Motivation Excellence Looks Ahead to 2022 – What You Need to Know Now for Future Incentive, Meetings & Travel Plans

By now, we’re used to the rocky road. We’ve adjusted our shocks and readily brace for the bumps, tight turns, and hilly climbs. There’s good news up ahead as our industry continues to recover from 2020, but likely, it’s not fast enough for most. Patience is key, along with innovation, flexibility, and timing. 

I chatted with members of our executive team covering travel, program design management, and sales. We’re happy to share our insights with you as you look at 2022, and beyond. President and CEO of Motivation Excellence, David Jobes, is hopeful for a smoother ride in the coming year. 

“We are excited to have incentive travel and meetings and events starting to operate again the last quarter of this year, as well as a very busy 2022. I’m sure there will be a few adjustments along the way, but our clients are excited and prepared to start getting together again with their customers and employees. Our advice is to be aware of current situations in the destination you will be traveling to and keep in contact with your expected travelers to gauge their expectations.”

Air Travel

Air traveler numbers certainly indicate an uptick in consumer desire to fly this year over last year, with that trend expected to increase in 2022.

On November 14, 2021, the TSA reported 2,150,150 air travelers. This is up more than double from 2020, but still a bit below the 2019 number of 2,396,681. Domestic air travel is expected to increase in these last 6 weeks with holiday travelers taking to the sky once again, with the New Year poised to continue the bustle. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts 2022 will see air travel demand get to 61% of pre-pandemic levels. 2021 was at 40%. 

The New York Times reported that more than 200,000 international travelers from more than 30 countries previously banned from entering the United States due to COVID policies, poured in on Monday, November 8 – the first day coronavirus restrictions were lifted. However, international travel still is lagging for understandable reasons. For comparison, a typical day in 2019 saw more than 371,000 international travelers arriving in the United States. 

Even with International travel opening up, the likely trend will be to stay closer to home for business initiatives. While we do have programs planned for Thailand, Mexico and the Caribbean in 2022, domestic destinations are on the schedule and less likely to change due to coronavirus mandates and concerns. Brad Hecht, VP Travel, says size of group, time of year, and distance for travelers should all play a factor as you decide your tolerance for travel in 2022…and realistically speaking, 2023.

“Companies are just now starting to ease the caution flag and focus on travel rewards again.  There are domestic and international destinations that provide a safe environment for their guests.  Now is a great time to get something in place for 2022, if space allows. Really, you should be looking at 2023 too, and the early bird will get their requested space.  The compression of space from the last 20 months pushed groups out to future dates and the full selection has been reduced somewhat.”

Meetings and Events

Earlier in November, our industry welcomed IMEX America back after a two-year hiatus. Travel, meeting, and event planners and partners were excited to be together in person and discuss a more robust future. The road ahead may be a bit slow, however. 

According to a report in a recent Meetings.net post, two-thirds of 500 meeting planners surveyed expect their 2019 meetings schedule to be back by the second quarter of 2023…more than a year away from now. Planners also reported that 40% of their meetings in 2022 will be all in-person, another 40% will have a virtual component and the final 20% will remain totally virtual. The good news here is advances in tech and event planners’ knowledge of how to best use it has increased substantially since 2019!

Cvent, C&IT, and Third Sector published their findings after a recent “Big Questions Live” event in the U.K. on the future of the events industry. Their participants agreed that flexibility, technology, and human connections are critical components to successful events. When they discussed localized meetings and hybrid events, they chose to highlight the sustainability aspect of not flying people across the world. Planners now need to have contingency plans, embrace the additional data they acquire from virtual settings and design human connection into everything. 

Something we’re seeing right now with clients is a desire to gather but within a short time period. Rhonda Brewer, VP Sales, says there are some great advantages to this. 

“We are also seeing more last-minute meetings pop up as businesses determine they need to get their teams together. These do create a lot of work very quickly but it also provides the opportunity to get great last-minute value at great hotels with openings. It doesn’t allow for a lot of options or changes, and decisions do have to be made quickly in order to secure space, but if you can be flexible it’s a winning solution!”

Alternative Awards

As we’ve mentioned, flexibility is key to sustaining a rewards and recognition program when travel is not always a certainty. Northstar Meetings Group conducted a survey in late October that showed alternative awards will continue to thrive in 2022. Gifts and gift cards are the most popular alternative awards to travel. 

The Incentive Research Foundation just published a paper on the Psychology of Points. In their online survey of more than 1,000 employees, they found that on average, respondents who work for a company with a rewards and recognition points program in place, had:

 

• Higher intrinsic motivation
• Higher employee engagement
• Greater satisfaction with their rewards and recognition
• Greater preference to continue working for an employer who offered a points program

We’ve found participants in our programs who shifted to alternative rewards, or started out that way in the first place, are highly satisfied with the personalized reward experience.

