Making a connection is not what it is all about, it is a good start. How do you go from “Hey, want to connect” to “Hey, can you help me find a job or help me get an appointment with Bob in Marketing for a sales presentation?” One must treat the 1 or 2 degree person as a preferred client.  The relationship you have with that first level contact will definitely determine the connection opportunities that may be offered to you. As we all know, a warm introduction is at the top of the list of every salesman’s wish list.

Tips to Enrich Your Relationship with Your 1st. or 2nd. Degree People

1)  Make a live connection by picking up the phone to call to your contacts at least once a month to chat about their kids, current events, a new movie, schedule coffee or lunch together.

2)  Share beneficial articles via email when you come across one that may be beneficial to your contact.

3)  Sincerely ask your warm contact if you can do something for them to help them with their business. When someone comes to the door and offers to help you, chances are you will be more open to take the time to listen to what they have to say. 

4)  Offer information about training that you found to be helpful. 

5)  Make introductions happen between your other friends, your 1st and 2nd degree connections.

6)  Be your friend’s promotional agent, let them know you are supportive and are truly interested in their career.  Talk about your friend’s business with others when they are present so they know that you really are trying to help them.

7)  Provide your connections with an incentive. When a valuable lead or connection has been offered to you, immediately thank them with a small gift card.

8) Motivate your friends by sending thank you cards for their little acts of kindness. Thank goodness good Karma also goes around, not just the bad stuff.

9) Ask your friends what motivates them and what incentives that they may use to reward others who help them out.

10)  Keep your promises, do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. 

We all have good intentions and feel that nice little warm feeling when we help others be successful. Our incentive should be to enrich the lives of others.

There is no better time than the holidays to buy gift cards and other incentives than now.  Many restaurants, grocery stores and retailers are going out of their way to provide you with an incentive to buy more gift cards.  Most restaurants are offering 1 $10.00 gift card when you purchase a $20.00.  Although some think that gift cards do not provide the “ah” factor as a beautifully wrapped present with a gift inside,  it does have longer lasting effect.  A few days or even months later when your friends and relatives go to use their clothes, food or cocktails it is always reminds them of you or your business once again. You see a gift card is not just a gift providing the recipient with their choice of gift or incentive to do business with you, it is a long lasting incentive that often includes sharing who presented them with the gift card over dinning.  If you are a business owner you realize the importance of word of mouth advertising, the best type of advertising in the world!

One thing to note, if you are mailing gift cards be sure to place it in a box so that it can not be felt in a Christmas Card and stolen. Also, select a retailer or restaurant who insures the card in case of theft or lost.

Other Ways to Maximize Your Gift Card Purchases:

1)   Combine purchases with friends for a bigger incentive.

2)  Look for coupons online or swap coupons you need with friends.

3)  The incentive to buying online is saving money on taxes and get free shipping.

5)  Purchase at smaller retailer who are willing to bargain for your business.

6)  Ask friends on Social Nets works where the deals are on gift cards and other cool things.

Even if you are finished with your Christmas shopping, take advantage of gift card incentives on groceries and other items saving you even more money. Hurry deals end when the Christmas season is over.

Give

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BY JENNA SWEENEYPublished: October 13, 2010 09:30 AM

Orange-based  Verengo Solar Plus and REC Solar, which has an office in Irvine, are helping Wells Fargo customers in Southern California make the switch to solar energy.

Through the end of the year, Wells Fargo is offering up to $1,000 in incentives to qualified customers who advance $15,000 from a line of credit or home equity loan for installation of a solar energy system through Verengo, REC or Oakdale-based Acro Energy.

Orange County ranks among the top solar markets in the United States, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. California made up 67 percent of cumulative solar capacity installed through the end of 2009.

“More and more customers tell us they care about reducing their impact on the environment and look to us to provide financing options that make renewable energy installations and energy-efficiency improvements possible,” said Rob Myers, Wells Fargo’s regional president for Orange County.

In January, Wells Fargo installed solar systems at 10 of its Denver locations.

With the installation of an average solar system, Wells Fargo approximates savings of more than $40,000 over 30 years for homeowners in the Southern California Edison service territory.

Under the new Federal Stimulus Bill, homeowners who make the switch to solar are eligible for a tax credit worth 30 percent of the total cost of the system.

“With this special promotion and other incentives,” Myers said, “our customers can potentially reduce their solar installation costs by up to 50 percent while reducing costs on their energy bills in the future.”

