The newly-formed Daisy Distribution whisked a group of top performing partners and one of its own field sales team, off to Chamonix Mont Blanc to celebrate the successful conclusion of its O2-sponsored incentive, Mont Blanc Moments.
Eight of the company’s best performing partners in generating BlackBerry activity on the O2 network joined Daisy Distribution’s Head of Marketing, Julien Parven, and Daisy Distribution’s O2 Channel Business Manager, Simon Jones, on the trip.
Parven explained: “This was an incentive we ran from October last year through to January 2011 to reward our top performing partners in O2 BlackBerry connections in that period.
“We believe we currently contribute around 10% of BlackBerry’s indirect sales on O2, and we hope this trip will act as a springboard for achieving our goal of increasing that market share by a further 10%!”
A wide range of partners from across the UK, from both the former Fone Logistics and Anglia Telecoms bases, were invited on the trip which ran Saturday to Tuesday and involved an action-packed four days on the slopes and in the eateries of Chamonix.
Parven commented: “I’m sure the partners would join me in saying this trip was extremely enjoyable –maybe even more so than last year’s!
“Not only was it good to be able to reward partners and our own sales team for their effort and commitment, but it was a great opportunity to interact with partners and get to know their businesses more in order to help create future incentives and be more aligned to allow us to help them more dynamically with their marketing and business development.
“There are definitely added benefits to running incentive trips, particularly if you get the right dynamic in the group. On this occasion, partners interacted well, and while they may compete at times in their day-to-day jobs, there was a real willingness to share best practice and openly discuss successful practices.
“I think while the marketplace is still overcrowded, many partners take the view that they would rather be competing with and learning from like-minded companies, which have got the right business ethics.”
Already planning next year’s big event, Daisy Distribution will also be looking to hold smaller incentives throughout the year, such as the race days, golf trips and private dining experiences traditionally run successfully by each of the acquired companies that comprise Daisy Distribution.
Parven added: “It’s a case of having that mix of different types of incentives and promotional activity running throughout the year in order to make them inclusive and give as many partners as possible the opportunity to experience something for the first time.
“With the ski trip, there were some partners who had skied before, but for quite a few of them, they were absolute novices and had never been on skis in their lives and they maybe would never have been if we hadn’t taken them!”
He added: “Any incentive run needs to be seen to deliver a return to its sponsor partners, in this case O2 and BlackBerry, and this particular initiative outperformed expectations and contributed to the delivery of a record fourth quarter’s BlackBerry additions.”
Rich Reeves, Sales Director of Daisy Distribution partner Qualitel, commented: “We look forward to these incentives immensely, not only for the trip itself, but for the chance to benchmark ourselves against the best out there. This trip certainly did not disappoint, with a great group of people and of course Daisy Distribution to thank. These incentives certainly motivate us to deliver business and to that end, this one must be seen as an absolute success.”