 

“As for incentives with alternative awards to travel, this has continued to be strong and was significant during the pandemic. Being able to offer award points in lieu of incentive travel has been extremely well received and gave attendees the opportunity to shop for very personal needs such as replacing windows, or providing for a child’s private education.  In addition, lifestyle types of gift packages such as whole-home entertainment systems, home fitness packages, or small kitchen appliance refreshes have been awarded and will continue to appeal. These have also worked well for quarterly spiffs,” Brewer reports.

For a more detailed look at alternative reward options please read our white paper From Mystery Destinations to Alternative Awards Options to Keep Your Incentive Program Alive and Well.

Get Started

While we obviously don’t know exactly what the future will hold, we do know the sooner you start, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Whether you’re planning future incentive travel, a meeting or customer event or some type of loyalty or reward program, the first step is deciding what it is you want to accomplish. Motivation Excellence is here to help. 

When you look at the goals you want to achieve with a program or event, also look at the audience and the budget parameters. Bob Graham, VP, Client & Technology Solutions, says things get a little tricky now when looking at historical data to help fill in details. 

“For both employee and customer initiatives, we have to remember we don’t have reliable baseline information anymore. Customers may be gone or new ones have stepped in over the pandemic time frame. Employees are a scarce resource base in some industries.”

Graham says secondary information can help support the initiatives to rebuild engagement, loyalty and future growth. He says you can look at this time in history as a positive for your business goals. 

“Customers need more support than ever before. It is an opportunity to step in and be that support. Training, supply chain issues and labor shortages are a challenge for a lot of industries, and a program right now could be the difference between building loyalty and growth and being stagnant.”

Having a trusted partner to help guide you through all the twists and turns of our COVID-infused world is critical. Reach out to us at ME@MotivationExcellence.com with any questions you may have about renewing your stake in the travel, meetings and incentive landscape. We can ride shotgun and steer you around the obstacles we’re so familiar with now. Who’s ready to ride?

Don’t Be Scared of the Devil in the Details – Instead, Find an Angel to Help

Ever heard of the saying, “The devil’s in the details?” If you want the “deets” on how it came to being be sure to check out this link. The gist is that even though elements of a plan may seem small and insignificant, each one has the ability to foil the overall results – what a little devil!

You’ve probably heard the saying by author and psychotherapist Richard Carlson, “Don’t sweat the small stuff…and it’s all small stuff,” but don’t confuse details as the “small stuff.” Carlson was referring more to emotional small stuff – annoying habits by coworkers, a rude customer or an inconsiderate driver causing stress, anxiety and anger. 

Details can be small – minute even – but in business they each have an important place in the overall picture. Think of all the tiny particulars that go into a space launch at NASA (or any of our new private space exploration companies). Those details are life and death important. The latest project you’re working on might not have that extreme level of mortality, but you get the point; a missed piece of the puzzle can make creating the big picture impossible. 

Find Your Angel

There are just some people who pay attention to detail much more keenly than others. You know the ones: they love to “find the differences” in two photos or can’t wait to look at a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle – it’s fun for them to investigate complex pictures and discover what’s out of place.  If you’re not one of those people, be sure there’s one on your team! 

At Motivation Excellence, we thrive on details for our clients whether it’s for an incentive travel experience or a customer engagement solution. Recently we had a new client, who we set up with a customer loyalty program, tell us how he appreciated our attention to all the “tedious tasks” that would’ve taken him years to get through. He went on to say, “It’s nice to have a hands-off program where you all take care of what needs to happen day to day and I chime in here and there where needed.” Can we get a “Hallelujah!” 

Inside our own organization, we have people who specialize in different areas of detail work. When looking at a proposal for a client, it goes through many sets of eyes before being presented. Some of us catch spelling errors at first glance, others thrive on budget anomalies, still others go over the graphics and question whether they make sense…it’s a team effort when it comes to making sure all the details line up for a great solution. The presentation, after all, tells the story and shows how much we care about how it’s told. 

Be Brave

As a leader in business, it’s critical to have a handle on the elements that create the big picture. If you’re not detail-oriented, don’t fear the devil too much. There are tips you can use to increase your abilities. The Dream Catcher website outlines how to become more detail-oriented. Paying attention to all facets of a project shows you care, but you don’t want to micromanage either. It’s a fine line – walk it safely. 

ThoughfulLeader.com describes finding the balance between wasting time on seemingly unimportant details and losing business to sloppy work.  It really comes down to being able to prioritize and delegate. If you really want to dive into how to prioritize, Zapier.com has nine scientific ways to do it. Maybe just skim it over to see if one of them will work for you. 

A Detailed Summary

Well, it’s not too detailed, but if you are a quick reference type of person, we’ve got just enough details here to quench your thirst. In short, details matter, however, you don’t need to be in charge of all of them or any of them if you have a trusted team at your side. You can be the big picture person – every organization needs them too!

Here is a quick list of getting started on conquering the details. Use it before your next big project leaves your hands. 

• Know your own detail-orientation level 
• Find your detail angels – they are real!
• Allow time to have several people review the work
• Present to a third party before a client – do the details add up to the big picture you intended for your best friend or spouse?

