Engaging external sales teams; distributors, retailers, resellers, dealers, and other trade partners, is never easy. They juggle multiple brands, manage complex targets, and often prioritize whichever brand gives them the clearest rewards and least friction.
If you want your brand to win more mindshare and effort from these partners, you must motivate them in ways that go beyond sales volume alone. This is where non-sales incentives come in.
Why Non-Sales Incentives Matter for Middlemen Performance
Decision makers often face the same dilemma: “How do we influence trade partners’ behavior when we don’t control their teams, processes, or priorities?”
Non-sales incentives give you leverage beyond traditional rebates or sales bonuses. By rewarding the right behaviors, you unlock better performance, stronger loyalty, and faster execution; even if the trade partner isn’t directly on your payroll.
These incentives let you shape how partners learn, promote, position, and support your brand every day.
Examples of Non-Sales Behaviors You Can Incentivize
There’s no one-size-fits-all list of non-sales behaviors, as the most profitable actions for your business depend on your specific goals and needs. here some examples of non-sales activities you can reward to boost engagement and loyalty:
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- Attending product, marketing, sales, or technical training
- Actively joining brand events
- Participating in digital or social media campaigns
- Providing shelf-placement or display proof (offline or online)
- Supporting marketing activations at store level
- Community engagement or CSR participation
- Completing surveys or feedback loops
- And more, depending on your growth priorities
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These behaviors may not be “sales,” but they drive the conditions that accelerate sales.
How to Choose the Right Non-Sales Incentives
To build an effective incentive program that truly lifts performance, consider two core steps:
1. Identify the behaviors that actually move the needle
Start with data. Look at your best-performing distributors or retailers and ask:
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- What non-sales actions do they consistently perform?
- What behaviors contributed to their stronger sell-out results?
- Are they more active in training? More engaged in campaigns? More compliant with displays?
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List these behaviors and prioritize those most closely tied to business outcomes.
2. Reward partners for completing these high-impact actions
Once you know the key behaviors, link them to attractive non-sales incentives; points, rewards, badges, privileges, or tier upgrades.
This gives partners a clear roadmap of: “If I do X, I earn Y, and this helps me win more with this brand.”
So, What Exactly are Non-Sales Incentives?
Non-sales incentives are rewards given not for buying or selling products, but for performing strategic activities that support your brand.
Unlike traditional bonuses, they influence behavior earlier in the funnel, such as learning, promoting, or activating the brand. This creates a more loyal, better-trained, and more responsive trade network.
To ensure these incentives reach the right people; and scale across multiple regions, you’ll need a digital reward platform to manage them smoothly.
Why You Should Use a Digital Reward Platform (Not Manual Processes)
Running channel incentive programs (sales or non-sales) is inherently complex. Manual management slows everything down and risks error, bias, or delays.
A digital reward platform helps you:
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- Track non-sales behaviors
- Automate incentive distribution
- Monitor performance in real time
- Prevent fraud or duplication
- Scale the program across markets
- Free up internal teams from heavy admin work
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This means faster activation, higher partner participation, and more reliable results.
Work Smarter with Tada’s Incentive Platform
Unsure how to activate and reward distributors, resellers, and retailers effectively? Or how to turn non-sales incentives into measurable performance gains?
Tada can help you build a complete digital incentive channel solution; covering both sales and non-sales behaviors, with seamless tracking, rewarding, and automation.
Request our demo now and discover how Tada can help you lift your distributors’ and retailers’ performance faster.
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