eligible employee population within the year, ensuring broad visibility and appreciation for contributions aligned with business priorities.
Doubled the goal
This dual approach, recognizing performance while driving financial accountability, helped the organization align employee behavior with both cultural and operational goals. The results exceeded expectations:
1,800 nominations submitted
1,006 individual employees nominated
More than doubled the margin goal

#### Driving record tire sales in eight weeks
A national retailer aimed to grow tire sales during an eight‑week seasonal push, motivating associates to sell more than their established baselines.
RESULTS
84% exceeded baseline, sales increased by 25,000 tires (71% YoY lift), every quintile grew, and participants averaged 24% higher sales than non‑participants.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
A national retailer aimed to grow tire sales during an eight‑week seasonal push, motivating associates to sell more than their established baselines.
Solution
We deployed a Challengepoint™ structure offering incremental points per set plus a bulk payout for meeting stretch goals. Claims were submitted through a third‑party platform while credits posted in our system.
Results
84% exceeded baseline, sales increased by 25,000 tires (71% YoY lift), every quintile grew, and participants averaged 24% higher sales than non‑participants.

#### Driving subscription sales ten-fold
This entertainment client had been struggling to drive point-of-sale subscriptions from their channel partner sales reps for the past few years.
Impact
By remaining a neutral party between two clients, the entertainment client and telecom client both saw an increase in sales by all agent groups.
Industry
Entertainment
Problem space
Channel engagement
Sales team motivation
Services
Communications
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
Engagement platform
Focus
This entertainment client had been struggling to drive point-of-sale subscriptions from their channel partner sales reps for the past few years. Their telecom partners would not share sales performance by their agents so when running incentives, they could not measure whether or not their focused incentive efforts were really driving incremental subscription sales. Most incentives were a standard "do this, get that" format that focused on the easy-to-sell low margin movie package. Ideally, the client wanted the agents to really focus on their branded stand-alone a la carte package that was of much higher value and margin.
Engage
We proposed a neutral role as we were a strategic partner in the rewards and recognition space with our client’s telecom partner. The telecom trusted us with their data, rewards and recognition strategy and solutions. We leveraged this relationship to develop an incentive that could help to drive incremental growth.
We reviewed the previous data performance and created an incentive that incorporated stretch based step-it-up goals for sales that earned game plays and award points, stack rankings contests to drive competition within the various agent channels, and on-the-spot cards to award to agents that registered for their edu-marketing platform during on-site visits. We designed all of the creative communications to help spread the word and drive excitement. We then implemented the incentive on the telecom partner’s rewards and recognition platform and loaded progress updates twice a week to ensure agents knew how they were tracking towards their goals.
Reward
10x increase in average subscription sales by sales reps
1422% increase in high-margin subscription packages
1000+% increase in agent registration in the edu-marketing platform
An increase in sales by all agent groups, no matter channel, location or focus

#### Dual-audience incentives drive product adoption
A manufacturer needed dealers to stock a new product and sales reps to sell and claim those units. A 90‑day push/pull structure was required to motivate both audiences simultaneously.
RESULTS
Dealer purchases doubled versus the prior three‑month baseline (103% lift), generating $116,550 in incremental margin and an 11:1 ROI across the 90‑day launch.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
SalesMaker
Game Arcade
Challenge
A manufacturer needed dealers to stock a new product and sales reps to sell and claim those units. A 90‑day push/pull structure was required to motivate both audiences simultaneously.
Solution
We deployed a Step It Up promotion with variable payouts through Game Arcade. Dealers earned incentives on purchases, reps earned rewards for sales and claims, and both groups tracked progress via contest displays.
Results
Dealer purchases doubled versus the prior three‑month baseline (103% lift), generating $116,550 in incremental margin and an 11:1 ROI across the 90‑day launch.

#### Empowering deskless employees
A leading medical device manufacturer faced a challenge: engaging their high-turnover, diverse deskless employees. Learn how they reached their ambitious goal of 100,000 recognitions.
RESULTS
Within the first year, 72% of employees had logged into the platform. Ninety percent of managers with budgets are actively giving recognition. The organization reached their ambitious goal of 100,000 recognitions.
Industry
Life sciences
Manufacturing
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Awards
Communications
DayMaker
Technology
DayMaker
Engaging a complex, high-turnover workforce
A leading medical device manufacturer faced a critical challenge: engaging a high-turnover, diverse deskless workforce. A key priority was ensuring that contract-to-hire employees felt equally valued alongside full-time staff, starting from day one. Equally important was providing a user-friendly mobile platform that enabled easy access for all employees, regardless of location or role.
A strategic recognition program using RPI's best practice standards
To address these challenges, the manufacturer partnered with us to design a recognition program grounded in RPI’s 7 Best Practice Standards. The goal: build a culture of recognition that would drive engagement across their unique workforce.
Meeting and exceeding best-practice benchmarks
Within the first year, 72% of employees had logged into the platform. Ninety percent of managers with budgets are actively giving recognition. The organization reached their ambitious goal of 100,000 recognitions.

#### Engagement unlocks millions in dealer sales lift
A manufacturer shifted from Visa gift cards to non‑cash and travel awards. Dealers needed personalized stretch goals and a reason to engage early to avoid unproductive spend.
RESULTS
49% of dealers engaged; engaged dealers grew $1.7M (+6%) while non‑engaged declined 13%; 46 dealers earned travel awards, and the program produced a 5.1:1 ROI.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Individual travel
Technology
SalesMaker
Challenge
A manufacturer shifted from Visa gift cards to non‑cash and travel awards. Dealers needed personalized stretch goals and a reason to engage early to avoid unproductive spend.
Solution
A tiered performance program set personal growth goals based on prior‑year performance. Dealers were required to engage mid‑year to be eligible, ensuring their commitment before earning.
Results
49% of dealers engaged; engaged dealers grew $1.7M (+6%) while non‑engaged declined 13%; 46 dealers earned travel awards, and the program produced a 5.1:1 ROI.

#### Exceeding goals in a national launch
A call center organization needed to support a national product roll‑out while motivating representatives to perform beyond regional, center, and individual goals in a fast‑moving, high‑volume environment.
RESULTS
The program drove strong and sustained engagement, with 87% of representatives actively participating, exceeding the national goal by 11%, and achieving the one‑million‑unit sales target during the launch period.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Challenge
A call center organization needed to support a national product roll‑out while motivating representatives to perform beyond regional, center, and individual goals in a fast‑moving, high‑volume environment.
Solution
The team launched an incentive that rallied representatives around shared and individual goals, using data visualization to clearly show progress at the national, regional, center, and individual levels throughout the program.
Results
The program drove strong and sustained engagement, with 87% of representatives actively participating, exceeding the national goal by 11%, and achieving the one‑million‑unit sales target during the launch period.

#### From short-staffed to staffed-up in short order
A fast‑casual restaurant chain struggled with severe staffing shortages across more than 1,500 locations. After a 70% revenue drop during COVID, the brand needed to hire 1,000 associates a week to meet renewed demand.
RESULTS
The one‑day hiring event exceeded expectations with 12,000 RSVPs—20% above goal. The company made more than 2,400 offers, including 800 on event day and ultimately hired 1,400 new employees. The success led to new rolling recruiting events for additional divisions.
Industry
Food and beverage
Problem space
Employee engagement
Challenge
A fast‑casual restaurant chain struggled with severe staffing shortages across more than 1,500 locations. After a 70% revenue drop during COVID, the brand needed to hire 1,000 associates a week to meet renewed demand. Research revealed the company lagged competitors in employer branding and lacked clearly defined values, limiting its ability to attract talent.
Solution
We helped the company establish four core values to strengthen its employee value proposition, then translated those values into recruiting messaging. We created a national recruiting‑day kit featuring branded signage, manager playbooks, development guides, QR codes, and reusable promotional materials. Local advertising and a social media push amplified the campaign across markets.
Results
The one‑day hiring event exceeded expectations with 12,000 RSVPs—20% above goal. The company made more than 2,400 offers, including 800 on event day and ultimately hired 1,400 new employees. The success led to new rolling recruiting events for additional divisions.

#### Fueling new business through personalized goals
Global reps needed to increase new business sales revenue based on average performance from the prior three quarters. Some reps required arbitrary baselines due to insufficient history.
RESULTS
33% earned, performance lifted 46% over baseline, 44% exceeded baseline, total revenue rose $1.6M, and ROI reached 64:1.
Industry
Technology
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
Global reps needed to increase new business sales revenue based on average performance from the prior three quarters. Some reps required arbitrary baselines due to insufficient history.
Solution
A Q3 GoalQuest program established relevant stretch targets and rewarded attainment in points, motivating reps across varying experience levels.
Results
33% earned, performance lifted 46% over baseline, 44% exceeded baseline, total revenue rose $1.6M, and ROI reached 64:1.

#### Getting pumped about better health
Most of the customers who purchase an insulin pump system from our medical device client have lived with diabetes for a while. The company asked us to help customers get the most value out of the insulin pump and motivate them to engage in healthy behaviors.
Impact
Helpful content and gamification delivered real health results for patients living with diabetes.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Gamification
Rewards
Technology
Quantum360™
Engage customers in healthy behaviors
Most of the customers who purchase our client’s insulin pump system have lived with diabetes for a while—many their entire lives. Usually they’re relieved and excited about the extra support this device provides.
But the device alone can only do so much. The person wearing it must still take ownership of his or her health. So this company asked if we could help their customers get the most value out of the insulin pump and also motivate them to engage in healthy behaviors.
Our expertise in behavioral economics—combined with our state-of-the-art Quantum360™ solution—was exactly what was needed to help make a difference for their customers.
An exclusive club with rewards-based motivation
We developed a three-pronged solution. First, we created a membership program for the company’s insulin pump customers and invited them to join. The online program provides ongoing education, motivation and inspiration for people who are managing diabetes. The membership aspect creates a sense of prestige and exclusivity and fulfills the desire to be part of a like-minded, supportive community that understands the struggle of living with diabetes.
Next, we added a gamification element, giving members the chance to earn points by meeting certain goals—from watching an informative video, to taking a quiz, to keeping glucose numbers within a healthy range. The points-based challenges are fun and motivating and they keep members owning their health, feeling proud and getting rewarded for their healthy choices. Members redeem the points they earn on an array of health-related merchandise—anything from smoothie blenders to workout headphones to running shoes.
The final key to this successful program is an ongoing stream of valuable content, encouraging tips and fresh challenges to keep members engaged, informed and coming back consistently.
Providing an ongoing value
Ultimately, the goal of the program is to increase one of the most important measurements in the diabetes community, known as “time in range”. For people with diabetes, to be “in range” is to have healthy glucose levels. The more time they can spend “in range” each day, the healthier and safer they can be. 
Because this pump tracks time in range for its customers, the company is able to tell if that measurement is improving or not. The results are clear. Pump customers who join the program have more time in range than those who don’t. And the longer customers are in the program, the more their time in range numbers continue to improve, month after month.