Good luck! We’ve given you the basics to work with the devil and the angel on your shoulders – they’re both there to help you conquer the small elements so your big picture shines through!

Embracing Empathy Will Make You Better at Home/Work/Everywhere!

Photo credit: Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash

Can you feel it when there’s tension or frustration filling a room of your coworkers? Does hearing about a stranger’s brush with inequity rile up your anger? When your friend cries in front of you, do you tear up too? These are all examples of empathy, and no, not everyone can relate strongly to these examples, but to be a more successful person, growing your empathy reaction is important.

6Seconds.org will tell you that empathy means experiencing someone else’s feelings, while sympathy means understanding someone else’s feelings. It’s about tapping into your emotions rather than your brain. There’s a long distance between the two, but both have solid places in our society.

For a quick, and funny illustrated example, watch this Brené Brown video where she describes how using empathy helps create connections, while sympathy doesn’t.

How Empathetic Are You?

Empathy is a widely studied trait! According to GreaterGood.Berkeley.edu, research suggests that empathetic people lean toward being more generous, concerned about others and have happier relationships. They also tend to be better leaders and communicators. You can take the GreaterGood quiz (less than 30 questions) to see where you land on their empathy scale. This will give you a good read into where you can improve. 

Not only does being empathetic help make you a better friend, it’s important to flex this skill at work too. TheBalanceCareers.com states a 2020 State of Workplace Empathy Study by Businessolver shows workplace empathy has stalled. The percentage of people (68%) who felt their organization was empathetic is the lowest in four years. 76% of respondents said an empathetic workplace inspires more employee motivation and 82% of CEOs say it has a positive impact on performance and productivity! 

Becoming More Empathetic

The good news is you CAN LEARN to improve your empathy! (Really anyone can, it’s just naturally harder for some, especially if you have a medically diagnosed personality disorder.) This is great news since we know being more empathetic can lead to better relationships at home and at work. 

There are many articles out there about habits you can incorporate to boost your empathy quotient. Be sure to visit some of our past blogs on EQ, Broadminded Thinking and Self-Awareness for similar tips for improvement. 

Among the most commonly suggested ways to improve your empathy:

• Be an active listener & sharer
• Read fiction – it helps you step into someone else’s shoes
• Experience new things like travel, food and activities
• Be open to giving and receiving feedback
• Smile and use people’s names in conversation
• Learn about a different viewpoint and ask the why behind it
• Talk to strangers in safe environments
• Question your assumptions and judgements of others

As another GreaterGood.Berkeley.edu article suggests, we learned a lot in the 20^th century about introspection. This century might well be best spent looking at how we connect with others to grow an even greater knowledge of the human experience. 

One thing is for sure, people will remember how you make them feel and being more empathetic is a key way to make them feel heard, supported and uplifted!

Going for Gold; How Regular Recognition at your Company Makes Everyone a Winner

The 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021) just wrapped up and I’m sure you can still see the gleaming faces of medal winners on the podium. That’s the ultimate recognition; winning a gold medal in a sport you’ve trained in and persevered through! Obviously, for most of us, that’s not a realistic attainment, but even a gold star can turn someone’s day around for the better. That’s the brilliance behind recognition. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing gesture. There are many degrees between a pat on the back and promotion to Vice President of Awesomeness (if that’s not a title, it should be)!

Motivation Excellence offers a wide variety of ways to recognize and reward important people in your business structure from employees to valued channel partners. In this blog, we’ll outline why having a recognition strategy in place is so important. Visit our website or reach out to ME@MotivationExcellence.com to learn more.

It’s About Trust, Motivation and Connection

Would it surprise you to hear that employees who receive recognition from their superiors actually trust their boss more? In this linked Forbes article, 90 percent of employees surveyed indicated higher levels of trust with the “higher-ups” if they had been commended for something in the past month. 

The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported that when employees feel their work leadership appreciates and recognizes their efforts 93 percent say they feel like they fit in at their organization and 91 percent say it motivates them to work harder for their boss and their colleagues. 

We know that the amount of telecommuting rose 115 percent between 2005 and 2015. Given the pandemic of 2020, work-from-home situations have risen even more dramatically across the country. Implementing a social network for recognition with your off-site staff is critical to keeping them connected and engaged.  Northstar Meetings Group released 20 ways to show appreciation to a spread-out workforce during and after the pandemic. Several of them call out the importance of taking time regularly to recognize employees’ successes and sharing positive stories through a social recognition network. 

It’s About the Why Behind the Recognition

For the person being recognized, it’s about feeling respected for their skills, included in the company culture, and acknowledged for their work. For the company offering the recognition, it’s about promoting a positive culture, highlighting the core values, and building lasting relationships with the people who make a difference to the bottom line AND the overall atmosphere of the company. 

Recognition can have both soft and hard costs, and both can give a super boost to retention rates, productivity, and workplace happiness. You might be surprised to hear that the vocalization of appreciation for good work can mean more than a monetary supplement. 