Reward your customers — they’ll reward you with repeat business

The best way to motivate customer behavior is to provide an incentive or reward for that motivation. Rewarding your customers for a specific purchasing behavior is not much different than training your puppy. With enough repetition and positive reinforcement, your pup can be motivated to act upon instruction. That’s because the pup knows if he listens to your command, he’ll receive his reward.

Human nature isn’t much different. People can be motivated to take specific actions that accomplish their buying goals while also accomplishing your goals to increase their spending, frequency of visits or combination purchases (or comparative goals relevant to your line of business).

The question then is how do you motivate behavior? Below are five ideas that will get you thinking.

1. Offer soft benefits that provide value such as special access limited only to members.
2. Offer relevant promotions through various lines of communication, for example: e-mail, SMS text, receipt messages, statement inserts, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
3. Up-sell complimentary products or services at the associate level.
4. Offer sweepstakes, random rewards or special offers for a limited time frame, keep your strategy fresh and exciting:
5. Strategically place messages (via signage, web banners, etc.) that will trigger motivating actions.

Motivate, But Don’t Mislead
Once you decide how you’ll motivate, always do so in an honorable way. Your customers won’t want to be misled into thinking they are receiving something greater in value that what they’ll actually receive as the reward.

Of course, the statement was made some 150 years ago and the President was referring to politicians attempting to fool their constituents; however, the quote resonates with me every time I see a program that offers empty loyalty. Such programs offer an elaborate program on the outside when, indeed, it’s only a facade to increase business. In time, savvy customers will see through the facade. Your promotional strategy to motivate behavior must be phony proof. Once your customers lift the hood and kick the tires, the promotions must stand on their own and offer real value, not empty promises.

Remember, whatever you do, don’t try to fool the customer! Loyal customers will catch on if the loyalty program does not have true value. This can also backfire and cause disloyalty amongst your customers and defeat the entire purpose of implementing your strategy in the first place.

There are two reasons why your rewards offerings should be upstanding:

1. Loyal customers have earned the right to receive a valid reward. If they weren’t enrolled in your program, they may have taken their business elsewhere.
2. Customers can see through transparent rewards.

If you want to be in the loyalty game, you have to offer attractive redemption items that are achievable for your customers to earn. If customers are willing to change their purchasing behavior and provide you with their loyalty, they will expect the same in return from you in the form of a relevant reward.

It’s the Little Things That Matter Most
If you put on your consumer hat, you’ll understand that it’s the little things that matter most. One component you should incorporate is providing feel-good loyalty. Feel-good loyalty is just what it sounds like, providing something that the customer will feel good about. Offering feel-good-loyalty incentives should be part of your overall strategy and will require some clever and creative thinking. Some companies offer free Wi-Fi, others offer free shipping. Whatever you decide, brainstorm hard, even hold an employee contest. but find your niche and add feel-good loyalty to the mix.

Photofiddle.com is an internet company that offers a service to turn your photographs into art. Simply upload a photo and you can instantly transform that image into pop art, impasto, a black and white sketch and even more. Once you create your personal masterpiece you then have many options for the type of surface the image is printed on (glossy photo paper, canvas, etc.). Finally, you can choose from a number of print sizes and framing choices.

Although Photofiddle doesn’t have a recognizable rewards program they do provide various levels of feel-good loyalty. Upon opening your order, customers see each piece is carefully packaged and accompanied with a pair of white cotton gloves. The label attached to the gloves reads, “All fine artwork should be handled with care. Please use white cotton gloves. Oils from your hands and fingers can leave finger prints. Jewelry on your fingers and wrist can leave markings.”

That’s a personal touch and that’s feel-good-loyalty. It’s doing the little things that matter most with customers. It’s thinking outside the box so that your brand motivates your customers and resonates in their mind. Providing the white cotton gloves with each order sends both a literal message and subliminal message. It reinforces the need to treat your artwork with care and that they treat all of their customers with care.

Roger L. Brooks is a respected loyalty strategist with more than 15 years of experience in developing, supporting, and implementing customer loyalty and rewards programs.

Although technology has greatly improved our professional and personal lives, it is still human interaction coupled with technolgy that boost a company’s effectiveness. Your employees, vendors and customers want to know that if and when technology fails that there is a skilled and caring individual on the other side to help when needed.  Nothing is worse that driving off a car lot with your new car then finding out a few days later that there is a problem and no one is there expect the automated attendant that answers the telephone.  

