Some of your employees are the best. Some are not. But do you treat them all the same? You should actually treat
your best employees like the best. Pamper them a bit. Give them special training. Reward and highlight their greatness. Stars deserve star treatment.
One financial institution that recently treated their best like the best was Heart of Louisiana Credit Union.
They identified their top four salespersons and gave them advanced sales training. But they didn’t just give them specialized training—they gave them an experience.
“We wanted to make it a reward training—not just the same training done in our conference room,” said Cindy Beauregard, CEO of Heart of Louisiana Credit Union. “We wanted to recognize the best of the best.”
So in addition to the elite sales training itself, here is what the credit union did (as a surprise) for their top salespersons:
- Conducted the training at an off-site venue
- Transported the participants to the location in a limousine
- Provided goodie bags with an assortment of treats
- Gave $50 cash
- Treated them to a special lunch
- Gave them CU*Swag t-shirts to wear
“It’s like when you give a gift,” Beauregard said. “Packaging is everything. It sets the tone: that something unique is about to happen.”
The participants concurred. “It made us feel special,” said one of the attendees. “My brain stayed open during the entire training session.”
“It made me feel important and appreciated,” said one of the loan officers. “It was great to be away from the normal setting.”
During the advanced sales training class we covered more than just basic sales and service skills. We examined advanced sales strategies, using real networking skills to connect with people, sales tips and tactics and building a referral based sales systems. Their best producers had mastered the basics so now they were able to learn advanced skills to make them even more effective. The smaller group also allowed for much more interaction as part of the training.
“Your best people want to continue to grow and learn,” Beauregard added. “If you don’t provide opportunities to do that you won’t retain your best people. If it’s elite, it should be elite. Give them something more.”
Another great idea Mark, and an excellent point.
The simple reality in most organizations is that leaders spend 90% of their time trying to get better performance from the bottom 10% of their employees. That may seem harsh, but it tends to be very accurate.
These same leaders often spend far less than the remaining 10% of their time encouraging, rewarding, and recognizing the work of top performers. In the long term, I would argue, this becomes an anchor the drags the organization down.
Because top performers are not being pushed to be even better and less than stellar performance is being tolerated on a daily basis, human nature often takes over and people begin to just go through the motions.
If you’re serious about strengthening your culture and building your team, make the commitment to do what Mark suggests: treat your best like the best.