New Holland is a global brand of agricultural machinery produced by CNH Industrial; one of the world’s largest capital goods companies which sells agricultural and construction equipment. The New Holland Agriculture product range includes: tractors, combine harvesters, balers, haying tools, seeding equipment, utility and other vehicles.
Sales have proven to be onerous in Australia due to the droughts and changing climate conditions, but more importantly due to the wide competition growing in this market. We’ve come a long way from the good old days of farming, where the only brand farmers had to worry about was the one they stamped on their horse’s rear end. Tractors have not only taken over the role of workhorses, today farming is extremely sophisticated with top class operations, and with every passing year, there are more brands and models available on the market.
Technology, comfort and price are key defining factors to buying machinery. However, all brands have great products due to technology having come a long way. Yes, there are lots of technology differences, but to keep it simple: farmers can choose between ‘green’ (John Deere), ‘red’ (Case IH) or ‘blue’ (New Holland) machinery. Amongst many other brands, and traditionally, farmers are loyal to the brands they’ve purchased in the past. This makes it challenging for the New Holland dealer sales staff to persuade customers to shift their preference.
In this environment, it is key for New Holland to support, add value and provide great offers, not only to the farmers but to the dealers, who are the ones recommending ‘blue’ (New Holland) machinery over ‘green’ (John Deere) and ‘red’ (Case IH). Dealers can influence the purchase and move tractors, combine units or balers in order to maintain and increase sales levels or grow market share in such contended conditions.
A farmer spends on average $200,000 or more on a new machine, therefore, dealers need a good reason to push such big sales items. New Holland needed to reward dealership sales staff and offer a share of the value their sales bring to the business – to provide a real benefit to them. The challenge was that to offer such a reward New Holland needed to be achieving their sales in order to sustain this incentive model.
212oF designed an incentive program that focused on dealership sales managers to reward them directly, not the dealer, for selling more units. The dealership sales managers are key in the sales process and are in the field building relations with customers and driving market penetration.
The incentive program gave sales managers a considerable percentage of the machine value in rewards for every eligible tractor or combine sold. Eligibility was based on selected models, which could change throughout the program; giving New Holland the flexibility to manage their budget and move the products they required. It also meant that they could drive sales staff to focus on specific units and maximise their efforts.
The incentive was paid in points, which could then be exchanged for reward items or Visa prepaid gift cards. Having these two options of redeeming rewards gave dealers flexibility to do whatever they wanted with their points.
The program was called True iBlue. This name came from the brand “True Blue”, a marketing concept New Holland uses in many parts of the world. It relates to farmers, their lifestyle, struggles and successes. Seemingly, the True iBlue concept communicated the distinctive New Holland ‘blue’ colour, aiming at positioning the brand front of mind.
By slightly changing the word Blue to iBlue the program was brought closer to the sales manager. It communicated the fact that the program had an online portal where sales managers could register and participate. Here, they could also learn everything about the incentive program and how to claim their reward points for eligible sales.
More importantly, the site allowed them to redeem their points (accrued for every approved claim) and choose merchandise from an online catalogue which offered a wide variety of goods; technology gadgets, household items, gift vouchers etc. The other option was to convert points into dollars on a branded Visa Prepaid Gift Card that could be loaded with money every time they redeemed points.
The True iBlue incentive program had staggering engagement and participation. The objective and behaviours the incentive set out to achieve were met. Sales managers who recommended and sold New Holland machinery over other brands were rewarded commensurately.
Over the years, dealers have not only felt they’ve been personally recognised by New Holland more than any other manufacturer, besides the mutually beneficial financial relationship, the program rewards represent support to their businesses – especially during the tough times seen in the farming industry.
Most importantly, the program delivered a result of 86:1 return of investment; returning New Holland 86 times every dollar spent on the program. A staggering result when compared to similar industries such as automotive where an average of 4:1 in reward and incentive programs is expected.
The desired behaviour the incentive needed to achieve was that New Holland sales managers recommend ‘blue’ (New Holland) over ‘green’ (John Deere) and ‘red’ (Case IH) brands and this was achieved.
Success: Strong Participation
The program required all dealership sales managers to register to participate in the program. At least one sales manager per dealer registered, reflecting great engagement and interest in the program. Having such buy-in demonstrated that sales managers were ready to recommend ‘blue’ (New Holland) products as intended and drive unit sales.
Success: 84% sales claimed and 94% accurate eligibility
With an 84% of sales being claimed 212of can state that sales managers were keen on being rewarded for their efforts. Furthermore, 94% of claims were eligible which meant sales managers knew which tractors and combines were eligible in the program and focused on them well.
Success: High Engagement
New Holland was very happy to see that participation on the True iBlue incentive program was consistent throughout the year. Dealers were engaged not only by logging into the program and claiming rewards. They were also querying directly and asking about the program and progression of their sales claims, which made the program personal and gave 212oF (who managed all queries) the ability to gauge the acceptance of the program and provide feedback to New Holland.
