Sales And Marketing Management - March/April 2018

& Brains over braun wins sales��������������������������� 6 Making meetings work for millennials����������������� 24SALESANDMARKETING.COM MAR/APR 2018 » $10 Matching rewards to workers’ lifestyles��������� 28I my job!gary_vee The increased focus onWildRiver experiences through work brian_hart maggie24 Fenway Park Park Hyatt Aviara Resort50 likesgary_vee Our team whitewater raft trip with spouses was a blast.Everyone had fun and one of the rafts even flipped! At dinnerafterward, there was incredible energy while folks shared the excitingdetails with one another. #riverrafting #dreamcometrue#herecomestherapids #pleasedontflip #bestplacestoworkloribelleg OMG I’ve always wanted to do that. Can I come workat your company? 120 likes 106 likes maggie24 Wow! Nothing like a shopping spree to liven up our annual brian_hart Who’s got 2 thumbs and 3 #worldseries trophiessa?leTshmis egeutyin! g! We spent award points on all kinds of cool stuff. Thanks #companyname for this opportunity of a lifetime! #bGaostetabalollvjueniktie#shoes #newshoes #readyforthebeachnow #shoppingspree #lovemyjob #dreamcometrue #workperks justaguy So cool. #lucky janinemarie Jealous! Our sales meetings are so boring

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cover story 32 DEPARTMENTSI my job! editor’s notebookThe increased focus on experiences through work Fun is infectious. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Top NEXTperformers Brains over brawn wins sales, plusAn assortmentof incentive ideas other sales and marketing talkers . . . . . . 6from our the sales conversation40advertisers The best approach for upselling . . . . . 14 What’s trending 28 marketing opinion in lifestyle and experiential rewards It’s time to pay marketers Recognition ideas for our era based on their financial impact . . . . . 16 of work-life blend marketing Mobile tours can replace trade shows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 technology Still not on Facebook? What are you waiting for? . . . . . . . . . 20 the mindset of motivation 4 new ways to engage your sales force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 meetings Making meetings work for millennials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 closers The curiosity consultant . . . . . . . . . . 42 SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  3

editor’s notebook PUBLISHER Mike Murrell, [email protected], 952-401-1283 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Lori Gardner, [email protected], 952-451-6228 Fun is infectious EDITOR-IN-CHIEF  Paul Nolan, [email protected], 763-350-3411 If there was any question that people embrace the opportunity to experience something new through a work-sponsored ART DIRECTOR  Susan Abbott, [email protected] incentive trip or other type of corporate outing, it was dispelled during my research for this issue’s cover story. EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Charles D. Brennan (brennantraining.com); Robert Chen (robertchen.com); When I posted a call for stories and sentiments on the topic, Ken Dooley (customerexperienceinsight.com); Allen Finn (wordstream.com); the response was instant and glowing. People shared tales of Tim Houlihan; Anthony Iannarino (thesalesblog.com); Steve Randazzo high tea in Dubai, spa days and Caribbean cruises. Some (promotion1.com); Tim Riesterer (corporatevisions.com); Mark Stouse experiences clearly had a big budget behind them, while others (proofanalytics.ai); Dan Waldschmidt (danwaldschmidt.com) were more modest. The common denominator: people remembered them — even when they occurred years ago. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE / SOCIAL MEDIA LEADS MANAGER Sonja Mishek, [email protected], 715-222-7544 A content manager in Palm Beach, Florida, said she has been recognized in many ways over the years by her employer, PRODUCTION MANAGER  Bethany Lewis, [email protected] but the two that stood out to her were a spa day her manager gave her and another marketing colleague in 2012, and a twice- CIRCULATION DIRECTOR  Vicki Blomquist, [email protected] annual boat trip the company’s marketing team takes. Both, she emphasized, were on work days, so as not to cut into her OFFICES  Mach1 Business Media, LLC own time. PO Box 247, 27020 Noble Road, Excelsior, MN 55331 Phone: 952-401-1283 Fax: 952-401-7899 Online: www.salesandmarketing.com “These two stand out the most because they represent an acknowledgement of the sacrifice of time for the greater good PRESIDENT/CEO  Mike Murrell of the company, which was given back in the form of these experiences,” she wrote. “I was able to share them with at least VP FINANCE AND OPERATIONS  Bryan Powell one (and now many) others on my team. It’s been a bonding experience as well (not just for us, but between us and our EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD executive team).” Tim Houlihan; Mike Landry, Tumi; Michael Leimbach, Wilson Learning Worldwide; Lee Salz, The Revenue Accelerator Those aren’t budget-busting endeavors, but look at the ROI! “Bonding” is the word we heard repeatedly when we spoke Sales & Marketing Management Volume 99, No. 2 (ISSN 0163-7517) is published six with those who have enjoyed company-sponsored experiences times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November by Mach1 Business and some who fund them. Jeff West, a Texas-based retired sales Media. Copyright 2018 by Mach1 Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction coordinator for a Fortune 500 insurance company, fits in both in whole or in part of any text, photograph or illustration without the written permission categories. West says decades ago, his mentor dipped into his from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Annual subscription rate $48 U.S.; $67 Canada own annual bonus to pay for trips for top performers. West did plus 7% GST; and $146 all other countries. Single copy price $10. the same each year once he held a leadership position. “I’ve never had anybody yet who failed to appreciate a cash BACK ISSUES, PERMISSIONS AND REPRINTS bonus, but I’ve also never had anybody say, ‘That was the best Email: [email protected], Fax: 952-401-7899 cash bonus I’ve had in my whole life,’” he says. West says that many of the team members he treated to SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES Caribbean excursions and themed Christmas parties turned Sales & Marketing Management, PO Box 247, Excelsior MN, 55331 around and did likewise as they were named to management Subscriber Customer Service: [email protected], Fax: 952-401-7899 positions. It became a perpetual pay-it-forward venture. That, in my mind, is all the testament you need to buy into smmconnect.com the value of work-sponsored experiences. ONLINE Paul Nolan, Editor [email protected] Find these and other online exclusives at SalesandMarketing.com4    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM  Lift columnist Tim Houlihan expounds on research that shows how you treat your employees impacts how they treat your customers — SalesandMarketing.com/lift.  Brad Grossman turned a side job tutoring the kids of Hollywood stars into a full-time gig helping producer Brian Grazer stay curious. Now, Grossman shows executives what they didn’t know they need to know. The full version of our Q&A with Grossman (see page 42) is at SalesandMarketing.com/Closers.  Contributed articles from leading sales and marketing thought leaders are posted throughout the week on our home page.

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MAR2018APRBrains over brawn wins salesBY CHARLES D. BRENNAN A dearth of critical thinking What percentage of the prospects that your salespeople call onIn his book “Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step,” have a short attention span? On a typical day or week, how oftenpsychologist and philosopher Edward de Bono states that no do your salespeople’s conversations achieve a level of criticalmatter what happens in a conversation, changing someone’s thinking? We wondered the same thing.ideas can only occur when the conversation reaches a thresholdof critical thinking. Having surveyed approximately 500 training professionals and individuals in a sales leadership role about the percentage of their “Lateral thinking is concerned with breaking out of the concept salespeople achieving a threshold of critical thinking, the highestprisons of old ideas,” the author states. “This leads to changes in number achieved was 20 percent; the lowest level was 5 percent.attitude and approach; to looking in a different way at things which Currently, the average is 14.5 percent.have always been looked at in the same way. Liberation from oldideas and the stimulation of new ones are twin aspects of lateral That suggests nearly 85 percent of sales conversations do notthinking.” move the needle forward with an existing or prospective customer. Will an assertive approach that challenges the customer raise this de Bono’s book is not aimed directly at sales managers and their number without being contentious? There’s a better way.teams, but it may as well be. Sales interactions and customers arequite predictable. Salespeople can be predictable, as well. To Sales is for thinkersexpect a customer to change their thinking, there needs to be an Recently, The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about Johnenvironment that is less predictable and more thought provoking. McEnroe, a former No. 1-ranked professional tennis player who6    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

What you’ll be talking about. EDITED BY PAUL NOLANwon seven Grand Slam singles titles and nine Grand Slam men’s 7 steps to more engagingdoubles titles. You don’t have to know tennis to know that McEnroe customer conversationswas an accomplished player. He was also somewhat of a volatile oraggressive player. Some say he constantly “challenged the chair” When presenting to a prospect for the first time, the(the umpire of a tennis match). His antics could be defined as epic. first five minutes are the most critical. “If your audienceHowever, he was also smarter than most. decides your presentation lacks merit, you’ll be dismissed after a short, polite discussion and the meeting will roll As told in the WSJ article, when John was developing as a player, on to the next subject. If the idea is deemed worthy ofhis coach taught him a valuable lesson. He said to look at the court consideration, you’ll explore it in greater depth together,”as a chess game and calculate the odds of success and his next says Ken Dooley of Customer Experience Insight.moves. If he could do something to improve his odds, he shoulddo it. For a conversation to go well, salespeople must have a clear picture of both the organizational objectivesStart playing chess (lowering cost, increasing productivity, increasing sales, etc.) and the personal objectives for the prospectUsing this tennis-as-chess approach in a sales call can be invaluable. (promotion, salary increase, increased influence, etc).Customer interactions should be thoughtful, sequential, mindful Dooley offers these seven tips to help salespeople meetand highly relevant. Our survey indicates improvement can be the needs that prospects reveal:made in this area. It is not a matter of how assertive salespeopleare, but how intellectually engaging and strategic they can be. 1 Produce information that educates the customer about primary problems you know similar companies With a bit of preparation, sales reps can calculate with a great face. Benchmarking data helps.deal of accuracy how a conversation with a client will start and end.Customers (no matter the industry) are highly predictable. 2 Once you lay out the key issues, provide a freshKnowing this enables a rep to put the odds in their favor. The perspective that makes the customer think differentlysalesperson who anticipates what is coming can uncover the about the matters you’ve unfolded.customer’s patterns. Customers can be viewed as the person onthe other side of the net in a tennis match. Knowing that person’s 3 Lead to your unique strengths. Your teaching shouldtendencies allows the rep to stay one step ahead. lead the customer to think “How can I make that happen?” This is where you educate the customer A sales call is a game of chess. Reps should think not only about about how your solution will help.how a call will start and end, but how the prospect will respond toquestions, position and recommendations. They should play out 4 Challenge customer assumptions. You must reframethe entire sales call just like a chess match. They should not pick the customer’s thinking. You want the customer’sup the phone or hop out of the car without the proper amount of reaction to be, “I never thought of that before.”forethought and deliberation. 5 A new way. Now that you’ve laid out the problem,One step ahead try to provide a solution on how the customer would benefit by instituting a quick change to improveStaying ahead of customers is a key to success. Knowing that a the situation.prospective or existing customer will default to their presetmemories or biases can be used to your advantage if, and only if, 6 Explain ROI. Organize your return-on-investmentthey are engaged at a higher level of conversation. If the bar is calculations to focus on the money the customerraised to make them think differently, reps don’t need to be wastes by not taking action. The goal is to buildassertive. Customers who are engaged in critical thinking will the customer’s sense of urgency about fixingreconsider their choices and change their behaviors. They will the problem.become more receptive. 7 Tailor your message. Explain how your solution is Challenging someone can work, engaging someone in critical the best answer for the customer.thinking works better. It might be a matter of pushing or pullingthe string.  Charles Brennan is the founder of Brennan Sales Institute, a leadingprovider of in-house customized advanced sales training programs. SALESANDMARKETING.COM    MAR/APR 2018  7