#### Healthy results
A leading health services innovation company is focused on making healthcare work better for everyone. They partner with various stakeholders - from healthcare providers to insurers to employers - to improve patient health while also reducing the total cost of care.
Impact
An approachable communications campaign invited people to a happier state of health. Highly targeted communications resulted in a higher response, generating huge results.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Stay healthy and save
A leading health services innovation company is focused on making healthcare work better for everyone. They partner with various stakeholders - from healthcare providers to insurers to employers - to improve patient health while also reducing the total cost of care.
When the company asked if we could help cut healthcare expense and improve healthcare decisions within a specific population of consumers, we assured them this kind of behavior change is right up our alley.
The company had two key goals:
Motivate this group of healthcare consumers to start calling a new support line with their healthcare and health insurance questions, big or small.
Dissuade these customers from using the ER for non-emergency needs.
We implemented a three-part strategy, each of which would leverage the three things these consumers care about most: saving time, saving money, and staying healthy.
Hello answers, calm, and clarity
Our first step was to welcome this audience to a more convenient, more personalized, less costly way to care for their health. We spread the message through direct mail pieces to introduce this “one-stop shop” call line and provide greater detail. We also sent an email to reinforce our clear and upbeat message: “Good-bye stress and confusion. Hello answers, calm, and clarity.”
Next, we sent out a mailing that clearly illustrated the out-of-pocket costs for a range of care options—from a $1700 ER visit, to a $190 urgent care visit, to a $5 online care service. We empowered these consumers with the information they needed to understand their choices, control their costs and take charge of their health.
Finally, we sent an ongoing series of targeted emails, each highlighting a chronic health condition to an audience that could potentially relate—for example, an email about how to manage diabetes to a segment of this audience at risk for that disease. Each email included recommended actions and care strategies for that condition.
Drive smart healthcare decisions
Almost immediately, the company saw results. People started using the call line and costly visits to the ER started dropping. Within the first year, they identified $1.8 million in confirmed savings from this campaign.
Even better, these consumers started taking charge of their health in measurable ways. In the world of healthcare, it’s called a “care gap” when there’s an action a person should take to stay healthy (like getting a vaccination, an age-based screening, or a medication) but they haven’t taken that action. Through this campaign, they measured 1,300 care gaps that were closed, which ultimately leads to healthier patients and fewer healthcare costs.
The result was win/win/win: Consumers saved money and improved their health, the employer who insures these consumers reduced health insurance costs, and this company delivered measurable results.
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### High goal selectors, high performance
Commercial truck dealership reps were challenged to grow warranty sales over prior‑year performance.
RESULTS
Participating reps achieved 104% attainment versus 54% for non‑participants; highest goal selectors hit 119%, and Level 1/Level 2 outperformed non‑participants by 24%/34%.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
Commercial truck dealership reps were challenged to grow warranty sales over prior‑year performance.
Solution
We implemented GoalQuest with tiered goal levels tied to attainment and points, motivating reps to stretch performance.
Results
Participating reps achieved 104% attainment versus 54% for non‑participants; highest goal selectors hit 119%, and Level 1/Level 2 outperformed non‑participants by 24%/34%.

#### High-speed sales for heavy-duty equipment
When one of the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy equipment launched a new line of machines to a completely new target market, getting their reps up to speed, onboard, and excited to sell was critical.
Results
By tapping into what motivates and engages a dealer-based sales force, this heavy equipment manufacturer was able to exceed sales goals by 150% and provide record-breaking ROI.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Communications
Rewards
Technology
SalesMaker
Shake things up
When one of the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy equipment launched a new line of machines to a completely new target market, getting their reps up to speed, onboard, and excited to sell was critical.
Because this launch was anything but typical, the company’s typical structure of basic cash incentives wasn’t going to cut it. Their dealer-based sales force had never sold a product quite like this. They needed a fresh approach.
Inspire in multiple ways
Leveraging behavioral economics, we developed a competition-based promotion designed to engage reps on many levels, complete with leaderboards and grand-prize vacations. Instead of cash, reps earned rewards points—with 10 ways to earn and endless ways to spend those points.
We built the promotion to inspire reps with multiple ways to be rewarded and feel successful:
To get them going, reps earned points for completing trainings on the new product line, both in person and online.
Next, they earned points for every new machine sold—with bonus points for sales made to national accounts or new customers.
The most powerful part of the promotion was the competition, which tapped into the competitive spirit that drives this high-performing sales force. The top-selling rep at each dealer location won a hefty point payout; top sellers nationwide won more than four times that much—enough points for a luxury vacation of their choice (or any other award they wanted instead); and the top dealerships won national bragging rights, highlighted by custom trophies that were sent for display at each winning dealership.
To support the reps, we also gave merchandise award choices to any dealership marketing teams that hosted events to promote the new products.
A communications campaign kept reps informed and excited through a combination of email and print pieces that were strategically distributed throughout the promotion period.
Updated leaderboards drive results
Leaderboards were updated regularly so reps could see their current rankings.
The stakes were high for this new product line and so were the goals. The company had invested millions in the new product line and wanted to sell at least 2,000 new machines in the first 12 months to ensure a profitable launch.
Our innovative promotion helped them blow past that goal—reaching 2,998 sales during the program period, exceeding sales goals by 150% with a record-breaking ROI of 34:1.

#### Impacting sales confidence through gamification
A telecommunications client asked for help creating a single destination for employee understanding and confidence in company products, features, and benefits – a repository of foundational information on all products. They wanted to encourage engagement with a set of curated educational and experiential material, as well as measure understanding and retention of knowledge related to the products.
Results
Audience adoption of a gamification program led to increase activities, 85% program adoption, and an increase in sales.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Channel engagement
Services
Gamification
Recognition
Rewards
Technology
Engagement platform
Nitro by Bunchball
Gamify the experience
A telecommunications client asked for help creating a single destination for employee understanding and confidence in company products, features, and benefits – a repository of foundational information on all products. They wanted to encourage engagement with a set of curated educational and experiential material, as well as measure understanding and retention of knowledge related to the products. To do this, the organization wanted to source content from across the organization, create a gamified experience with awards and track and report on engagement at an individual level.
Recognize and reward
BIW designed a gamification program that launched off of a well adopted recognition platform to drive product education and confidence to increase sales across a 100,000-person audience. The initial program from concept to launch took three months with results pouring in immediately.
Best-in-class results
More than 75% of the eligible audience across 88 different channels logged activity in the program.
Over 30,000 users are active monthly.
Over 2.4 million activities have been completed in the program since launch.
The results don’t stop there. Audience adoption continues to thrive as the program grows. After a staggered roll-out across all channels and divisions, the platform became eligible to the entire audience. Over 96,000 users have logged into the platform – an 85% adoption over the lifetime of the program. 90% of surveyed participants felt as though the platform positively impacted their sales conversations and improved their knowledge of products, allowing them to be better product ambassadors.
The practices were best-in-class as well, resulting in:
35% higher gamification engagement than the industry standard and gamification benchmark
Over 40% of active audience engaging with content monthly, performing at the high end of gamification benchmarks
Users who are a part of the client’s Inbound Sales channel (front-line call center employees) who have achieved the most in the program have sold significantly higher mobile lines to customers than users in lower levels. As they go through content on sales tools and company initiatives, they earn progress towards new levels and reward points. A higher level means the user is more accomplished and better informed on all major company initiatives, products and updates. Users completing enough content to reach at least level 15 (over 75 missionscompleted) are averaging nearly 70% more lines sold since the launch of gamification.
Going forward, the team wants to ride the wave of success by optimizing the program even further. They want to increase personalization of the program by creating a more segmented and relevant experience across different job roles. They also want to utilize scarcity, exclusivity and unlocks that can create a new, fresh engagement strategy. Finally, the customer wants to leverage the success they’ve seen in their sales organization across other business units throughout the company.

#### Increasing contractor loyalty
A manufacturer in the plumbing industry sells their products nationwide through wholesalers who carry competitors' brands. They were looking for data on the customers who were specifying, paying for, and installing their products.
Results
Sales have increased over the overall company sales throughout the time in the program. The number of participants in the program has also increased since joining.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Building supply
Rewards
Who buys our products?
A manufacturer in the plumbing industry sells their products nationwide through wholesalers who carry competitors' brands. They were looking for data on the customers who were specifying, paying for, and installing their products.
Contractor Rewards
We started them in the Contractor Rewards program which targets general contractors and sub-contractors in residential and commercial construction. The contractors earn points as they purchase participating products, and the points are redeemable for thousands of items in an online rewards catalog. The client earns preferred brand status in the contractors' eyes while also gathering data on those who are buying their products. These contractors become loyal customers, earning the client more brand power and revenue.
Long-term results
Over the years in this program, the client has seen amazing results. Sales from participants in the program has increased 8% more than overall company sales. The client runs an annual promotion that lasts for nine months, and it has delivered an average of 25,000 incremental units from active participants as well as 20,000 incremental units from lapsed participants. A one-time promotion to buyers of residential units offered bonus points for buying commercial units, and that promotion delivered 900 new commercial customers with 2,300 incremental commercial unit sales.

#### Inside the patient journey
A pharmaceutical company needed to quickly educate its field sales team on a new disease state ahead of an upcoming sales meeting. The goal was to deepen understanding of the patient experience—beyond physical symptoms—so reps could better engage healthcare providers around unmet needs and treatment limitations.
RESULTS
In just six weeks, we designed and built 10 custom immersive activations, training 400 field sales reps during a 40‑minute self‑guided journey.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Learning
Meetings and events
Challenge
A pharmaceutical company needed to quickly educate its field sales team on a new disease state ahead of an upcoming sales meeting. The goal was to deepen understanding of the patient experience—beyond physical symptoms—so reps could better engage healthcare providers around unmet needs and treatment limitations.
Solution
We created an immersive, festival‑themed learning experience that put sales reps in the shoes of the patient. Through ten self‑paced activations—ranging from role‑play scenarios and sensory experiences to 3‑D hologram science and interactive puzzles—reps explored the disease state from both clinical and human perspectives. Structured networking elements helped build cross‑team connections and reinforce shared learning.
Results
The experience delivered high engagement and meaningful learning in a short timeframe. In just six weeks, we designed and built 10 custom immersive activations, training 400 field sales reps during a 40‑minute self‑guided journey. The program created a transformative learning moment that strengthened the connection between knowledge and action, deepened understanding of the patient experience, and elevated engagement across the sales organization.