Here are some reasons why to show recognition to someone important to your organization:

• Birthdays
• Revenue-based accomplishments
• Training achievements
• Demonstrating company values
• Going above and beyond expectations
• Increasing new client contacts
• Kudos from customers
• Meeting or beating established goals
• Work anniversaries

It’s About How Recognition Happens

Knowing who you are recognizing, is as important as how you are showing them appreciation. A combination of verbalizing your kudos (either in writing, or in person, or both Epic Work Epic Life gives some great through-starters to authentically show appreciation for people’s accomplishments), and tying a reward to the recognition is a great way to make sure your intent comes through loud and clear. A reward does not have to have a cash value either. Depending on who the audience is, tailor the reward to fit the job level, demographic, and scope of accomplishment.

Here are some ways to recognize someone:

• Congratulate them on the internal company social site
• Give a day off
• Award accomplishments with pre-determined reward packages
• Reward top performers with a group travel experience or a travel getaway package
• Offer an award point platform to earn and redeem points as desired
• Increase flex working options
• Cater in a lunch for the team
• Plan an off-site experience
• Support a favorite charity
• Create incentive programs
• Show appreciation through saying “thank you,” or “good job!”
• Surprise stellar performance with a gift card of their choice

Hopefully, you now have a great understanding of why recognition is important and how you can administer it. Of course, Motivation Excellence is here to help you get started by offering suggestions to implement a Q4 spurt program to help you achieve your goals! You may not earn an Olympic gold medal, but your company will see the benefits to productivity, retention, morale, and trust in leadership! That could be even better!

From Mystery Destinations to Alternative Awards: Options to Keep Your Incentive Program Alive & Well

We’ve been down this path before. Surges in COVID cases cause some people to be hesitant to travel now, or even plan travel a few months ahead. Companies are faced with deciding when employees will be back in offices AND when people will be traveling again for business. Perhaps further down on the list is deciding when to revive your highly motivating group travel incentives. According to the Incentive Research Foundation, 80% of U.S. employees surveyed found group travel to be highly motivating, so don’t let your revival fall too far down that list!

Motivation Excellence has good news for business leaders out there wanting to get their reward and recognition programs back on track, yes, even with group travel!

In this white paper, we’ll give an overview of how and why “Mystery Destinations” work. We’ll also give other options for rewarding experiences outside of group travel, if you’re still not ready to commit to that quite yet. As you begin to shore up budgets and plans for 2022, do not overlook this critical piece to increased productivity and improved company culture!

“Mystery Destinations”

This is a tried and true concept we’ve used many times during the history of our company. The benefits to you greatly outweigh the risks, and during this particularly fluctuating period, it can be a great fit for safety-minded business leaders who still want to use a group travel incentive.

Instead of contractually committing to a property and destination more than a year out, our Mystery Destination solution allows you to book much closer to travel. This significantly lowers the risk of having to cancel.  After talking with you about budget, time of year and location preference, length of stay and probable number of travelers, we start monitoring several good-fit destinations and watch for hotel room booking “holes.” Knowing you want good weather and outdoor activities in June, we could be watching Denver, Orlando, Austin, Texas and Cancun all at once.  In the meantime, we start a creative engagement campaign with participants to get them to start guessing “where in the world” they’ll end up if they win. 

Benefits Include:

• Securing great purchase value by filling unused room blocks
• Less worrying about attrition and cancellation clauses
• No hotel/DMC deposits needed until closer to actual travel
• Monitoring of destination “issues” allows you to book at the safest choice 4-6 weeks before travel
• Engaging participants is very fun, clues are generic and the reveal can be very creative

Risks Include:

• Losing out on first choice of property/destination
• Activities may be harder to schedule the longer you wait to book

Overall, our “Mystery Destination” solution can save your hopes (and maybe even some cost) of a group travel program in 2022 and beyond, as long as you can be flexible. You can watch a short webinar on this topic, featuring one of our hotel suppliers, on the Newsroom tab at MotivationExcellence.com. 

“Alternative Rewards”

If you are not ready to host a group travel experience just yet, you still need to reward the people in your company that make a difference. There are nearly unlimited possibilities when it comes to providing alternative rewards to group travel. 

Our biggest piece of advice on this is to make it personal. Giving your employees the ability to create a reward meant only for them is undeniably motivating and memorable. An emotional connection between the reward and the company that provided it is rekindled each time the employee sees it or remembers the experience. Motivation Excellence has several ways to achieve this type of connection.

• “Concierge Shoppers” are available to help select participants who have earned rewards to redeem them in a way most befitting their desires. It could be a down payment on a vacation home, or custom-made jewelry, or even home improvement projects. We literally helped purchase a cow at auction for a participant once – give us your dreams and we’re ready to help make them come true! 
• “Your Day, Your Way” is an option where earners can design a local getaway using their rewards and our Personal Shoppers. We’ve partnered with dozens of hotels across the U.S. and Canada to help craft unique packages that can include activities like a chef’s table, whiskey tasting or spa treatments. It’s perfect for the winner who wants to share their award with a small group of friends, creating lasting memories for years to come.
• “MAXRewardsYourWay” is the perfect way to reward top performers through aspirational lifestyle upgrade packages. We can create a variety of packages to fit your budget and because each is filled with name-brand items coveted by many, this option is highly promotable. Think kitchen appliances and gadgets, fitness room improvements, the latest trending entertainment devices, individual travel packages and more! Each package can also be customizable if the winner already has one or more of the items included. 

