One10 has outlined four areas for insurers designing sales incentive programmes: communication, participant engagement, rewards and evaluation. The guidance covers both insurers working through independent agencies and those using direct sales teams, with an emphasis on maintaining the relationship with the people selling their products.

The company describes a Midwest insurer that sends independent agents monthly reminders about incentive promotions and redeeming points. According to One10, those messages achieved open rates close to 40% with no opt-outs. The insurer is not named and the article does not specify the measurement period, so the figures are an individual example rather than an industry-wide benchmark.

Communication is intended to make the programme and its objectives visible to agents, including when face-to-face education is impractical. Once participants engage, One10 recommends examining performance by geography, agency and product to inform subsequent promotions and training.

Reward design forms another part of the relationship. One10 cites Incentive Research Foundation research in which 83% of respondents viewed redeemable workplace points as a treat and 80% felt that points were like receiving a gift compared with cash rewards. The source article does not date that study; it uses the findings to discuss participant perception rather than reporting a new insurance-sector survey.

The guidance recommends establishing both short-term and long-term objectives before the programme begins. Individual promotions can then be assessed against those goals, with attainable targets and different promotion lengths used to keep participants involved.

One10 also cautions against making incentives so complicated that agents find them discouraging. For insurers, its framework combines the message explaining the programme, the data generated by participation and the reward experience with an ongoing review of whether the original commercial objectives are being met.