#### Inspiring an online community
A global software company runs a worldwide community to increase product knowledge, find helpful groups and get inspired by other members. The company wanted to attract new members, partnering with us to gamify a program to attract new members.
Results
This program resulted in 25% higher site engagement, 3x more answers posted to the community, 5x more points earned, and 2x more monthly activities.
Industry
Technology
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Gamification
Rewards
Technology
Bunchball
Attracting new members
A global software company runs a worldwide community for members to level up their product knowledge, find helpful groups, get inspired and more. With over four million members, they knew there were more opportunities to attract new members, engage current audiences and build a pipeline of community leaders. To add more fun, transparency and ways to measure audience participation, the company looked to our Bunchball gamification solution to spur community excitement.
A personalized gamification experience for the win
The community managers knew that a one-size-fits-all gamification program was not going to do the trick with such an active audience. The company also saw an opportunity to make their community more personalized, help members onboard faster and get the most out of their community experience. The teams created a world-class gamification experience that is audience-specific, leads members to contribute more questions and answers and offers the opportunity to recognize one another to build community.
The company set clear goals of onboarding members faster, retaining new members and building a pipeline of community leaders. We created a four-pronged solution to drive the goals via missions. These included gamifying the community site, personalizing the journey, giving peer-to-peer recognition and offering segmented rewards. Quarterly leaderboards spurred engagement and focus with a fresh start every quarter to earn a Leader-of-the-Pack badge.
Results that were over the top
25% higher site engagement
3x as many answers posted to the community
Members 10% more likely to answer multiple questions
Questions answered 30% faster
5x more points earned
2x as many monthly activities compared to the first month of the program

#### Inspiring employees to deliver extraordinary results
A major telecommunications company wanted to motivate 50,000 consumer‑facing employees with a sales incentive that could support multiple channels, drive measurable revenue lift, and boost engagement. Each group needed a simple, tailored structure that aligned directly with their priorities.
RESULTS
The program delivered $53 million in incremental revenue—196% above the original $27 million goal—along with increased platform logins (+11%), article views (+8%) and a 4x spike in social engagement during event week. Post‑event surveys showed a 99.5% satisfaction rate, and the client achieved an ROI exceeding 600%.
Industry
Retail
Problem space
Employee engagement
Challenge
A major telecommunications company wanted to motivate 50,000 consumer‑facing employees with a sales incentive that could support multiple channels, drive measurable revenue lift, and boost engagement. Each group needed a simple, tailored structure that aligned directly with their priorities.
Solution
We launched a three‑month incentive program featuring ten rule structures, each with no more than three clear metrics to keep goals attainable. A robust communications plan ensured every employee understood how to earn. Top performers won a trip to Minneapolis for a Warehouse Windfall experience, complete with a Mall of America outing, a recognition event, and a 60‑second warehouse run for prizes.
Results
The program delivered $53 million in incremental revenue—196% above the original $27 million goal—along with increased platform logins (+11%), article views (+8%) and a 4x spike in social engagement during event week. Post‑event surveys showed a 99.5% satisfaction rate, and the client achieved an ROI exceeding 600%.

#### Inspiring the next generation of innovators
A global healthcare technology company wanted to propel one million low-income students into healthcare technology careers. Read more to hear how the inaugural event went.
RESULTS
The inaugural event brought 250 fifth graders to learn about healthcare technology careers, with students saying it was the "best field trip ever!"
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Channel engagement
Services
Meetings and shows
Getting the next generation up and running
The foundation arm of a global healthcare technology company announced a 10-year impact initiative with the goal of propelling one million students from low-income communities into HealthTech careers. By creating pathways to meaningful careers, closing skill gaps with targeted education, and preparing future talent for the evolving landscape, the company is investing in both the future of healthcare and the communities they serve. As part of this service, the Foundation wanted to design an interactive, hands-on event to foster young innovators and spark interest in healthcare technology. The event design needed to be flexible and replicated at locations across the globe, with the intent to grow each year.
Igniting the spark
We partnered with the Foundation on the design and execution of an interactive event aimed at fostering an innovator’s identity in students from low-income communities ages 8-12. We partnered to create an engaging and dynamic event experience with a flexible, branded approach. The event also provided opportunities to engage the company’s employees to share their passions and experiences to bring this event to life.
We:
Partnered on creative development and event design
Sourced event materials, inclusive of the flagship event at their operational headquarters and two additional sites, one in the U.S. and one in Europe
Built and shipped event location activation kits direct to participating sites
Created event activation elements, including signage and giveaways
Led the project management of event activation elements and delivery
Created branded swag and developed a process to fulfill gifts to volunteers involved in leadership efforts
Lightbulb moments
250 fifth-grade students attended the inaugural event
100 employee volunteers shared their passion and incredible knowledge with the students
Students said it was the “best field trip ever!”
Students that typically have challenges/obstacles in school were focused and highly engaged

#### Kicking sales into high gear
In an effort to boost internet sales among multi-dwelling unit account executives, a large telecommunications company launched a 3-month sales incentive program.
Results
The program proved to be a resounding success, driving $22 million in revenue and achieving an impressive ROI of 255:1.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
The starting line
In an effort to boost internet sales among multi-dwelling unit account executives, a large telecommunications company launched a 3-month sales incentive program called "Play For Kicks." These account executives specialize in selling internet services to property managers of condos, apartments, and other multi-dwelling units. The company sought a creative and effective way to drive sales and energize their team.
The playbook
To tackle the challenge, we crafted a soccer-themed incentive program designed to motivate account executives to reach new heights in their performance. The program featured both monthly and program-end components. Each month, account executives who met their sales targets earned a chance to play a soccer game, accumulating points redeemable for a variety of exciting awards in the Merchandise and Experiences Marketplaces. At the end of the program, top performers were entered into a drawing for the opportunity to design their own custom Nike shoes, adding an extra layer of excitement and personalization to the incentive.
The victory
The "Play For Kicks" program proved to be a resounding success, driving $22 million in revenue and achieving an impressive ROI of 255:1. The initiative also resulted in a 20% increase in sales volume over the baseline, demonstrating the effectiveness of the soccer-themed approach in motivating account executives and driving substantial business growth.

#### Leading the charge
Discover how a large telecommunications company empowered call center managers to drive exceptional performance through the innovative "Boldly Go" incentive program.
Results
The program led to significant improvements in performance, with 29% more consultants achieving their minimum monthly sales targets compared to the previous year.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Setting the stage
To drive higher performance among call center teams, a large telecommunications company launched an annual sales and performance incentive program called "Boldly Go." This initiative aimed to motivate managers to coach their teams to exceed monthly revenue targets and achieve exceptional results.
Dynamic incentives
We designed a comprehensive incentive program featuring monthly and quarterly awards based on four key metrics: revenue attainment, improvement over the prior month, scorecard engagement (tracking progress), and sales of the highest margin product. Each manager received a custom scorecard updated daily, allowing them to monitor their team's progress and identify areas for improvement. Managers earned points for their team's achievements at the end of each month and had the opportunity to earn a quarterly bonus, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and engagement.
Transformative impact
The "Boldly Go" program led to significant improvements in performance, with 29% more consultants achieving their minimum monthly sales targets compared to the previous year. All participating supervisors had at least one consultant with month-over-month attainment improvement, with most supervisors seeing improvements in seven or more consultants. Additionally, there was a positive correlation between consultants who engaged with their scorecards and revenue attainment, with scorecard engagement increasing throughout the program.

#### LEADing the way
A soft drink manufacturer has always believed that if they could effectively turn their 60,000+ employees into brand scouts and ambassadors, they could open doors to thousands of new opportunities.
Impact
Having employees as brand ambassadors meant 60,000 new salespeople. By keeping this lead-generation program fresh and relevant, the multi-year program has delivered stellar results.
Industry
Food and beverage
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Communications
Gamification
Rewards
Technology
Engagement platform
Brand ambassadors are salespeople
If you’re dedicated to a particular soft drink, you know the buzzkill of hearing, “Sorry, we don’t serve your brand products here.” Particular brand fans want their favorite beverage everywhere. And of course the brand wants that too.
But with nearly 650,000 restaurants in the U.S. and hundreds of new restaurants opening every day—not to mention snack bars, cafeterias, convenience stores, and more—staying on top of every available sales opportunity is a challenge. Even for one of the world’s leading soft drink companies.
A soft drink manufacturer has always believed that if they could effectively turn their 60,000+ employees into brand scouts and ambassadors, they could open doors to thousands of new opportunities. Their vision is that each time an employee encounters a store without a beverage cooler, or a restaurant with only competitors’ soft drinks, they ask a manager if they’d like to talk to a brand rep and, if so, they submit the lead.
Their leadership has long recognized the value in employees submitting warm, qualified leads, so when we brought an idea for a way to incent employees to act as ambassadors, they acted.
Revamp and reward
Within months, we helped this client launch LEADS—a reimagined, reinvigorated lead-generation program that awards employees with points for every qualified lead they submit. Previously, the company had only provided gift card rewards and only for leads that turned into sales, to meager results. We revamped the program to reward every qualified lead, regardless of whether it turns into a new outlet or not, to create a habit of submitting referrals. And, on top of that, we provide expansive reward options. Employees can now redeem their points for brand-name merchandise, travel, event tickets, and more.
Keep it fresh and relevant
The results came fast and furious.
In year one of LEADS, the primary focus was to build awareness. We launched a robust communications campaign that introduced the new LEADS program to employees, touted the rewards, ignited excitement and—almost immediately—drove results. By the end of year one, we had generated four times the employee participation, five times as many leads, and 10 times as many new customer outlets.
In year two, we focused on making LEADS even easier and more fun. We simplified the submission process, kept communications going strong, and created a leaderboard to spotlight employees generating the most leads. By the end of the year, the number of submitted leads had doubled over year one—and this manufacturer had generated nine million dollars in incremental revenue.
Since then, results have continued to multiply.
This particular brand has received more than 34,000 qualified leads generating over $30 million in incremental revenue over the first five years of the program.
Plus, the qualified leads submitted by employees have a close rate of approximately 43%—as opposed to a 10% close rate on cold calls. Not only that, but employee leads typically require only about three visits from a sales rep—compared to the twelve sales visits usually required on cold leads.
From every angle, this brand’s program has been successful and offers every employee the chance to spread the love—and reap the rewards.

