Author: Mike Sullivan

Mike has more than 15 years of experience designing and implementing incentive and recognition programs. He specializes in employee recognition and multi-step channel sales incentive programs. When not tending to his clients’ needs, Mike can be found wetting a line on a local waterway or traversing a hiking trail with his wife Michelle.

Millennials – Mobility Agility?

September 29, 2016 by

I recently attended my younger brother’s wedding, and while there had an opportunity to sit back and do some serious people watching.  From my vantage point, I had a pretty good view of my parents’ table, which were mostly Baby Boomers and my brother’s table which were mainly Millennials.

I was able to observe behaviors from many different areas including dancing, (Millennials-never left the table; Boomers were shaking it) drinking (Millennials-craft beer; Boomers-wine) and oyster consumption (Millennials-yum-briny!; Boomers-not so much).  Just for the record, my table was mainly Gen X and we were right down the middle (some dancing; drank beer, wine and liquor equally; we ate the oysters), but the real topic I wanted to mention was in communication.

The Boomers were talking and having a good time, but they were very infrequently using their smart phones. When they did use them, they usually had to dig them out of a purse or jacket pocket first.  The Millennials all had their smart phones at least on the table if not actively using them for texting, searching or talking.  Full disclosure, our table was again right down the middle.  Half had their phones away while the other half had their phones on the table or in their hands.

While all of the observations were interesting, it really drove home to me how important a mobile accessible website was to business today.  We use our smart phones constantly, which is especially important as more Millennials enter the workforce and chances are if your company website is not mobile accessible, you are leaving some business on the table.  At QIC, our Incentrac platform that we use to manage our incentive and recognition programs is mobile enhanced, which allows for contractors or employees in the field to access the site and check their status in the program, input variable data into the platform to capture awards and go shopping and spend their hard-earned points.

In summary, if you want to make a quick buck, I recommend a mobile enhanced website that caters to ordering fresh oysters and locally sourced oysters.  My non-scientific observation says it will work!

Shh! It’s a Secret

May 6, 2016 by

This article describes a secret loyalty program for Chick-Fil-A where customers are invited to participate and gain access to unique reward items such as free food and special tours.  What makes this loyalty program special is not all Chick-Fil-A customers are invited to participate.  They are made to feel like they are gaining access to… Read more »

Effective Sales Training

April 1, 2016 by

I recently read an article entitled How Effective Was That Sales Training which described a strategy of replacing metrics-based sales training with a program of post-training communication between the sales team.  While I agree with the author’s opinion that the post-training communication between the sales team is important, I believe the metrics-based sales training can be… Read more »

Customer Loyalty Basics

February 23, 2016 by

In a recent business.com article entitled The Perks of Being Loyal:  How to Build a Customer Loyalty Program That Works, Lucinda Watrous explains some of the many benefits of building a customer loyalty program.  While the specific programs highlighted are consumer-facing by nature, the principles can be applied to B to B environments as well.… Read more »