True grit However, there are signs the grit movement, while still in its infancy, has gotten ahead of itself. The online news andThe mother of the movement culture website TheCut.com reports that school districts in thesays perseverance is only San Francisco area recently announced plans to begin testinghalf of the equation students on grit and other forms of emotional intelligence; while other schools have instituted things like Grit Week,The scene opens with a young woman in which students set goals for their scores on upcomingexplaining that while she doesn’t have the standardized tests.classic qualifications a prospective employermay look for, she does have life experience Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor who many creditthat most candidates don’t. “I was living with spawning the grit crusade with her 2016 bestseller “Grit:in a shelter, juggling three jobs. I had to The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” says too many gritbe resilient. That’s something that you groupies focus on perseverance and forget about the passioncan’t teach.” component. “If you are really, really tenacious and dogged about a goal that’s not meaningful to you, and not interesting It’s part of an advertising campaign for to you — then that’s just drudgery. It’s not just determination — Grads of Life, a nonprofit organization it’s having a direction that you care about,” Duckworth toldthat connects employers with non-college The Cut.graduate job candidates, many of whom havefaced difficult life challenges. Indeed, Duckworth says the early science on the subject indicates more people need help developing passion than Hiring for grit and unique life experience is a popular perseverance. “One possibility is that people can learn to workproposition in business circles. We heard it repeatedly when hard and be resilient, but to find something that would makereporting for our January/February article on building a you say, ‘This is so interesting to me — I’m so committed to itbetter hiring process for sales teams. that I’m going to stick with it over years’ — that kind of passion may, in some ways, be harder to come by,” she says. “I look for grit,” said Rob Danna, a senior vice president atITA Group, a West Des Moines, Iowa, company that createsand manages incentive programs for several Fortune 500companies. “Many times, I gauge this based on what they do outside ofwork. Do they put themselves in tough situations (e.g., back-country skiing), or do they grind it out (e.g., CrossFit workoutsat 5 a.m.), or are they constantly improving their personal/professional life through adult education, volunteering, joininggroups and certifications?” At the same time our issue was hitting readers’ desks, theFebruary issue of Fortune magazine landed in mailboxeswith its cover exhortation to, “Show Your ‘Grit:’ Why LifeExperience Is the New MBA.” (Sales is listed as one of theprofessions where grit matters most.) The article stated thatforward-thinking companies are abandoning a check-the-boxesapproach to sizing up job candidates and looking instead for“signs of potential that standard credentials don’t capture — and that transcend the lines of race, income and class.”Resilient sales professionals can build bridges between designers, marketers anddecision-makers to improve the product and grow the customer base, Forbes states.None of it involves sizzle; all of it involves hearing a thousand times, “no.”8    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

Digital marketing is all about leads and salesDigital marketers are confident their efforts have Most important objectives for digital marketing effortssignificant ROI, and a majority plan to increase digitalspend in 2018. More than half (56 percent) of a panel Increase 48%of “marketing influencers and research subscribers” lead generationpolled online by email marketing platform providerAdestra say their budgets will increase significantly Increase 45%this year, while 40 percent say they will go up sales revenuemarginally. Improve 44%Respondents identified the most important strategic brand awarenessobjectives for a digital marketing plan as driving moreleads and increasing sales revenue. Improve 43% user experienceMeanwhile, the four most difficult digital marketingtactics to execute, according to the respondents, are Increase 40%data management (47 percent), marketing technology website traffic(46 percent), search engine optimization (43 percent)and content marketing (42 percent). Improve 35% data quality SOURCE: ADESTRA 2018 DIGITAL MARKEBT:I3N.6G25P”LANS FOR BEST-IN-CLASS SUCCESS T:3.375” S:3.375”Nice guys don’t get meetings Show S:4.875” them you’reSecuring that first meeting with a prize prospect is oftenthe most challenging aspect of making a sale. Some drippingmanagers endorse a constant banging away with phone with thankscalls and emails. Others favor a more passive approach,interacting on social media and engaging with decision- Redeemable atmakers whenever possible with hopes they will ask for a 1,600+ Locationsmeeting. Plastic and eGift available from $5-$250.Both approaches work sometimes, but neither one Order through [email protected] oraddresses the underlying problem of why people don’t want https://storefront.wgiftcard.com/ihopto meet with your company in the first place, says salescoach and author Anthony Iannarino. ©2017 IHOP Restaurants LLC Restrictions apply to gift cards.“To treat the disease, you must have something of greatervalue than the time you are asking your dream client to giveyou, you must have something so valuable that your dreamclient would literally pay you for their time, as that is whatthey are really doing,” Iannarino says. “If your 20-minutemeeting doesn’t cause your dream client to discoversomething about themselves, something that is worth 1,000times more than the time they gave you, then they are rightto refuse your meeting.”If your sales team is having trouble getting in front of keyprospects, the problem may be evident in the first eightslides of your slide deck, Iannarino says. Your marketingfirm may love it because it tells your story, but does it sayanything about the value you can bring customers? SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  9

Need-to-know insights The single trait all for first-time managers great leaders need Congratulations! You’ve earned a new sales or marketing management Most of what separates a good leader position. It may feel rewarding and daunting at the same time. from a bad leader is one important quality, Spending most of your days solving people problems rather than says business strategist Dan Waldschmidt actually executing the work you’re used to can be a challenging (DanWaldschmidt.com). It’s not brains, adjustment. The team at First Round Review (firstround.com) combed experience, charm, courage or authority. It’s through past articles on advice for first-time managers and came up empathy – the ability to understand how other with these highlights: people feel. The awareness to connect with • Respect workers’ outside lives – Carlie Guthrie, a San Francisco- the pain and fear in someone else’s life. based human resources professional, says there are common reasons “Empathy allows you to understand how a why good workers leave. One is that managers don’t respect the fact high-performing person suddenly appears to be that their workers have outside lives. “People who love their job and worthless. Why your best customers become the company will work all the time anyway,” she says. “If you’ve hired so upset when you take their loyalty for granted. good fits, you’ll see this happen.” How the personal stuff of life, like divorce or • Focus – Focus is a critical skill for any new manager, says Fidi illness, can be completely overwhelming.” Simo, vice president of product for all of Facebook’s video, news and advertising efforts. Her knack for focus became apparent when she Empathy isn’t easy, and it isn’t always needed to manage her team remotely while on five months of bed portrayed through patience and understanding. rest during her pregnancy. By cutting out anything nonessential she Sometimes, empathy means you have to get was able to focus on the most strategic priorities, not only for the in someone’s face and challenge them to do product team, but for herself. “We have the luxury of working in an what they already know they should be doing, industry where there are endless opportunities and low-hanging fruit Waldschmidt says. lying everywhere,” she says. “It’s extremely tempting to do it all. But ‘doing it all’ is as impossible as it is impractical, particularly when “What’s unique about empathy is that it has you’re building products. It’s not just people who can lose focus — a tremendous return on investment. By being products can too.” empathetic to others, you instantly feel better • Think short and long – Jessica McKellar, an engineer who made about yourself. You stop thinking about your own the transition into management, says “There are two things you particular situation. In so doing, you begin to should always be thinking about: People’s day-to-day and their year- heal you. They feel better. You feel better. Your to-year.” Imagine every individual is traveling on both of these tracks empathy is what made the difference.” at the same time. As a leader, you can shape their experience on both to help them find a trajectory that meets their goals and your needs. As a manager, if you find yourself feeling frustrated by coworkers and their actions don’t10    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM seem to make sense, Waldschmidt recommends asking yourself these two questions: • How would I feel if I were in this exact same situation? • What else is going on behind the scenes for them that I don’t know about? “You’ve been that person that has other people scratching their head in bewilderment. Until you can fully appreciate what that other person is going through, you will never be in a position to inspire them to follow.”

When workplace engagement saves livesTurns out that focusing on employee engagement in the right • Improving employee referral and driverindustries can keep us all a lot safer. A report published by mentoring programs – Turnover in the industry isC.A. Short Company, a North Carolina-based provider of employee high and attracting new drivers has been a challenge.recognition and reward programs, states that long-haul truckers are By showing your commitment to recruiting anddying in record numbers, and increasing drivers’ engagement in all retaining top employees, drivers will know their ownaspects of their job could reduce fatalities. value within the organization and will become an advocate for the organization as a whole. According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of LaborStatistics, truck drivers continue to have the highest tally of work • Upholding truck appearance, maintenancefatalities, recording 918 deaths in 2016. “The National Health inspections and road logs – The arrival of newInstitute reports that up to 70 percent of driving distractions can in-cab technologies have taken some of the day-to-daybe prevented when a driver is engaged and focused on the task at operational responsibility out of the hands of drivers.hand,” the C.A. Short report states. By bringing these operational tasks back to top of mind, trucking companies are able to engage drivers It stands to reason that getting drivers to pay more attention while in the process, even though they are no longer dailythey are behind the wheel will reduce accidents. However, C.A. responsibilities.Short’s whitepaper, “5 Tips to Engage Your Drivers,” provides ideasbeyond safe driving that they say will help transportation companies • Making healthy life choices that increase theircut down on serious accidents. Fittingly, these practices can be the well-being – The adage that “our people are ourfocal point of a recognition program. They include: most valuable asset” certainly holds true in the transportation industry. Experienced drivers areIn high-risk industries like long-haul trucking, employee engagement safer drivers. By recognizing them for participatingprograms can help save lives. in wellness initiatives and for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, employers show their commitment not only to on-the-job safety, but to off-the-job wellness. Engagement as a safety enhancer isn’t isolated to the trucking sector. C.A. Short reports that studies have found railroad workers with high levels of engagement dramatically reduce safety incidents and the chance of derailment, while engaged commercial airline workers are also far less likely to crash. Across all industries, companies with the highest levels of employee engagement experience, on average, 70 percent fewer safety incidents.Does your team hear what you hear?Strong communicators take • Lead with your • Stay concise. • Understand the impactresponsibility to get their main message. A practical way to stay of your nonverbalpoint across. If the other If you leave your main concise is to give yourself communication.person does not understand point until the end, a two-sentence limit for If you’re not payingyou, it reflects your inability there is a good chance each point. If you’re going attention, your bodyto communicate rather than the other person will beyond two sentences, language may underminehis or her inability to become frustrated and you’re probably saying your verbal message. Yourcomprehend. Executive wander throughout your too much. goal is for your non-verbalcoach Robert Chen offers conversation. and verbal messages tothese tips to ensure others be consistent.hear what you hear: SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  11

