How Behavior Affects the Sale - Part 3 During the Sale

This is the third and final article from John Daly on how behavior affects the sale. If you think everyone behaves appropriately during a sale, you'd be wrong! Enjoy. -Andrea Michaels

In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we examined what to do to prepare before meetings with prospective clients. Now, let's take the final step and look at how your behavior will affect the sale during the actual meeting.

One final thought before actually entering the meeting room ... turn off your cell phone. If you are in a situation of urgency, explain before the meeting starts, set your phone to vibrate and then only accept a call or text pertaining to that situation. Ignore all others.

Accepting calls, texts or emails does not prove how busy you are.  It only proves the person on the other end of the device is more important than the person with whom you are sitting. Think about it. How do you feel when you are the person sitting with another and waiting for him or her to end a call or text that has interrupted your meeting?

So, let's imagine you are five minutes early to the meeting (as you should be) and have been seated in the client's conference room. If you are male, stand if a lady enters the room. Whether you are male or female, stand when someone senior enters the room. That means someone obviously older than you or of a higher ranking.

 

Details You Should Never Overlook in a Meeting

• Always introduce yourself with a handshake. Ladies, make that a firm grip. Make eye contact during the interaction.
• Always introduce the person accompanying you.
• No one works for you; they work with you. Don't say "John is my coordinator." Say "John is The Key Class coordinator." See the difference?
• Body language says 90 percent more than words can say. Sit up straight, don't slouch, and keep your focus directed on the other person. Show interest, listen and pay close attention.
• Do not name drop. If the client wants to know with whom you have worked, then let him or her know.
• Do not try to impress. If you are impressive, it will show. People who have it don't have to prove they have it.
• Never discuss personal information about past clients with anyone. It does not impress people. It makes them worry what you will say about them.
• Never make disparaging remarks about others. Knocking someone down does not bring you up. Compliment the competition at all costs, and then throw up later.
• Remember the magic words! Please and thank you.
• When visiting a client's office, (before sitting down with them) take in the decor. Comment on photographs and awards or special art. People appreciate your noticing the details. It shows how observant and detail-oriented you are.
• If you are given another person's proposal to follow, refuse. Would you want someone to do that to you?

 

The Key Golden Rule to Never Forget

Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength. How you treat all others - employees, a waitperson in a restaurant, fellow team members and peers - reflects who and what you are. Never talk down to anyone. Never assume it doesn't go unnoticed.

 

When Dining or Entertaining Prospects or Clients

• Always be careful with the amount of alcohol you consume. One cocktail before dinner and one glass of wine with dinner. Period.
• Over-drinking makes you vulnerable. Remain in control of your faculties.
• Order good quality wine but not excessive in cost.
• You don't want the client feeling that he or she will be paying for it in the end.

 

In the End, Remember to ...

• Always tell the client that you want their business and will do anything it takes to satisfy them.
• Say this no matter how long the relationship has lasted between you and the client.
• If you make a mistake, own it! You will gain far more respect than trying to shove a mistake under the rug or blaming someone else.
• Going after business is not showing off how successful  you are. It is how successful you can make your client. So be humble! You are there to serve.

So much of sales is developing personal relationships. If you adopt and maintain the behavior outlined in this series, you will find clients willing and eager to work with you, and you will make many friends along the way!

— John Daly is the founder and president of The Key Class, the keys to life skills success. Click here to learn more about The Key Class or to get his book. If you have questions about business or social etiquette, just ask John at johnkeyclass@gmail.com. Connect with The Key Class on Facebook. Follow John Daly on Twitter: @johndalyjr.

How Behavior Affects the Sale - Part 2 - Research and Work Appropriate Before a Meeting

This is the second in a three-part series by John Daly which Extraordinary Events is proud to present. -Andrea Michaels
 
Last time we took a look at steps to take before meeting with a prospective client. This week’s addition will examine the research and deep thought required in preparation to meet the potential client.

