Celebrating Employee Anniversaries

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Celebrating employee anniversaries may seem trivial. It may not significantly add to your bottom line or even be a key initiative in your strategic plan. But by treating each employee’s anniversary with your company as an achievement and a special occasion, you create a positive work environment and encourage employee commitment (and thus increase your employee retention rate).

The fact of the matter is, employees remember their hire date. It’s the career equivalent of a birthday (and who doesn’t love birthdays?) You know who else remember employees’ hire dates? Great managers, that’s who.

Celebrating an employee anniversary can also has a domino effect around the office. It will get fellow employees excited because they know you will offer them the same celebration upon their anniversaries. In the end, taking a day to show your gratitude for commitment of service boosts employee morale and has lasting positive consequences for your organization.

Now, your event doesn’t have to be ornate or extravagant. Here are some simple steps you can follow to create an Integrity HR approved employee anniversary celebration.

We recommend establishing a policy to designate when you will celebrate anniversaries, whether annually or on more momentous anniversaries such as five or 10 years. Take into consideration the size of your company and the amount of your party budget when deciding how you will celebrate.

It is important to maintain consistency so you do not hurt anyone’s feelings by celebrating someone earlier or more frequently than another. (Remember: it’s the small things like hurt feelings that make people leave an organization.)

·       Get Out the Calendar: The first step toward recognizing employee work anniversaries is to         make sure you’ve recorded start dates in the calendar! Depending on the size of your company, you may need to designate someone for this task  (for smaller companies) or use your HR software to be notified about the day (for larger companies). Getting the dates recorded is an optimal way to ensure no anniversary is overlooked.

·       Be Sincere and Make it Personal: We recommend acknowledging each employee’s anniversary every year, even if it is just with a small gesture (save the big celebrations for special anniversaries). Make it personal with a card, letter, phone call, personal visit or some other gesture. Don’t worry about making it formal. It just needs to be a genuine expression of appreciation. A few sincere words from management will be noticed and appreciated by an employee and greatly improve their morale. Often times, just a few sincere words of appreciation are worth more to the employee than an expensive gift!

·       Think Twice About Giving Monetary Gifts: In employer-employee relationships, money is associated with compensation. The last thing you want to do is confuse employee recognition with compensation.

When you are celebrating an anniversary, you are expressing appreciation for the employee’s service. Compensation is something that is earned. If a gift is perceived as earned, then it really isn’t a gift. Is it?

In the end, it’s important to make it part of your company’s culture to notice and recognize employees. It’s a great gesture to celebrate employee anniversaries, but it’s even better to also frequently celebrate employee successes, accomplishments and contributions as a part of your company culture.

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ACTION PLANS ARE NOT JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT!

As it relates to delivering or participating in any kind of sales training. If people 

leave without a commitment to the actions that they learned about or were

exposed to the outcome will be lackluster.


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ability to achieve it. Unless you translate the BIG STEPS into action the effort is 

pointless.


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with inventory and excess unused capacity that YOU CAUSED.


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YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH!

YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH!

DISCOVER HOW TO SELL VALUE, NOT PRICE

When salespeople hear prospects say, “The price is too high” the salesperson usually reacts.  This is a “belief trigger” in the mind of the salesperson. A trigger causes an event or situation to happen or exist.  Hearing a price concern causes salespeople to very often resort to discounting. This reaction is almost instantaneous based on poor programming in the case of all prospects. It should be the last resort, if even any avenue at all.

High Price = Discount Demand

Why does this happen in the mind of salespeople?

These are some things that influence belief triggers:

• Big box retail thinking.  Although the channels of distribution which employ salespeople to do face to face and consultative selling are different, salespeople believe they should be able to compete on the same margins.  They cannot and never will!

• Unprepared sales representatives.  When a company employees salespeople they are most generally a premium price organization.  They have to be.  Discounting is NOT a role that highly paid salespeople do to earn business.