In Call Centers across the world, a systems called call presentation delivers incoming calls very efficiently to representatives without them even having to pick up the phone. The representative simply hears a beep and in a few seconds a caller is waiting on the line and their account seems to magically present itself  on the Call Center Representative’s screen. Seems easy but if that employee is not trained correctly, is stressed or is disgruntled, it is a recipe for disaster.

Do you remember the scene on the “I Love Lucy” show when Lucy and Ethel were working at a candy factory when all of a sudden the conveyor belt quickly speeds up preventing the two friends from wrapping each piece of chocolate?  The belt goes faster and faster sending chocolates all over the floor causing Lucy and Ethel to panic! Soon the two best friends become stressed out due to lack of training, experience and become forced to look for ways to cut corners eating many of the chocolates before more landed on the floor thinking they could save themselves from being fired. It was one of the most memorable scenes of the show and something like this is just as memorable to your customers but without the humor.

Doing more with less is sending productivity higher however at what costs? Usually the first to suffer is quality because employees become tired and frustrated if cuts result in long term sacrifice. Without an incentive to hang in, stretch and grow accustomed adjusting to new demands, employees will make more mistakes and as soon as their is an opportunity, they will leave to greener pastures. Last month, a survey found that a growing percentage of workers are unhappy on the job and are looking for new employment. No matter what the economy, quality skilled workers will always have a place to go. Turn over is just as costly now as it was 6 years ago before the Recession however it is much harder to find those who are skilled.

As Managers, one has to become more creative, foster an atmosphere that is stimulating and provide incentives to push employees to higher standards during challenging times. If you are not a people person that gets involved and greets your employees at least a few times a week, you are not investing in your future. The way you manage your department today will carry you and your company ahead of the competition as the economy begins to turn around. If employees are left to continually think about getting a new job as soon as the economy changes because you did not demonstrate appreciation for their dedication, you will be spending  more hours spent on recruiting than in planning for future growth.

Tips to Help Boost Productivity:

1.  Make everyone fully aware of goals and expectations each week. Don’t badger just go over expectation, recognize employees who are doing well and train those who need help.

2.  Brighten up your department with motivations posters, balloons when they reach their goals and Pep Rally type meetings on Mondays.

3.  De-clutter your department and ask your employees to work on doing the same with their work space.

4.  Create a contest and reward employees who can an opportunities list suggesting methods to cut waste and increase productivity.

5.  Deliver a “Do it right the first time” campaign that often results in less phone calls and rework saving thousands of dollars.

6.  Request that employees batch small tasks together and getting them done quickly each day.

7.  Revisit individual employee talents. If you have someone who is a good researcher, have them be your point of contact for those needing to do research to complet requests.  If  one or two of your employees have good people skills, appoint them as your rallying team so they can help you engage other employees. There’s no reason not to use your team’s natural talents to your advantage.

8. Always be ready to capture new ideas as they pop up. Don’t put it off because you may forget.

9.  Communicate clearly and often keeping everyone’s eye on the ball.

10. Keep them healthy mentally and physically by bringing in oranges during flu season and have fun frequent contests to provide an incentive to reach higher p

Find out how giving praise is the key to getting it

Happiness Thought for October: Praise early and often. As St. Therese of Lisieux wrote, “When one loves, one does not calculate.”

I’m a real gold-star junkie. One of my worst qualities is my insatiable need for credit; I always want the recognition, the praise, that gold star stuck on my homework. Recently, I was grumbling to my mother about the fact that some extraordinarily praiseworthy effort on my part had gone unremarked upon. My mother wisely responded, “Most people probably don’t get the appreciation they deserve.” That’s right, I realized – for instance, my mother herself! I certainly don’t give her enough praise for everything she has done for me. Our conversation started me thinking about the importance of praise, and how to praise effectively.

1. Be specific Vague praise doesn’t make much of an impression. Parenting experts often express this point of view: Praising a child means more when it’s specific than when it’s general. “What a beautiful painting!” is less gratifying than “Look at all the colors you’ve included! And I see you’ve used all your fingers with the finger paints. You’ve really made your picture look like a spring garden!” This is true for adults, too. “Great job!” is less satisfying than an enumeration of what, exactly, was done well. General praise sounds perfunctory and meaningless; specific praise seems heartfelt.

2. Never offer praise and ask for a favor within the same conversation It makes the praise seem like a setup for whatever you’re asking for.

