Some of the news over the past few days was disheartening. Some places in the country are seeing an increase in positive COVID-19 tests. Others a decrease. I’d personally love to see more places that were decreasing but I can’t control everything. (As much as my partner thinks I think I do.)

But that news reminded me that my experience isn’t yours. And your experience isn’t mine.

I’ve worked from home for 22 years. Very little changed in my workday when “stay at home” become the norm. Our kids are grown so home schooling didn’t impact us. But I know friends and family where that isn’t the case.

And that reflection reminded me of the cliche: “we are in the same storm but not the same boat”. I think this is the thinking you need to embrace when it comes to communicating, engaging and influencing the people you rely on to drive business results.

This applies to your own salespeople and your channel partners (dealers/distributors). Everyone in your sales distribution channels will have issues and constraints related to achieving success. But they won’t all have the same problems and issues.

Dealers in Florida are probably going to have a different experience now than your dealers in New York. Distributors in California won’t experience the same business constraints as those in Texas.

The questions now have to be: Can you communicate different messages easily with these groups? Can you run different promotions for the various audiences and their specific business issues?

Dig into those questions. Make sure your provider can quickly set up a new audience and targeted promotion within days. That’s the timeline business works on these days. This pandemic has taught us that Ferris Bueller had it right – life move pretty fast.

The ability to design bespoke, targeted promotions and messages is openers in today’s business world for any incentive platform you choose.

Remember – one-size-fits-all platforms really only fit a few well.