Definition Of A SPIFF Program

A spiff program is a basically a system that sales and marketing departments use to provide channel rebates to their manufacturers, suppliers and distributors in return for increased sales. A SPIFF rebate is a small, immediate bonus for a sale, usually for a specific product that the business is trying to promote more heavily. The definition of a SPIFF rebate is not hard to find, but many people often wonder what SPIFF actually stands for. The jury's still out on this topic, but there are some good theories. Many people believe that the SPIFF program got its name as an acronym for Sales Promotion Incentive Fund, or Sales Person Incentive Fund. When people are referring to channel rebates, though, most people use the word "SPIFF" and not "SPIF." There are not many good explanations as to where the extra F came from in the in the SPIFF rebate designation, but it could just be because it sounds better that way.

The SPIFF program has been defined by one website as "a loose term referring to an on-the-fly addition to the compensation plan used to motivate the sales force in a particular way by providing additional sales credit or payment for certain types of sales." This is a rather complicated explanation of a spiff rebate, though, and it seems that the idea of a SPIFF has been around for much longer than most modern businesses. There are many references to SPIFF in slang dictionaries and in the Oxford English Dictionary, which quotes an unidentified slang dictionary of 1859. This defines the SPIFF program as "the percentage allowed by drapers to their young men when they affect sale of old fashioned or undesirable stock."

All that a modern business needs to know, however, is that a SPIFF rebate can be an effective way to motivate their channel partners to focus on promoting and selling one of their products. Channel rebates can provide a large return on investment, especially when they persuade partners to help build the name of your brand over your competitors.

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