Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/1178690
ALL IN | AD Today 2019 | 35 Chris Moon Director of IT Ideal Supply Inc. Kristine Koscielniak eCommerce Project Manager McNaughton-McKay Electric Co. ALL IN ON eCOMMERCE DID YOU KNOW? This year, over 100 AD members will be live with AD eContent from our database of over 4.5 Million enhanced & normalized SKUs. customer-facing teams, which is often typical within companies who are building their online presence," she said. "However, we regularly communicate updates and enhancements to our sales teams to show we're continually improving our site and the experience for our customers. Open communication with our sales teams has helped to diminish most of the fear we initially experienced and they're becoming the advocates we need to grow eCommerce with our customers." INVESTING IN INCENTIVES Among tools that can help engage buy-in, our experts confirm that incentive programs are one effective way to drive both internal salesforce and end user involvement in an eCommerce initiative. "We've run several different types of programs over the years," Moon confirmed, "and by far, we've found that the most successful type of program is one that provides an incentive enabling the end-user to enter the channel; in our case, we used an iPad with an earnback. The incentive is structured in a way that rewards 'habit building' inside the eCommerce channel as opposed to a pure focus on transactional volume," he said. Doug Drendel, President of Capitol Group Inc. in Springfield, IL, agreed. "Our company's inside sales/customer service team has goals based around sales dollars written and we make sure that these goals are their own sales orders plus entire branch eCommerce sales because we want them to look at eCommerce as an ally to productivity, not a replacement of their job," he said. Caroline Ernst, AD Vice President, eCommerce Solutions, can't emphasize enough the value of building web sales into a sales team's compensation package. "In terms of financial incentives, including web orders in commission calculations is as important as understanding the value of optimizing your sales team's activity," she confirmed. Beyond incentives, Koscielniak said that a strong site can sell itself. "We're experiencing significant growth with our eCommerce usage -- partly organic in nature, but also due to our sales team's understanding of the benefits that our site currently offers and their focus on promoting our site to customers that are a good fit," she said. "Ultimately, the best incentive program is having a site that features accurate data and the value proposition your customers need, and we're continually moving that needle." continued on page 36 "Open communication with our sales teams has helped to diminish most of the fear we initially experienced and they're becoming the advocates we need to grow eCommerce with our customers." – Kristine Koscielniak, McNaughton-McKay Electric Co.