 

Know the Client

Knowing the client doesn’t just mean having his or her contact information or perhaps even having a past relationship with that person. It is critical that you spend time doing research on that prospect.

» Look up the mission statement of the company.

» Follow the values of the company in conversation and actions. Read news releases on the company site; figure out what the company’s priorities are.

» Find the words they use to sell their product and then use those words in both written and spoken correspondence.

» In your first meeting, be prepared to listen far more than you talk.

 

Know Your Client’s Product

If you are unfamiliar with the company’s industry, it is critical that you “bone up” on the vernacular used in the client’s industry before the meeting.

» Be sure you say your client’s product name(s) correctly. For instance, it’s Porsche, not Porsh. Adidas is pronounced Ahh-Dee-dass, not A-Dee-diss.

» When you are meeting with a sports team representative, be mindful of the color combinations you wear. Make sure you are not wearing an arch rival’s team colors.

» If there is an occasion to send a car to pick up someone from the airport or any destination, make sure the make of the car coincides with the brand they represent. In other words, don’t send a Cadillac to pick up a Ford client!

 

Preparing Proposals

Andrea Michaels is president of multiple award-winning Extraordinary Events, an international meeting and event planning and production firm. She is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower — Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and co-author of a number of other business books, and she recently wrote an article on “Demystifying the Proposal Process and Winning Business without Losing Money.”

“A doctor will not prescribe medication for you without an examination and subsequent diagnosis,” she wrote. “A mechanic will not order parts for your vehicle without first examining the car and diagnosing the problem.”

She goes on to say that while salespeople aren’t doctors or mechanics, they often are responsible for fixing a corporate problem. Yet they often rush in without the proper examination and diagnosis.

Michaels says that in her own industry of special events, event design and production companies spend $12,000 to $15,000 responding to a client’s Request for Proposal. To double the pressure, her clients want detail, detail, detail, including financial statements, and they demand that information immediately.

And what if you provide all this detail and the client is merely window-shopping? Michaels says, “Why would you want to spend a lot of money with no clue what you are doing?” She affirms, “It would be sheer luck if you could win a bid before you fully understood the needs and goals of your client.”

Michaels’ solution is firmly aligned with mine. The perfect solution is to charge for your proposal. Like Michaels says, “Most of the companies you are dealing with have R&D departments. They are paid for their time ... This is particularly effective if you know someone is trolling for bids. At the very least, it might keep the competition limited to three instead of 23 bids. Explain to the prospective client that the cost will be refunded upon the signing of a contract (i.e. applied to the sale/job.)”

If your industry requires you to submit bids with advanced details, renderings and complex solutions, Michaels and I agree.

“Have clients sign an agreement not to use any part of your proposal if the job is awarded to another company,” she wrote. “Do this before you hand over the proposal. Using your ideas is theft. (This will put a stop to the practice of being handed a proposal from a competitor and asked to price it out against them.)”

Both these practices give your proposal far more perceived value.
Click here for Michaels’ article.

Check in two weeks for the third part of this series on “How Behavior Affects the Sale.”

— John Daly is the founder and president of The Key Class, the go-to guide for job search success. Click here to learn more about The Key Class or to get his book. If you have questions about business or social etiquette, just ask John at johnkeyclass@gmail.com. Connect with The Key Class on Facebook. Follow John Daly on Twitter: @johndalyjr.

How Behavior Affects the Sale - Part 1 - Before You Meet Prospective Clients

I recently read a three-part series by my long-time friend, John Daly. It is based on a presentation that John made at The Special Event this year, and it was such a hit that he is being asked to present this information for other organizations. While some of this may come across as good common sense, there's much to be gleaned from the points he makes. You would be surprised at how often some of these points are overlooked. Extraordinary Events is proud to present this three-part series over the next several weeks. This is the first in the series. Read and absorb. -Andrea Michaels

 Behavior is paramount in sales. Yet, it is often carelessly overlooked by too many. This is the first in a series of articles aimed at reminding all of us of the importance of our actions when it comes to sales.