#### Learn. Earn. Win.
A global technology company wanted to create a loyalty program and mobile platform for channel partners to engage in training, collaboration, and competition.
Results
In less than 90 days, user base grew by over 350 members per day, and the current base has grown to nearly 7,000 members.
Industry
Technology
Problem space
Channel engagement
Services
Gamification
Learning
Rewards
Technology
Bunchball
Bunchball Go
Learn
The client wanted to maintain, gain, and win back channel partners by providing learning and a way to improve knowledge retention. The goal was to influence partner behavior and ultimately boost growth and sales.
Earn
The client worked with Bunchball® and the learning solutions group to create a dynamic and vivid partner portal to engage users in the learning, the story, and the products to increase visibility and ultimately sales. They also used the Bunchball Go platform to quickly deploy a companion app to their loyalty programs so partners could participate anywhere on any device. Earning award points through Merchandise Marketplace serves as a powerful motivator for a diverse channel partner base.
Win
In less than 90 days, the program has increased membership by over 350 per day. Membership has grown to nearly 7,000 members, and these users engage in a non-mandatory learning program environment and are averaging 11 courses per user. Channel partners in 82 countries around the world are consuming valuable learning and sales content all while earning award points to reinforce their efforts.

#### Learning mission accomplished
A major automotive company partnered with us to develop streamlined learning for service technicians and managers within dealerships across North America.
Let's Talk
Results
Using Bunchball Go, the client saw increased user engagement and collaboration.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Gamification
Rewards
Technology
Bunchball Go
Nitro by Bunchball
Elevate the program
The client wanted to elevate the central program as the focal point of the dealerships' performance and the associate experience, maximize growth, and increase customer satisfaction in a community that was historically difficult to engage.
Drive to missions
The client chose Bunchball Go, a mobile-friendly gamification platform, to engage users and drive them to goals on their learning portal. Bunchball Go led the users to missions and manager communications while rewarding them for efficiency in repairs.
Double the expectations
User engagement in the program doubled over initial expectations. Push notifications, real-time missions, and leaderboards drive engagement and collaboration. A high percentage of active users engaged with the portal - more than double the initial expectation. Push notifications and missions positively affected technician engagement while leaderboards drove collaboration.
Due to the flexibility of the Nitro by Bunchball solution, the program was able to quickly adapt to changing business needs. Missions were created in real-time that led service techs within dealerships to access and learn vital information.

#### Leveling up an employee learning program
A large retail client was looking for a way to ensure their employees were fully equipped to talk about brand loyalty with customers. Using gamification, learning modules, and inspirational rewards, we created a one-stop hub for employee learning, performance, and rewards that increased customer loyalty enrollments for the client.
Results
Because of the updated learning program and new hub for employees, the client has seen increased loyalty enrollments and decreased employee turnover.
Industry
Retail
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Gamification
Learning
Rewards
Technology
Engagement platform
Nitro by Bunchball
Chameleon
Revamping an employee learning program
A large retail client was looking for a way to ensure their employees were fully equipped to talk about brand loyalty with customers. Their existing learning on loyalty was outdated, so the client came to us for help with revamping the program.
Gamifying a loyalty program
In order to create an effective program, we created a one-stop shop for all employees. This hub is the home for all learning, performance and rewards that help retail employees become more comfortable and confident when talking about the loyalty program.
The outdated program was recreated in short, easily digestible learning modules that were placed in the hub. These modules were gamified, allowing employees to start their own learning journey that was specific to them, their role and their brand in the parent company. As they complete missions that include learning, communications, quizzes and surveys, employees earn non-monetary stars that influence their status in the program as well as points that they can redeem for meaningful merchandise or experiences.
Level up the results
In the first year of the program, the client saw numerous results.
Employee turnover decreased by nearly 50%.
Employees logging into the hub and completing training enrolled 22x more customers in the program.
Employees who received recognition through the hub enrolled 5x more customers in the program.
Employees who redeemed points for merchandise and experiences increased customer enrollment by 43% after redemption.

#### Linking training to increased sales
A leading insurance company wanted to increase the number of policies written by its independent agents. While the company offered robust training resources, agent engagement varied widely, limiting awareness, loyalty, and sales growth.
RESULTS
Engagement scaled quickly, with more than 17,000 agents, roughly half the agent population, actively participating within eight months. In total, agents completed more than one million training missions, directly linking learning to increased sales.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Channel engagement
Services
Gamification
Challenge
A leading insurance company wanted to increase the number of policies written by its independent agents. While the company offered robust training resources, agent engagement varied widely, limiting awareness, loyalty, and sales growth.
Solution
We launched a gamified loyalty and training program embedded directly in the agent portal. Agents earned rewards for completing training modules, quizzes, and policy activities, while behavioral analytics enabled targeted communications and ongoing engagement. Weekly missions tied to leadership messaging kept the experience fresh and relevant.
Results
Engagement scaled quickly, with more than 17,000 agents, roughly half the agent population, actively participating within eight months. Highly engaged agents increased policies written year over year by nearly 20 percentage points, while weekly missions drove a 200% spike in logins. In total, agents completed more than one million training missions,directly linking learning to increased sales.

#### Luxury with wild abandon
An automotive company wanted to reward and inspire the top sales performers with an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime adventure that combines luxury, excitement, and a deep connection to the company's brand, all set against the breathtaking backdrop of Jackson Hole, WY.
Impact
Post-trip surveys revealed that attendees rated our on-site staff and the air and program concierge teams as “top shelf,” exceeding expectations with a perfect 10/10 score. The creativity and execution of group events surpassed attendee expectations, and the program earned a 10/10 client satisfaction score overall.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Group incentive travel
Crafting a high-end incentive
An automotive company wanted to reward and inspire the top sales performers with an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime adventure that combines luxury, excitement, and a deep connection to the company's brand, all set against the breathtaking backdrop of Jackson Hole, WY.
Tailored activities and gear
We crafted an unforgettable luxury escape to Jackson Hole, WY, leveraging the breathtaking beauty and allure of the West. Guests enjoyed 5-star accommodations with the stunning Teton Mountains as their backdrop, immersing themselves in the elevated western lifestyle.
Adventures included expertly guided white-water rafting, fly fishing, hiking, and biking, all with custom branded gear. Jackson Hole, known for its world-class dining, offered guests notable culinary experiences, including an elegant sunset dinner in a pasture. From custom branded hats to whiskey tasting and stargazing with authentic cowboy serenades, guests embraced their inner cowboy and were captivated by the memorable experience.
Top-tier satisfaction
Post-trip surveys revealed that attendees rated our on-site staff and the air and program concierge teams as “top shelf,” exceeding expectations with a perfect 10/10 score. The creativity and execution of group events surpassed attendee expectations, and the program earned a 10/10 client satisfaction score overall.

#### Marketing campaign increases pipeline
A financial services firm wanted to drive newly converted clients to make appointments with sales reps. Their goal was to convert these clients to their corporate payment services offerings.
RESULTS
A multi-touch campaign to C-suite decision makers has resulted in 80 new opportunities and $1.5 million in revenue to date.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Creative services
Customer gifting
Marketing strategy
Multi-channel marketing
Print and production
Nurturing the funnel
A financial services firm wanted to drive newly converted clients to make appointments with sales reps. Their goal was to convert these clients to their corporate payment services offerings.
A multi-touch approach
We developed and delivered a multi-touch campaign to increase brand awareness, build a foundation of trust with clients, generate qualified leads, and ultimately assist sales with closing deals.
The touchpoints included:
Welcome email
A high-impact welcome kit that featured a Tumi™ travel kit along with corporate payment services product and service offerings
A non-responder direct mail campaign
Thank you gift that included a Tumi™ duffel for meeting with their sales rep
Momentum that matters
This campaign resulted in 80 identified opportunities in the pipeline. Of those opportunities, two have been won, two are in contracting, and 35 are in proposals. This has equaled $1.5 million in revenue for the financial client!

#### Motivating program engagement to improve performance
A large retail client wanted to increase program adoption within their employee audience during a key holiday season. See how their managers' performance improved during the incentive.
RESULTS
After the incentive was over, adoption rose to around 75% of the active employee base, an increase of over 50% in just three months.
Industry
Retail
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Gamification
Incentives
Rewards
Technology
DayMaker
Nitro by Bunchball
Improving performance in a retail environment
A large retail client wanted to increase program adoption within their employee audience. They have an employee program that has produced great results, and users with higher engagement in the platform are shown to have higher levels of performance. The client decided that store managers would be the best driver of performance and employee engagement. 
A key holiday season was coming up, and it was identified as the opportunity to focus on training, soft skills, and driving performance within their employees.
Using data insights to drive retail performance
We used reporting and insights from the client’s existing gamification program to create this incentive. Managers andloyalty champions were provided weekly progress reports towards their quarter-long goal. Managers were also given insight into stores and employees who weren’t as engaged. 
Awards were provided based on the achievement of engagement goals set by the client. Mini spiffs were also available for the employee audience as additional drivers to the program. 
Prior to this quarter-long incentive, adoption of the program was around 50% of the active employee base after approximately one year of the program being live. Knowing that performance rose significantly for those with higher levels of engagement, the client wanted to get as many employees in and get them as active with the program as possible.
An increase in adoption
Adoption of the program increased significantly during the incentive window. After the incentive was over, adoption rose to around 75% of the active employee base, an increase of over 50% in just three months. In the final month of the incentive, more users (both new and returning) were engaged and completing training missions than in the entire first year.
The average percent-to-goal for districts who completed this challenge was 104%, meaning they exceeded the KPI goal set for them, compared to 96% to goal on average for those who did not meet the engagement threshold set.
The performance rate among users at the highest levels in the program was nearly 50% higher thanthose who haven’t been active.

