Foster collaboration between trading partners in the B2B rebate ecosystem — Rebate.AI

1. Make your deal negotiation documentation/process smarter

1. Reduce the back and forth via phone and emails with your partner
   It’s important to always remember that no matter how much you might feel like your side has won after negotiating a contract, the other party may see things differently. Therefore, negotiation must be seen as a collaboration between trusting partners rather than a competition between rivals. Otherwise, you will find yourself in many back and forths via phone and email with your partner.
2. Bring your program details and performance in one place
   The complexity of managing rebate deals is such that it’s not uncommon for performance reports to only come out at the point where a new contract negotiation has begun. But by then, there may be nothing you can do about past mistakes-and; this becomes even more true when all information needed Is in disparate systems. The best or only way to get a true handle on rebate performance is by regularly reporting in real-time. The ability for stakeholders to have intelligence through a contextual, AI-backed rebate management platform will allow them to improve performance and plan better and control financial issues more efficiently.

2. Acknowledge the two sides of the same coin — Suppliers and Members work from the same data

When you have access to reliable, trustworthy data that can be used for your collaboration and performance monitoring needs — it will improve the interactions in a big way. For example, it cuts down on emails or other documentation needed. This leads to better transparency and accountability.

With a rebate management platform backed by advanced analytics, you can leverage persona-specific dashboards and have real-time visibility into your rebate programs and actionable insights to better it. This also paves the path for creating a single source of truth for everyone in the rebate system.

3. Clearly identify your goals and performance objectives

The goal of any enterprise, irrespective of the size, is to earn dollars. However, in the convoluted B2B space, manufacturers often had trouble collaborating with distributors because distributors wouldn’t commit to rebate programs set by the manufacturers. So, it is not surprising that a good percentage of potential rebate revenue typically would get unclaimed.

But the days of secret deals are over. Today’s manufacturer has an army at their disposal that can promote, market and sell for them in ways you never thought possible. The same goes for distributors. They have much more options and exposure to a large number of manufacturers.

The key to any trading partnership is a mutual collaboration based on trust, transparency and accountability. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly identify your goals and performance objectives for this to happen.

See how Rebate.ai is helping distributors, manufacturers, and buying groups collaborate more effectively by having all rebate assets combined under one roof rather than being siloed off into different platforms. A win-win for all.

4. Keep track of 100s of suppliers and 1000s of members with built-in search functionality

End-to-end rebate management and analytics platform is a great way for B2B traders to work together and create mutual revenue opportunities. By using Rebate.ai, manufacturers can see all of the trading partners who will benefit from their rebate programs while focusing their efforts on a priority list of trading partners that offer the greatest opportunities for growth and true market share gains. On the other hand, distributors can quickly search 100’s of preferred manufacturers’ rebate programs and identify the incentives that will provide the highest return on their purchases.

A contextual rebate engine is a great way to fill the transparency gap between manufacturers and distributors. This can help both parties see opportunities for mutual benefits, which in turn leads to growth.

5. Track the highest impact relationships

By automating the rebate process, you can have a more sustainable and data-driven means of accelerating your revenue streams. Further, you can automate the shared rebate processes to identify mutual revenue opportunities and combine member rankings based on purchase volumes and buying trend analysis.

Originally published at https://www.rebate.ai on March 16, 2022.