Phone Facts to Consider

• Who answers the phone?
• How is the phone answered?
• Always answer the phone with a smile on our face.
• Is there a voicemail or answering service?

Often, we're too busy to think about how our phones are answered and the company image that is projected when calls aren't handled professionally. The person answering your phones should be highly trained to do so in a manner that reflects the image you want your company to project. If you use voicemail, make sure that it sounds professional, doesn't have background noise and can be clearly understood.

Did you know that 67 percent of the population do no return or even listen to voice messages?  If you're dealing with Millennials, know that they generally ignore voicemail.

So, the takeaway is simply to know the generation with which you are dealing and handle accordingly. Does that mean you have to learn to text message if you don't already? Probably so.

If you are among the 33 percent who return voicemails, or you are placing a call, rehearse what you will say if you get a voicemail. Have notes handy so you aren't caught off guard. There's nothing worse than sounding disjointed or leaving an exceedingly long voicemail. People won't listen to them.

If you use an answering service, provide written instructions on specifically how your calls are to be answered and handled. Don't leave it up to chance. If you do, you may be creating a bad image about your company's abilities.

When making sales calls:

• Return all voice, email and text messages with 24 hours, or have someone do it for you.
• Always place your own calls.
• Speak very professionally.
• Beware again of possible background noise.
• Refer to the client by last name (Mr. Daly) until he or she asks to be called by first name or you ask for first-name basis permission after you get to know the person.

 For those of you who don't return messages promptly, you not only may be losing opportunities but you are projecting that you aren't organized and can't handle responsibility.

Before Going to a Client Meeting

Think about what you should wear. Here's what you should consider.

• Dress like you care about the client
• Showing style is good, but be sure your style is understood. A Mother of the Bride requires a different set of clothing than a Wall Street Corporate Executive.
• Research the dress code of a company before your appointment and dress in that manner. Do this so that those with whom you meet will feel comfortable with you. I won a long-term contract with Delta Air Lines because I researched and wore the three-piece suit they list in their dress code instead of my usual business casual. Once people feel comfortable with you, they can easily accept you. If they don't feel comfortable, they won't "let you in."
• Make sure your shoes are shined or clean.
• Do not overdress or under-dress.
• Both men and women should keep their jewelry simple. Wearing opulent jewelry may make clients feel like they are paying for it. Being too opulent may also make them feel inferior.
• Be sure to consider your hygiene. It plays a critical part of the image you create in the minds of a client. That means clean hands, manicured nails and pedicured toenails for ladies who wear open toed shoes or sandals. Beware of chipped nail polish! Make sure your hair is clean and brushed. Pay detailed attention to the image you present.
• Do not wear cologne or perfume. (Did you know that smell is the most powerful connector to memory?) Every time I encounter a lady wearing the perfume Tabu, I think of my mother. She always wore that scent, and my memories of her are filled with love. But, what if the person you meet has a negative memory about what you are wearing? Or what if that person is allergic?
• Don't forget deodorant. (During stressful moments, it is possible to generate body odor.)
• Make sure your breath is fresh. Always have breath mints on hand. Before an appointment, rinse your mouth after eating. Avoid garlic, onions, tuna fish and heavy spices before meetings.
• If you have an early morning meeting, be careful of the amount of alcohol consumed the night before. (You may reek of it the next day, and that will definitely kill the sale.)

 

Cars and Social Media

Consider that what you drive matters. It has the same effect as wearing expensive, flamboyant jewelry. I know sales people who have beautiful, expensive cars but choose to drive midpriced automobiles when making sales calls or working. I do the same. I have a Lexus, but my MINI Cooper is my working car.

Don't forget about social media, particularly Facebook and LinkedIn. Be very careful what you post on all social media. (It becomes part of your image.) Posting political or religious comments or crude jokes won't win you any points with potential clients. And these days, everyone checks out both potential employees and vendors on social media.

Never badmouth a client or competition on social media. Once it is on the Internet, it's out there forever and will come back to bite you!

Keep personal information personal and off social media.