We also have a wide selection of merchandise, gift cards, travel and event tickets and experiential activities in our online award offerings. Through COVID-19 we’ve had to transition several travel programs to online award platforms. We found earners were thrilled with the opportunity. 

“I always wanted this guitar, but could never justify the purchase before this award program!” 

 

“What an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience my wife and I will have when we get to travel the Danube one day.” 

 

“I had new windows and gutters installed in my home and am thrilled that I (and my husband) will never have to clean a gutter again!” 

 

“I would never spend this kind of money on myself normally. This was the perfect opportunity for me to get (luxury accessories).” 

“This would be an amazing program to introduce annually. Making it this personal was meaningful.”

One client, with more than 120 winners, was so pleased with how this turned out in 2020 in lieu of their spring travel to Hawaii, they opted to do it again instead of traveling to Lisbon in the spring of 2021. The results were phenomenal. 100% of their winners redeemed their allotted award. This is how it broke down in 2020:

• 70% utilized our concierge shoppers to create totally unique reward experiences
• 15% booked future travel using certificates or our online booking tool
• 15% redeemed their points in our online offerings for merchandise, special events or experiences

With all of our reward programs, engagement remains strong. There is an almost even split between redemptions for merchandise, individual travel and event tickets versus gift cards with the former taking a slight edge. Throughout the pandemic, the most popular redemptions include new electronics and individual travel packages. 

We recently dedicated a short webinar to the importance of finding the right rewards to enhance your incentive program. You can watch it on our Newsroom tab at www.MotivationExcellence.com. 

Hopefully, you see now how you can still keep your group travel dreams alive despite our current situation OR easily decide to shift to alternative awards that are personal, meaningful and memorable. 

Rules for Successful Programs (Incentive, Loyalty, Rewards)

As you embark on launching a loyalty or incentive program, we know one of the most important factors to its success is the rules structure. Some of our clients want to write the rules themselves, while others look to us for expertise. In either scenario, we work together to create meaningful parameters that sets up success for you and your participants.

We recently recorded a less than 15-minute webinar looking at what goes into writing program rules and why they matter. Be sure to check it out in our newsroom at MotivationExcellence.com. Bob Graham, VP, Client & Technology Solutions and Rhonda Brewer, VP, Sales join me to discuss the vital ingredients to creating meaningful program guidelines.

The process always starts with in-depth conversations with you. There isn’t a set roadmap to follow, but rather a journey of discovery that could take some time. We look at the market, your competition, performance goals, past issues and future possibilities to name just a few avenues we explore.

There are key things to look at in a few broad categories that are universal. Below we list those and give you a real-life situation to illustrate them better.

Goals:

We need to pinpoint what you want or need to get out of the program. Is it increased mindshare, more revenue or stronger channel relationships? Are you hoping to reward loyalty, improve employee tenure or recognize achievements? It could be any of these, multiple options or something entirely different. Without clear goals, the water gets murky from the onset.

Participants:

Here we need to know your target audience. It could be employees, contacts in the distributor channel, customers or sales members. Knowing the audience helps us determine the best way to motivate the desired behavior change. The audience can vary from essential workers to top performing employees or channel partners. The rewards can equally vary from a 5-star group travel experience to gift card options to trending merchandise and lifestyle upgrade packages to individual travel and Concierge Shopping experiences. We have a 22-minute webinar on award options and whom they’re best suited to in our newsroom as well. Matching the participants to the right rewards increases engagement and the success rate of a program!

Client Y is a large medical testing company that wants to reward two different employee groups. First, they want to make sure they’re rewarding their top performers in the sales department. Second, they also want to make sure their entry-level couriers are encouraged to report possible revenue-changing activity out on their routes. With very clear-cut participant groups we know the motivation for each will likely be different, as well as the budget allocated to them. With two vastly different demographics, the rewards must be commiserate and aspirational for both. The sales team will have a longer earning cycle, but the couriers business intel can be rewarded more immediately. These groups will have two separate rules from which to play. The reward for the top performers in the sales department is a 5-star, group travel experience for at least 5 nights. This experience is filled with once-in-a-lifetime activities, networking with fellow winners and access to the top executives in the company. The reward for the couriers is a points-based program where they can redeem for a wide variety of trending merchandise, event tickets and individual travel options. Couriers can save up points for something truly memorable, or spend them on smaller treats as they see fit.