engage Sponsored byYou don’t reward generationsWhen it comes to rewards, an individual’s life stage dictates what drives them.BY JIM VALENTI, DIRECTOR OF probably have much more in common withMERCHANDISING & REPLENISHMENT one another than either would have with theAND RAUL GARCIA, MERCHANDISING lifestyle of the single, Silicon Valley Millennial.MANAGER Life stages tend to outweigh generationalGoogle “Millennial generation” and difference when it comes to incentive awards.you’ll get over 28 million hits. Business Homeowners will choose grills, lawnbegan thinking about Millennials long furniture and housewares to make their abodebefore they first entered the workforce more comfortable, appealing and easier toaround 2000. And with good reason, Jim Valenti Raul Garcia entertain guests.they are the largest, most diverse, Apartment dwellers with less space may opthighest-educated and arguably the most for awards creating memorable experiences.connected generation America has ever produced. Their Parents always relish giving gifts to their children andimpact on every aspect of every business, whether as customers, might be very driven by a bicycle or gaming system for their youngsters.partners, employees or suppliers, will be monumental. Leaders Singles may be looking to give one of their rewards as aignoring this generation do so at their own peril. gift as well, but are more likely to be searching for adult giftsBut when it comes to incentives, you don’t reward a like jewelry for a significant other or perhaps even theirgeneration. You recognize individuals. own parents.Every incentive program needs the right awards to engageand inspire their target participants. But looking at any group Thoughts behind rewardsonly as a generation is far too broad and general to build acompelling award mix. Life stage is a much more accurate This isn’t to say generational differences are completelypredictor of award preferences. Life stage looks at the different irrelevant. After all, people born and raised in a given timephases in life. experience a unique set of social, economic and political events, which contribute to shaping their generational culture,• Single attitudes and outlook. Millennials, for example, have been• Independent described as the first “digital natives.” While this may be• Married important in understanding how best to communicate with• Parent of young children them, it has less to do with the type of incentives that appeal to Millennials.• Empty Nester The three best pieces of advice we can offer for choosingWhat recipients’ lives look like awards for your next sales incentive program are:People at the same life stage generally have far more in commonwith one another than those simply of the same age or whose 1. Choose a broad selection of awards appealing to a variety of life stages.incomes are similar. That makes life stage a more useful and 2. Look for memorable rewards. Durable items like homerelevant indicator of reward preferences. furnishings are consistent, lasting reminders, whileWhich of these people would you expect to be most similar? experiential rewards like concert tickets create long-term• A married 27-year-old with a toddler living in their memories. own home in Omaha and working as a manager in a manufacturing company. 3. Make the participant feel special with an award delivery experience recognizing their efforts. Changing the• A single 26-year-old working for a Silicon Valley startup packaging just a little, like using a white shipping box or who lives in a rented apartment. colored tissue paper, can make the rewards feel more like a present and accentuate the reward delivery experience.• A 45-year-old middle manager who owns a home inCharlotte and lives with a spouse and two young teenagers.Although they are separated by a nearly 20-year generational Learn more about engaging, inspiring and rewardingdivide and half a continent, the parents with their own homes incentive program participants at www.hinda.com.12    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM



the sales conversationThe best approachfor upsellingBY TIM RIESTERER, CHIEF STRATEGY AND solutions — both in terms of howRESEARCH OFFICER, CORPORATE VISIONS fast they convert them and how many are converting.“But how do we sell in this situation?” Research has a way of begetting more research. As soon as That’s a problem. Because the survey also found that 86 percentwe conduct a study that illuminates how to address a certain of respondents say this situation ismoment in the purchase cycle, another customer comes along “important” or “very important”wondering how to handle a different selling scenario. to their revenue success and their ability to retain customers. Once our research revealed the best message for when you’re There’s a lot on the line in the “why evolve” moment. Ifthe outsider trying to defeat the status quo (“why change?”), you’re successful, you create a foundation for better customerwe started hearing from folks wondering what to do when they experiences and longer-lasting partnerships. If you slip up, yourare the status quo (“why stay?”). The big discovery here was the partnerships and revenues stagnate. And those aren’t your onlydisruptive message you need to dislodge an incumbent vendor problems...is essentially the opposite of the message you need when you’retrying to retain existing customers. Becoming vulnerable These studies covered a lot of terrain in the customer If you aren’t providing your customers with the mostlifecycle — two huge moments in the realms of customer exceptional experiences, you become vulnerable to disruptionacquisition and customer expansion. But as we soon discovered, from competitors who will claim they can. They could eventhere were still gaps in the research — other key moments and disrupt you out of the equation with promises of superiorquestions whose buyer psychology profiles needed to be better customer experiences that they can deliver. The issue isn’t sounderstood. much that you don’t have those capabilities — it’s that you haven’t seized the opportunity to provide them. One of those question: How do you sell more to an existingcustomer? How do you address what are traditionally called the That is what’s at stake. Besides these threats, another reasonupsell or cross-sell conversations when you might need to this moment calls for research is that, on its face, it appears toconvince customers to migrate to higher-value solutions, require something of a hybrid between the “why change” andwhether in the interest of a significant upsell opportunity or “why stay” stories. In any case, a moment this importantbecause of a material change in a base product? shouldn’t demand more than guesswork or hunches about what might work best. That’s why we put it to the test in new This moment we’re calling the “why evolve” story. While research, covered below.it seems like it should be relatively easy to convince customersto migrate to higher-value solutions, it seldom is. A Corporate For this research we collaborated with Nick Lee, a professorVisions industry survey found that nearly 60 percent of at Warwick Business School who has spent nearly 20 yearsrespondents are only somewhat satisfied or worse when it drawing from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience,comes to how well they convert customers to new14    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

the sales conversationeconomics and philosophy to develop insights into salespeople • Why Stay? – Our previous research confirmed thisand selling. Our goal was to design a study that responds to the message is best for convincing existing customers to renew.most pressing challenges salespeople face when trying to upsell We wanted to see how it would hold up in the middle ofnew solutions to existing customers. There are five main an existing customer contract, with an upsell in play.challenges: • Social Influence – The premise of this message is that 1. Different enough?  It’s hard to be seen as different peer pressure is a powerful motivator. This condition enough to require action. How do you create a message shows the buyer that many of their peers are making that’s not what the customer expects? strides and they can’t afford to get left behind. 2. Important to success?  How do you craft a message After experiencing their respective messages, participants that gets them to see your solutions as vitally important answered a series of questions designed to assess how well to a vision where they are successful? the messages performed relative to the challenges highlighted above. 3. Personally convincing?  How do you craft a message The best ‘why evolve’ message that not only shows the value of their business, but also The most effective message across the key areas assessed was convinces them to become personally invested in the relationship reinforcement and emotion condition, which propelling that business forward? consistently outperformed the others. 4. Willingness to change?  Buyers need to embrace change. Research participants were asked to rank five different test How do you craft a message to facilitate that? conditions and the top-performer was one that used a mix of emotion and relationship reinforcement. 5. Intention to purchase?  How do you craft a message that increases the likelihood of your customer actually buying? The winning condition is something of a hybrid message, borrowing elements from the more disruptive “why change”The best message for the “why evolve” moment is one that’s approach and from the more protectionist “why stay” one.most effective at helping salespeople excel in these areas. An important implication is that this hybrid message — ratherHere’s how we set up the study to determine what that message than a message that strictly challenges their situation — islooks like. optimal for performing well in an upsell or cross-sell scenario. The study, conducted online, included 426 participants And that makes sense. This message isn’t designed for drivingwhom we put into a business-to-business decision-making big, disruptive changes or getting a customer to renew. It’ssimulation. about getting a customer to evolve their vision and their buying habits. This message, summarized in the visual on page 14, At the outset, participants were randomly assigned to a range ensures customers don’t fall back on using your old guardof different test conditions. All were told to imagine they were solutions instead of your newest and highest-value innovations.decision-makers in a conversation with a sales rep from theirlong-term software vendor. The rep is trying to convince them Don’t leave this message to change—not when the upside ofto upgrade from a legacy, on-premise version of their business handling the “why evolve” moment well is so key to yourintelligence software to their new cloud-based business success. By applying this research to your upsell and cross-sellanalytics solutions. conversations, you’ll stand the best chance of being the vendor who provides the top-notch customer experiences your buyers The five conditions tested include the following message need to perform.  types, summarized below: • Product as the Hero – This was based on the type of message many companies use to announce new solutions. It’s product-oriented and focused on highlighting the new and improved features and benefits. • Relationship Reinforcement and Emotion – This message uses emotional language to emphasize the idea that the company and vendor are partners. It’s open about having a frank conversation about the challenges and opportunities in a long-term partnership. • Why Change? – This message has already been proven in our past research to be the message for converting new prospects into customers. It’s disruptive, edgy and we wanted to test it out in this scenario. SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  15

marketingIt’s time to pay marketersbased on their financial impactMARK STOUSE producing data that’s begging to be analyzed and crunched withYou know the old adage, “We all work for sales?” Well, if we all sales data and other businesswork for sales, then we should get paid like sales too. data to provide a more complete picture of marketing’s As a C-level executive, I’ve worked with a lot of salespeople. performance.When I meet one who has consistently overperformed, I knowI’m looking at someone who will deliver the goods. And I also The ability to hold marketingknow I’m looking at someone who has made a lot of money in departments and their agenciescommissions, and will make a lot more in the future. accountable for their business impact — and determine the right Business leaders need to be able to meet a marketer or PR investment and appropriatepro and say the same thing. That’s true whether they’re compensation — is real. We arecorporate employees or work in an agency. fully capable of computing all of the “cause and effect” relationships that determine marketing’sThe commission model for marketers business impact. In addition, the analytics necessary to ingestAs a former CMO and CCO in large technology companies, I’ve all of this data and compute the relationships that impactworked closely with a lot of marketing teams and agencies. marketing and sales performance are here and ready to takeI’ve seen marketers make huge contributions to business impact us across the finish line. Big data and AI tech can provide aand business value creation. Those same marketers received compelling portrait of what’s working, how long it’s takingsizable discretionary bonuses as a result. But I’ve never seen a for it to have an impact, and what the overall ripple effect ofcommission model used to calibrate their compensation. marketing and sales performance looks like across time. Here’s the bottom line: Great marketing and communications Be ready to tell your storyare often hugely important to the growth, health and prosperityof a business. They also are expensive parts of the business, and Of course, the real action is in the white space between thethe opportunity cost on marketing dollars can be significant. It’s KPIs. Commissions demand that their marketing teamstherefore critical that marketing and communications be tightly compute cause-and-effect relationships that exist between whataligned to the business in clear economic ways. they do, how the audience responds, and what specific impact those changes have on sales performance. If marketers believe in what they do for a living, then thecurrent salary and bonus structure is selling them short. The If you’re a CMO, you probably have a great business impacttop priority for every marketing leader should be making every story to tell. You should look forward to the opportunity toeffort measurable and impactful (using the same metrics show up in the boardroom with the analytics tying yourexpected from sales: revenue margin and cashflow). That way, investments to improvements in revenue, margin and cash flow.marketing managers and their teams can stop deflecting — and When that is provable, you and your team can confidentlystart making the same big money as their successful sales teams. negotiate compensation based on that impact. Just like sales.Data makes it possible Marketing’s credibility also would get a big boost. AccordingFor years, the idea of compensating marketing and to a recent study by Accenture Strategy, CMOs are the mostcommunications professionals based on their business impact likely executive to be fired when the company misses its growthwasn’t possible because the data wasn’t able to support such targets. 2016 saw unprecedented CMO turnover. 2017 saw a lotan approach. Only salespeople were so clearly tied to sales more of the same, and Gartner just published a new report inperformance, and the commission structure was not only November that showed marketing spend down and CMOsupportable, but highly desirable for both the company and tenure falling. This is a huge problem, not only for marketersthe sales pro. but also for the companies that need them. The world has turned. Recently, Chief Marketing Technologist It all boils down to this: marketers and their agencies createblogger Scott Brinker, released his annual report showing that a lot of value, but their companies need them to prove it.  the marketing technology universe, which includes marketing,advertising, ecommerce, communications and PR technology, Mark Stouse is the former chief marketing officer of Honeywell andhad spiked to about 5,400 vendors. That’s 5,400 companies currently the CEO of Proof Analytics.16    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

