Sales & Marketing Management - January/Februry 2008 - (Page 21) go after business, even the way they book a sale,” Clark says. “If we tried to implement those changes over time, it would have taken forever and we would have lost employees and revenue every step of the way. “Best of all, because of the way we announced and executed the plan, people didn’t have to worry about what additional changes would be coming next month, or whether their job would even exist in the future. All of the changes were announced and made effective immediately, so it was like everyone in the organization was re-hired into a new job that same day.” Although implementing change so quickly carried a certain amount of risk, it was deemed to be less than dragging it out would have entailed. “I felt that the damage we would have suffered if we got some of it wrong was less than the damage we would have suffered if we took too long to make the changes,” Massari says. “Making a bad decision is often better than making no decision. Salespeople tend to be driven toward goals, so uncertainty is a cancer. I’ve seen it kill entire sales teams in other companies.” He should know just how crippling change and uncertainty can be when they are managed poorly, especially in the areas of job security and compensation. Early in his sales career, Massari had blown away his annual targets and expected his bonus to reflect that performance, based on the details of his comp plan. But management awarded him a bonus that was considerably less than he should have earned. “When I brought that up with my boss, he said that the amount I received was what the leadership team felt I deserved for my efforts,” he says. “The next year was tougher and my numbers were down, but I received the exact same bonus and got the same explanation: The amount I received was what management felt I deserved. “Obviously, it didn’t matter whether or not I hit my targets, because in spite of all the time and effort that went into creating the incentive plan, management didn’t follow through on it. Why should anyone bother working toward the numbers when they don’t matter?” He left that company several months later. “All for one” isn’t just lip service One of the greatest competitive advantages of having seven major properties operating in a single organization is that meeting planners who choose Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment can use multiple venues for different events. In other words, a meeting planner could schedule breakfast and an educational session at Caesars Palace, lunch and afternoon sessions at Rio, and a dinner reception at Bally’s—all www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com while working with a single contact, under a single contract and with all associated costs on a single bill. But that focus on unity and teamwork also brings advantages to people inside Harrah’s Entertainment, in addition to its outside customers. By the management team’s design, every single employee is incented to do the right thing, no matter his or her job duties. One way or another, if a worker’s efforts make the overall experience better for visitors, he or she will be rewarded for it. The company uses two incentives to do just that: a “big picture” reward given to employees in all departments for increases in overall satisfaction, and an “instant gratification” reward for any effort that makes visitors happy. The big picture reward is a quarterly Customer Satisfaction Assurance (CSA) incentive available to all employees in all departments for improvements in satisfaction scores. But there’s another incentive to help ensure meeting planners and their attendees have a positive experience. At the end of their events, meeting planners can choose two Harrah’s employees who went above and beyond to make them more successful. As a reward, those employees receive a special cash payout and get to attend a quarterly luncheon in their honor, where they also have the chance to win an all-expensespaid trip for two. Was the blackjack dealer especially patient while you learned the rules of the game? Hand her a token. Did the concierge put in extra effort to find tickets for that sold-out show you wanted to see? Then slip him a token. “We wanted to create an environment in which, at any time and for any reason, our employees can be rewarded for providing good customer service,” Ross says. Another innovative strategy was to keep overall profitability separate from customer satisfaction bonuses. Many businesses only pay bonuses if the company achieves its financial goals, but Harrah’s ensures that customer service is always rewarded. Several years ago, for example, the Rio posted a loss—a chunk of which came from paying out customer service bonuses. “If our employees provided world-class customer service, they got paid for it, even though the property lost money overall,” Massari says. “They did what we asked them to do and they were rewarded for it.” According to Massari, “You can succeed as a good manager with a bad incentive plan, and you might even succeed as a bad manager with a good incentive plan. But you’ll see a lot of happy faces in your office s&mm when you put them both together.” 21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com
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