2012 is just around the corner and now is the time to start planning, finalising budgets and engaging with key suppliers and stakeholders to implement all activities. Here are three things – although they may seem disjointed; I believe should be a priority in your considerations for your marketing mix.

1) During the last three years organisations have been cautious in the way they manage their budgets and skinny cows seem to be the norm. In reality the GFC took its toll, however we didn’t go into recession. Yes, we live in a multi-speed economy, so we need to deal with it. Plan and make sure you have a dual gear strategy. On one hand foster team spirit and improve employee morale – employees are also wearied by this economic turmoil. And on the other hand engender loyalty by demonstrating the value of your products and services. Customers want to ensure they are getting their monies worth.

2) Customers are marketing savvy and the digital era has allowed and encouraged this. Everyone is capable of driving their 15 minutes of fame via twitter, facebook, youtube, etc. Marketers have also adjusted to this new age of deeper customer engagement by tapping into social media. The key point here is to understand that consumers no longer separate marketing from the product – marketing is both the process and result, it is a product in itself. Customers don’t separate marketing from their in-store or online experience; it is the experience. In this new way of engagement, marketing is the company and the company is its people. Make sure your strategies encompass this relationship.

3) The guiding principle of all sales activities is to maximize time for selling and relationship building. Sounds obvious… but this is not always executed in the best way. Ensure your processes support your sales team so that they can focus on the job of selling and relationship building. 75% of a sales persons time is spent on pushing through stalled deals, scurrying for data to answer queries and cobbling together one-off proposals for even the simplest request. When planning your marketing mix don’t forget to look at the sales process so that they can focus on the task at hand – selling!

There are many more things to consider, but these three key points I believe are current, applicable and often overlooked.
I picked these three because: 1) your employee’s morale matters, this is the health check of your business and fundamental to its success; 2) today’s current marketing horizon is relevant and must be taken into consideration (as we are in a fast changing marketplace) and 3) focusing on and streamlining your sales peoples processes will drive your profits.

All the best and I wish you a good planning session.

Over the weekend I read a few articles about Bluescope Steel move regarding their plan to cut 1000 jobs. What grabbed my attention was the number of companies seizing the opportunity to source talent and offering different plans for the Illawarra workers.

According to the Illawarra Mercury, Bluescope plans to open a job centre to help workers find work elsewhere and more than 20 companies such as Rio Tinto, Joy Mining, Becker, Rheem and BHP Billiton have registered with hundreds of job vacancies.

Great outlet to assist these companies with the national skills shortage they face, so the bids to attract employees have commenced. Companies have to look at their offers if they want to attract this group of highly skilled employees who have also been classed among the safest workers in the country.

In my view, considerations to ensure these skilled workers choose the right company to work for should take into account not only commissions, bonuses and compensation but also non-cash incentives to attract and retain the new talent they are about to hire.

On the one hand, compensation packages allow employees to live – buy a house, pay the bills, maintain life, manage chores, go on a holiday, etc. That’s what a salary does and these employees will look at these facts with a transactional and functional approach. They will do some calculations when they evaluate a compensation system and compare the money to the work and their needs. No emotions involved, it’s cold, hard, transactional and impersonal. They will value your offer and match it to how much is worth to them.

Employees will face decisions and weigh up opportunities. They may have to move interstate, be away from their families for a period, reassess and look into their mortgages, retirement and other issues that need their attention. In this turmoil, neither companies nor employees should see this as a life rope being thrown to rescue their unemployment situation. Employees are skilled, savvy and confident. They know the mining industry will be after their talent and their decision to choose a company to work for won’t be done in a faint hearted manner.

The bigger question for the Employers is how to attract and keep skilled workers?

Whilst employees will work out the maths and see how the salary offers stack up against new employment opportunities, there are other factors and benefits that they will also be weighing up and mining companies must consider these when putting together their strategies. For an employee there is much more than just a salary when choosing an organisation to work for. They will also look at the emotional, non-transactional connections they can have with a new employer. They will look at factors beyond money – motives that address more than their basic salary needs but rather consider their individual and family goals and personal life matters. Mining companies need to find ways to drive their attractiveness with non-cash incentives, rewards, recognition and community programs that create an emotional, social relationship with potential employees and their families.