#### Offer rates reimagined
Customer service reps needed to increase upsell and cross‑sell offer rates during calls. Offer activity was extremely low at program start.
RESULTS
Offer rates climbed from 1% pre‑program to 37.2% upsell and 11.3% cross‑sell by year one, with 95% opt‑in; by year two, upsell reached 57% and cross‑sell 20%.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
SalesMaker
Challenge
Customer service reps needed to increase upsell and cross‑sell offer rates during calls. Offer activity was extremely low at program start.
Solution
A Step It Up program rewarded offer activity, with incentives paid in points. Reps opted in over time, increasing participation and consistency.
Results
Offer rates climbed from 1% pre‑program to 37.2% upsell and 11.3% cross‑sell by year one, with 95% opt‑in; by year two, upsell reached 57% and cross‑sell 20%.

#### Onboarding keys to success
A telecommunications company wanted to improve its new‑hire onboarding experience to boost intent to stay, speed up proficiency, and increase early‑stage satisfaction—while also reducing voluntary attrition and lowering onboarding costs.
RESULTS
The program exceeded expectations: retention reached 60% across 18,015 new hires—far above the 40% goal—saving $31 million in onboarding costs. Participants earned more than 40,000 milestone awards, 88% of which were redeemed, and the program delivered an ROE of 7:1.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Employee engagement
Challenge
A telecommunications company wanted to improve its new‑hire onboarding experience to boost intent to stay, speed up proficiency, and increase early‑stage satisfaction—while also reducing voluntary attrition and lowering onboarding costs.
Solution
We built a 90‑day onboarding journey that combined welcome communications, branded merchandise, milestone rewards, and visual progress tracking. New hires received recognition at key points, while leaders saw real‑time progress updates. Promoting the program company‑wide—including existing employees—helped build buy‑in and strengthened commitment across the organization.
Results
The program exceeded expectations: retention reached 60% across 18,015 new hires—far above the 40% goal—saving $31 million in onboarding costs. Participants earned more than 40,000 milestone awards, 88% of which were redeemed, and the program delivered an ROE of 7:1.

#### Optimizing sales contests & SPIFFs for maximum impact
A biopharmaceutical company wanted to assess the effectiveness of their sales contest and SPIFF programs within the context of their variable compensation plans for multiple sales franchises.
Impact
Because of the results of our Decision Sciences team's research, the company revamped their approach to sales contests and SPIFFs for better results.
Industry
Pharmaceuticals
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Research and analytics
Are sales contests really driving performance?
A leading biopharmaceutical company relied on sales contests and SPIFF programs to motivate their teams, but they weren’t sure how effective these incentives actually were. With multiple sales franchises and a complex variable compensation structure, they needed a clear answer: were these programs truly driving performance or were they just extra expenses with little return?
Digging into the data
To find out, our Decision Sciences team rolled up their sleeves and dove deep into the company’s compensation, performance, and engagement data. We conducted a thorough analysis to pinpoint exactly what was influencing sales results. Were SPIFFs working better for individuals or teams? Did contest length impact engagement? Were certain structures more effective than others?
Our deep dive uncovered key insights into what worked and what didn’t when it came to designing high-impact sales incentives.
A smarter approach to sales motivation
With our findings, the company revamped their approach to sales contests and SPIFFs, implementing data-backed strategies that maximized results. Some of the biggest takeaways included:
Timing matters: Shorter, well-timed SPIFFs outperformed longer, drawn-out contests.
Goal-based rewards win: Incentives tied to personal achievement were more effective than stack ranking.
A balanced mix is key: A combination of cash and non-cash rewards kept engagement high.
Market-based opportunities drive results: Focusing on regional sales dynamics made incentives more relevant and motivating.
No duplication: Ensuring contests didn’t overlap with existing compensation metrics kept motivation high and confusion low.
Armed with these insights, the company refined their incentive programs, aligning them with proven strategies for driving sales success. The result? A smarter, more effective approach to motivating their sales teams, one backed by data, not guesswork.

#### Proving the power of non-cash rewards
An insurance company wanted to test whether cash or points incentives were more effective than offering no incentive.
RESULTS
The points group produced 102% more policies per person and 55% higher engagement than cash; notably, the cash group underperformed the control across engagement and policy metrics.
Industry
Financial services
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
SalesMaker
Challenge
An insurance company wanted to test whether cash or points incentives were more effective than offering no incentive. Over 1,800 agencies were split into three groups.
Solution
We ran an A/B/C test where cash and points groups received rewards of equal value. Results were measured across engagement and policy production.
Results
The points group produced 102% more policies per person and 55% higher engagement than cash; notably, the cash group underperformed the control across engagement and policy metrics.

#### Pulling customer behavior + pushing sales rep behavior
Using a push/pull approach, a major beverage bottler wanted to acquire customers for their premium brand who had never purchased or win-back customers who had not purchased in the past three months to deliver incremental revenue and shift purchase patterns.
RESULTS
The goal was to achieve a 10% take rate with a stretch goal of 15%. The campaign produced a take rate of 21% and shifted long-term purchases patterns.
Industry
Food and beverage
Problem space
Channel engagement
Services
Analytics
Creative services
Customer gifting
Marketing strategy
Multi-channel marketing
Print and production
Creating a push/pull strategy
Using a push/pull approach, a major beverage bottler wanted to acquire customers for their premium brand who had never purchased or win-back customers who had not purchased in the past three months to deliver incremental revenue and shift purchase patterns.
Multi-channel awareness campaign
Customer pull: We created a multi-channel campaign that utilized a universally appealing, highly-promotable gift to encourage trial and repeat purchase. QR code and embedded links directed operators to a central ordering site. Qualifying orders earned the operator a personalized, branded thank you kit with aspirational gift.
Sales rep push: We incentivized operator purchases of same premium brand who had never purchased or win-back customers who had not purchased in the past 3 months
Exceed expectations
36% increase in weighted average email open rate
21% promotion take rate
15% became monthly purchasers
66% increased average purchase volume

#### Putting customers and employees at the TOP
A telecommunications company needed to improve retention among 19,000 U.S.-based call‑center customer service reps. These employees weren’t measured on sales, so the company sought a year‑long performance goal centered on delivering outstanding service and meeting key KPIs.
RESULTS
Because of the updated learning program and new hub for employees, the client has seen increased loyalty enrollments and decreased employee turnover.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Employee engagement
Challenge
A telecommunications company needed to improve retention among 19,000 U.S.-based call‑center customer service reps. These employees weren’t measured on sales, so the company sought a year‑long performance goal centered on delivering outstanding service and meeting key KPIs.
Solution
We introduced an aspirational group‑travel award supported by a manager nomination system tied to KPIs such as first‑call resolution, customer satisfaction and overall service quality. Year‑round communications kept the program top‑of‑mind, and the trip itself included learning, CSR activities and shared experiences that reinforced connection and recognition.
Results
The program generated more than 5,000 nominations, with the top 400 employees earning the trip. It became so successful that five annual trips were executed, and call center reps who earned the trip showed higher retention than their peers.

#### Putting the spotlight on sales incentives
A major life sciences company wanted a unified way to promote and manage its sales incentive contests, especially its President’s Club program. They needed stronger communications, clearer leaderboards, and more engaging contest structures to keep sales teams focused and motivated.
Results
The program expanded rapidly, delivering more than 40 regional contests and over 4,000 recognitions in a year, with 92% use of manager discretionary budgets. Engagement also surged, including 1,244 reps participating in virtual‑meeting incentives and generating over 53,000 virtual engagements.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Challenge
A major life sciences company wanted a unified way to promote and manage its sales incentive contests, especially its President’s Club program. They needed stronger communications, clearer leaderboards, and more engaging contest structures to keep sales teams focused and motivated.
Solution
We developed a comprehensive incentive ecosystem that included annual President’s Club campaigns, national and regional contests, behavior‑based challenges, and on‑the‑spot recognition. In the platform, contest tools provided structure, visibility, and progress updates, while ongoing ideation sessions and communication plans ensured alignment with evolving business needs.
Results
The program expanded rapidly, delivering more than 40 regional contests and over 4,000 recognitions in a year, with 92% use of manager discretionary budgets. Engagement also surged, including 1,244 reps participating in virtual‑meeting incentives and generating over 53,000 virtual engagements.

#### Ready, set, travel!
A large beverage company needed a partner to step in and manage their consumer sweepstakes travel plus deliver a flawless consumer experience.
Impact
Because of this travel program, the client saw increased engagement and brand awareness.
Industry
Food and beverage
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Individual travel
Managing consumer sweepstakes
A large beverage company needed a partner to step in and manage their consumer sweepstakes travel plus deliver a flawless consumer experience.
Create an on-brand experience
Our Event Solutions team created and fulfilled unique on-brand experiences to support a variety of client consumer promotions. Each program was designed with the brand teams and field marketing. The program process was designed for success by allowing us to deliver flawless unique travel experiences that connect and engage consumers to the various brands. Travel programs were created for 2-500 winners.
Satisfaction and engagement
As a result of this program, we established a great relationship with the client as their agency of record. The program increased brand awareness and engaged customers with content. The client saw higher conversion rates on ad spend and delivered over 400 programs. In these programs, we helped move more than 5000 winners with a 9.8 out of 10 participant satisfaction.