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marketingMobile tours can replaceflagging trade showsBY STEVE RANDAZZO the decline of trade shows presents a new opportunity to elevate engagement with prospects to new levels.Once upon a time, trade shows were deemed the kings of B2Bmarketing events. Top business leaders flocked to convention Trade shows certainly offer specific opportunities, but whatcenters to learn about new equipment, technology and other they do for one brand, they do similarly for others. Instead oftools. This gold standard of education brought awareness to setting up a booth next to competitors, brands can gain apotential clients and gave brands a platform to flaunt their latest client’s undivided attention and differentiate themselves byproducts. If attendees were lucky, a little fun was mixed in for presenting the client with something much more appealing: angood measure. educational field trip. Today the fairytale-like success of trade shows has dwindled, Field trips are the futureand the shows seem more like a hassle. High-powered decisionmakers no longer feel they have time to travel or roam around Remember what field trips felt like when you were a kid?for a week accumulating briefcases full of brochures. You actually looked forward to going to school because these adventures broke the monotony of your daily routine. According to the 2017 Center for Exhibition IndustryResearch Index Report, the fourth quarter of 2016 was yet By embarking on a mobile tour, your brand can provide aanother sign the reign of trade shows is over. Attendance has similar feeling to decision makers within your target audience.plummeted at shows that once were industry staples for luxury Simply load up your product into a van, truck or trailer andbrands, oil and gas companies, and more. Others, like the Food visit every company on your dream list of clients on their turf.Marketing Institute show in Chicago, have disappeared entirely. Offering a fun, interactive experience for the whole office could capture each individual’s attention for anywhere from This may seem like a big blow to B2B marketing tactics, but 45 minutes to two-plus hours.Eager to hit the road on a mobile tour?Here’s where to start:1.  Frame the offer properly. 2.  Make it immersive 3.  Solve a problemDon’t be timid about asking Handing out brochures and business Focus on the company you’reconsumers for some of their time. cards is a great way to be forgotten. visiting, not your product. TheRemember, you’re providing key Keep in mind that a mobile tour isn’t company’s key players have uniqueadvantages: an insider’s look at just a live infomercial in which you needs, and you created a product tosomething interesting or valuable to shout out statistics and dramatically help relieve their specific pain points.your target audience, without the show off a product. The best way to Attendees should never feel as ifinconvenience and expense draw in prospects is with a you’re marketing to them.associated with travel. The knowledgeable, hands-onexperience is free and there’s no risk experience. Make it fun so it doesn’t The best part comes when yourfor your customer to visit. You’re feel like work. targeted consumer fully understandsdoing your audience a favor, so and sees value in your product. Thismake a mental note to effectively Start with some quick welcoming facilitates the strongest responsecommunicate that perk. words from a passionate brand your product can receive: a ringing advocate, and then let attendees endorsement from one co-worker to examine your product on their own another. terms. The presenter should answer questions and facilitate the experience but shouldn’t come off like a pushy salesperson.18    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

marketing Mobile tours get prospects out of the office and into a fun environment where they get a customized, hands-on experience with your products – and there are no aisles full of competitors. When a mobile tour visits an office, prospects leap PHOTOS: PRO MOTION INC.at the opportunity to get away from their desks for awhile. Because the brand is brought directly to the Video spend to morecompany, there is no need for the usual trade show than double in four yearsinconveniences such as spending money on airfare,staying in uncomfortable hotel rooms and being away The video marketing revolution continues. Advertising spend onfrom family. Plus, because it’s on-site, decision makers YouTube and Facebook will hit $37 billion by 2022, up from anare present alongside their support teams, so estimated $16 billion in 2017, according to Juniper Research.conversations happen on the spot. Juniper says YouTube, which reports over 1 billion hours watched The ROI on a mobile trade show is incredible, as per day, will face increasing competition from social-mediayou’re speaking to a captive audience of just the right platforms – and that social media will be a growing area. In additionpeople at just the right time. Clients have told us that to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat will see major increases,mobile trade shows have doubled their pipelines and especially in live broadcast content posted to these platforms.halved their sales cycles. WordStream, a provider of online marketing software, collected Hands-on experiences created by mobile tours are these staggering statistics about the growth of video marketing:successful ways for brands to stand out. Although tradeshows held a special place in B2B marketing events • 87% of online marketers use video content.for many years, it’s time to take their best educational • 82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter.elements and transform them into captivating • More video content is uploaded in 30 days than theexperiences that can be executed anywhere. Thepotential of mobile tours is enormous, and it can be as major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years.simple as giving hardworking adults the kind of field • 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name videotrip their inner children would rave about.   as the type of content with the best ROISteve Randazzo is the founder and president of Pro Motion • An initial email with a video receives an increaseInc., an experiential marketing agency located in Missouri. click-through rate by 96%. • Blog posts incorporating video attract three times as many inbound links as blog posts without video. SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  19

technologyStill not on Facebook?What are you waiting for?Consumer goods companies have stampeded Facebook’s detailed scheduling tool to limit the time of dayto Facebook to market themselves. And why targeting tools are the when prospects will be exposed to your ads,not? Facebook is an exceptional tool for reason you’re there. allowing B2B advertisers to avoid paying forgrowing brand awareness and engaging overnight or weekend ads, which may havewith prospects, find new customers, offer Facebook’s measurement questionable value.promotions and serve exceptional tools can help you see howremarketing creative, ultimately inciting your campaigns perform. Facebook’s placement tool allowsaffordable conversions, says Allen Finn, a advertisers to choose where their ads showBoston-based content marketing specialist. up. It’s truly quality over quantity here, says Finn. Most B2B advertisers will do well to Is there a place for B2B on Facebook? stick with placement in the Facebook news“When it comes to multi-touch B2B feed and right-hand column. Showing up onmarketing — industries with months-long Instagram and the Facebook Audiencesales cycles and niche clientele — skeptics Network are less successful for most B2Bremain,” Finn states. companies. For those B2B companies that have Audiences: the golden ticketalready adopted Facebook as a marketingvehicle and those who are ready to make the The capability to target by age, gender,leap, Finn offers these tips to get the most location and a host of key-word identifiersfrom your investment. is the whole idea for advertising on Facebook in the first place. Equally effectiveNot all Facebook campaigns to selecting the right demographics isare created equal. eliminating the ones you don’t want. The “detailed targeting” section at the bottom ofFacebook silos campaign objectives into the audience interface allows you to includethree categories: awareness, consideration and exclude prospects who display specificand conversion. Although each of these characteristics. The B2B targeting categorycategories has a legit use case for B2B allows users to identify prospects byadvertisers, not all the individual objectives company size or senior titles within aare worth deploying on a consistent basis. company.Four sub-categories —  brand awareness,traffic, lead generation and conversions — are Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences featurethe areas in which you need to focus if you allows you to create new audience ofwant to successfully advertise your products prospects whose demographic andor services to other businesses on Facebook. psychographic makeup parallel your source audience — any Facebook audienceAd sets are where the magic you have already created. Once you identifyhappens. a high-performing audience (in terms of conversions or email inquiries) FacebookThe ad set level is where you control will generate an new audience that closelyeverything from budget and scheduling to resembles your source audience.audience and ad creation. Finn recommendsa modest daily spend for early-stage “To those B2B outfits that still believe theFacebook clients because they are more world’s most popular social platform ispredictable and allow for experimentation. nothing more than an echo chamber for fakeMore seasoned Facebook advertisers can use news and feline hijinks, you are missing outlifetime budgets, but keep intervals short on a massive business growth opportunity,”(three to five days). You may want to says Finn.  squeeze more out of your spend by using the20    JAN/FEB 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM IMAGES: FACEBOOK.COM/BUSINESS

technologyDigital investments enhancecustomer experienceAs customer experience (CX) continues to be a primary The top strategic priority for organizations in 2018 isfocus of marketing efforts across a wide swath of industries, a content and experience management. Almost halfsurvey of nearly 13,000 marketing, creative and technology (45 percent) of companies surveyed rank this as one ofprofessionals in the digital industry shows that organizations their three most important priority areas for the yearcommitted to CX are shown to outperform their peers. ahead, with one-fifth stating this is their primary focus. “Digital means that customers now have more power to A link to the 2018 Digital Trends report can be found in the Additionalengage with brands in their own terms. This has changed the Web Resources box at SalesandMarketing.com.way companies interact with their customers, who expect greatexperiences as standard. For businesses that put the customerat the center of everything they do, it’s clear the investmentsare paying off,” says John Watton, senior marketing director atAdobe, which partnered with Econsultancy in publishing the2018 Digital Trends report. Key findings from the Digital Trends report include: Respondents identified optimizing customer experience as the most exciting opportunity for the year ahead (19 percent), ahead of data-driven marketing that focuses on the individual (16 percent) and creating compelling content for digital experiences (14 percent). Digital skills are vital for a range of marketing tools and platforms. Almost three-fourths (73 percent) of respondents agree their companies are “combining digital marketing skills with technology.” Companies doing this are nearly twice as likely to have surpassed their 2017 business goals by a significant margin (20 percent vs. 11 percent).Evolution requires more than tech tools“Ever consider the true course of your anachronism.” tsunami and need more interoperableown professional evolution?” asks The latest and greatest tech tools may systems than their business modelcorporate strategist Babette Ten Haken, potentially accommodates.founder and president of One Millimeter make you more technologically competent,Mindset workshops. but has your overall business acumen “That is why our professional evolution evolved as a result of using these tools? requires us to find a way of communicat­ “On one hand, you depend far too ing. With the folks who are not trained tomuch on the latest and greatest tech tools “Regardless of where you sit around think the way we do and who may notto make you look more professionally today’s digitally connected, internet-of- make decisions the way we do. Together,competent than you really are. How is things business tables, professional we make sense of the seeming chaos.that working for you, when selling to evolution involves far more than After all, at the end of the day, technologyskeptical technical decision makers? On technology tools. Interestingly, the more still remains a tool for professionalthe other hand, you may be isolating tech tools involved, the greater the need evolution, not the goal.”yourself by relying on yesterday’s tools to for multidisciplinary collaboration. Thesedeliver today’s and tomorrow’s answers. tools make each of us more efficient. Babette Ten Hawken blogs atAs a result, you are an organizational Except, organizations — regardless of babettetenhawken.com. their size — are still inundated by a data SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  21