It’s hard to do the maths in your head to measure what a reward and recognition program is worth in monetary terms. Measuring how valuable perks are is difficult. For example, how much is it worth to have access to negotiated discounts on a wide range of products simply by being an employee of a company? What’s the worth of attending a company’s employee recognition ‘event’ every year? What is the true worth of an all-expenses-paid weekend-away for you and your partner, for simply changing a behaviour that improved safety? How would company A, that doesn’t offer a recognition program, stack up against company B that offers a program that rewards it’s employees for their loyalty, engagement and achievements? How about rewards for completing training? – The cost of any recognition program is cheaper when you compare it to the true cost that lack of skills, poor retention or low employee loyalty/engagement create for these companies.

Companies across the board mining or not should not confuse compensation with connection as these programs add value, create a sense of community and deeply connect with employees’ behaviour and emotions.

It would be narrow minded to think a salary package alone will entice skilled employees to choose a company. The truth is there are many different motives that will influence the Illawarra workers when they choose their next employer and the fact is they will be looking at the total package not just the salary.

Todays businesses are facing a real skills shortage and it seems business owners are throwing more money at them to keep them at work. Many business owners think employees decide to leave because they’ve been offered more money next door. However, the reason for leaving for most employees is that the working conditions are not right for them.

Managers have to be very clear as to what keeps an employee engaged at work and many think that employees are after more money in order to continue performing. Whilst money is their lifeline, hence a key driver of engagement, employees leave work for many other reasons.

Leadership, purpose, reward, opportunity, relationships, job fulfilment and work-life balance are above money. Managers should not assume that money motivates their employees. Everyone’s motivated by different drivers and when talking to your staff you will realise money is at the bottom end of why they work or why they want to leave your company.

Employee satisfaction is an important strategic initiative that ensures staff is motivated and engaged. And in this mix it is crucial to keep perspective of how each element operates.

Two key elements that I often find keep employees focused and engaged are leadership and reward. Leadership has proven to be a key factor in successful organisations. It fosters an environment of purpose, accomplishment and satisfaction through the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. In this case you can read: achieving your business objectives.

On the other hand, rewards. They are satisfying, gratifying and offer value to the individual’s sense of accomplishment. So I would say that a good combination of leadership and rewards give businesses an edge where both parties win, managers maximise engagement and employees continue thriving at their workplace.

With budgets being cut, and squeezed from every possible angle for all business types, there is a lot of advise on the web as to clever and sensible ways to approach  new consumer promotions and incentive programs.

For really simple, clearly defined advise on consumer promotions and incentives, Kochie’s Business Builders website has some great advise. Such as:

The key elements are as follows:

•  Set specific objectives
•  Develop a clear plan, covering how you will meet your objectives
•  Ensure the incentive is appealing to your target market
•  Ensure the incentive provides synergy with your brand
•  Implementation
•  Review

Click here to view the full article >>

In part 1 of this series we looked at what the business wants to achieve. The first question that a business should ask – what is the behaviour change that needs to be effected to achieve the business objective?

In part 2, we looked at implementing a program to a measured process – bearing in mind that what gets measured can be improved.

Part 3 reviewed the 3 main types (of many styles) of programs that we work from when designing an incentive program – Win, Place, Show; Hit the Target; Redeem at any Time.

Today we will touch lightly on measurement/result conversion. This is a confusing/road block issue to many of the people I speak to regarding incentive programs. At design phase of an incentive program we address this once the objective has been decided and what process is being measured – and the appropriate type of program is applied to suit.

Conversion of measurement/results is handled by spreadsheets, logarithms or programs but the basis/formula needs to be established. Simple examples may be:

What is an X% increase in the production of widgets worth to the company?
What percentage of that worth is to be apportioned to the widget maker/s? (there are common benchmarks for this)
Will this apportion motivate the widget maker/s to change behaviour and increase performance? (You can see how crucial this point is)
Will this basis/formula achieve the objective?
What is the ROI? (Return on Investment)

As I mentioned earlier in this series, Motive8 sits down with clients at design phase and examines such issues to ensure that a workable program is designed so that objectives can be achieved.

There are some excellent articles by Paul Hebert of Incentive Intelligence blog that will also help readers with this subject. In particular, “Determining How to Spend your Budget” and “Program Budgets”.

In Part 2, we looked at different points a business should look at, or questions the business should ask, before the search for an incentive program begins. Today here are examples of what different programs are available.

