Want to define your company’s culture? Herb Kelleher, the CEO who made Southwest Airlines famous, once said the following:“Southwest’s communication, its message, is its people.” That comment tells volumes about the culture at that company. It means that the employees are so engaged, and have been provided with the necessary coaching and training to be an extension of the marketing arm of their company. If you have flown on Southwest you probably know what I mean.
And they have over 25,000 employees! Imagine the impact of 25,000 people spreading the word on a product or service. They are more than ambassador’s- they are actually missionaries because they have drunk the Kool-Aid and are out there converting as many customers as possible and reinforcing the company’s value proposition.
So how do you make missionaries out of your employees?
Here are some proven tactics for making your employees an arm of your marketing plan:
Provide them with the proper coaching! To be effective this must be constant and repetitive to keep their dedication, skills, and enthusiasm at the highest levels. Just like you market to produce top of mind awareness in your prospects and customers the same must be planned for in coaching your employees.
Look to those employees who you feel will be excited and polished enough to represent your company on the highest level. To do this well you must first understand the difference in people’s behavior. Not every employee is the ideal candidate to be a missionary. Identify through DISC© those employees whose behavior is well suited to talking to a customer or
potential customer. Not using DISC©in your hiring and development process- give us a call and we can introduce this powerful tool to you.
Reward them properly. These are the individuals who are bringing new business to your company, so have a good pat on the back plan. But be clever- just adding money to their paycheck often enables subpar daily performance. Consider some of the motivational tactics covered in our 100 Ideas book series which can create a sustained effect on employee performance.
So ask yourself: how many employees do you have TODAY that are expanding your marketing effort by acting as missionaries?