lift: the mindset of motivation Sponsored by Seiko Corporate Gifts [email protected] new ways to engageyour sales forceBY TIM HOULIHAN #3: Create and Challenge.  Our need to create, improve, master, learn and overcome challenges never ends. It’s Is HR telling you your millennial commonly overlooked when considering what motivates sales sales reps don’t like their reps. An assignment with tremendous challenges can contain incentive plans? Are you really more motivational power than an average assignment with a going to have a different big bonus. incentive for the 26-year-old white female than the one for That said, it’s more than just having a challenging job, it’s the 45-year-old Asian male? also about improving selling skills that reps need to succeed. “To maximize performance,” said Nelson, “make sure there are Fact: Reps are complex and regular opportunities or even requirements to engage reps in the psychological underpinnings learning.” that lead them to engage change over time and under different #4: Define and Defend.  Defining our purpose and defending situations. Your salesforce is our status, ideas and relationships. Our “tribes” hold immense diverse, but... motivational power. While saving face is one such reactive aspect, the proactive side enables reps to stake a claim for Stop chasing unicorns. themselves. Give them an opportunity to define themselves.The 4-Drive Model “Employees will fight long and hard for a company theyOriginally developed by Paul Lawrence, PhD and Nitin Nohria, believe in and one that has their back,” says Nelson. “But thePhD while at Harvard University, the 4-Drive Model is a moment they sense deceit or feel belittled, those sameframework for understanding motivation at its root. The model employees can turn into your biggest liability.”satisfies a wide variety of motivations so everyone on your teamwill be engaged. Furthermore, it’s been successfully tested on Applying the 4-Drive Modelsome of the world’s largest sales forces. Nelson recently leveraged the 4-Drive Model with a global pharmaceutical firm in revamping its sales incentive trips. The#1: Acquire and Achieve.  We all have a drive to acquire firm historically offered lavish trips to exotic destinations forthings, status, experiences, rewards, etc., and it is a common top performers. However, the company wanted to dial downfoundation for incentive plans. In our consumer-driven world, public perception without sacrificing motivation for the reps.millennials and your 50-something reps appreciate receiving After private interviews, brainstorms and input from seniorApple watches. We never stop acquiring. leaders, they created a menu of trips so teams could choose (bond and belong) with learning-centric experiences (create and Kurt Nelson, president of the Lantern Group, a sales challenge) including senior leaders (acquire and achieve) thatincentive and communication consultancy, has modified the were relevant to their team’s achievements (define and defend).4-Drive Model for sales. He recently noted “The standard ‘paythem more and get more performance’ mantra doesn’t work Nelson noted that an improvement in each of these drivesanymore. A note of appreciation can generate more motivation impacts organizational performance independently. However,than a big check.” satisfying all four drives simultaneously initiates an exponential increase in performance. Firms see a performance increase of#2: Bond and Belong.  We drive to create positive 3 to 6 percent for satisfying any individual drive versus arelationships and engage with others to fit in socially. This 36-percent performance increase when all four drives aretranscends age, gender and ethnicity and comes from your sales satisfied.team’s work environment. Reps’ subconscious minds demandsatisfaction in this area, to fit in and be recognized by the tribe. Stop chasing unicorns in a magical forest. Leverage the fourYour tribe. drives to develop incentives that get better results. The modern sales force is not a bunch of individual Online Bonus Content: How you treat your employeesgunslingers, but rather players on a team. As Nelson noted, impacts how they treat your customers.“Successful leaders look for opportunities for their people tointeract and form social connections.”22    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

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meetings & travelMaking meetings workfor millennialsHave your offsites become more challenging because your work stewardship, they’re once more becoming genuinelyforce has a blend of millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers —  collaborative experiences.”and soon, Gen Z will join the mix? Professionals in their 20smay seem all-consumed with digital communication, but the • Fewer and shorter meetings – “We don’t need a lot oftruth is they welcome face-to-face meetings when they are 15-person, knights-of-the-round-table meetingspurposeful and productive. Who doesn’t want that? anymore. We can do far more with far less,” says Landrum. Keep this in mind as you decide who attends “With new tools and technologies — and a bit of an ‘evolved’ offsite events. And even at multi-day offsites, meetingsattitude toward meetings in the workplace — we’re simply doing can be “chunked up” into shorter sessions.things a little differently in the digital age,” states SarahLandrum, a millennial digital marketing specialist who also • Put some thought behind your venues – Don’t waitprovides career coaching and writes about how her generation for annual sales kickoffs or President’s Club celebrationscan be more engaged at work. to go offsite. Taking more meetings off campus can generate enthusiasm, increase engagement and improve What do millennials and Gen Z workers want from meetings? their productivity. “It’s well established that simplyLandrum recently offered these insights on Forbes.com: changing your surroundings can kick off a creative sprint, help you get stuff done and even think about • Strong leadership – Millennials don’t have time for challenges in ways you might not have considered,” meetings that don’t have a strong voice taking point. This says Landrum. is particularly grating for a generation used to seeing results and satisfaction nearly instantly. “If you see a Food matters leadership role not being filled, fill it,” Landrum The team at MeetingsImagined.com, a division of Marriott, implores. “If you see interest or leadership flagging, don’t says millennials appreciate meetings that put thought behind feel bad about speaking up and getting things back on meals. They cite research that shows millennials view meals as the right track. Meetings were never supposed to be a a time to socialize. Every meal and break should be staged in one-sided lecture-type experience. Under millennial24    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

meetings & travelcomfortable networking environments Meeting expectations(think lounge chairs or bar-like settings). Ideas for increasing millennial engagement Because this generation likes instantgratification, avoid structures that lead to Meetings and events offer the best possible platform to help millennials expandlong lines for food by placing appetizers, their networks, customize their self-education, and personalize their career paths.snacks and beverages at multiple stations That’s why millennials are advocating for more effective meeting design and betterwhenever possible. Stocking a station ways to connect, both physically and virtually, in a shifting and highly competitivewhere drinks and snacks are available global marketplace.during a meeting also keeps peopleengaged. Meetings Means Business, an industry-wide coalition of meetings industry suppliers, in partnership with Skift, a provider of marketing research for the travel Studies show millennials prefer to industry, created a report entitled “What Millennials Want in Meetings.” In it, theygraze. The three-course, sit-down meal offer these key strategies for engaging millennials attendees.is not as popular among this group. Ofcourse, healthy options (think vegan) are  Create hybrid meetings with exclusive virtual content. If millennials likea must. Fresh and sustainable food and sharing content digitally while participating in face-to-face events, then makebeverage choices are increasingly popular sure they have something to share. Meeting planners can start slowly to buildacross all generations. their online virtual content to test what engages attendees with stakeholder messaging most. As this part of meeting planning matures, so will Don’t forget that millennials are used sponsorship opportunities that can be packaged for individual sessions orto being connected digitally and love to larger portions of the event.multitask. Even if your meeting doesn’trequire internet connection, it should be  Include millennials in social media and website development. Evenprovided so they can check in with though many millennials are still developing their skill sets, they want to feelfamily, friends or colleagues. like their opinion is respected and they’re helping co-create meeting content and experiences. Create a millennial task force for special projects so theyCustomize, customize, customize can work together on shared goals like new social media campaigns, pre- and post-meeting online content, app content conversion to Web-based platforms,In its report, “What Millennials Want in etc.Meetings,” Meetings Means Business,an industry-wide coalition of meetings  Kill the cocktail reception. Well, maybe not kill it, but definitely add someindustry professionals, explains that interactive knowledge sharing that helps millennials develop either personallycustomizing meeting formats to suit the or professionally. Many millennials say the traditional cocktail reception isaudience and the purpose is an intimidating because it feels so unnatural to them to just walk up to someoneincreasing trend. There are more options to try to start a conversation without some kind of shared interest beyond thefor pop-up educational opportunities and event theme. Apps like MeetingMatch, where attendees can find people withopen-space learning. similar interests, are becoming popular. “Prefunction space is the new meeting  Create young professional SIGs. Everyone loves special interest groupsspace because attendees can come and go (SIGs) because they’re smaller gatherings with people who really identify withdepending on their satisfaction with the a niche subject. Planners should think about creating one solely for youngspecific content, and it tends to spur professionals, especially at association conventions, where millennials can letmore casual and spontaneous conversa­ their guard down and network in a more relaxed ambiance.tions,” the report states. “People in all agegroups are questioning the traditional A link to the full report from Meetings Mean Business can be found in theone-way speaker lecture format, but none Additional Web Resources box at SalesandMarketing.com.more so than millennials. The speaker/captive audience dynamic still has a lot meeting. They want something new and be meeting with the CEO or someoneof value of course, but planners should different and unique,” Sharon Fisher, else in top management. “They wantadd audience participation apps like chief idea sparker at Play With a Purpose, to be able to show their friends viaSlido.com and Conferences.io to develop recently told Meetings.net. Even with social media that they were a part oflive polls and inspire audiences to ask work meetings, this generation wants a unique event and interestingquestions.” (See the sidebar for four other Instagram-worthy moments. That could conversations.”  tips from Meetings Means Business forcreating millennial-friendly meetings.) Millennials “don’t want their father’s SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  25

meetings & travelDon’t drown yourpresentation in detailsSome presentations need to go into detail, but it’s important to • Avoid trap questions.  Some questions are impossiblehelp your audience not get lost in the weeds. Anett Grant, CEO to answer without going into a lot of detail. The key is toof Executive Speaking, Inc., recently offered these tips for recognize these questions so you can stop yourself beforestaying on point at FastCompany.com. getting lost in the weeds. • Don’t show off everything you know.  Think about • Swap data points for images.  Imagery is usually more what your knowledge means to your audience. How can powerful than a data dump. In making the case for pivoting you help them achieve their goals? You call a plumber to from trying to sell a product to partnering with other fix a leaky pipe, not to find out every single thing they businesses, a marketing exec didn’t do a deep, data-driven know about plumbing. analysis. He simply said, “Our business is like a fork. And we build the best fork. But customers don’t buy forks. They • Find your cruising altitude.  Presenter are like pilots: buy place settings.” With that powerful image, he was able They should quickly find a cruising altitude that’s to introduce a change that grew the company.   smooth and one-directional. If you don’t position your ideas at the right level (and keep them there), it could be a turbulent ride.26    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

