When Brokerage Financial Inc. executives heard that their top producers were increasingly unhappy with the company's traditional travel incentive program, they decided to do something about it. The Omaha, Neb.-based insurance marketing organization had a history of successful incentives. “But we have producers who achieved these events [early in the qualification process], then wondered what they get for business over and above that,” says Financial Brokerage President and CEO Joleen Misek. “We had nothing.”

The solution, called The Shared Success Program, maintains the incentive trips, but also incorporates a debit-style rewards card that works just like an ATM card and can be used at participating retail outlets for merchandise awards.

The Shared Success Program is flexible: Because not every agent wants to travel or is able to attend a specific trip at a specific time, their success shares can be deposited directly into the cash card. Producers have choices. They can use their success shares to qualify for traditional incentive trips, deposit them into the Shared Success Cash Card, or, if they have enough success shares, use them for both. Misek expects that the new program will “double, if not triple” the pool of agents who qualify for incentive trips and/or use the new cash card.

“What we were trying to do was to create an incentive program that is more producer-friendly,” Misek says. “Instead of ‘like it or lump it,’ now we say, ‘the choice is yours.’”