Different Types of programs
There are 3 main types of incentive programs that are used to change the behaviour of participants. They are:

Win, Place or Show

• Singles out top performers
  (The top 10 sales performers or the 10 people that improved the most)
• Client chooses the number of positions to be claimed and the reward for each position
• Redeem rewards at program end

Hit the Target

• Rewards participants that achieve a predetermined level of performance
• Plateau variation with different reward levels changing at each increment
  (Plateau variation motivates participants to push a little harder as they close in on the next level)
• Redeem rewards at program end

Redeem at Any Time

• Rewards participants for tasks completed
  (Points are rewarded as each task is completed and participants can redeem at any time during the program)
• Minimum redemption levels can be designed into the program
• Redeem at Any Time

When we design a program at Motive8 it will be based on one of these main types – but can also be customised to the client’s requirements and/or objectives. (There are as many variations on these 3, as there are as many programs designed for different objectives.)

As mentioned in part 2 of this series, Motive8 sits down with the client at design phase to ensure that the required workable program is implemented.

Last week we looked at the first consideration of a business in implementing an incentive program – what objective does the business want to achieve?

This week (and referring in part to this post on 10 August 2007) we will drill down a little further.

What gets measured can be improved, or, an incentive program can improve any measurable process.

These adages apply to incentive programs. The performance of what is currently being measured in a business – Sales, Customer Visits or Business Reports, for example, can all be improved with the implementation of an incentive program. There is a myriad of different processes/functions/systems in any business that need to be measured for the business to function. If there is a process that is not being measured and the business wants to implement an incentive program to improve it – start measuring now.

Measurement example:

Sales staff currently making 15 Customer calls per week – implement a program that motivates the staff to increase the number of calls to 20, a 33pct increase which is rewarded with an incentive. (Either measured or rewarded in increments or when the goal of 20 is reached. This type of program can be magnified further – rewarding staff for taking the planned cognitive steps through the sales process, but more of that on another day.)

When sitting down with clients at design phase we examine measurement thoroughly:

• To ensure that the client achieves the results
• To ensure that the program is workable and offers ROI
• To ensure that the program will engage the participants

There are some important points that need to be considered when a business is contemplating an incentive program. Over the coming weeks I will publish some ideas and thoughts that should be noted when looking at incentive programs and a little education that may help in the decision making process.

What does the business want to achieve?

Overall, incentive programs motivate participants to change behaviour. An incentive program that is implemented is designed to change the behaviour, for example, of:

• Sales staff – motivating salespeople with incentives to drive their sales performance
• Customers – using an incentive to motivate your Customers to return to your business
• Employees – motivate the employees to change their behaviour/attitude/process within the business, using an incentive as a reward for their change.

There are many different behaviours/processes/systems that an incentive program can be applied to. Think about these: call centre performance, shop floor safety, efficiency in non-billed hours, product awareness by distributors, customer service processes, managing change in Company policy/direction, production line output, quality control…the list can go on.

There is a lot of detail and ideas on Motive8 or you can call any of the team here on 1300 559 904

An article titled ‘Life time value, now there’s a number I love’, by John Jantsch on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog makes an important point about measuring ‘the numbers’ as he calls it in business.

What gets measured gets improved.

In incentive marketing, and here at Motive8, we say that you can apply an incentive program and improve the performance of any process that gets measured. If you want to improve the process by implementing an incentive program – but the business is not measuring the process – let’s start measuring AND implement an incentive program.

An example I use. How to lessen the amount of sick leave being taken (I am talking about sick leave being used to play golf, not when they’re in bed with the ‘flu.) is such:

“To change the behaviour (what an incentive program does) of your staff, implement an incentive program that includes a reward for your people who reduce the number of days they claim as sick leave”.

Easily measured, if not already done so, and an appropriate incentive reward can be easily applied to a situation that may be costing a business many lost hours, production and revenue.

A recent article in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) highlights the case in point of the problems faced in retaining staff in the workplace.

Medium sized Australian bank, BankWest, is about to begin an expansion program in the Australian banking and finance sector. BankWest, which is owned by the global banking/finance group HBOS, has been for the most part a West Australian state based entity. The group is planning to open branches and operation areas across the eastern seaboard states – Queensland, NSW and Victoria. To this end, the group needs to find 3,000 bank staff to accommodate their expansion plans.

In a climate in Australia of basically full employment, it is hard to find ANY staff on the streets capable of helping BankWest complete their plans. They will have to attract, entice or pinch these staff from the other Australian banks and financial entities.

I know from my contacts in this industry that the Australian banking/finance sector is looking long and hard at incentive programs to help them attract and retain staff and secure intellectual property.