Black In Business

Baseball Spring training has started and its start has caused me to remember a successful training meeting I was a part of. Keep in mind I was a National Sales Manager for a large company and had a large budget that many would not have available for expenses. Think of it like the great Oscars dress you or your spouse may love and have to have. You find a close match.
As I romanticized about this training event last evening, I felt there were lessons learned to share. I had strategized with the marketing manager about how we could best meet our numbers for the year. We had promoted a number of our top producers and were facing a huge increased in goal. We had a lower goal for the first quarter and then a hockey stick curve up for the rest of the year. We felt our entire sales force would benefit from a highly motivational learning experience.
This was right up my alley, I knew if I brought my US team into St Louis for a week, where I was based, we would teach them but more important inspire them. We had to make this an event that would be memorable. That is lesson one, if it is just a training meeting, it quickly becomes boring. If is memorable as an event the outcome will be memorable as well. Your team will deliver the numbers. Our team kicked ass.
First we set a theme; “Spring Training!” was our theme. The offices that reported to me were in; Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, St Louis and Philadelphia. We purchased major league jerseys to represent the team where the regional office was located. We gave everyone a baseball and had a cocktail party to kick off the event.
We selected the Ritz Carleton Hotel as the venue. My approach was, I wanted my team to feel like big time business people and perform, “a cut above,” the other teams. We wanted this reflected in their professionalism, dress and performance. By selecting a 5 star venue, we wanted them to feel appreciated.
Prior to the start of the cocktail party, I gave a rousing speech, and then introduced our keynote speaker, Lou Brock, a member of baseball’s hall of fame. Lou was a gentleman and so gracious, everyone loved him and many of our reps were women. This was the week Rickey Henderson broke Lou’s record for all time base steals, so Lou had been all over the news. We hired Lou for 1 hour but he stayed all evening until the finish.
We had a baseball theme carnival, with a radar gun set up for pitching and prizes were won.
The next several days we trained and had competitions on presentations. We had nice dinners and every thing was first class. Our team returned to their various cities around the country and when they got home, they received a logo sweatshirt of high quality we purchased from the Ritz Carleton.
We accomplished our goal, great learning, inspiration, fun and a memorable event.
In closing, when ever you have a meeting, ask yourself, what can be done to make this meeting memorable. It will help you win!