Get to Know ME with Brad Hecht
It’s time to get to know our Vice President, Travel, Brad Hecht, a little bit better! He’s a long-timer with Motivation Excellence. He’s got a lot of frequent flyer miles and he shares his destination picks in the linked video. Take a few minutes and watch that and read his answers to our questions below. Thanks Brad for sharing!
What’s your title and how long have you been at Motivation Excellence?
Vice President, Travel – 22 years.
What does your job entail?
Responsibility for all facets of our travel business including travel presentations, purchasing, contracting, sourcing, Program Management and Coordination, client facing travel technology, and onsite operations.
What’s something special about working at Motivation Excellence that you’d like to share?
Our employees are amazing!
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
I can hold a handstand in a pool in perfect form for a long period of time. Wow, that’s really odd, isn’t it (maybe random)?
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
To be a positive person for myself and everyone around me. That energizes me.
What do you enjoy doing outside work?
Golf, pickleball, hiking, biking, attempting to be a wine snob.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
The TV show “Two and a Half Men.”
What have you done that helped you get through the pandemic?
Getting outside every day to free my mind, exercise or hike to do a refresh.
What is the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
As a high schooler, I was a lifeguard at a Holiday Inn near Six Flags over Mid-America. They didn’t have room service but the celebrities coming in to perform all wanted it, so I was the person to handle all room service when celebrities came to stay. Boy, do I have some interesting stories!
This month, our theme for social media, metrics for measurement. How do you measure success (could be on the job or personally)?
Exceeding the expectations of everyone around me as often as I can, including family, friends and clients.
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?
Get to Know ME with Susan Rizzi
We’re excited to have you Get to Know Susan Rizzi this month! She has longevity when it comes to her careers, that’s for sure! Read below to find out how she helps our participants and her family thrive. Thanks for sharing Susan!
What’s your title and how long have you been at Motivation Excellence?
Customer Service Representative; in 3 weeks it will be 20 years!
What does your job entail?
All aspects of Customer Service, such as answering phone inquiries, email inquiries and Concierge Shopper requests. I also work with suppliers to resolve issues, review invoices, and obtain merchandise quotes for concierge shopper requests.
What’s something special about working at Motivation Excellence that you’d like to share?
What makes ME special is the family atmosphere, the willingness to help each other out at any time.
What’s your favorite part of your job at Motivation Excellence?
Working in Customer Service is a very rewarding position. What I enjoy the most is working on an issue and being able to turn it around into a positive experience for the participant.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
Storytelling. I can make a simple walk on the beach into an exciting adventure for my grandchildren. A hike in the woods can be more interesting with my crazy imagination. I also have a great talent for playing practical jokes on the family.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
Work: knowing that I can make a difference in the experience our participants have when they contact ME. Personal: teaching my grandchildren that they should embrace who they are and that they can be and do anything they want to do in life! This motivates me to be a positive and supportive person in their lives.
What do you enjoy doing outside work?
Spending time with my most Awesome grandchildren, and their parents of course. Gardening, fishing, vacationing in the OBX.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Spending time with my family. We refuse to let little things upset us, and with so many different personalities, it becomes very amusing!
What have you done that helped you get through the pandemic?
Played board games with my family through Zoom. Worked on home projects, painted, decluttered and organized family photos…bins of family photos. Binge watched documentaries on Netflix. Hoarded toilet paper, Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer!
What is the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
It was not an unusual job, but being a Hair Stylist for 38 years definitely was the most interesting. Oh, the stories I could tell.
This month, our theme for social media is EQ, or Emotional Intelligence. How do you relate to this theme?
Emotional Intelligence is an ongoing learning experience. In my years, I have learned that it is not what is said to someone, but the way in which it is said. A voice inflection, a condescending remark, or even a physical stance can give off the wrong impression. It is an individual’s choice on how they respond. We need to keep in mind that we do not know what is going on in a person’s life or what causes them to be “on guard.” Be patient, be a good listener, sometimes all a person needs is to have someone listen to what they have to say and acknowledge that they are heard. Good thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds!
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!
Medical Supply Distributor
GENERATING $17M FOR A MEDICAL SUPPLY DISTRIBUTOR IN A PROGRAM FUNDED BY THEIR SUPPLIERS
The Big Picture
Our Medical Supply Distribution client wanted to drive sales with a dynamic incentive for their preferred, non-competitive suppliers that would be completely funded by their sales efforts. The suppliers — 6-10 participated in various years — were initially reluctant to participate due to a lack of confidence in their return on their investment. We knew we needed to overcome their skepticism.