Hurdles:

You know your goals and your audience, but what obstacles will hinder their connection? Recognizing internal and external hurdles is important to designing a program structure. Sometimes it’s not having access to customer information like who the decision maker is. Industries with a lot of turnover in the distribution chain have a hard time keeping external data updated. A company trying to increase longevity of its own staff knows that turnover can be a hefty obstacle internally as well. Budget constraints are also important to recognize up front, as that affects how you connect with your audience and the types of rewards you want to offer.

Client Z is in the electrical supply industry. They have hundreds of thousands of customers but their internal tracking system is antiquated and decentralized. They want to identify customers who are large enough to assign a salesperson to them to help grow the account. They don’t have the budget to overhaul their tracking system. These are two huge hurdles! Offering a points-based reward program for internal sales representatives might be a cost-effective and motivating solution to start centralizing data.  In addition, adding an element of competition among branches could spur more activity. Developing a far-reaching engagement campaign to capture basic customer information is another tactic to start building business intelligence. Knowing this is going to be a long journey is important as well.  

Measurements for Success:

Finally, we need to understand how you define success. Does it have to hit a certain ROI or percentage of overall sales? For employee retention, what’s the golden length of time an individual stays that makes the program worthwhile? Without metrics – soft or hard – the success of a program isn’t tangible. If you can’t measure the outcome it’s hard to make meaningful adjustments to the program rules. Metrics can be very bottom-line type measurements tied to sales numbers, new customers or percent of market share. They can also be tied to engagement ideals like website visits and read email percentages. You can also measure an emotional connection. Has participating in this program made someone happier, feel better about their job or motivated them to improve? We have a whole blog with insight from Bob Graham on how important metrics are for measurement.

Client Q is part of the fencing industry and wanted to build stronger relationships with its customers, as well as, increase revenue across the board.  New owners, acquisitions and mergers in recent years led to some organizational adjustments and lack of consistent customer interactions. The solution included a preferred buyer incentive program where customers earned a travel experience that included an on-site Buying Show with our client’s best vendors. Customers have access to show-only deals, networking time with other fencing contractors and company executives. There are training sessions, interactive social functions and world-class entertainment. The results not only have showed increased revenue since the program started 10 years ago (including year over year sales growth), but also increased engagement from customers who want to attend each year. In fact, this client’s million dollar customers grew from 12% to 25% of their attendees. Those are some great metrics for measurement!  

Overall, having the proper rules in place not only creates incredible benefits for the current program but far into the future too.

• Minimize risk of going over budget
• Drive desired behavior changes
• Create a predictable return on investment
• Build goodwill within the channel

For more examples of how successful rules influences actual programs, please visit our Case Studies page on MotivationExcellence.com. We are here to help you create a meaningful, robust and successful program! Please reach out if you have any questions: ME@MotivationExcellence.com.

Showing and Gaining Respect, A Blog in Less than 450 Words

It’s all about the golden rule, isn’t it? Treat others the way you’d like to be treated. That is the bottom line regarding respect. Of course, there are other important ways you can show respect to others and lucky for you, we’re going to outline some of them right here! The best part is, when you show others respect in simple ways (Inc.com will give you 99 of them), you gain it right back!

And because we respect your time, this is going to be a rather short blog. If you take the time to read it and the links embedded, you’ll be well on your way to showing and earning reverence right away!

After doing research, I’ve developed my own acronym of sorts to help me remember to be on my best behavior at work and in life. We all need reminders!

Respond kindly
Exercise active listening
Support others
Praise appropriately
Encourage discussion and different opinions
Communicate politely with your voice and body language
Treat others how you’d like to be treated

Go ahead, and come up with your own meaning for each letter of RESPECT. It’s a great way to flex those mental and empathy muscles!

Respect is a critical aspect to positive company culture. Even when you can’t quite put your finger on it, you know when you feel disrespected. That feeling does not often motivate anyone to do anything but respond in kind, which exacerbates the situation. According to The Balance Careers, showing respect, and in turn receiving it, increases productivity and encourages teamwork. Focusing on this from time to time is a great exercise for all companies large and small.

From making eye contact to using respectful body language, we all possess the ability to practice showing deference, esteem or polite indifference. In fact, when you take the time to purposefully initiate and exercise respectful behaviors you might be surprised at how much you enjoy the results. PersonalDevelopFit.com dives into great ways to do this. The next time you are going into a meeting with one or multiple people resolve to be an active listener, leave your phone alone and contribute positively to the conversation.

As a final thought, don’t underestimate the power of gratitude and appreciation when it comes to showing this topic. A well-placed and meaningful “Thank You” will endear you to the recipient and pave the way for a respectful relationship going forward.

As promised, this is a short one. Now go off and exercise respectful interactions. The world will instantly be a better place!

Measure, Track, Adjust, Measure, Repeat…Why Metrics Matter to Your Success!