3. Look for something less obvious to praise Highlighting a quality that a person hasn’t heard praised many times before shows that you’re really paying attention, not just repeating what other people have said.

4.Praise people behind their backs The person you’re lauding usually hears about it, and behind-the-back praise seems more sincere than face-to-face praise. That’s why I make an effort to repeat any behind-the-back compliments I hear.

5. Match the quality of the praise to the difficulty of the task If a job was quick and easy, a hasty “Looks great!” will do; if it was protracted and challenging, be more lengthy and descriptive.

6. Remember the negativity bias The “negativity bias” is a psychological phenomenon: People react to the bad more strongly and persistently than to the comparable good. For example, within a marriage, it takes at least five good acts to repair the damage of one critical or destructive act. So when I praise someone, I remember that one critical comment will be far more memorable than several positive ones. If I want someone to walk away feeling great, I skip any negative remarks.

7. Praise the everyday as well as the exceptional When people do something unusual, it’s easy to remember to give praise. But what about the things they do well all the time without any recognition? I try to point out how much I appreciate the small services and tasks that someone unfailingly performs. Something like, “You know what? In three years, I don’t think you’ve ever been even an hour late with the weekly report.” After all, we never forget to make a comment when someone screws up.

When I was a little girl my grade school teacher announced that we were all going to sit Indian style on the floor and watch a French movie. We all thought, “Wow, a movie all the way from France at our school just for us!” What could it be about? As the teacher began to set things up for our movie, we were all so excited. It took her several minutes to get us situated and sitting quietly on the floor.  She then told us the movie’s title ”The Red Balloon”. We all laughed with excitement because after all, what kid does not love a balloon? What a fun title I thought!  It seemed so perfect to me that I quickly sat quietly with anticipation of this French movie.  When the projector went on, I remember hearing the movie reel go around and around as it began to show the movie on the pull down screen in front of the chalk board.  Thinking back to moment,  it was  really amazing how a 1/2 hour story about a  red balloon befriending only one little boy could ignite a fever of excitement and motivation amongst 20 children that lasted the rest of the week. 

“What is in it for me”, the question heard throughout every organization at literally every level. Whether those that do business with you are your employees, clients or donors, they all want to know the answer. Give them their choice of incentive. Either provide them year long discounts to theme parks, dinning or their choice of vacation.  

Those that manage sales teams have opportunities to give their teams red balloons providing them with incentives that bring out their energetic inner child.  Whether their inner child responds to incentives they can share with their families, experience with their buddies or fun from a new electronic toy, their “red balloon” is one that will not soon be forgotten. Like most kids we all share fun stories about experiences or prizes we have won. An incentive is usually shared imediately with others via email, text or photographs providing you with added advertising and sales. The best advertising of all is of course, the word of mouth.

Our red balloon provides us with an incentive to reach and stretch for our goals. It may seem that it is out of reach at first but as we continue to keep the incentive in our minds eye, we find ways to make that final jump grapping the string tightly holding it with pride and joy. We have reached success and have the red balloon for all to see.

Friendly environments such as Starbuck’s provide a friendly environment requiring little commitment being a much smaller price tag of a restaurant. The incentive of meeting at a coffee shop? There are less chances of uncomfortable moments battlling spaghetti noodles or dripping soup off your chin. A friendly place where one can easily make a sales meeting a long beneficial meeting or a few short one because there was really no interest in it for the customer.

Tips to Help You Prepare for You Sales Meetings:

• Define your goals and objectives.
• Ask your prospect or customer to provide a time frame so you know in advance how much time you have and prioritize. We should all respect the time of others and nothing is worse than being cut off right before the best part of the presentation.
• Get some sleep so you are sharp and add subtle color to your wardrobe so that you are at your best and interesting.
• Be personable and do not appear hungry for the sale. Good things will come to those who are prepared.
• Be able to answer their ”What is in it for me question” with the 5 to  10 minutes.
• Bring examples of how your product or service works for a client of yours. Talk about facts and figures of how well it worked for them and what you personally did to make the transition a success.
• Stay well informed about your competitors. Be informed about their latest financial news, public R&D projects and news about new product introductions.
• Don’t give away the farm. Provide an incentive to your prospect so that you can meet again or communicate by phone. Leave only a few brochures with them so that you and not your brochure is closing the sale.
• Bring only current marketing material. I can’t tell you how many times I have sat across from people and realized that their materials were very dated.
• Use concise laptop presentations whenever possible, we are all still captivated by the Internet and all it’s power.
• Ask your prospect what they liked most about the presentation. Also, ask if they have met with another company and what they liked and did not like about their products or service.
• Encourage interest and excitement by sincerely be interested in your prospect.
• Don’t forget to sprinkle humor in your sales meeting and lighten things up.
• Stimulate and develop interest by asking open questions. 
• Always be closing but be careful not to make it too obvious

Follow Up:

A call cannot be considered a follow up call until, you make contact!

