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A Trade Fund Program
Trade fund programs support a "push" marketing strategy by paying
distributors on a volume-purchase basis. To provide these payments,
these programs have many moving parts:
- Define eligibility
- Type of customer (channel-specific)
- Signed agreement
- Specific criteria (volumetric, size of customer, etc.)
- Determine incentive base
- Identify which items to incent upon
- Rules for receiving incentive (product mix, specific distribution, rebate tiers, etc.)
- Determine rebate type and amount
- Off-Invoice / Rebate / In-kind contribution
Challenges of Managing Trade Funds
- Flexibility and agility are key
- Eligibility and rebate rules are ever-changing
- Programs must be able to quickly respond to changing
market conditions
- Speed is essential
- Thousands of customers submit data regularly
- Quick turn-around is required for payment
- Accuracy is required
- Credibility must be trusted because of CRM issues and
payments to customers
- Many disputes occur over eligibility of customers for various
rebate programs
Overview of eCentive
- Currently implemented by best-in-class companies
- Currently manages over $30 million in trade funds annually
- Second implementation underway with a year-end "go live" date
- Flexible design can be readily adapted to solve a broad range of client needs related to trade funds management
- User-friendly access to resolve customer issues quickly
- Provides both program-level information, as well as the opportunity to manage customer relationships at the most granular level
- Accepts feeds from both clients and distributors, as well as ERP order systems to calculate customer incentive payments
- Sends payment feeds directly to bank and also back to ERP or CRM systems
Segments of eCentive
The eCentive application is organized as a series of screens that can be easily navigated to perform various functions. These screens include:
- My Activity
- Program Maintenance
- Program Operations
- Funds
- Eligibility
- Payment
- Edits
- Adjustments
- Waivers
eCentive provides users with a comprehensive overview of their program, and also provides the opportunity to manage their customer relationships at the most granular level. Some examples of this functionality include:
- Changing the rules associated with a rebate program
- Assigning an exemption to a customer for a specific fund
and time period
- Discovering why a customer wasn't eligible for payment
from a specific rebate
- Adding a rebate program or adding additional funds to
existing programs
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