Business Cards

• Keep business cards size to standard. It's frustrating for anyone to deal with oversized cards that won't fit in a card holder or anywhere else. If you are using them to stand out, you'll be standing out in a negative way. If they don't fit, they'll end up in the trash.
• Adjust fong size to your clientele's age. Small fonts are impossible for anyone over 40 to read!
• Present your business card with two hands. It is your identity. Treat it with respect, and your client will too.
• Accept a business card with two hands and read it before putting it away. Respect the person's identity.
• If a card has initial that describe a title or certification designation, ask what the initials mean (if you don't know). Use this information for future correspondence or speaking. You will impress the client with your attention to detail.

And finally, before going to any meeting, lay out an agenda for it. Make sure that you have your prospective client's full commitment for the meeting. Ask the client to commit to a specific day and time and ask the client to provide you something specific at that meeting. Explain specifically what your agenda is for the meeting.

Want some great advice on how to do that? Read, "When Is a Contract Not a Contract" posted recently on this blog. You'll have an entirely new perspective about securing sales meetings with clients.

Next time, we'll share the second part of this series.


— John Daly is the founder and president of The Key Class, the go-to guide for job search success. Click here to learn more about The Key Class or to get his book. If you have questions about business or social etiquette, just ask John at johnkeyclass@gmail.com. Connect with The Key Class on Facebook. Follow John Daly on Twitter: @johndalyjr.

Turning Customer Challenges into Customer Wins

This is another incredible article by Jill Harrington that I just had to share with you. You'll gain great insight here. Learn and enjoy. -Andrea Michaels

While I don't engage in a lot of online conversation, I feel compelled to respond when it's an important sales-related issue to which I can contribute value. I recently posted a brief response to Katrina's challenge on a LinkedIn group. As the issue is one that you have likely encountered, or will face at some point, in your sales career, I want to expand on my original response for the salesSHIFT community.

Here is the abbreviated version of Katrina's original post:

"While I agree that it is very important to be prepared for meetings, today I found myself thinking: 'Did my preparation even matter?'I always have an agenda, am somewhat flexible with my talking points, know my audience, and have determined roles. Despite doing all of this for today's meeting I felt like nothing I said was heard and that the meeting went in circles with several arguments amongst people. In the end it was an unproductive meeting, and I felt unsuccessful. While I normally take ownership of my meetings to get them back on track, today it didn't make a difference. What happened?"

Sadly I've seen this happen to many sales professionals who have done their pre-meeting preparation. And I find myself analyzing the cause of the misconnect. Here's my input based on years of observing.

1. You prepare well. But are you preparing from a 'seller's perspective' rather than the customer's?

Most sales people are crystal clear on why they want to meet with a customer. But how clear are you on the customer's motives? Always find out ahead 'why' they have agreed to meet with you, 'what' they see as the desired output and 'how' they prefer to get to that output. Then prepare your meeting format and content to accurately deliver on these and your expectations. I'm constantly amazed at sellers who have worked so hard to get a first meeting or presentation date with a client and then neglect to proactively ask the questions that will enable them to prepare for a productive outcome.


2. Always kick off the meeting with a brief "Client Engagement Statement."

Remind the customer, using their words, of the 'why, what and how' of the meeting. Then check in with them that this is still correct. If something has changed, get their input on how best to adjust the agenda. In the unlikely event there has been a substantial change to their circumstances that threatens to derail the meeting, then suggest rescheduling and get a firm date in your calendars.


3. If someone unexpected arrives at the meeting, do not make any assumptions.

Start the meeting as suggested in point #2. Ask for a formal introduction to this individual. Be clear on this person's role in the organization and in this meeting. And before proceeding, ask the new attendee if he or she has anything to add to the agenda and what he or she wants to take away from his or her time with you. Be diligent in satisfying the interests you've uncovered.


