Emerging Midstream Best Practices
Successful midstream programs offer convenience and strong incentives for dealers and distributors to participate. Current program sponsors reference the following best practices and key considerations for developing a successful midstream program:
Program Planning
- Work with evaluation teams early to ensure evaluators understand and accept the premise of a midstream program model and provide input on the data they will need collected to verify savings.
- Consider how a midstream program or pilot interacts with existing programs – ask basic questions such as whether a midstream program will replace a downstream program and if not, develop a system to prevent double dipping. How will verification of customer location and eligibility be handled? How could this program negatively or positively interact with other incentive programs in the area (utility or others)?
- Incentive type, structure, and amounts – incentives are usually required to be passed through to the customer, but some program sponsors offer sales associate incentives or may use funding to incentivize purchase of multiple measures.
- Collaborate with other program sponsors – program effectiveness may be increased by collaboration between electric and gas utilities and neighboring utilities offering CFS incentives.
Recruiting Dealers and Distributors
- Program simplicity – to reduce the time and effort dealers/distributors spend on participation, the midstream program design should be simple and consistent, with minimal program changes.
- Easy-to-use tools – offering online tools to verify customer eligibility and identify product models that are eligible for incentives and/or providing an online portal for application submission and rebate processing can help ensure sales opportunities are not lost and that incentives are paid to dealers and distributors in a timely matter.
- Work with other program sponsors to engage large nationwide or online-only dealers/distributors – alignment in general rules such as equipment eligibility and program processes may encourage large nationwide or online-only dealers and distributors to participate in these programs.
- Offering bonuses or salesperson incentives – many program sponsors offer bonuses to compensate dealers and distributors for the additional work and time spent on learning program requirements, completing and submitting applications, and developing a sales pitch for eligible equipment. These bonuses can be offered on a per unit basis, varying by product and energy savings claimed. Some program sponsors also offer quarterly tiered bonuses to reward the top participating dealers/distributors.
- Offering regular sales trainings and touchpoints with participating dealers – dealers/distributors will maintain a strong sales pitch for rebate eligible equipment. Some program sponsors tailor trainings to apply to different business models to ensure trainings are relevant and useful to each dealer/distributor.
Building out the Dealer/Distributor Network
- Make connections across program websites – ensure customers visiting your website looking for information on saving energy in their kitchen or business have easy connections to information on where to find midstream discounts.
- Include your incentives on ENERGY STAR’s Rebate Finder – one of the top visited sites on energystar.gov, Rebate Finder provides access to program sponsor incentives through a zip code search. Midstream incentives can be listed as instant discounts to avoid confusion.
- Offer additional support to dealers/distributors - developing and arming dealers/distributors with resources to promote and advertise rebates will encourage them to stay engaged with the program and be an additional recruitment tool to reach customers. Marketing materials for the showroom can include banners, stickers for rebate eligible appliances, flyers, and more.