Guru is a Sanskrit term for mentor, guide, expert, or master of a certain field of knowledge. There are gurus for everything, including business metrics for measuring success. His name was Peter Drucker and he is widely acknowledged as the inventor of modern business management. One of his most famous quotes is:

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

– Peter Drucker

At Motivation Excellence, we have our own guru of measurement. His name is Bob Graham and he’s the Vice President of Client and Technology Solutions, but honestly, when we introduce him we say he’s the “king of data” or our “rules aficionado.” At any rate, you can tell, we respect his expertise in this area. As our “passionate advocate” for this blog, Graham says establishing and measuring critical data points is essential to the success of incentive, employee, and loyalty programs.

“Metrics allow our clients to know if they used their budget, internal resources and relationships in the channel effectively. That doesn’t always mean financial metrics. Without metrics, you don’t know if you were successful in moving the business forward or achieving the intended goals.”

Start at the Beginning

Understanding your starting point is the springboard to moving forward. If you don’t know where the starting line is, how can you know when you’ve crossed the finish line? This is important not only to a myriad of business applications but personal ones too. Whether you want to increase sales, improve partnerships, lose weight or run faster, knowing where you are now and where you want to be eventually is the first step toward making informed decisions that can lead to success.

For our clients, Graham states it’s never a one-size-fits-all solution.

“Since each company’s goals are different and the way they operate is different (even in the same vertical) we need to start fresh with each client.  Identifying the goals, understanding the data and performance needed to achieve those goals are the starting points to build the measurements.”

Graham continues that understanding what will motivate participants to reach the goals is another important factor to consider. Another factor? Avoid setting unrealistic goals.

“Setting mutually beneficial expectations through the program rules that achieve the goals and provide a meaningful reward for the participant through the program structure, award selections and communications is the balance that creates the optimum results.”

Focus on What’s Most Important

When used well, tracking metrics can be very motivating, even for those struggling or those already excelling. Setting up short, medium, and long-term goals gives you metrics to track and adjust at each level. Don’t get overwhelmed tracking EVERYTHING. Focus on the most important objectives and pinpoint the metric that gives you the most information.

As with most personal and professional development skills, there are many tips on how to become better at selecting and measuring metrics for success. Whether you’re a CEO trying to break into the top tier of your vertical, or a weekend warrior training to compete in a triathlon, finding your critical metrics will put you on the right path from the beginning.

Repeat Your Success

There’s a saying in the carpentry world, “measure twice, cut once.” In the business world, when it comes to metrics for success a better saying might be, “measure often, adjust as needed, and build your success more than once.”  

For us at Motivation Excellence, when our clients succeed, we all feel a sense of accomplishment, which feeds our desire to repeat it over and over. That’s a metric of not only customer satisfaction but also employee fulfillment. Remember, Graham says not all metrics are tied directly to financial numbers.

“Success is when our teams are successful at exceeding our clients’ and participants’ expectations and building great programs that achieve our clients’ goals. Equally as important, each team member needs to enjoy their time at work and feel they are contributing.”

When you look at satisfaction, fulfillment, lasting relationships, and retention (of both customers and employees), you will see the higher the metrics rise the more successful a company is from the bottom line up! For someone trying to achieve personal goals, you’ll notice each metric hit creates momentum toward the next measurement. The trick is finding the correct metrics to measure, selecting realistic goals, and following through with consistent tracking. What is your plan for measuring success?

The PDQ Guide to EQ Versus IQ; Why EQ is a Better Predictor for Job Success

May is mental health awareness month. It’s also a time we celebrate moms, often our emotional support advocate. Finally, for students and teachers it’s the end of the year, which usually brings on extra stress. This is the perfect month to talk about EQ!

What is EQ?

We know that IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient. Have you heard of EQ? It’s your Emotional Intelligence. VeryWellMind.com likens it to book smarts versus street smarts.

IQ looks at:

• cognitive abilities
• memory
• reasoning
• visual and spatial processing
• general knowledge of the world

EQ looks at:

• identifying emotions and motivations
• perceiving how others feel
• self-regulation and awareness
• empathy
• communication skills

Both have significant roles in our lives, and there’s a lot of discussion about which one is actually a better predictor of success. Having a high IQ certainly sets you up to a certain level, but EQ proponents will argue that a high emotional intelligence score puts you ahead of the pack when it comes to leadership and rising the ranks.

World Economic Forum recently reported very interesting statistics regarding EQ. RallyBright.com echoed the findings. It’s a top skill to have for career success.

• Those with high EQ are 127 times more productive than those with low EQ
• EQ is responsible for 57% of job performance
• When compared to someone with similar IQ and technical skills, EQ accounts for 90% of why someone gets promoted

Why EQ is Important

Now that we’ve established what EQ is, let’s look at how it can create a better trajectory for your career (or life in general, really). Psychologist and author, Daniel Goleman, is a thought leader on EQ. He details the five characteristics of high EQ and how they equate to better leaders.  You can hear him talk in depth on this topic in a March Sounds True podcast.

TalentSmart, an EQ training company, found that EQ also equates to a higher salary. According to their research, people with a high degree of emotional intelligence make an average of $29,000 more per year than those with a low degree of EQ. In fact, they report that every point increase in EQ equals a bump of $1,300 to an annual salary.