#### Recognize someone today
A global technology company wanted to improve the way they recognized their employees while providing a consistent recognition strategy enterprise-wide.
Results
The efficiency of one system makes it easy and cost-effective, resulting in increased utilization, increased recognitions, and over $46 million in annual savings.
Industry
Technology
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Communications
Recognition
Rewards
Technology
Custom technology platform
Bring it together
A global tech company wanted to improve how they recognize their employees and create a consistent recognition strategy across the whole company. They started by looking at a study comparing different industries and doing an internal review. The feedback showed problems with their current recognition programs, especially with the value of the awards and the inconsistency in the types of awards and how they were given.
They needed help to create a unified recognition program for the entire company. This meant combining all existing programs with one partner to save money, ensure consistency, and reduce costs. The goal was to boost employee engagement and create a culture of appreciation.
Inspire the whole world and appreciate someone
This was a huge task. We had to come up with a solution to inspire over 380,000 employees, including 32,000 managers, in more than 100 countries. They took on the challenge to make the company one of the best in the world for employee engagement, retention, and happiness. The solution was a unified global recognition experience delivered through a user-friendly platform, allowing leaders, managers, and employees to give and receive recognition easily.
We worked closely with the company to design, implement, and manage a unified recognition program across the entire organization, combining the following elements:
Employee to employee
Employee to employee with points
Manager discretionary
Patent and technical awards
Results-based recognition
Retiree recognition
Service milestone recognition
Employees can easily use the site on any device to give and receive recognition. And points can be used for hundreds of thousands of merchandise items and experiences through our Global Rewards Marketplace. The options are tailored to each geographic region, providing meaningful and representative awards.
The bottom line
The client offers a comprehensive global solution designed to inspire employees, empower first-line managers, and boost engagement scores. The system is utilized for recognition, ad hoc promotions, service milestones, and patent awards. These efficiencies and program redesign have resulted in annual savings of over $46 million.
97% manager discretionary utilization with over 350 million points issued
77% of employees accessed the program website at least once which is a 41% increase in unique logins
44,000+ employees received results-based recognition
280 programs generated with a 10:1 ROE
58,000 celebrations sent with nearly 300,000 contributions
40,000+ patent and technical awards issued

#### Rev up to drive sales
A medical technology company faced many challenges ranging from lagging sales revenue and frustrated sales reps due to supply chain shortages. Using our proprietary GoalQuest® rules structure, the company incentivized their sales reps to increase performance prior to a new product launch.
Impact
The data revealed a positive impact on commitment, achievement, and results.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Technology
GoalQuest®
Rev up to drive sales
A medical technology company faced many challenges stemming from product supply chain shortages. They were launching an important product in the coming year, so they asked us to help find a way to get the sales reps to pay attention to this new release and make it top of mind.
They wanted to challenge their independent sales reps to increase their performance above historical baselines across all rep categories with specific attention on moving the middle performers.
Turn on the jets
We designed and implemented a three-month incentive structure using our proprietary GoalQuest® rules structure. The audience was segmented into five groups based on prior sales performance, creating relevant personal goals that were both ambitious and attainable. Each sales rep was then provided with three different levels of growth goals to choose from. If the rep achieved the goal they selected, they earned. If they did not, they were not rewarded.Each goal level provided more incremental lift as well as a higher level of rewards. Participants needed to weigh their risk versus reward and how high they wanted to try to push their achievement and overall growth.
Mission accomplished
76% of reps selected goals above the baseline
44% of reps committed to the top growth goal
72% of reps achieve their goal
22% incremental lift in revenue (7.2:1 ROI)
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Scaling recognition to drive global engagement
An animal health organization wanted to get off to a fast start to the year and set their teams up for success. Read more to learn about the five-month, behavior-driven SPIFF that helped growth.
RESULTS
A five-month, behavior-driven SPIFF mobilized thousands of clinics, drove 86% of territories to portfolio growth, and delivered 14% national growth in the first half of the year.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Communications
Rewards
Warehouse Windfall
Technology
SalesMaker
GoalQuest
Game Arcade
The ambition
This animal health organization wanted to get off to a fast start for the year and set up teams for success by driving key behaviors and results in the first half of the year. The key behaviors to drive were identified as:
Dispensing – Driving event activity in their customer engagement/competition platform – both participation in these events and dollar growth for those clinics participating.
Occupancy – Ensuring targeted accounts meet occupancy minimums of a pre-determined dollar amount in invoicing during this timeframe.
Key results were identified as product portfolio growth
60% based on total dollar growth
40% based on percent dollar growth
Recognition without borders
This organization worked with BIW to create a 5-month SPIFF designed to raise awareness, drive focus and gain results. The overall solution included:
An engaging full-blown communications campaign. Elements included: 
Launch PPT that DMs shared with their teams during a meeting. 
Launch email sent to everyone with rules pdf and animation.
Monthly promotional emails reminding participants of all the awards available.
Weekly personalized progress emails showcasing individual results from each part of the program.
An educational quiz on their Rewards Platform that encouraged understanding of the SPIFF and its components.  Participants earned reward points for completing the quiz.
A gamification component that rewarded game arcade plays and award points for dispensing activity on a monthly basis and also awarded two On-The-Fly Cards for hitting a pre-determined dispensing target by the end of the program.
A goal-setting rules component called GoalQuest designed to increase new-clinic Occupancy numbers.
A top performer Warehouse Windfall event that recognized overall portfolio growth during the time period.
Participants were awarded with reward points and On-The-Fly cards based on their individual achievements within the program.  In addition, at the end of the program, all participants were stack ranked based on their role. Top performers for product portfolio growth were then awarded the opportunity to run through the BIW warehouse in Minneapolis and grab as much merchandise as possible within a 60-second timeframe. Some participants also earned additional run-time based on hitting special product “kicker” goals.
When momentum compounds
85% of the participants completed engagement quiz
Over 5,000 clinics participated in the customer engagement/competition platform supporting the dispensing goal
86% of Territories grew their product portfolio
14% national growth for product portfolio

#### Segmented stretch goals drive growth
Four sales channels were tasked with selling mobile lines to existing customers. Diverse performance levels required custom segmentation and relevant goal paths.
RESULTS
57% exceeded baseline and 42% hit stretch goals; overall performance rose 24%, adding nearly 1,700 incremental connects in four weeks for a 3.1:1 ROI.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
SalesMaker
Challenge
Four sales channels were tasked with selling mobile lines to existing customers. Diverse performance levels required custom segmentation and relevant goal paths.
Solution
Using GoalQuest, each channel and participant group self‑selected stretch levels based on tailored baselines. The structure aligned effort across varied teams.
Results
57% exceeded baseline and 42% hit stretch goals; overall performance rose 24%, adding nearly 1,700 incremental connects in four weeks for a 3.1:1 ROI.

#### Send them packing
A large, global sales and service organization faced increasing competitive pressure across multiple regions, requiring fast, coordinated action to protect shelf space and drive consistent execution in the field.
RESULTS
The program aligned and energized more than 6,000 technicians across six global regions, supported a $500 million revenue growth objective, and created clear visibility into progress that sustained momentum throughout the initiative.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Challenge
A large, global sales and service organization faced increasing competitive pressure across multiple regions, requiring fast, coordinated action to protect shelf space and drive consistent execution in the field.
Solution
The team launched a global incentive that used an interactive world map to visually track progress across territories and regions, updating performance as technicians removed competitive products from customer shelves and sharing success stories through a program website and mobile app.
Results
The program aligned and energized more than 6,000 technicians across six global regions, supported a $500 million revenue growth objective, and created clear visibility into progress that sustained momentum throughout the initiative.

#### Serving up sweet inspiration
International Dairy Queen had an ambitious vision: modernize the brand, transform the internal culture, increase collaboration and performance, and drive innovation. And they had to navigate all this while moving into a new headquarters.
IMPACT
International Dairy Queen transformed their headquarters into a visually striking area, infusing inspiration and motivation into the team's everyday experience.
Industry
Consumer goods and services
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Communications
Recognition
Technology
Engagement platform
Modernize the brand, transform the culture
International Dairy Queen (IDQ) had an ambitious vision: Modernize the brand. Transform the internal culture. Increase collaboration and performance. Drive innovation. And navigate all this while moving into a new headquarters.
We had an appetite for challenge. The plan: infuse this transformation not only into the minds and hearts of the IDQ team, but also the environmental space within the new headquarters.
Thoughtful design
The first solution was an office environment that addressed both utility (supporting the functional ways in which work gets done) and desire (driving performance and engagement in a way that promotes the ideal culture).
We hit on both principles with a design campaign aimed at rewiring how employees work and inspiring a high-performance mindshift. Through branded aesthetics, inspiring creative and strategic motivational messaging, each element of the space – from conference rooms to walls and hallways – reflected the new, invigorated culture.
Next up, creating a culture of recognition, celebrating, and rewarding high performance. We developed WOW, a rewards program aimed at driving behaviors around the IDQ values. The energetic and compelling creative brought the values to life, while a strategic launch aligned and activated both managers and employees.
A rewards program that energizes
The result: an exciting cultural shift that’s visually striking but goes far beyond aesthetics to infuse inspiration and motivation into the team’s everyday experience. Now that’s pretty sweet.

#### Strategic marketing campaign shifts long-term buying patterns
A major beverage bottler wanted to acquire customers who had never purchased or win-back customers who had not purchased in the past 3 months to deliver incremental revenue and shift purchase patterns.
IMPACT
Even without a central online hub, the loyalty promotion exceeded the client's expectations, acquired new customers, shifted long-term buying patterns, and produced a strong halo effect.
Industry
Food and beverage
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Analytics
Creative services
Customer gifting
Marketing strategy
Multi-channel marketing
Print and production
Driving incremental revenue
A major beverage bottler wanted to acquire customers who had never purchased or win-back customers who had not purchased in the past 3 months to deliver incremental revenue and shift purchase patterns.
Shifting behavior
We developed and delivered a multi-channel campaign that utilized a universally appealing, highly-promotable gift to encourage trial and repeat purchase. QR code and embedded links directed operators to a central ordering site. Qualifying orders earned the operator a personalized, branded thank you kit with aspirational gift.
Overflowing results
Even without a central online hub, the loyalty program exceeded the client's expectations, delivered repeat purchases, and produced a strong halo effect.
20% of operators purchased & earned
21% of earners had 6-mos of continued purchases
444% increase compared to typical promo take rate
Earners bought 53% more than non-earners

#### Tapping into success
A large beer manufacturer was interested in gaining share of the Economy beer segment among its competitors. The challenge they faced was getting their Distributor Sales Representatives to focus on off-premise retail activity by setting up displays in retail locations.
Results
Because of the successful adoption of the program by sales reps, the company saw an ROI of 4:1.
Industry
Food and beverage
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Branded merchandise
Communications
Recognition
Rewards
Technology
ElevateTM
SalesMaker
Raise the bar
A large beer manufacturer was interested in gaining share of the Economy beer segment among its competitors. The challenge they faced was getting their Distributor Sales Representatives to focus on off-premise retail activity by setting up displays in retail locations.
Motivate with rewards
Distributor Sales Reps (DSR) were tasked with submitting a display claim via their support incentive platform that we created. The claim included the account, the number of cases, the location, and an image. In return, the DSR was rewarded with points based on the case count in each display. The incentive platform became a merchandise redemption tool where we created exclusive merchandise available only to participating distributors.
Crack open success
Distributor Sales Reps embraced this program, submitting hundreds of thousands of claims, increasing the manufacturer's gross margin per case. The number of cases sold doubled, and the manufacturer's ROI was 4:1.