4. When a meeting feels like it is heading in the wrong direction... Call it!

Using the customer's words remind everyone of the 'why, what and how' to which you all agreed at the start of the meeting. Share your concern that the meeting has got off track and that you want to assure the optimal use of everyone's time. Ask for their input. Get their support, or make a recommendation, on how best to refocus. You will earn their respect and leave with your credibility intact.


5. If your attendees are in disagreement amongst themselves, it can often be a valuable dialogue.

Assuming the discussion relates to the meeting agenda, you may step in as an unbiased moderator. Be sure to keep a close watch on time and let the group know when they need to move on. If the disagreement stems from an issue that has no relevance to the original intent of the meeting and you have no value to add, then make the call. Suggest that this may be an internal issue that needs to be addressed prior to your further involvement. And schedule a firm date to reconvene.

Final word on this. If you have a disengaged audience, it's time to consider your reason for being there. Is this one of those meetings you drove and the customer finally caved under pressure? Or do you have evidence that points to high interest and mutual value for both parties?

My final words to Katrina: "Never forgo preparation. Preparation is the lifeblood of sales success. Just make sure it's the right preparation and that you have prepared from both points of view."

Good selling!

JILL HARRINGTON, sales expert, speaker, trainer and president of salesSHIFT, has contributed to the success of thousands of sales professionals and business owners around the world. She provides the uncommon sense that will shift the way you think and maximize your influence, impact and income. Visit www.salesshift.ca  to learn more and to get your weekly dose of Monday Motivation. Jill may be reached at jill@salesshift.ca.

To learn more about Extraordinary Events, visit http://www.extraordinaryevents.net.

Roadmap: How to Define and Apply Culture to Your Company - Part 2

Last time, Dan Berger talked about forming a company culture - its core values, mission and vision. In Part 2, he shares the application of a company's culture. If you missed Part 1, click here to read it first. -Andrea Michaels

The Application of Culture

How do you integrate the words that define your culture? The key is alignment. Your interview process, performance management system, marketing collateral, and so on, have to align with your values, mission, vision and purpose to make them worth anything.

For example, during the Social Tables interview, we ask candidates to describe their favorite event. That ensures what we call the passion test. Are they passionate about the industry?

We ask them to tell us what makes them weird. That aligns to our "Be Outrageous" value.

Autonomy and Mastery

In his book, Drive, Daniel Pink says that employees of our generation, once they make a fair wage, are looking for three things: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. I just told you how to make sure your employees get purpose. Let me share with you two other tools that we use to ensure that they have autonomy and mastery in their work.

At Social Tables, we consider ourselves a deliberately development organization (or a DDO).

We believe that coming to work at our company doesn't only make you a better employee. It makes you a better person.

We accept people's faults and work with them on becoming better versions of themselves. 

I urge you to think about how you integrate learning into your organization. How are you giving your employees the ability to master their craft? Here are a few ideas:

• Facilitate Lunch and Learns with internal talent. Let your employees educate one another about their strengths, and share their weaknesses.
• Provide an education fund for professional and personal development.
• Partner programs with like-minded companies for mentorship and industry tours.

As far as autonomy is concerned, we empower employees. I kind of believe in having a chaotic management style. I let people figure it out. But you can't do that without a firm understanding between the employer and employee about what their personal mission is.

To that end, we took a page out of Reid Hoffman's book, The Alliance.

Tour of Duty

The alliance is all about considering your relationship with employees as a partnership. You're honest with them about what you need, and they're honest with you about what they want.

He calls this a "Tour of Duty." HBR does a great job of describing this principle:

"The tour-of-duty approach works like this: The company gets an engaged employee who's striving to produce tangible achievements for the firm and who can be an important advocate and resource at the end of his tour or tours. The employee may not get lifetime employment, but he takes a significant step toward lifetime employability. A tour of duty also establishes a realistic zone of trust. Lifelong employment and loyalty are simply not part of today's world; pretending that they are decreases trust by forcing both sides to lie.

"Properly implemented, the tour-of-duty approach can boost both recruiting and retention. The key is that it gives employer and employee a clear basis for working together. Both sides agree in advance on the purpose of the relationship, the expected benefits for each, and a planned end.