Maya Angelou is quoted as saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This is what emotional intelligence is all about. If you leave someone feeling good about themselves, their project or just life in general, they’ll remember that sense of good will and appreciate interactions with you.

Think about it. Whom would you rather work for: a negative, insulting, know-it-all, or a kind, inquisitive and compassionate person? As a leader, do you know the names of your employees’ kids? Are you empathetic to struggles at work and at home? Do you understand what motivates each team members’ best performance? If you answered no to any of those questions, it’s time to work on improving your EQ score!

Boosting Your EQ

While your IQ score might not change much over time (although you can always be a lifelong learner), you have the power to increase your EQ through practice and mindful decisions. Start with taking an EQ quiz or two to gauge your starting point.

The Institute for Health and Human Potential has a very quick (less than two minutes) quiz to get you started. Psychology Today has a much longer version (45 minutes) if you really want to continue this journey.

There are also a variety of tips to increase your EQ score over time. Inc.com shares ten strategies to enhance your EQ no matter your starting score. They include:

• Communicate assertively (not aggressively, or passively)
• Respond rather than react
• Be an active listener
• Learn self-awareness
• Be sociable and approachable

Research shows companies who hire employees with high EQ see major increases in total sales and productivity. In addition, 90% of top performers earn high EQ marks. This so-called “soft skill” has the ability to bring in hard results while improving company cultures. If you want to find yourself at the top of your career path, EQ will be one of the best skills to develop!

Building Business through Relationships – a White Paper from Motivation Excellence

Name an industry the pandemic hasn’t affected for better or worse? Stumped? Practically every aspect of our lives has seen upheaval and the building industry has certainly not been immune. In fact, with increased demand for home renovations, fluctuations in commercial projects and supply chain interruptions, this industry is riding quite the swells.

This is a vertical close to our hearts at Motivation Excellence. We have enjoyed working with clients in flooring, electrical, fencing and construction product manufacturing to name a few. Because of their delivery chain, we’ve worked with them to improve relationships with their own sales teams, their distributors and their sales teams, and the final customers.

Below we review, at a high level, three case studies to give you a summary of how our solutions helped increase sales, build relationships and grow loyalty for our clients. While these are specific to the building industry, many other verticals can benefit from well-planned incentive programs.

Case Study 1: Electrical

Goals –

• Increased brand recognition
• Significant sales growth
• Vendor buy-in to help fund the program

Solution –

• Segmentation of their 100,000+ customer base to capture the top and middle performers
• Incremental sales goals were assigned to the top 20%
• Tiered award offerings to motivate each customer level (including two group travel levels and award point earnings for smaller customers)
• Projected sales growth helped secure vendor buy-in

Results –

• This program continued for more than 20 years, resulting in sustained growth with participating customers year over year
• Enrolled participants outperformed the market trends in a down, up and even market (see graph)
• ROI was more than 200%
• Market share increase achieved
• Vendor contributions significantly paid for program costs, and they realized increased growth as well.

Case Study 2: Flooring

Goals –

• Motivate commercial flooring contractors to buy more from them
• Create a self-funding program

Solution –

• Dove into four years of company sales history as well as industry data
• Increased audience size by 3.5 times to meet client’s aggressive growth and self-funding goals
• Targeted communications to keep inspiring middle performers to reach higher
• Created award options to motivate both the highest and middle performers, including travel and award points earnings

Results –

• 627% ROI: program profit contributions nearly doubled the expected, and the program was completely self-funded
• Equity among participants was built through data analysis, setting reasonable goals and offering desirable rewards
• Engagement among the participants build stronger relationships

Case Study 3: Fencing

Goals –

• Increase revenue from fencing contractors in the United States and Canada
• Build stronger relationships with the largest customers
• Be a source of education for customers on growing their businesses
• Engage internal sales associates, help them create bonds with customers

Solution –

• Built a travel incentive program rewarding the top customers and their guests
• Targeted gift mailings to contractors on track to meeting qualification for travel
• Created an exclusive Buying Show featuring best vendors with show-only deals during the incentive experience
• Included sales associates on engagement campaign emails to keep their excitement high

Results –

• Revenue growth for each qualification period
• Million Dollar Customers grew from 12% to 25% of the incentive winners
• Greater customer knowledge and relationships
• 71% of enrolled customers qualify to attend the incentive event
• Many repeat winners vowing to return for each program

These are just a few examples of Motivation Excellence solutions that can help drive results for increasing revenue, loyalty and stronger relationships. A successful incentive program starts with a lot of research up front, a growth-based rule structure and plenty of metrics to measure achievement. It takes a close partnership with our clients to create the best plan for success.  Once that’s all in place we can launch a program within four weeks.

If you’d like to see our case studies, please visit the Newsroom tab on our website. You can also watch our “Building Business through Relationships” webinar from April 2021 on our website. It contains a more in-depth conversation about all three of the above programs. In addition, you can hear directly from our fencing client contact about his company’s Buying Show experience.