360insights Unveils Channel Pulse Report: 2021 Trends

360insights, the global channel incentives leader, today released findings from its Channel Pulse™ Report: 2021 Trends, which shares valuable insight into channel management trends across a curated community of leading channel professionals. Making the change from a quarterly survey to a more comprehensive annual survey, the 360insights Channel Pulse™ Report: 2021 Trends provides a granular, yet holistic cross-sector look at key channel incentive management trends for both B2B and B2C organizations.

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“We are thrilled to see so many in the channel working hard to reignite their Channel Revenue in 2021. Organizations of all sizes and verticals are attacking the market with not just an increased push in sales rewards, but heavily investing in leading indicator initiatives”

More than 200 senior executives from a variety of industries across the globe participated in the Channel Pulse™ Survey, which revealed the challenges and unique opportunities that exist in a rapidly evolving pre- and post-COVID environment.

“We are thrilled to see so many in the channel working hard to reignite their Channel Revenue in 2021. Organizations of all sizes and verticals are attacking the market with not just an increased push in sales rewards, but heavily investing in leading indicator initiatives,” said Steven Kellam, SVP of Marketing and Alliances at 360insights. “From customer and partner experience (CX to PX) improvements to digital sales and marketing enablement, well-orchestrated, data-driven incentives will play a key role it channel success.”

360insights’ Channel Pulse™ Report: 2021 Trends reveals how channel leaders are approaching channel incentive management as a whole, as well as which strategies and programs they’re leveraging to connect and engage with their consumers on a deeper level. From high-level planning and strategy to tactical program execution, the Report provides a comprehensive look at what’s working, what’s not and what is important to today’s leading minds in channel sales.

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Highlights from the report include the following:

• Overall Channel Trends: Well over half (60%) of B2B respondents and 46% of B2C respondents plan to increase their incentive budget in 2021. However, even as spend increases, only 30% of B2C channel leaders and 26% of B2C leaders are leveraging a single platform to execute, manage and visualize their incentive efforts.

• The Importance of Data Insights & Analytics: The overwhelming majority (nearly 60%) of both B2B and B2C respondents said that data analytics are imperative to success for their channel incentive programs and strategy. Nearly two-thirds (70%) of B2C channel leaders are planning to significantly increase their investment in data in 2021.

• Overcoming Today’s Greatest Challenges: While ineffective sales and marketing capabilities from channel partners (45%) were causing the greatest challenge for B2B channel programs, both B2B (39%) and B2C channel leaders (43%) agree that the issue of poor analytics to determine return on investment (ROI) was a significant challenge for their programs.

• Channel Incentive Management in a New Sales Environment: MDF, Co-Op and Deal registration top the list as the most important incentive solutions to promote channel success for both B2B and B2C channel organizations. SPIFFs are held in higher regard for B2B respondents, while rebates are considered more important for B2C respondents. Yet, even with these winning programs at their disposal, 47% of B2B teams and 40% of B2C teams are still using spreadsheets to manage their incentive programs instead of automated systems and/or platforms.

• Customer Experience and Engagement: When it comes to measuring program success, B2B2C channel leaders are measuring success through net promoter scores (20%), customer referrals (17%), repeat purchases (17%) and customer satisfaction (7%). These leaders are creating deep and lasting relationships with customers through exceptional user interface and user experience (37%), hyper-personalized marketing (20%), rebates and promotions (10%), loyalty rewards (10%) and compassion marketing (7%).

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