Research & Analysis
A thoughtful and fair ROI rule structure and tracking system was needed. In the initial analysis stage, we examined the previous two years of sales by rep, and then set individual growth goals for each of the six suppliers.
Our Solution
We created an incremental growth program for each supplier so that together, they would fund the program on our sponsoring client’s behalf.
After we created incremental goals by supplier, we set up a system to provide reporting so they could clearly see the growth being generated. This solved the funding issue that initially made the distributors reluctant to participate; They were happy to fund the program when they could easily see the growth it was fostering.
Since the client’s existing system did not communicate in silos, we sought to isolate communications specific to each supplier and connect directly with the sales reps that sell those products.
This program was points-driven. We set goals for each supplier and assigned point values to those goals. Each sales rep was able to use our online portal to view their performance and their status at any time.
Quantifiable Results
ROI
Participating suppliers increased sales by 11.75% over plan.
Volume was up more than $17M for selected suppliers.
Equity
At program end, participants were awarded their points as a one-time payout and were able to redeem for name-brand merchandise, travel options or experiences from our expansive online catalog.
Data & Analytics
Getting 6-10 different suppliers to work together in an equitable arrangement is the kind of data-driven, personalized work that sets Motivation Excellence apart.
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.
Get to Know ME with George Dorian
George Dorian is a long-timer at Motivation Excellence! He’s a fixture in our IT department, helping our clients and internal team develop useful websites and data processing procedures. Read more below to find out his history with the horror industry, why he feels so connected to his co-workers and wisdom on flexibility of thought. Thanks George for sharing!
What’s your title and how long have you been at Motivation Excellence?
Business Applications Developer/Database Analyst and I’ve been here on and off for 21 years.
What does your job entail?
Building technology solutions for all kinds of enterprise needs, mostly program administration; usually translates into creating some logical model, and then building infrastructure/coding, and testing/deploying a deliverable.
What’s something special about working at Motivation Excellence that you’d like to share?
Co-workers are always buying my daughter gifts – this goes directly to my heart and immediately builds a very strong bond between us.
What’s your favorite part of your job at Motivation Excellence?
The problem solving and the people I work with.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
People have always shared very personal problems with me and asked for advice, since I was a child.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
Inner drive, a sense of duty –part of my identity.
What do you enjoy doing outside work?
Spending time with my family. Learning new things. Music. Reading. Art. Bookstores. Libraries. Museums. Movies. Concerts (remember when?).
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Mice Elf.
What have you done that helped you get through the pandemic?
Work out a lot more, more art projects – day trips to local prehistoric sites are probably the best new hobby to come out of it.
What is the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
I briefly worked retail and horror convention security.
This month, our theme for social media is mental flexibility. How do you relate to this theme? Any tips on how you try to be flexible in thought?
I would fail at my job if my mind was rigid, never mind how boring life would be – and boring can be worse than bad.
Flexibility of mind comes from habits, and must be exercised, just like your body’s flexibility, and it’s heavily woven into your personal development and growth. You have to practice opening your mind, it doesn’t happen naturally – just like being fit.
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
-Lewis Carroll
Practice every morning – try and think of six impossible things – for your own amusement. Challenge yourself, continually question everything, including the question itself, and your preconceptions. Surround yourself with people who will creatively challenge you. Listen. Discuss. Read (or get an audiobook or Blinkist – no excuses anymore). Every book is at least one person’s wisdom, mine it for the gems that impact you and help you grow. Try and view everything as a learning opportunity. What did I learn from seeing that movie? That video? No one knows everything. Going from imagination to reality is sometimes difficult, but you can’t go the other way. Start from a cosmic view, and then whittle away the constraints of your time and your place.
Until she invents a Time Machine, then start all over again. 😉
Health Care Diagnostic
Generating $70M in new revenue for a healthcare diagnostic company with unrealized growth potential
The Big Picture
Our Healthcare Diagnostics client wanted to enhance their bottom line by identifying new locations and expansion opportunities, enhancing customer service, and expanding their product portfolio. They came to Motivation Excellence to find out how they could turbocharge these efforts.
Research & Analysis
During our analysis, we realized our client had little knowledge of their opportunity potential. We discovered that their delivery and pickup drivers were everywhere, making valuable connections with current and potential customers on a regular basis. Through these relationships, the drivers were in a position to discover expansion opportunities as well as customer service issues needing resolution. This valuable information could be transferred to their sales reps and converted to leads, but at that time, no one had conceived of the two departments working together, and the infrastructure was not in place to do so.
