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The director of Canadian IT sales for BenQ think his company's Q-rewards program for consumer electronics is a good deal for sales associates.

"When I was on the retail sales floor I wish I would've had something like that myself," said Frank Humes, who admitted to hunting for customers at Toronto's Hi-Fi Centre "in a previous lifetime."

At the beginning of March, BenQ expanded its existing SPIF Q-Rewards program to include CE products in addition to IT products. The initiative for IT products was launched last summer.

Although BenQ has captured an impressive share of the Canadian CE market in a short period of time, Humes said the goal of the program is to help it become even more competitive. He hopes the program will help drive sales of BenQ's LCD televisions.

"When you're new kids and fighting up against the Sonys and the Sharps and the Toshibas of the world, you want to gain market share, so you have to fight--you have to be competitive," he said.

The Q-Rewards compensates sales associates for selling BenQ products with a cash reward of $25-50 for every product sold that is included in the program.

Once sales associates register for the program, they accumulate the cash rewards on a Mastercard debit card by providing proof of sale and the serial number of the product sold. They can spend the money anywhere they choose, they only catch being it has to be with a business that accepts Mastercard.

Products vary monthly

The feature products eligible for the program will vary from month to month. In March, the featured products included 20 to 32-inch LCD televisions and two digital projectors. Humes said he'll probably add two more SKUs in April and more in May--possibly some digital products in anticipation of the Mother's Day sales rush.

BenQ's rewards program helps bring the company in line with several of its competitors who also offer points programs, said Jack Lee, business manager for NCIX, a Vancouver-based reseller of both IT and CE BenQ products.

Lee added that rewards programs for CE products give more incentive to move a particular brand because they are generally luxury items, whereas IT products are more need-driven.

"I certainly would have to convince my wife to buy anything that is entertainment related," he commented.

Overall, Lee thinks incentive programs are effective because they help keep a vendor's products in the minds of sales people.

However, it's not necessarily a magic formula for sales.

"I think by the time a customer comes in and sees a product on the shelf, they're already half sold," Lee said.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Transcontinental Media IT Business Group
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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