The Value of Outsourcing Rebate Management

The entire cycle of rebate management is a critical operation that impacts profitability and revenue generation of an organization.  Besides creating as winning promotion and rebate program, the next best way to increase your ROI on your rebate management marketing campaign is to reduce your fulfillment and administrative cost associated with the campaign. Consequently, it is crucial to employ up-to-date technologies and leverage economies of scale in rebate fulfillment.

Outsourcing or In-House Rebate Management?

Increased recognition of rebate programs as a key sales and marketing tool puts pressure on an organization to cost effectively execute a rebate program.  Rebate programs can be both expensive and administratively complex to execute in house.  That’s where outsourcing comes in.  Outsourcing rebate fulfillment processing improves the convenience and expediency of the practice and may add some data gathering that was previously unavailable. The advent of modern technology has prompted business owners to rethink their idea of rebate processing. Outsourcing of rebate management can help customers realize substantial cost savings as well as reduction in labor cost and better data collection by leveraging a rebate management specialist.

Benefits of Rebate Management Outsourcing

Multiple practices

When it comes to rebate processing, a professional rebate management company has the capacity and experience of implementing full-service rebate management processes. The process incorporates multiple levels of service delivery involving scanning, generating and issuing checks, and partial or full online processing with automated rebate optimizer software.  If done in house, this can be a tough burden on management time and process control.

Data Collection

Outsourcing enables single source database creation that allows for detailed analysis of new and existing rebate agreements, analysis of profitability, impact of rebates on different deals before negotiations, creation of elaborate rebate programs.  Access to a central database of this information will speed up the decision making process and approvals for new offers and marketing programs.

Accuracy in Pricing

Thorough processing of a rebate form requires as much as time as processing an invoice!  Outsourcing can reduce this administrative burden while collecting market prices for your competitive database.  Accurate market pricing information is important to remain competitive in the marketplace.

• Cost Reduction
• Reduction in costs of order processing
• Conversion of fixed cost operational models into variable cost
• Online access to forms for seamless collaboration
• Call center cost decrease
• Reduced program cycle cost

Significant cost optimization is possible as companies that carry out huge volumes of rebate processing already have the infrastructure and the economies of scale in processing. Depending on the specific outsourcing solution, anticipated cost reduction can vary anywhere between 20% and 40% or more as compared to processing in house.

Efficient pricing strategies combined with rebate management outsourcing helps reduce cost while improving the effectiveness of your promotions.  Both these factors lead to improved ROI.

To see how you can improve the ROI of your next rebate management project, please contact Dare Marketing where we have solutions to execute a winning rebate management program.