meetings & travelThe future of meetings 4 Next-generation 7 CryptocultureFast Future Publishing, a London-based meeting schedulingpublisher of research and thoughts of Being prepared to accept payments byfuture thinkers from around the world, The intelligent assistants (IA) on our Bitcoin and other digital currency wouldrecently summarized the impact of phone, or on the meeting app, will booktechnological advancements on meetings appointments and meeting locations be an important step; there may alsoand conferences. For DIY planners, it’s for us based on the types of people be new risks at hand when itan opportunity to see if they’re ready for we say we want to meet. The IA comes to having anonymouslywhat lies ahead. will scan the attendee list, find paid fees, which is the nature the people who fit the criteria of Bitcoin but unconventional1 Conferences will have an we’ve defined, and then contact in terms of event planning. increasingly interdisciplinary their IA to request and set up meetings. focus 8  Digital twins 5 Thinking hubsIn many sectors, participants will tire of Early adopters of technology couldhearing the same industry speakers and Meeting venues will have interactive soon be able to send a digital stand-invendors saying roughly what they said technology that will enable creative to attend face-to-face conferences. Thelast year. In the search for inspiration to thinking and idea testing. Interactive participant’s digital twin would be amaintain attendance levels, organizers technologies such as virtual reality (VR) software incarnation of the personwill invite inspiring people from different or augmented reality (AR) will allow embodied (or not) by a hologram orfields, arts, science, music, business, participants to visualize data or ideas device that can see, hear and observeeducation, or engineering to share their developed in a workshop session in a the event in real time.ideas with participants. more tangible way. Participants will be able to test different ideas in VR/AR The digital twin could engage with2 Real-time conference agendas software and compare their possible other participants in virtual space or on outcomes to make better decisions. social media during the event, leadingParticipants will be able to use meeting up to scheduled face-to-face meetingsapps to schedule impromptu sessions 6  Integrated with interesting contacts at later pointsheld in any available in time.space — coffee bars, lobbies, events appsexhibition floors, even car 9  Robot realmsparks. The speaker will talk Users will not have tointo a microphone attached download individual apps for Events will make greater use of robotsto their own smartphone each event; integrated systems as mobile customer service assistants,and have the talk broadcast will emerge that present kitchen staff, baristas, waiting staff,to those who tune in to that content for multiple security guards and porters. We’ll alsoparticular channel. events — these may even see more robots featuring presentations become standard features and even delivering them. Within3 #metoo charters on many smartphones. facilities we might see drones capturingThe meetings industry will App developers will create videos of the sessions, transportingtake positive action in the wake of the more cohesive systems goods, and even movingharassment and assault cases made that merge the information and people betweenpublic across many sectors in 2017. Codes presentations for all the different sessions.  of conduct will appear covering behavior events that sign up to use them.at events, participants will be asked to Users will have the opportunity tosign these to confirm their adherence. browse for the most interesting andReporting of incidents will be made useful information across a range ofeasier and more discreet, and offenders’ events and conferences — perhapsorganizations will be notified making micro-payments to accessimmediately when such issues arise. content for the events they didn’t attend. SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  27

trends in...lifestyle and experiential rewardsLive, Love, Laugh…(Oh yeah, and work)Remember all of the talk about work-life balance Individual cruise certificatesas millennials entered the workplace? Yeah, that’s so 2015. Royal Caribbean International offers a turnkey program “It’s no longer about work-life balance, which suggests that recognizes and rewards employees, business partnersa compartmentalized lifestyle of work and leisure or work and clients with an incredible cruise vacation. The Royaland family. Instead, it may be time for what Jeff Bezos Incentive Rewards Certificate Program treats recipients ascalls work-life harmony,” states Brad Grossman in his the deserving individuals they are, giving them the freedom2018 Zeitguide. (Read our Q&A with Grossman on page to go where they want, when they want. Choose from a42 of this issue.) wide variety of certificates to fit all budgets. Call 800-762-0458 to learn more. “The reality is that to create true work-life harmony,the employee experience (EX for short) needs to beaddressed,” Grossman adds. “Companies are looking at anew measure of future success: How happy, they want toknow, are their employees? “It’s not just about ping pong tables and kegged cold-brew coffee. It’s about operating with transparency andcooperation. It’s about giving employees the skills tonavigate the new processes of the future, and helpingthem in a transformed labor market. It’s about being in anorganization that not only rewards them for their work,but enables them to have work-life harmony. “Taking employee experience into account inevitablyadds up to good business. That’s because happyemployees make for a better customer experience. Andcustomer experience has an outsized impact on businesssuccess.” The recognition ideas featured here can help youenhance your employees’ work-life harmony.The onsite gifting pioneerA successful gift experience createsmemories. Maui Jim pioneered the onsitegifting concept over 18 years ago. Witha true brand experience, it shows acompany is investing in that guest, justas much as that guest invests in thatorganization. For more information, contactEric Linder of Maui Jim at 800-614-6790,email [email protected] or visitmauijimcorporategifts.com.28    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

Experiences make trends inmore effective rewards BioLite CampStove 2 BundleAlthough many companies rely on cash rewards tosatisfy employees’ need for recognition, research The ultimate companion for the outdoor enthusiast is herefrom Globoforce, a provider of cloud-based human with the BioLite CampStove 2 Bundle. Grill, boil, cook andcapital management software solutions, shows that charge electronics with this fully integrated system. Generateexperiential and gift-of-choice rewards are 8.5 times electricity from smokeless wood flames and cook meals withmore effective in boosting engagement than cash. the portable grill and KettlePot attachments. Available nowThese rewards also don’t suffer from the problem of through Rymax Marketing Services, Inc. Call 866-RYMAX-11inflation, and employees are less likely to feel entitled or visit rymaxinc.com.to repeat rewards. “Research from Globoforce’s WorkHumanResearch Institute shows that to have an impact onsomeone’s level of engagement or to have an impacton someone’s probability of leaving an organization,which are two important factors that companies areoften trying to drive, four experiential rewards[annually] would have an impact,” Derek Irvine, vicepresident of strategy and consulting at Globoforce,told HR Today.Net increase in use of rewards by audience 48% In the coming year, do you generally anticipate Total Corporate Supplier Third Party your/your clients’ use of the following reward 51% 51% types will increase, decrease, or remain 17% 31% 37% 30% unchanged? 0% 21% 7%9% 7% 9% 6% Corporate and third party service providers -11% -11% anticipate increased emphasis on experiential Individual Gift cards rewards in the coming travel packages year, while suppliers are hoping for more merchandise to be in use.Merchandise Experiential rewards (spa, event tickets, etc.)SOURCE: INCENTIVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION 2018 OUTLOOK STUDY SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  29

trends inIf it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right • It’s never, ever, ever all about money.  So many recognition programs spend 90 percent of the effort on theIn the U.S. alone, companies are spending $46 billion per year mechanics of the nomination or the transaction and misfireon recognition — about 2 percent of the total pay bill — but on explaining what the award is actually for, or theyresearch shows that half of employees don’t even know that radically restrict the number of thank-yous that can be senta recognition program exists, state authors Glenn Elliott and to hit a budget number. Many make the process of sayingDebra Corey in “Build It: The Rebel Playbook for World-Class thank you so arduous that few ever get around to doing it.Employee Engagement.” The authors’ research shows that80 percent of senior leaders surveyed claim their employees • Recognition and visibility go together.  What’sare recognized monthly, but only 17 percent of employees think important is that recognition goes hand in hand with thetheir organization’s culture strongly supports recognition. deliberate efforts to improve the understanding of what different departments do and how their work contributes “Something is really wrong with what we’re doing,” they to the mission. When a salesperson wins a new client, whostate. They offer these ideas for getting your money’s worth else was involved in crafting the winning bid? Does anfrom your recognition spend: e-mail go to all of your managers, reflecting the totality of the talent and effort involved? • Make recognition personal.  When investing in incentives, make them personal. Use an understanding of someone as an individual to buy a meaningful reward or experience or use technology to allow staff to share what they’re saving for or would like to receive. Car top cargo carrier Have you got road trip lovers on your team? This USA made rooftop carrier provides 18 cubic feet of storage space. No tools required. Fits easily on most factory and aftermarket cross rail systems. Opens to the back providing three-sided entry for easy loading/unloading. Limited lifetime warranty. For more information, contact Jody Running of Top Brands, Inc., at 920-236-2800, e-mail [email protected] or visit top-brands.com. Lismore Reflections with Gold Band Adding a unique touch to the original Lismore pattern, The Lismore Reflection with Gold Band collection features a mirror image of the iconic design rendered at the bottom and top. Stylish matte gold bands combined with modern cylinder shapes and beautiful cut crystal to create a new “reflection” treatment. The Lismore Reflection with Gold Band bowls, vases and hurricane have been designed to cast rays of light and shade creating a statement to any interior. A new modern take on the beloved classic. For more information, contact WWRD US Special Markets Department at 800-933-3370.30    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

trends inOptions for every lifestyle You be youToday’s employees appreciate incentives that work with their “Truly experiential rewards systems are notlifestyles — and they want choices. Specialty merchandise and limited to travel, shows or classes, but rather theytrips and experiences they can share top the list. GC Incentives provide a broad enough range of choices that helpoffers the personalized approach recipients look for with our high- employees express their personalities, invest invalue gift card choices. For more information, call 877-737-0200 their hobbies, participate in the activities thator visit go.gcincentives.com/salesandmarketing for a demo. bring them happiness and joy, or do something nice for others who may not be as fortunate as themselves,” Jonathan McClellan, employee recognition segment director for Hallmark Business Connections, told HR Today. “When companies can unleash this potential through their recognition and rewards programs, they are more likely to increase loyalty and engagement.”Customers want experiences too Vitamix Pro 750 HeritageExperiential rewards aren’t just for employees. They work well in Perfect for the foodie who loves to createcustomer loyalty programs as well. Outdoor products company his/her own dishes, the Vitamix Pro 750The North Face VIPeak program recognizes customer loyalty with Heritage has the quality and precision ofexperiences that align with the satisfaction customers get when they premium commercial machines. Featuringuse North Face products. In delivering rewards such as ski lift tickets, stainless steel blades, 64-oz. containerclimbing expeditions, race entries, film series and opportunities to and 5 pre-programmed settings, thisinteract with The North Face’s sponsored athletes, the company blender will become the ultimate sous chefleverages its other marketing investments and only adds small marginal for any home kitchen. For more informationcost to deliver lifetime experiences. about this and other lifestyle rewards, contact Rymax Marketing Services, Inc. at 866-RYMAX-11 or visit rymaxinc.com.Hinda warehouse dashImagine a warehouse filled with everything your heart desires. Now,imagine having 60 seconds to grab anything you want. You are imaginingthe world’s most exciting award opportunity — the Hinda WarehouseDash®. See our video at hinda.com under “What We Offer.” SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  31

coverstoryI my job!Work-related experiences can boost morale, retentionand the bottom line by Paul Nolanflackableagency Celebrating in #Boston with the world’s greatest team after the#forbesunder30 Summit. Who knew you could have so much fun and get inspiredall at once?! #goteam #inspiredjanejane What a great experience! So thankful for our amazing team. 32    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