#### The competition is heating up
At a recent strategy session with key leaders at the world's largest HVAC manufacturer, the client wanted to shift gears to come up with a big push to end their fiscal year by bringing in every dollar they could.
Results
Despite a lofty goal, 84 winners earned the top level award, more than three times the number in previous programs. The client showed an 18.2:1 ROI on this program.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Warehouse Windfall
Technology
GoalQuest®
Building trust
We have been a partner with the world’s largest HVAC manufacturer for more than a decade, providing multiple different platforms that interface with their major audiences. Over the years, they had run many successful sales contests that their employees enjoyed.
At a recent strategy session with key leaders at this manufacturer, the client wanted to shift gears to come up with a big push to end their fiscal year by bringing in every dollar they could. We recommended a GoalQuest® program that culminated in a Warehouse Windfall.
Designing the right program
The GoalQuest® program was created to incentivize their branch managers (BMs), territory sales managers (TSMs) and regional parts managers (RPMs). The three-month promotion rewarded on three levels, pushing the managers out of their comfort zone and rewarding them for taking the risk. If they failed to achieve their goal, they received nothing. The idea is big risk, big reward. 
Baseline projections were determined by the manufacturer’s planned growth numbers which were 55% higher than the previous year for TSMs and 30% higher for BMs.
Extraordinary results
We had never run a GoalQuest® with a Warehouse Windfall as the reward, so we weren’t sure what kind of incremental impact this would have on the promotion. But the results were incredibly positive, with participating TSMs outperforming non-participants by $288,000, on average, or an aggregate sales differential of $53M. BMs had a similar performance with participating BMs outperforming non-participants by $265,000, on average, or an combined total of $44.5M.
Despite the lofty goals, 64% of selectors chose the top-level award, surpassing the historical 39% selection from previous programs. A total of 84 winners earned a Warehouse Windfall run, more than three times the number of winners in their previous Warehouse Windfall.
An exception to the rule
This program was an exception to the norm with Warehouse Windfalls. The top award wording in the rules was carefully crafted to allow for an alternative award if more participants achieved compared to the projected 50 runners. This was needed to manage the pre-approved budget. However, the budget holder responded with an emphatic “Send them all!”

#### The fast track to driving sales
A luxury automotive manufacturer spent millions annually on cash incentives to drive Certified Pre‑Owned (CPO) vehicle sales. Despite the investment, the company lacked visibility into engagement, behavior change, and ROI, and sales performance showed minimal improvement.
RESULTS
The program delivered strong participation and sales lift across all performance levels. 91% of salespeople selected a goal, monthly participation increased, and overall sales rose 4.1%
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
A luxury automotive manufacturer spent millions annually on cash incentives to drive Certified Pre‑Owned (CPO) vehicle sales. Despite the investment, the company lacked visibility into engagement, behavior change, and ROI, and sales performance showed minimal improvement.
Solution
We analyzed historical sales data and replaced the cash program with a 60‑day GoalQuest® incentive. Salespeople self‑selected personalized stretch goals based on prior performance and earned points for experiences and premium merchandise when they achieved them. A risk‑reward structure encouraged reps to push beyond their comfort zones while directly tying incentives to measurable results.
Results
The program delivered strong participation and sales lift across all performance levels. Ninety‑one percent of salespeople selected a goal, monthly CPO participation increased to 61% versus 51% the prior year, and overall sales rose 4.1%. Participants generated a 12.2% lift over baseline, while incentive cost per vehicle dropped 40%, enabling higher sales at a lower cost per unit.

#### The power of efficient employee onboarding
The HR department of a global telecommunications company needed help with a disjointed onboarding process. The onboarding resources were scattered across many systems that did not work together.
Impact
A streamlined onboarding process using Bunchball Go dropped onboarding from 90 days to 30 days with consistent engagement.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Gamification
Technology
Bunchball Go
Challenge
The client wanted to link onboarding resources and streamline the onboarding process. In addition, they wanted to combine reporting on all onboarding tasks and provide an incentive to drive quick completion of the onboarding process.
Solution
The Bunchball Go mobile platform centralized the new employee journey with clear goals and calls to action. Onboarding employees are placed on teams to drive community engagement. Bunchball Go's analytics streamline reporting from all relevant systems with automatic feedback.
Results
Consistent engagement throughout the new employee onboarding process and an onboarding process streamlined from 90 days to 30 days led to consistent engagement through the onboarding process. The original 90-day process to be completed by the majority of new employees was streamlined and successfully accomplished within their first 30 days.

#### The power of one
A global manufacturing company needed to unite 90,000 employees behind a critical C‑suite strategic goal. Reaching this diverse workforce—including 27,000 plant employees across 60 sites and multiple languages—required clear messaging, relevance to each individual, and consistent manager engagement.
RESULTS
The program achieved strong global alignment: 75% of online employees and 90% of offline employees engaged in foundational learning, and 61% made personal role‑specific commitments. All 90,000 employees received recognition, more than 75% earned point deposits and the company achieved its two‑year business goal in just one year.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Employee engagement
Challenge
A global manufacturing company needed to unite 90,000 employees behind a critical C‑suite strategic goal. Reaching this diverse workforce—including 27,000 plant employees across 60 sites and multiple languages—required clear messaging, relevance to each individual, and consistent manager engagement.
Solution
We launched a company‑wide communications and learning campaign that explained the strategy, personalized the impact, and equipped managers to lead. Segmented content, environmental signage, plant‑specific materials, and local champion kits ensured every audience could understand and act. Training, knowledge checks, and ongoing recognition tools—e‑cards, badges, and points—reinforced commitment and behavior change.
Results
The program achieved strong global alignment: 75% of online employees and 90% of offline employees engaged in foundational learning, and 61% made personal role‑specific commitments. All 90,000 employees received recognition, more than 75% earned point deposits and the company achieved its two‑year business goal in just one year.

#### Three's a crowd
A biotech client was administering three different programs from three different suppliers: a recognition site, a sales incentive platform, and a service anniversary plateau program. Each was managed by a different area of the company, making it difficult to have any synergy for their 100,000+ employees across 100 countries.
Results
After combining three different programs into one cohesive ecosystem, the biotech client saw increased recognition activity and revenue.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Recognition
Sales incentives
Product launch
Special recognition incentives
Technology
Engagement platform
Too many programs
A biotech client was administering three different programs from three different suppliers: a recognition site, a sales incentive platform, and a service anniversary plateau program. Each was managed by a different area of the company, making it difficult to have any synergy for their 100,000+ employees across 100 countries. They needed a more effective, simpler solution for not only these key initiatives, but also to run special programs, deliver training, support product launches and promote wellbeing.
One ecosystem
We built a relationship and started to bring things together under one umbrella using an engagement platform. In the first six months of operation, recognition activity doubled from the original program. As the relationship progressed, we converted their subsidiary division’s sales reward programs as well as their worldwide service anniversary program. Now, individual unit leaders can run audience-smart promotions specific to their groups’ core business objectives and employees benefit from earning points from all the programs versus receiving disparate awards.
As the business unit transitioned their sales compensation model, we helped them move from individual compensation to a more-collaborative ecosystem model focused on long-term customer support behaviors supported by rewarding qualitative and quantitative performance.
The numbers tell the story
Recognition activity increased by 66% in year-over-year utilization and had 70% global engagement in year one.
Over 25 special programs have been implemented across the globe.
The client's overall revenue increased from $64.36B to $72.04B in the first two full years of operation.
The journey of consolidation has not only delivered results but has also increased collaboration across the organization.

#### Transforming call center performance
A call center team was measured only on outreach attempts, not customer retention. Leadership needed to shift behavior from “more calls” to higher‑quality, retention‑focused conversations.
RESULTS
In six months, performance jumped 50% in month one, set new records every month, and finished 192% above baseline; on average 83% beat baseline and 69% hit goals, surpassing prior‑year production by 9% within the program window.
Industry
Telecommunications
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
A call center team was measured only on outreach attempts, not customer retention. Leadership needed to shift behavior from “more calls” to higher‑quality, retention‑focused conversations.
Solution
We launched a 6‑month GoalQuest program, resetting goals monthly and adjusting baselines quarterly to keep expectations relevant. The structure rewarded improved performance, reinforced desired behaviors, and addressed early skepticism with clear pay‑for‑performance logic.
Results
In six months, performance jumped 50% in month one, set new records every month, and finished 192% above baseline; on average 83% beat baseline and 69% hit goals, surpassing prior‑year production by 9% within the program window.

#### Transitioning rep rewards
Dealer sales reps needed to increase RV sales over the prior year. Incentives included points for goal attainment, first sale bonuses and model‑specific bonuses. The customer also paid cash spiffs during a transition from cash to points.
RESULTS
57% exceeded baseline and 42% hit stretch goals; overall performance rose 24%, adding nearly 1,700 incremental connects in four weeks for a 3.1:1 ROI.
Industry
Automotive
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
Challenge
Dealer sales reps needed to increase RV sales over the prior year. Incentives included points for goal attainment, first sale bonuses and model‑specific bonuses. The customer also paid cash spiffs during a transition from cash to points.
Solution
We deployed a GoalQuest structure encouraging reps to select stretch goals and earn layered bonuses tied to specific activity and product mix.
Results
57% exceeded baseline and 42% hit stretch goals; overall performance rose 24%, adding nearly 1,700 incremental connects in four weeks for a 3.1:1 ROI.

#### Travel, teamwork, triumph
For two years, a pharmaceutical company had been awarding cash to winning districts. They wanted to revamp their program by introducing incentive travel awards, allowing the teams to choose their destinations and travel dates.
Impact
Because of the success of the program, small team travel is the company standard to recognize top performing teams.
Industry
Pharmaceuticals
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Communications
Incentive travel
Rewards
A team-building recognition experience
For two years, a pharmaceutical company had been awarding cash to winning districts. They wanted to revamp their program by introducing incentive travel awards, allowing the teams to choose their destinations and travel dates.
The company sought a hands-off, turnkey solution and preferred a provider that offered flexibility, a variety of destination choices, white-glove service, and adherence to a predetermined budget.
Small-team incentive travel
We proposed a new solution featuring a small team travel approach that included:
Flexibility: teams can tailor their travel experience by selecting when and where
Cost-effective: no on-site staff or group activities were required
Guaranteed pricing: packages not to exceed quoted pricing
Personalized service: dedicated travel consultants to assist each team
Team building: the client mandated a four-hour team meeting or a give-back opportunity to foster collaboration and bonding
Communication website: we developed a communication platform to include all travel options, program details, and FAQs. Business directors could share the site with their team to select their preferred destination and date. Each team was assigned a dedicated travel consultant.
Incentive travel drove results
Groups worked together as a team to achieve revenue growth in each of their therapeutic areas. This lead to great results. The top 20% of districts qualified for the award. They contributed to an overall increase of 20% in revenue growth. Because of these great results, small team travel is now the company standard to recognize the top performing team.

