Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about incentive programs, rewards, and working with EVT.
Whether you're exploring incentive programs for the first time or looking to sharpen an existing strategy, you'll find answers to the most common questions below. Can't find what you're looking for? We'd love to talk.
B2B Sales Incentives
- What is a B2B sales incentive program?
- A B2B sales incentive program is a structured strategy designed to motivate the people who sell your products or services, whether that's your internal sales team, your retail network, trade customers, wholesale distributors, or dealer and franchise partners. By aligning rewards and recognition with specific behaviours and outcomes, incentive programs drive performance beyond what salary and commission structures alone can achieve.
- How are B2B sales incentive programs different from a standard bonus scheme?
- Bonus schemes typically reward outcomes at a single point in time, usually end of quarter or end of year. A well-designed B2B sales incentive program works continuously, rewarding the specific behaviours that lead to those outcomes throughout the program period. This creates sustained motivation, not just a spike at results time. It also gives you far greater flexibility, rewarding product knowledge, new customer acquisition, basket size, or any other behaviour that drives your commercial goals.
- How do you measure the ROI of a sales incentive program?
- ROI is measured by tracking the specific metrics your program is designed to move, sales growth, engagement rates, basket size, sell-through, on-time payments, or any other KPI relevant to your business. EVT's technology platform provides live reporting against these metrics throughout the program, and we conduct a thorough debrief at the end of every program to calculate return and inform future investment.
- Can incentive programs work for audiences we don't directly manage, like trade customers or dealer networks?
- Absolutely, and this is where incentive programs are often most impactful. When you can't manage performance directly, incentives become your most powerful tool for influencing behaviour. EVT specialises in designing programs for indirect audiences including trade customers, resellers, distributors, and dealer networks, audiences that respond strongly to well-structured reward and recognition strategies.
- How long does it take to build and launch an incentive program?
- This depends on the complexity of the program, but most EVT programs are designed, built, and launched within six to twelve weeks. Our in-house team manages every element, strategy, technology, rewards, and communications, which means faster delivery and no delays from third-party handoffs. When timelines are tighter, our senior team is structured to move quickly without sacrificing quality.
Channel Incentives
- What is a channel incentive program?
- A channel incentive program is a strategic tool designed to motivate your network of resellers, distributors, dealers, or trade partners to prioritise your brand, increase sell-through, and grow your market share. Unlike direct sales incentives, channel programs work across businesses you influence rather than directly manage, making program design and execution a specialist discipline.
- Why aren't discounts and rebates enough to motivate my channel partners?
- Discounts and rebates create transactional loyalty at best, and price-driven competition at worst. The moment a competitor matches your offer, your advantage disappears. Channel incentive programs build genuine brand preference by giving partners a personal, motivating reason to prioritise your brand. That kind of loyalty compounds over time and is far harder for competitors to displace than a margin arrangement.
- How do channel incentive programs help differentiate my brand from competitors?
- When every brand in your category is competing on price, the brand that invests in genuine partner engagement wins mindshare. A well-designed channel incentive program creates a relationship between your brand and your partners that goes beyond the transaction, rewarding loyalty, recognising effort, and building the kind of emotional connection that makes your brand the one they recommend first.
- What behaviours can a channel incentive program reward?
- Channel programs can be designed to reward almost any behaviour that matters to your business, sell-through, product knowledge, new customer acquisition, market development, on-time payment, stock holding, event attendance, and more. EVT works with you to identify the highest-value behaviours for your specific channel structure and builds the program mechanics around those.
- How do you keep channel partners engaged throughout a long-running program?
- Sustained engagement requires more than a points balance. EVT uses a combination of strategically designed communications, regular touchpoints, tactical sprint campaigns, leaderboards, progress trackers, and time-limited bonus opportunities to keep participants engaged throughout the program lifecycle, not just at launch or at redemption time.
Incentive Travel
- What is incentive travel?
- Incentive travel is the use of extraordinary travel experiences as a reward for top-performing customers, partners, or sales teams. Unlike merchandise or cash rewards, travel creates shared memories and emotional connections that drive lasting loyalty. It is widely regarded as the most powerful motivational reward available, and the most aspirational qualifier in any incentive program.
- Who is incentive travel typically designed for?
- Most EVT incentive travel programs are created for clients' customers and partners, not internal staff. Businesses use travel incentives to deepen relationships with their most valuable customers, reward their top-performing channel partners, and create shared experiences that build long-term commercial loyalty. Travel is the ultimate relationship builder, and the time spent together away from the day-to-day is invaluable.
- How does EVT deliver more value from every travel budget?
- Through four decades of building deep relationships with hotels, airlines, destination management companies, and experience operators around the world, EVT is able to negotiate access and pricing that simply isn't available to businesses booking travel directly or through general travel agents. That network, combined with our expert negotiation, helps every travel budget work harder.
- What destinations can EVT organise travel incentives to?
- Virtually anywhere in the world. EVT has curated incentive travel experiences across Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Pacific, and beyond. We work with you to choose a destination that will genuinely excite your audience, and then we handle every detail from the first itinerary to the last transfer.
- How far in advance should we start planning an incentive travel program?
- For international programs, we recommend a minimum of six months lead time, and twelve months or more for larger groups or high-demand destinations. This ensures the best access to venues, experiences, and accommodation, and gives your participants enough time to qualify and build genuine aspiration around the trip.
Rewards & Merchandise
- Why are non-cash rewards more effective than cash incentives?
- Research consistently shows that non-cash rewards, particularly travel and premium merchandise, outperform cash equivalents in driving sustained behaviour change. Cash is quickly absorbed into everyday spending and forgotten. A premium reward or extraordinary experience creates a lasting emotional connection with your brand, and that memory is a powerful motivator. The trophy value of a great reward is something a bank transfer simply can't replicate.
- What types of rewards does EVT supply?
- EVT supplies rewards across two core categories, travel experiences and merchandise. Travel rewards range from weekend escapes and luxury hotel stays to international journeys and once-in-a-lifetime adventures. Merchandise rewards span luxury technology, lifestyle products, curated gift collections, and personalised reward catalogues. All rewards are sourced through EVT's trusted partner network and managed through our in-house fulfilment team.
- Can rewards be personalised for individual participants?
- Yes, and we strongly recommend it. A reward that feels personally chosen carries far more emotional weight than a generic catalogue option. EVT's reward catalogue and fulfilment platform allows participants to choose rewards that genuinely resonate with them, and we can configure the catalogue to suit different audience segments, tiers, or program structures.
- How does EVT handle reward fulfilment?
- EVT manages the entire reward journey in-house, from sourcing and procurement through to warehousing, personalisation, and last-mile delivery. One senior team owns the full fulfilment process, so every reward reflects your brand at every touchpoint with total accountability from start to finish. Our fulfilment infrastructure ensures rewards arrive on time and in perfect condition.
- Can rewards be integrated directly into an incentive program platform?
- Yes. EVT's proprietary technology platform includes an integrated reward catalogue that participants can access and redeem from directly through their branded portal. This creates a seamless experience from earning to redemption, and gives program managers full visibility of redemption activity through the live reporting dashboard.