coverstoryBrian Hart was 27 when he founded mentor who dipped into his own bonus pay to “I love that my team got to hear entrepreneurs, and celebrities, and artists,and other influential people talk about where they find inspiration. | Brian Hart, FlackableFlackable, a Philadelphia-based public relations fund incentive trips for top performers onand digital marketing agency, in 2014. He waited his team. It really resonated with the team.” 10 months to hire his first employee, a recentcollege graduate who would work from Chicago. “I don’t think he realized how important whatTwo months later, he made another hire. he was doing was,” says West. “The camaraderie that we had inside our team was very rare. We Coming from a large PR agency, Hart was were all working so hard together to hit ourconfident he knew the world of public relations targets and the loyalty on our team wasand how to differentiate his company’s services tremendous.”from competitors who had significantly largerstaffs and marketing budgets. The management When he became Texas sales coordinatorthing? That was another matter. himself, West continued the practice, spending 20 percent of his bonus pay on incentive trips for “There was a bit of a learning curve in the his regional sales coordinators. The structure ofbeginning, when you make that first hire and the company meant that West and his colleaguesespecially after you start to grow quickly,” he says. were, in actuality, independent contractors and“I had a lot to learn being in that role. I’ve grown not full-time employees of the insurancea lot in terms of leading a team. I’ve learned a lot, company. West’s actions, just like those of hisand I realize that I need to continue to get better.” mentor, built a sense of togetherness that many inside sales teams would love to have. Now at the seasoned age of 31, Hart says hefeels a lot more confident about his role as a In 2009, West took a group of sales leaders andmanager. One important element he says he their significant others on a trip to the Britishlearned along the way was keeping an open dialog Virgin Islands. Dinner one night included a boatwith his team and creating an environment where trip to a small restaurant on the island of Jost Vaneveryone feels comfortable talking about what Dyke. It was a venue West had been introducedmatters to them, what may be bothering them to years earlier by his management mentor.and what motivates them. Through thoseconversations, Hart says he has learned how “The best lobster anywhere!” he says. “On theimportant experiences are for building morale way back, we were all looking at the stars andand making his employees — which now number watching a thunderstorm in the distance as wemore than half a dozen – feeling appreciated. cuddled with our spouses. The memories of that trip are still mentioned as the best experience “We’ve got multiple generations working here, they ever had from their relationship with anybut the bulk are young, entry-level workers. That company. The fusion we created producedgeneration places more emphasis than other amazing loyalty that exists even to this day.”generations on having opportunities to haveexperiences,” he says. The science behind experiences With his first hire more than 700 miles away West and Hart know in their gut that providingin Chicago, Hart knew it was important to fly experiences for employees has tremendous ROI.out soon after she joined his team to create a The science backs them up, says Cameronstrong working relationship. During his visit to Conway, vice president and general manager ofthe Windy City, Hart and his new colleague went sales effectiveness solutions at Maritz Motivationto the zoo, the Chicago Aquarium and a Chicago Solutions, providers of employee engagement andHawks playoff game (the new hire was a huge performance improvement programs.hockey fan). “This is not just something we see as a trend in “We packed a lot into that trip,” Hart recalls. the marketplace. It’s driven by the way the human“I saw how impactful and important that was mind works,” Conway says. The company has aand decided to make it a priority very early on.” behavioral scientist on its team who helps align employee engagement efforts with researchA mentor starts a tradition findings that experiences drive more powerful memories than other types of recognition.Like Hart, Jeff West, a retired sales coordinatorfor a Fortune 500 insurance company, learned The triple whammy of experiences, saysearly in his career how poignant experiences with Conway, is that it keeps workers engaged duringco-workers can be. West says he learned this not the anticipation stage, when they are actuallyfrom managing others like Hart did, but from a having the experience and afterward, when they SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  33

coverstory“This is not just something we see as a trendin the marketplace. It’s driven by the waythe human mind works.” | Cameron Conway, Maritz Motivation SolutionsFlackable founder share stories about their experience. “It was motivational and educational,” he says.Brian Hart took his Some feel the influx of millennials into the “I saw so many different areas where it addedteam to the Forbes value. I love that my team got to hearUnder 30 conference workplace combined with increased blending of entrepreneurs and celebrities and artists andin Boston and made work and outside life has sparked a greater other influential people talk about where they findit to Fenway Park to interest in company-sponsored experiences. “The inspiration. It really resonated with the team.”admire some World boomers were the generation of acquisition ofSeries trophies. things; the millennials are a generation of the Jeremy Shepherd, founder and CEO of acquisition of experiences,” Conway says, but he PearlParadise.com, an online jewelry retailer, says he has rewarded team members with experiences quickly adds that top performers over 40 are also for years, and he also focuses on the combination increasingly embracing experiences over stuff. of fun and career advancement opportunities. Business takes the company’s team members to For many millennials, experiences that are Asia a few times each year. Shepherd says he paired with career development are the most selects a deserving new team member to go at rewarding. Hart took his team of young PR and least once a year. digital media marketers to the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston last fall. “We book their tickets with either free time before or after our scheduled work. To date, we’ve taken nine of our team members to Hong Kong. For all but one, it was their first time and a trip of a lifetime,” Shepherd says. “Although we always give them a task while with us, they also have several days to explore on their own, and they get to join us at vendor dinners, which are a big deal.” Experiences can happen anywhere President’s club incentive trips are great and certainly memorable, but experiences through work can occur frequently and don’t require huge budgets. Hart says his professional growth strategy includes regular Friday training sessions, including movie days when they watch films about the financial industry, which they primarily serve, and discuss afterward. “It’s crucial to keep everybody motivated and collaborative,” he says. “One of the things I learned by becoming an employer is just how valuable good, smart, motivated and dependable employees are. I’ve also learned how costly an unmotivated and uninspired employee can be, and what a drag that can be on business.”  34    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

coverstoryBe the energy you want from your teamTop Banana, a London-based events and • Forget perfection – Employees no longer want acommunications consultancy, implores its filtered, polished version of their leaders – they wantclients to eschew the expected when providing real, human interventions delivering information in anexperiences to employees, customers and authentic way. Get out from behind the camera.other business partners. Forget the polished corp comms script and just get out there and talk to your people. “Effective, modern leaders need to workon creating frequent, exciting interventions in • Don’t keep calm and carry on – When your businessthe workplace through their actions, words environment shifts and the existing approach stopsand approaches. Deliver the unexpected, be working, communicate. The people in the business arememorable and surprise people with something those who will help…in other words, intervene and rallydifferent,” blogs Top Banana’s Marketing the troops. Often ideas come from the most unexpectedCommunications Manager Polly Stobinski. places.She offers these tips for creating memorableexperiences in 2018: • Creative that’s clever – High-impact leadership interventions are clever as well as creative, playing devil’s• Forget your ivory tower – You can’t cause advocate, making people think, connecting on a deeper much of a stir from up on high. Get out of the level. To really surprise an audience, leaders need to get office, get amongst your people and breathe creative, go deep and think smart. the same air. Ask to join employees for lunch. Gather a group off the shop floor for an Learn more about trends impromptu ideas session. Approach people in experiential rewards for specific expertise. and who’s offering what in our special coverage• The element of surprise – People remember it when on page 28. their leaders do the unexpected. Arrange a surprise event to celebrate success, communicate an important message by leaving a surprise item on the desk of every employee or take a loudspeaker onto the shop floor on a Friday afternoon to say some thank you’s.• Go guerrilla – Sometimes an email alert just doesn’t cut it. We’ve created everything from onsite flash mobs to large scale office takeovers and desk drops to help our clients land their leadership message. Create some lunchtime mayhem. It rarely gets forgotten.• Be emotional – True engagement comes when you touch people via their head and their heart. It’s simple: people remember the things that make them smile (or cry, or gasp etc.). Being emotional (on both ends of the scale) as a leader is not a weakness.• Make it fun – People don’t usually expect their business leaders to be in the “fun” game. Memorable tactics at leadership events such as gamification, virtual reality and team building really connect a leader to the rest of the organization.• Make it personal – If we feel something, we’re more likely to act on it. Tell personal stories, share your own memories, reflect on your own life experiences. Bring your thinking to life through creative, disruptive communications that get remembered. SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  35

coverstoryCorporate gifting becomes an eventFor decades, room gifts or gifts at check-in were a staple of Hatch, senior director of global corporate gifts for Maui Jim.corporate events. Elegantly presented, perhaps with a notefrom the CEO or other executive, these tokens of appreciation Hatch and his team helped pioneer the concept of giftingmay have been politely commented about among program experiences nearly two decades ago. Maui Jim employeesparticipants over breakfast or lunch the next day. would set up at an event, bring six or more styles of sunglasses, create a pop-up retail environment and the program Many companies are turning things up a notch. At today’s participants and their spouses were invited to pick a pair thatannual sales meetings or other offsites, gifting experiences suits them. The takeaway is always much more than a pair ofare becoming an event within the event — a high-energy affair sunglasses, Hatch says. Colleagues who may only see each otherin which colleagues “shop” together in pop-up stores or cheer at these annual incentive trips swap stories, laugh and enjoyeach other on as they dash through portable warehouses of the camaraderie. The gift is now the means of making lastingmerchandise stocked with electronics, sporting goods, memories. When they are worn months later, many participantswearables and more. will have the memories all over again. Instead of tucking a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses or OluKai Hinda Incentives has created traditional recognitionsandals into a welcome bag, program sponsors are opting to programs for companies for decades. More recently, it hasturn gifting into a social affair. “If I just throw a gift in your packaged its Warehouse Dash, in which award winners comeroom, the connection is just not that emotional,” says Brett to Hinda HQ and scurry through aisles of merchandiseCultivate and other recognition program providers create pop-up storesthat provide a team-building gifting experience during offsite events.36    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