#### Turning America orange
A pharmaceutical brand ranked third in a three‑product market and trended short of a $300 million annual sales goal, creating an urgent need to change territory‑level performance and daily sales behavior.
RESULTS
The program drove measurable performance gains, with 71% of representatives moving their territory to #1 from third place, total sales reaching $315 million, and exceeding the sales goal by $15 million through sustained engagement across the US.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Challenge
A pharmaceutical brand ranked third in a three‑product market and trended short of a $300 million annual sales goal, creating an urgent need to change territory‑level performance and daily sales behavior.
Solution
The team launched a six‑month incentive that asked sales representatives to compete against themselves using heat‑map visualization across 492 territories, with each territory intensifying in color as performance moved closer to first place.
Results
The program drove measurable performance gains, with 71% of representatives moving their territory to #1 from third place, total sales reaching $315 million, and exceeding the sales goal by $15 million through sustained engagement across the US.

#### Turning global recognition into daily impact
A global healthcare technology company wanted to build off the momentum generated with their enterprise-wide recognition program. See how they engaged their global workforce on Employee Appreciation Day.
RESULTS
Each promotion generated an increase in the number of recognitions given as well as an increase in the average recognition given per employee.
Industry
Life sciences
Problem space
Employee engagement
Services
Communications
Recognition
Rewards
Technology
DayMaker
The challenge
A global healthcare technology company wanted to build off the momentum generated with their enterprise-wide recognition program, creating a positive environment of engaged employees, and furthering their mission through the daily practice of recognition. 
Engaging employees around the world
We developed an annual roadmap with a series of promotions designed to spotlight recognition. Promotions encouraged 100,000 global employees to make recognition a priority, with specific themes such as Employee Appreciation Day and challenging employees to "beat our best day."
We developed a multi-touch communications campaign to support a series of global promotions for our client’s recognition program. Each promotion featured distinct themes to keep the experience fresh and relevant, while the messaging was carefully crafted to generate awareness, spark excitement, and drive engagement. Promotions like Summer Games, Gratitude Month, New Year’s Resolutions, and Employee Appreciation Day were designed not only to celebrate employees but to reinforce the program’s purpose and encourage ongoing participation globally.
The results are clear
Each promotion generated an increase in the number of recognitions given as well as an increase in the average recognition given per employee.
The bottom line:
25,000 recognitions sent on Employee Appreciation Day - the most ever in one day! The previous record was 18,000 recognitions sent on one day with a typical daily amount of 2,600 recognitions sent.
Over 27,000 logins in a single day on Employee Appreciation Day - up 54% over the previous year which had 17,500 logins. A typical daily amount of logins is 12,000.
More than 5x unique givers over the fiscal year daily average.
88% of employees received recognition.
89% of managers gave recognition.

#### Turning loyalty into advocacy
An insurance agency needed to create a program that directly engaged with producers and rewarded them for their work. Learn more about how this program has succeeded for over a decade.
Impact
In first year of launch, the program delivered a 3% YOY increase to customer retention, which translated to a $1.6M return on the client's investment (4:1 ROI). This program has now been in place for 10 years and has grown to include eight different state-owned programs with over 1,000 Producer participants.
Industry
Life sciences
Healthcare
Insurance
Problem space
Channel engagement
Services
Communications
Learning
Technology
Technology
DayMaker
Elevate
Rewarding producer attention
In today’s competitive insurance market, standing out isn’t just about offering the right products; it’s about earning the trust and loyalty of the producers who drive the sales. For our insurance client, this meant creating a strategy that went beyond the ordinary by directly engaging the producer and rewarding them for their work. The Producer Rewards program is a thoughtfully designed, robust framework that inspires producer loyalty to the insurance company and keeps the client top-of-mind when producers are making their valuable recommendations.
Meet producers where they are
Many competitor programs reward the insurance brokers, keeping the incentives at a higher level, above the individual contributors responsible for making the sale. We flipped this concept on its head and instead built a program that was producer-first. Through seasonal sales contests, behavior-based recognition, and rewards for continued learning, the Producer Rewards program ensures that the client remains the preferred choice over competitors.
Impactful results
At its core, the success of the Producer Rewards program lies in its ability to deliver meaningful, personalized value. By directly tying rewards to producers’ efforts, the program fosters a sense of ownership and recognition that other insurance incentive programs often lack. Combined with high-value rewards and consistent engagement opportunities, the program stands out as a model for driving loyalty and performance in the insurance industry.
In first year of launch, the program delivered a 3% YOY increase to customer retention, which translated to a $1.6M return on the client's investment (4:1 ROI). This program has now been in place for 10 years and has grown to include eight different state-owned programs with over 1,000 Producer participants.

#### Turning service calls into sales opportunities
Technicians rarely sold recommended products or services during calls, resulting in low average sales per ticket.
RESULTS
Because of the updated learning program and new hub for employees, the client has seen increased loyalty enrollments and decreased employee turnover.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
SalesMaker
Challenge
Technicians rarely sold recommended products or services during calls, resulting in low average sales per ticket.
Solution
A 90‑day GoalQuest campaign set personalized targets to motivate technicians to add sales activity to service visits.
Results
Participants sold 18x more per ticket than non‑participants, creating a 47% overall sales lift and an 8.2:1 ROI in just 90 days.

#### Turning up technician sales
One of the world’s major entertainment providers employs over 3,400 service technicians, and they wanted to empower these techs to both enhance the customer experience and boost dollars per work order through a promotion.
Results
Incremental margin generated was over $500,000. 77% of service techs sold at least one sound bar during the promotion. Sales increased 34.6% over baseline two months after the promotion ended.
Industry
Entertainment
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Empowering service techs
One of the world’s major entertainment providers employs over 3,400 service technicians. These service techs are in customer homes every day to install, upgrade, repair and create home entertainment solutions. These techs are highly skilled and uniquely trusted by consumers, but they often hesitate to sell additional equipment that could further enhance the customer’s viewing experience, especially high dollar items. Instead, they often revert to low-margin sales like screen cleaner or TV-mounting equipment. The client wanted to empower these techs to both enhance the customer experience and boost dollars per work order through a focused sound bar promotion.
Four pillars for success
We created a two-month sales promotion built on our best-practice approach to sales enablement.
First, through strategic, clear and compelling communications, we got the techs excited about the opportunity.
Next, we equipped the techs to succeed by incorporating a quick, clear training campaign built on behavioral economics and designed to produce real action.
Then we developed an innovative rewards structure for reps by providing increasing levels of award points for every sound bar sale they made and regularly updated leaderboards to drive competition toward top performance and grand prize rewards.
Finally, we carefully tracked progress before, during and after the promotion to see whether the promotion actually changed behavior.
Sales lifted in every direction
This was the first time these technicians had experienced such a product-focused sales contest and the first time many of them had sold such a high-end product. Even with that, their results were impressive. Techs across every tenure level saw an increase in sales, from long-time employees to new hires. New hires saw the highest rise, indicating that giving techs a fast start in sales could have a powerful impact. Sales went up for techs at every skill level, from those who had already been closing high-margin sales to those who had never sold a thing.
Additionally, $500,000 in incremental margin was generated. 77% of service techs sold at least one sound bar during the promotion, and sales increased 34.6% over baseline two months after the program ended.
Thought Leadership
Learn from the best. BIW thought leaders bring you a deeper look at the business of inspiration.

#### Warehouse Windfall drives big gains
A retail HVAC sales organization faced major year‑end stretch goals tied to a high‑value “Warehouse Windfall” shopping spree. Leadership needed to motivate reps to commit to aggressive goals and achieve meaningful lift.
RESULTS
The major‑award structure drove 65% of participants to choose the highest goal, that tier achieved 37%, total sales rose $22M in three months, and the initiative delivered an 8:1 ROI.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Sales team motivation
Services
Contests and incentives
Rewards
Technology
GoalQuest
SalesMaker
Warehouse Windfall
Challenge
A retail HVAC sales organization faced major year‑end stretch goals tied to a high‑value “Warehouse Windfall” shopping spree. Leadership needed to motivate reps to commit to aggressive goals and achieve meaningful lift.
Solution
We integrated GoalQuest + SalesMaker, enabling reps to self‑select stretch levels. The once‑in‑a‑lifetime Warehouse Windfall award created strong emotional pull, driving significant participation at the top tier.
Results
The major‑award structure drove 65% of participants to choose the highest goal, that tier achieved 37%, total sales rose $22M in three months, and the initiative delivered an 8:1 ROI.

#### Winning over brand-loyal distributors
A manufacturer that builds products used on exterior construction was looking to grow their nationwide sales through distributors that are typically brand-exclusive. This audience is made up of builders, remodelers, and installation contractors.
Impact
Overall company sales increased after introducing Contractor Rewards, but sales among participants were up 11%.
Industry
Manufacturing
Problem space
Customer loyalty
Services
Building supply
Rewards
Build loyalty, boost sales
A manufacturer that builds products used on exterior construction was looking to grow their nationwide sales through distributors that are typically brand-exclusive. This audience is made up of builders, remodelers, and installation contractors.
Incentivizing growth
We started them in the Contractor Rewards program where contractors earn points as they purchase participating products. These points are then redeemable for thousands of items in an online rewards catalog. The client launched this program in a geographic test market, and because of the strong results, they were able to launch nationally months ahead of schedule.
Turning engagement into revenue
In the test market, participant sales grew 20% more than sales from non-participants. After launching nationally, the client saw sales up 11% among participants. In that same time period, overall company sales were up 4%, showing that the participant sales were nearly triple compared to the overall company sales.
There were two short-term promotions that yielded amazing results. One promotion to active customers resulted in a 750% ROI. Another promotion to lapsed customers led to 5% reactivating and a 6,000% ROI.



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