Send a thank you email or good old fashioned card with only a thank you in mind for their time. This sincere act will immediately set you apart and will be appreciated.

When you make contact, ask if they have had the time to research more or revisit brochures from your meeting together. If they have, be sure to warmly compliment them. Provide them with what you understood are the company’s needs. If they have not researched or revisited brochures, ask if they would appreciate highlights sent to them on an email. Sending a follow up email will allow you to promote yourself and your product in a more direct fashion. 

Offer to assist your prospect if they are needing help sell the idea or service to other decision makers.  

Host an Open House at your company or if possible, conduct a virtual meeting with other key members from Customer Service, Support and Implementation. Doing so will instill trust and provide additonal confidence about sharing their interests with others in their company.  

Keep things upbeat, be confident that what you are selling will impact their company and future profits.

Develop a relationship not just a sale. Good sales people remember that each individual sold or not is very important. They follow the Other People’s People (OPP) rule. The prospect’s people are your future sales and each contact with a prospect is actually selling to other people through your prospect.

Good selling starts with an incentive to do the right thing, the right way for a positive result!

People use coupons and are feeling more appreciated because they are being offered an opportunity to enjoy living life as they did  before this economic slow down. They are actively hunting for coupons and incentives to see movies, plays, concerts and make purchases at stores.

When the happy recipient uses their coupon,  they are sharing it with everyone! This is why more and more retailers and restaurants are jumping in on the band wagon. They offer a discount but gain from supplemental purchases and the best advertising of all, word of mouth advertising. We all like to brag a bit about a great deal found or gift incentive we have received.

Over the past two or three years at Incentive and Rewards conventions, the choice of delivery for incentive coupons codes are via SMS Text Messaging.  Coupon incentives are received quickly, attractively and are usually used more immediatley than the traditional mailer.  Using electronics is a part of our busy lives and there is still is a certain excitement to it all. 

Companies can buy movie and restaurant codes in bulk for delicious savings,  extending coupon incentives with more employees and donors. Ah, the love of an incentive providing food and entertanment!

Our motivations responsible for our actions are visible from the very beginning. Even from the first few times that we began to converse with our parents, every action we did had an incentive behind it. Take the average 3 years old. As a parent it is an unspoken law that we must make our children eat vegetables. “If you eat your yams, you can have ice cream for dessert!” Sound familiar? Incentives are responsible for everything we do; they are unavoidable. Take parties for example. If you don’t invite people at least one month before the actual party, hopefully your five finger friends can save the party and round up some last minute invitees. People don’t respond to R.S.V.P.’s for a reason; they are simply waiting to see if a better offer will come up in the time being, one with a greater incentive. Let’s say your party has “party people”, you live in a higher middle class home, and your social status is on the higher side. You will probably have more guests than your friend, who lives in the average sized home and is a little lower on the social totem pole. People will go to your party instead because your guests are assumed to have better business and social connections. Not saying that your friend’s guests don’t have the same qualities to offer, but having to choose between the two is night and day. People are magnetized towards money and social butterflies because the opportunities that are at your party offer a greater incentive than your friend’s party. Incentives transfer over to every business, everywhere. Our salary is what drives each and every one of us at work to perform better, be on time to that 7:00 am meeting, and even stay that extra 10 minutes late to impress our bosses. Most of us would only perform the minimum each day at work if there wasn’t an incentive keeping us hooked on the line. Would you go on that business trip to China for two weeks if there wasn’t something in it for you? Without incentives many people would be left unmotivated and would never continue to climb the ladder at their companies, because there wouldn’t be anything to strive for. Incentives motivate everyone, whether it is an aspiring chef hoping to open a restaurant, your average college student longing to be the editor for a newspaper, or the ten year old down the street hoping to have a paper route in order to buy that new video game. So, we ask why we do the things we do. The answer: incentives