coverstorygrabbing as much as they can in 60 seconds, into a traveling The smart way to gift onsiteshow. The offering is called Dash to Go, and Hinda Directorof Marketing Alisa Schafer says it is wildly popular. Hinda The instant gratification of an on-site gifting experience is keybrings the warehouse to the client’s event and the to their popularity, but it’s important to keep some importantexcitement ensues. tips in mind when using these programs. “It’s not uncommon to hear participants talk about having • Keep “packability” in mind if you are sending guestsbeen on lots of different trips, sat on beaches and been to home with their rewards. Glassware and other fragile itemsluxury locations around the world, and they will compliment are discouraged. You don’t want someone’s memory to bewhat an experience their dash through the warehouse was —  of a beautiful set of wine glasses that were broken by thethat it beats everything they’ve ever done in all of their years time they got home. Similarly, Romine, a cooking enthusiast,in sales,” says Schafer. says a premium kitchen knife is a gift that all foodies would appreciate, yet some people don’t like checking baggage The thrill of nabbing such a nice haul is relived when and couldn’t bring such an item on a flight in their carry-onthe pallet full of goodies is delivered all at once to the luggage.participant’s home a few weeks later. Hinda has analternative on-site offering called Shopping Spree in • Be cognizant of taxes and tariffs. Some exoticwhich six different pop-up stores are created and program destinations come with extremely high shipping and tariffattendees are given a set amount of currency to spend in costs. Paul Gordon, senior vice president of Rymaxthe makeshift mall. Marketing Services, says in some cases, it’s smarter to drop ship the products after the event and limit the number “It’s a great time for management and executives to join of samples on site. The benefit of working with veteranthem in the experience,” Schafer adds. “Especially in a sales incentive suppliers is they are familiar with mostsituation, these people may not get to be together often. It destinations’ tax and duty costs.really becomes not just an opportunity to redeem points,but a memorable experience.” • Let suppliers ship the merchandise. Romine says Cultivate used to let suppliers ship the recognitionProviding choice merchandise with the rest of their supplies for an offsite, but gifts often got flagged in customs and delays occurred. NotNot only do gifting experiences add energy to events, they only was there no merchandise for the pop-up stores, thetake the pesky problem of picking a room gift out of program client didn’t have its materials for the meetings they weresponsors’ hands and provide choice to the participants. “If having. Leave the shipping to the pros.you give 300 people who are coming from across the countyone item and expect them to walk away thrilled with it, it • Don’t outsmart yourself. A lot of clients – especiallydoesn’t make common sense,” says Tom Romine, founder repeat clients – request something new for merchandise orand president of Cultivate, a provider of premium brand gift ask to go with something thematic. “We remind the meetingexperiences. planner of the big-picture objective of achieving a ‘wow’ factor and rewarding with something their recipients will Romine was initially groomed on creating memorable love and use when they get back home,” says Romine.gifting experiences as the manager of the corporate sales andtournament gift division of Callaway Golf, and then as a • Use suppliers who know their product. Hatch saysmember of Hatch’s team at Maui Jim. He founded Cultivate Maui Jim was hired for a Google conference and thein 2010. The company stages more than 500 on-site gifting millennial participants peppered the Maui Jim team withevents around the world each year. Romine and his team questions about the different styles of sunglasses they weretravel to corporate meetings at high-end resorts. The offered. “Every event we do, it’s our employees who knowCultivate team stocks their pop-up stores with four to six the product that are working it,” he says.different styles in two to three different product categories(think sunglasses, sandals and handbags). “We’re always looking to curate a mix that represents thelatest retail styles, but also focusing on having something foreverybody,” Romine says. Average group size for eventsCultivate serves is 300, but they have supplied events with asmany as 4,000 guests and as few as 50. “The experiencecomponent — where guests get to interact with our team andactually select from a variety of items — creates the bestchance they will walk away with something they love anduse after the event.” SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  37

coverstoryMaking memories on a budgetThe great thing about rewarding with experiences is theycan be low-cost and high-impact, says Justin Lavelle, chiefcommunications officer for BeenVerified, a leading onlinebackground check platform. Lavelle offers these tips forcreating memorable experiences without breaking yourincentive budget.• Award an extra holiday.  Give your employees another day off of their choosing as a way to show appreciation for their efforts.• Host a family fun employee appreciation day. Rent out an ice skating rink for an afternoon or buy tickets for a family-themed movie, along with popcorn. It’s a relaxed, “offline” way to connect with employees, and it allows everyone to put down their work hats for a few hours and get to know one another.• Check in personally with each employee.  Even the act of checking in with employees and asking them what they like and what could be improved shows that you appreciate them. It’s a personal level of engagement that tells the employee you value their opinion so much so that you would actively solicit feedback, even at the risk of some of it being negative.• Send a gift card for them to experience something they love.  Try to personalize to each employee if possible. The 24/7 coffee drinker gets a card for the coffee shop, the sweet tooth will love a card to a candy, chocolate or cupcake store, and the employee who can’t get enough of the next-door sandwich shop would go gaga over a card that will cover some of their lunches.Studies indicate experiences make us happier than stuffDo experiences make people happier concerns the allocation of discretionary purchase they had made with the intentionthan material possessions? Researchers resources in the pursuit of happiness, Van of increasing their own happiness. Fifty-Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich Boven and Gilovich state that experiences seven percent of respondents reported thatconcluded they do. In two surveys, keep us focused on the here and now, and they had derived greater happiness fromrespondents from various demographic we anticipate and remember experiences their experiential purchase, while onlygroups indicated that experiential more than material goods. 34 percent reported greater happinesspurchases — those made with the primary from their material purchase.intention of acquiring a life experience —  In one of their studies, participants weremade them happier than material assigned to spend several dollars on an “The pleasure we derive from ourpurchases. In a follow-up laboratory experience or material good. Van Boven anticipations and recollections of eventsexperiment, participants experienced and Gilovich found that 83 percent are a substantial part of our onlinemore positive feelings after pondering reported “mentally revisiting” their experience,” the researchers state. “Ouran experiential purchase than after experiential purchases more frequently enjoyment of both experiences andpondering a material purchase. than their material purchases. In another possessions extend in time: We enjoy study, they asked over 1,000 Americans to their anticipation and further ‘consume’ While emphasizing their research think of a material and experiential their recollection.”38    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

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top performers An assortment of new incentive ideas and marketing tools from our advertisersHinda events and experiencesPeople don’t remember days, they remember moments. Hindacreates memories with gifting and reward-based events andexperiences. Imagine giving customers who attend your conferencea pair of Ray Ban or Maui Jim sunglasses or holding a WeberGrill cookout at your next sales meeting. Our experiences attractcustomers, engage employees and create stronger bonds withyour channel partners. Visit hinda.com to learn more. Westbridge collection Offering a 10\" bowl and 10\" vase at Special Value pricing, Waterford Westbridge features a variety of elegant cuts that truly shine. Function and decorative, this collection effortlessly adds a touch of sparkle to create a statement piece in any home or office. Radiating quality and value, the Westbridge collection is perfect for gifting in classic Waterford packaging. For more information, contact WWRD US Special Markets Department at 800-933-3370. Bulova CURV Collection The Bulova CURV collection debuted the world’s first curved chronograph movement, a marvel of technical engineering with a sleek ergonomic design and a slim case never possible in a chronograph movement. Built from the inside out, CURV is engineered to perfection with a high-performance quartz movement that vibrates at 262kHz frequency for precise accuracy. Now, the excitement continues with the ladies CURV. Featuring applied design technology to make a refined ergonomic statement, curved movement, and a diamond adorned case that exactly follows the wrist. For more information, contact Bulova Corporate Sales at 800-228-5682 or visit bulovacorporatesales.com.40    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

Better gift card incentives top performersMake giving choice easy. GC delivers instructions to Seiko RECRAFT Serieschoose their gift card incentive from over 200 popular Solar Chronographmerchants with your brand and message and handles This bold men’s watch is designedeverything from there. Rewards can be stored in a digital with a stainless steel case andwallet; no points platform needed. Add the option to blue and orange nylon strap. Theexpire rewards for consumer incentive campaigns. blue dial displays three dark blue subdials, LumiBrite hands andFor more information, visit go.gcincentives.com/ markers, and a date calendar, while the chronograph measuressalesandmarketing for a demo or call 877-737-0200. up to 60 minutes of elapsed time in 1/5 increments, including a split- time measurement function and a 24-hour indicator. Powered by any light energy, its solar cell is energy efficient with a six-month power reserve once fully charged. For more information, contact Seiko Corporate Gifts at 800-545-2783 or visit seikousa.com/corporate-gifts.Kenneth Cole HandbagsKenneth Cole presents the Kourtney Crossbody inblack vinyl featuring silver accents, chain detail andan adjustable strap. For over 30 years, KennethCole has sought to make a more meaningfulconnection with people by addressing not justwhat they look like on the outside, but who theyare on the inside. For more information, contactRick Tetreault at [email protected] or732-851-6002.Bulova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800-228-5682. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 2 ad indexDineEquity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866-812-8543. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 9Flourish Conference. . . . . . . . . . . . . flourishcon.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 43 Hinda Incentives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773-890-5900. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 13GiftCertificates.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877-737-0200. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 44 PremStar Incentives, Inc.. . . . . . . . . 732-851-6002. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 5 Seiko. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800-545-2783. . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 23 Waterford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800-933-3370 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 17 SALESANDMARKETING.COM   MAR/APR 2018  41

closersThe curiosity consultantGeneral Electric executive Beth Comstock called Brad Grossman “human CliffsNotes.”Oscar-winning Hollywood producer Brian Grazer found Grossman to be literallyirreplaceable as his “cultural attache.” Grossman founded and operates Zeitguide, acompany that uses e-newsletters, custom publishing and one-on-one coaching to keepbusiness executives up to speed on the topics they need to know to stay ahead of thecurve and the competition.SMM:  Your former boss Brian Grazer’s forces. Salespeople traditionally got their BRAD GROSSMANbook, “A Curious Mind,” was all about content from marketers or producthow his penchant for asking questions suppliers or product creators within their SMM:  You also expect to see more of thecreates valuable business insights. That’s organization. Now, salespeople have to blending of the chief marketing officerreally what you do for your clients be completely on top of the trends and role and the chief revenue officer rolenow, right? understand the problems that the brands into a chief growth officer. they are selling to are having. TheyGrossman:  We’re providing the expect salespeople to provide insights Grossman:  In terms of logic, companiesknowledge — the insights — they need to into solving their problems. It’s don’t want their highest level executivesstay up to speed as the world continues important for sales teams to constantly to just keep spending money onto change. We work with high-level be learning and staying up to speed so campaigns. Traditionally, the marketer’sexecutives and help them understand they can help the people they are selling role was to spend a lot of money to makewhat they need to know for themselves, to understand how their innovations are sure everybody knew about the brand.but also for their teams and their going to solve their problems. It’s frustrating for a CEO right nowcustomers. We basically put everybody because you can’t really find what thewithin their ecosystem on a learning SMM:  One of the trends you highlight ROI is on a lot of marketing andjourney so they can transform in Zeitgeist 2018 is helping workers be advertising. The CMO now has to thinkthemselves. happy. You say a focus on employee more in terms of a chief revenue officer: experience will rival that of customer “How do I use my creative talents andSMM:  Are your clients seeking trends experience. my relationship within the sales andwithin their industry or is the point to marketing world to help bring moneybroaden out beyond that? Grossman:  Customer experience into the company and grow the continues to be the hot topic for all of company?”Grossman:  They like to drift outside, sales and marketing. You’re not going tonow more than ever. Where we provide a make any money unless you serve the Purchasers of Zeitguide 2018 also receivecompetitive edge is to show our clients customer. But if you go one step deeper, three additional quarterly updates and ahow other companies and other companies won’t provide a great weekly newsletter on need-to-know topics.industries — those they never really customer experience if the employees The company also produces custom contentthought were their competitors — how that are supposed to provide it aren’t for corporate clients. Grossman had more tothey are experiencing the world of happy themselves. Happy employees say than we could fit on this page. The fullchange and what they’re doing about make happy customers. Q&A is available at SalesandMarketing.com/it. It seems that digital technology has Closers, where you will also find archivedflattened the world of verticals and SMM:  What are companies doing Closers interviews with Daniel Pink, Marksectors. They are all becoming to create the type of culture that Cuban and more.competitors. embraces this?SMM:  Sales itself seems to require Grossman:  In the same way youknowing a little bit about a lot of things enhance a customer experience byso you can find a connection that can having empathy and knowing yourstart a conversation. Is that part of the customers’ pain points, you also havereason people want your services? to have empathy for the employees that work for you.Grossman:  It’s interesting you say that,because a lot of our clients are sales42    MAR/APR 2018    SALESANDMARKETING.COM

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