Our Solution
Once we uncovered this critical gap between drivers and sales reps, we designed an incentive program targeted to getting them working together address the client’s challenges. While the two groups were highly skeptical that their partnership would yield results, they soon found common ground and began to generate amazing results.
First, we developed a custom lead generation system that linked drivers to specific sales reps for lead generation and management. To foster compliance, we had to accommodate the drivers’ preference for paper and the sales reps’ preference for digital.
Next, we trained both groups to generate information and act upon leads, and then to record their efforts. We thus captured metrics on the number of leads, type of lead, disposition time, and outcome.
We ultimately brought together stakeholders from both sales and delivery silos within the organization, when neither side believed at the beginning that their partnership would be fruitful.[/et_pb_text]
Design Details
This program continues to generate revenue after more than nine years in operation, fulfilling the client’s desires to expand and optimize their services while fostering a team environment in their organization
Custom Platform: An end-to-end lead generation tracking system designed to drive ROI for behavior change as well as revenue.
Marketing Campaign: Helping the executive stakeholders explain the benefits of the program and encourage participation.
Communications: To keep everyone abreast of standings, motivated and focused. Sharing partership success stories was key to fostering participation.
Points-Based System: Sales reps earned points redeemable from our online catalog of brand-name merchandise and experiences
Gift Cards: Drivers, who skewed older and were far less likely to use smartphones or engage with the online catalog, earned gift cards.
Monitoring: With a three-month lead-to-sales cycle, we tracked KPI & ROI to keep our client in the loop
Quantifiable Results
Flooring Company
Generating 627% ROI for a flooring manufacturer by expanding their reach
Our Flooring Manufacturing client wanted to motivate commercial flooring contractors and internal sales reps to higher performance with a self-funding program. But after examining their goals and program projections, we told them they simply could not reach their goals without expanding their audience significantly.
Our Solution
Using industry specific data, we built a custom solution focused on our understanding of the participants.
Step 1: We expanded the audience for this incentive to be 3½ times greater than the client originally planned for —1,200 commercial contractors and internal sales reps — to ensure the client would meet their aggressive revenue goal.
Step 2: We leveraged our communications expertise to acquire the audience and maintain their engagement throughout the program earnings period.
Step 3: We aligned the desired behaviors with meaningful rewards that both top performers and middle performers would view as attainable.
Design Details
The program was designed to be fully funded by incremental gross profits. We exceeded ROI estimates with these elements:
Consultation: We had the experience to know the client’s program was not going to work, and the expertise to know just how to fix it
Marketing Campaign: The aggressive, highly targeted audience acquisition plan included program announcement, teaser postcards, and invitations to register.
Communications: To keep everyone abreast of standings, motivated and focused. A program portal drove participant engagement throughout the program.
Points-Based System: Goals were set and points were redeemed from our online catalog for merchandise, gift cards and individual travel.
Desirable Rewards: Top performers (based on highest sales, greatest $$ increase and greatest % increase), earned a coveted travel award for two hosted by the client’s executive team.
Monitoring: We tracked KPI & ROI to keep our client in the loop.
Electrical Supply
Outperforming market trends by driving incremental sales through accelerated rewards.
The Big Picture
Coming out of a sluggish economy more than 30 years ago, a nationally ranked electrical distributor wanted significant growth and brand recognition within the industry. After analyzing their business, as well as industry benchmarks and sales data, we collaborated to develop a program structure to drive incremental sales through accelerating reward opportunities to keep customers engaged. This program started pre-internet and evolved into a digital era over a 20 year timespan.
Our Solution
Using industry specific data, we built a custom solution focused on our understanding of the participants.
We segmented their 100,000-customer audience into three groups and then assigned the top 20% individual growth goals based on their segment and past purchases. We kicked off the program with a fast start sweepstakes to engage customers quickly.
Using projected sales growth, our client secured vendor funding to help pay for the program. With the evergreen program structure, participants created a sustained growth pattern year over year.
Individual branch locations received regular program communications and activity reports. Those purchasing over goal had accelerated reward opportunities. we offered a wide variety of award redemption options to keep top performers engaged in the outcome each year. including multiple travel programs and an option to buy-in.
Design Details
Over a span of more than a decade, revenue growth for enrolled customers outperformed non-enrolled and industrytrends in up, flat and down markets. ROI was more than 200% and our client realized significant market share growth. Extraordinary vendor participation substantially paid for program costs and those vendors also increased their own customer count.
Measurable Results
By creating an evergreen program that continued year after year, we were able to establish a base line purchase level for each customer and then assign a growth goal each year afterward. This created sustained growth over the life of the program for each customer wanting to achieve the top tier travel award each time it was offered.