• Poor habits - Because salespeople always do price selling and so do the professionals around them, they become lazy. The cost is always differentiated by sharing a demonstrated value differentiation to alternative product and service offering.  If there are none, shame on the supplier!  If they are not communicated by the salesperson, shame on the salesperson, the company sales trainers and coaches!

Social defeat refers to losing a sale with a prospect, or any kind of dispute among humans. A power play defensive system that salespeople use is to offset the impending defeat with a discount to show how POWERFUL the salesperson can be.

To break out of the BELIEF TRIGGER of PRICE, salespeople have to work extremely hard at differentiating their offering on results and return on investment.  Salespeople need to re-program their relationship with prospects to create more value than their competitors and focus on showing that they and their company can create greater outcomes.

When a salesperson discounts 10% they have to work an extra 11% harder to make up the short fall of revenue and reach the company sales numbers.  Based on a 40 hour work week, that is an extra 4 hours a week the salesperson will have to work.  The salesperson will have to work half a day on the weekend either Saturday or Sunday.

If the salesperson, as in our example, discounts 20%, it means an extra 25% harder to make up the short fall in sales.  This represents an extra 10 hours per week of time on top of the 40 hours already being put in.

There is an alternative for salespeople giving up time with their family and loved ones on the weekend or working later each day.

That is to SELL VALUE.

Companies provide value to their prospects which can be designed to have a higher perceived value in the eyes of the customer than the discount a salesperson might give. 

Think for a minute… What is it? 

Some things that you could give in return for maintaining your price might include:

• Leads and introductions for your prospect's business
• Extra training on the implementation of your offering
• Offering a higher level of support
• An extra portion of your product
• Another month of service
• Extending payment terms
• Expediting implementation
• Provisioning extra users
• Inviting the prospect to became a part of a user’s group
• Provide an older version of what you sell that as a gift
• Create a press release or other marketing asset for your prospect

The goal is to look at the impact of the discount amount and provide more of the product or service that the customer is purchasing or an additional item that has a perceived value greater than the discount that the customer might be attracted to.  This would cost your organization little or nothing in comparison to the discounted amount.

Are You Reaching Your Goals?

It’s the middle of March and the first quarter is nearing an end. Are you on track with your goals this year? If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life's direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding. Here are some ideas for achieving your sales goals.

• Know your numbers. It’s impossible to set tangible sales goals without knowing numbers. Identify your past and current sales numbers so you know what targets you can set that are both reasonable and achievable. 

• Develop your attitude. Your attitude is controllable. Conquer your fears. Change the beliefs that limit your success. Your thought habits control your commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, resilience, happiness, and confidence. Be aware of them, decide which ones are unproductive, and then make a commitment to change. With time and effort, you can become the person you want to be.

• Review your sales goals first thing in the morning every day. Say your big picture goal out loud and review goals and actions for the day. At the end of each day, review how the day went, and set goals and actions for the next day.

• Invest time prospecting for NEW business every week. Most salespeople rely on existing clients to generate their sales. Allot a specific amount of time to look for new business opportunities whether it’s within a current account or a completely new company. How much time are you prepared to commit to prospecting for new business?

• Ask for referrals. Referrals are one of the top ways to grow your business.  You can exponentially increase the number of referrals you get, dramatically increasing your client base, by doing one simple thing - asking for referrals.  Most people, especially happy customers, are truly glad to help with referrals when asked.

• Improve your selling skills. Attend sales training programs, read books, newsletters, magazines and blogs. Listen to audio programs. Talk to the top performers in your company. Work with a sales coach.

• Show customers why they should keep doing business with you. Just because someone has bought from you in the past does not mean they will continue to do so in the future. In today’s business climate you need to constantly prove to your existing customers why it makes sense to continue buying your product/service. What can you do to reinforce this to your customers?

• Maximize your time. Focus on your goals. Test every activity for its importance and urgency. Create an ideal schedule, and test your actual time use against it daily. Remember, just one hour a day used more productively adds up to more than six extra weeks of productive time a year.