"The problem with most employee retention programs is that they have a fuzzy goal (retain 'good' employees) and a fuzzy time frame (indefinitely). Both types of fuzziness destroy trust: The company is asking an employee to commit to it but makes no commitment in return. In contrast, a tour of duty serves as a personalized retention plan that gives a valued employee concrete, compelling reasons to finish her tour and that establishes a clear time frame for discussing the future of the relationship."

You need to accept the fact that your employees may not want to work at your organization their whole life, and that's okay. Just have honest conversations about expectations to not make it weird.

To summarize, commit to defining your culture through words, apply those words into action, and enable your employees to feel inspired and passionate about their careers through supportive, deliberate shaping of their careers.

Dan Berger is the founder & CEO of Social Tables. Described as a “relentless and focused entrepreneur,” he has been recognized as Catersource and Event Solution’s 2015 “Innovator of the Year,” as well as Successful Meeting’s 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, BizBash’s 2014 Most Innovative Event,  and by ​Connect and Collaborate Magazines as a 40 Under 40 Industry Leader​. Dan holds an MBA from Georgetown University. Dan may be reached via dan@socialtables.com,  @danberger or on Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/danberger 

To learn more about Extraordinary Events, click here.

Roadmap: How to Define and Apply Culture to Your Company - Part 1

Catersource and Event Solutions Conference and Tradeshow welcomed thousands of attendees from around the globe March 8-11, 2015 to Las Vegas. The annual Trendersetters' Luncheon was anchored by a keynote speech by Catersource & Event Solutions' 2015 Innovator of the Year, Dan Berger. The Founder and CEO of Social Tables spoke to the 800+ attendees about the importance of culture, and the need for developmental leadership in order to build and scale a successful hospitality business in the 21st century.

With Dan Berger's permission, we are publishing the transcript of his remarks as a two-part article. -Andrea Michaels

Good Afternoon, and thank you for attending today's Trendsetters' Luncheon.

It's really humbling for me to speak in front of you all today, because three years ago, My company Social Tables was nothing to me. To be honest, I didn't even know what Catersource or Event Solutions was.

Today all that has changed. We now have 75 employees and 3,500 customers in 55 countries, and I proudly sit on the Event Solutions Board of Advisors.

I am here to talk to you today about how we got here. It's not some special sales process, and it's not just a super innovative product - it's the softer side of business - the true foundation of an organization...

I'm talking about our company's culture.

We have been extremely deliberate about building a culture that attracts and retains the best and the most passionate people. Over the next 20 minutes, I am going to tell you how to do that.

Raise your hand if your company has at least one employee (including yourself).

Keep your hand up if you have more than 5 full-time employees.

... 10 employees
... 20 employees
... 50 employees

Now, by show of hands, who has taken the time to think about company culture? And when I say think about it, I mean define your core values, your mission, and vision.

 

Where We Come From

For Social Tables, it all started a few years ago when I was going to a wedding. It was a beautiful event in Miami, and I was thrilled to be supporting my two friends, but I didn't know anyone who was going to be there, not even those with whom I was seated at a table.

In between polite introductory conversations, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I had known the people at my table before I had arrived, so that we could dive headfirst into our shared interests or backgrounds, and skip all of the niceties that are really just filler conversations? How could a product help create relationships?

And thus, Social Tables was born as a digital seating chart solution. Our goal was to bring people together so that they could have more meaningful conversations.

Culture is Supported by Pillars, Values, a Mission, and a Vision

The first piece of wisdom I want to share with you is this: your company culture, its values, its mission, and its vision all start with your leadership. Your management team must be an embodiment of these essential factors if you have a chance at providing a nurturing and successful environment to your employees and customers.

Your company can't be something you are not.

Good news, if the above doesn't apply to you today, that doesn't mean you can't change. Our own leadership didn't start out as the embodiment of who we are today. In fact, when we reached five employees, I realized we had a few slackers, and that in order to get everyone working towards a shared goal, we needed a way to define our culture.

