Cook's fuels growth with incentive programs. (Cook's Office Products and Gifts, Watertown, South Dakota)

Incentive programs can be the key to a dealership's growth in these times of tough competition from superstores, price clubs, mail-order houses, and traditional dealers expanding into new markets. To keep experienced employees on board, and to keep the level of service up, incentives often make the difference.

Since implementing a variety of incentive programs in 1983, Cook's Office Products and Gifts, located in Watertown, SD, has enjoyed an expansion boom. Cook's has added eight stores to its retail business in the past fifteen months alone.

"We started the company profit incentive program in 1983," said president David Roby. "I think most companies don't do incentive programs simply because they are very difficult to come up with, difficult to manage, and also because it is hard to please everyone with just one program. The latter reason is why we have a number of different incentive programs for different areas. We wanted to reward achievement in every capacity possible." …