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” ~ J.C. Penney

Are You Constantly Hearing "Your Price is Too High?"

YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH! DISCOVER HOW TO SELL VALUE, NOT PRICE When salespeople hear prospects say, “The price is too high” the salesperson usually reacts.  This is a “belief trigger” in the mind of the salesperson. A trigger causes an event or situation to happen or exist.  Hearing a price concern causes salespeople to very often resort to discounting. This reaction is almost instantaneous based on poor programming in the case of all prospects. It should be the last resort, if even any avenue at all. High Price = Discount Demand Why does this happen in the mind of salespeople? These are some things that influence belief triggers: Big box retail thinking.  Although the channels of distribution which employ salespeople to do face to face and consultative selling are different, salespeople believe they should be able to compete on the same margins.  They cannot and never will! Unprepared sales representatives.  When a company employees salespeople they are most generally a premium price organization.  They have to be.  Discounting is NOT a role that highly paid salespeople do to earn business. Poor habits - Because salespeople always do price selling and so do the professionals around them, they become lazy. The cost is always differentiated by sharing a demonstrated value differentiation to alternative product and service offering.  If there are none, shame on the supplier!  If they are not communicated by the salesperson, shame on the salesperson, the company sales trainers and coaches! Social defeat refers to losing a sale with a prospect, or any kind of dispute among humans. A power play defensive system that salespeople use is to offset the impending defeat with a discount to show how POWERFUL the salesperson can be. To break out of the BELIEF TRIGGER of PRICE, salespeople have to work extremely hard at differentiating their offering on results and return on investment.  Salespeople need to re-program their relationship with prospects to create more value than their competitors and focus on showing that they and their company can create greater outcomes. When a salesperson discounts 10% they have to work an extra 11% harder to make up the short fall of revenue and reach the company sales numbers. Based on a 40 hour work week, that is an extra 4 hours a week the salesperson will have to work. The salesperson will have to work half a day on the weekend either Saturday or Sunday. If the salesperson, as in our example, discounts 20%, it means an extra 25% harder to make up the short fall in sales.  This represents an extra 10 hours per week of time on top of the 40 hours already being put in. There is an alternative for salespeople giving up time with their family and loved ones on the weekend or working later each day. That is to SELL VALUE. Companies provide value to their prospects which can be designed to have a higher perceived value in the eyes of the customer than the discount a salesperson might give.  Think for a minute… What is it?  Some things that you could give in return for maintaining your price might include: Leads and introductions for your prospect's business Extra training on the implementation of your offering Offering a higher level of support An extra portion of your product Another month of service Extending payment terms Expediting implementation Provisioning extra users Inviting the prospect to became a part of a user’s group Provide an older version of what you sell that as a gift Create a press release or other marketing asset for your prospect  The goal is to look at the impact of the discount amount and provide more of the product or service that the customer is purchasing or an additional item that has a perceived value greater than the discount that the customer might be attracted to.  This would cost your organization little or nothing in comparison to the discounted amount.

How do you manage poor sales performance?

Performance management makes up a significant part of every manager's job, and this means managers are required to deal with poor performance. Managers often view this as one of the less desirable responsibilities that come with their job.  Sales organizations react in different ways to poor sales performance. Do any of the following look familiar to you? Some organizations will put a revolving door on the sales office for the poorer performers…the under performers either make the grade or they go. In fact, many larger organizations will adopt a process of forced ranking where the bottom 10% will be asked to improve within 3 months or find alternative employment either within or outside of their organization. ​ Some organizations will look at the sales team as a whole and maintain the performers, exceptional performers and under performers in the same environment, on the basis that they accept the bell curve model and appreciate that this is possibly as good as it gets. ​ Some organizations may invest heavily in the poor performers training, coaching, mentoring and offering additional support. ​ Every sales management team and business will have its own way of managing poor sales performance. For every hundred men hacking away at the branches of a diseased tree, only one will stoop to inspect the roots.– Chinese proverb