Company Pillars

Thus, our first cultural exercise was born. We sat together and decided that the following four items would be the pillars of our company, and words that we could reflect on in times of confusion or success:

• Fail Fast and Often
• Ship All Day, Party All Night (coding language)
• Never say "No, because...", only "Yes, if..."
• High Risk, High Reward

 

Core Values

These four pillars remain the foundational support of who we are to this day, but when we got to 15 people, they weren't enough to sustain our cultural needs, so we decided to define our core values.

All of the Social Team members entered a small conference room one-by-one and were given a stack of sticky notes. Each of them quietly reflected on what both the team and the product itself meant to them. The end result was a room papered in sticky notes that reflected a group of people who were all passionate about working together to produce something that was high-quality and innovative. These dozens of phrases, words, and ideas were condensed down to a list of nine company values:

• Customer First
• Teams are Families
• Decidedly Determined
• High Quality
• Every Day is a School Day
• Constant Innovation
• Stay Lean
• Always Honest
• Be Outrageous

 

Mission Statement

 Once we hit 20 people or so, I realized that everyone needed to get on the same page as it related to our mission, so we ran a week-long exercise to define our mission statement.

Our first mission statement was "to transform one-time events into life-long experiences." We adopted this mission because our first-generation product focused on attendees, and we wanted to make sure they extracted as much value out of events as possible.

Extracting value out of an event is highly subjective. To one person, that could mean finding a new business opportunity, to another it could mean learning something new, and to someone else it could mean meeting that special someone.

As we learned more about our industry and its needs, we realized that we couldn't have a direct impact on attendees without first fundamentally changing the way events are planned. This means increasing communication between stakeholders and eliminating as many inefficiencies as possible.

With this newfound focus on the planner, it was time to reevaluate our mission. To that end - and in true Social Tables fashion - we turned this task into a crowdsourced series of workshops, and came up with the mission statement that we live by today. To inspire face-to-face experiences by empowering those who plan and attend them.

A great mission statement explains what an organization does, who it does it for, and how it does it. The key to a great mission statement is that it is measurable. You can't judge success without a benchmark.

What's beautiful about our mission statement is that it hasn't changed much since my original concept: to bring people together.

Vision Statement

By the time we were 40 employees, a mission statement wasn't enough. We needed a North Star. A way to define a future state for our world.

I took my executive team to an offsite and said, "What if everyone had Social Tables? What would that world look like?" We needed a vision statement that would serve as our company's North Star. Something we are all headed toward. After much discussion, and some homemade tacos, we came up with our first vision statement: "We envision a world where people come together to achieve great things."

I shared this with the company, and it reinvigorated everyone. It gave us all a sense of purpose and clarity.

Departmental Purpose Statements

By the time we hit 60 employees, we felt that some folks, especially newer team members, didn't really connect to the vision statement and values.

So, we introduced purpose statements and team-specific values. Each team got together for a building exercise, where in 140-characters or less they were tasked with defining their individual purpose within the company.

The results of these workshops are posted up in our office, shared with the entire company, and implemented into everything we do (performance management, hiring, etc.)

I just walked you through how to define your culture, your core values, your mission statement, vision statements and purpose statements.

These are the most important tools in your leadership toolkit. They make hiring, firing, managing, and growing your business much easier because you can manage against them.

And, next time, EE will bring you Part 2 of this informative speech by Dan Berger covering the application of culture.

Dan Berger is the founder & CEO of Social Tables. Described as a “relentless and focused entrepreneur,” he has been recognized as Catersource and Event Solution’s 2015 “Innovator of the Year,” as well as Successful Meeting’s 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, BizBash’s 2014 Most Innovative Event,  and by ​Connect and Collaborate Magazines as a 40 Under 40 Industry Leader​. Dan holds an MBA from Georgetown University. Dan may be reached via dan@socialtables.com,  @danberger or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/danberger 

 
To learn more about Extraordinary Events, go to www.extraordinaryevents.net.