New tool offers more real-time insight into programs for finance, sales and distribution teams.
This weeks Salesforce unveiled their new tool called Rebate Management. The product aims to help companies that use distributor networks to sell their products.
Rebate Management offers all employees at a company visibility into rebate programs, according to Salesforce. It is a part of the greater Salesforce ecosystem and integrates out-of-the-box into any Salesforce product.
Rebate Management helps the sales, finance and distribution people of the company offering the rebates. But it also gives channel partners insight into how they’re benefitting from those same rebate programs.
Rebates help build loyalty during the pandemic
Jujhar Singh, COO and GM for Salesforce Industry Clouds, outlined the new offering in a blog post. He described Rebate management as “new technology that allows companies selling through distributor channels to automate and leverage intelligent analytics for their rebate programs.”
He also said the product provides “greater visibility into program value and collaboration to sales teams and channel partners.”
“As companies continue to navigate the pandemic and the economic recovery, rebate programs can be a crucial aspect to building loyalty with channel partners who help drive company revenue,” Singh writes.
Despite their importance, rebate programs are usually administered from the back office ERP systems. In many cases, only the finance team has access to this data. “This causes a disconnect when sales teams and distributors need an update on progress towards their rebates,” Singh adds.
“With a lack of real-time insights, channel partners often can’t see the value in a certain rebate program, Singh observes. He says that this may mean they won’t be motivated to sell one company’s product over a competitor’s.
Offering widespread visibility to multiple stakeholders
Singh notes that sales teams typically don’t have insight into how close their customer is to a higher refund. Rebate Management will let them look up channel partners and see their refund qualification status. They can also get visibility into recent transactions and payouts and what rebates a customer has qualified for.
It will also tell the sales team what it would take for a partner to secure an even larger payout.
The new tool also gives channel partners access to a company portal that tracks progress towards earning rebates, the status of payouts that they have qualified for and their overall program history.
Rebate Management combines with Salesforce’s recently announced Loyalty Management technology. This duo helps businesses to “reimagine their channel partner and customer incentive programs with both monetary payouts and point-based rewards and redemptions,” Singh said.