So how do these superheroes of the financial industry get rewarded?
When individuals overachieve their sales goal or quota production, they get far more than just a commission check. The initial purpose of a President’s Club Trip is to reward outstanding sales producers for a job well done. Many of these trips are to warm-weather destinations with excellent accommodations, direct beach access, and many activities and cultural influences.
What is a President’s Club Trip?
A standard President’s Club trip could be for 3, 4, or 5 nights providing winners and their guests with round-trip air tickets, accommodations at a luxury resort, a welcome reception with company executives, sometimes a short business breakfast, lavish award dinner, and ample free time to enjoy the local culture. Many companies also include welcome gifts and resort credits to cover activities and food and beverage during the trip. See our favorite destinations.
President’s Club Trips to the beach are popular with mortgage bankers.
President’s Club Trips to the beach are popular with mortgage bankers.
In today’s day and age, however, it is much more than that. Beyond recognizing the “best of the best” in the company, there is a desire to create long-term bonds. A company incentive trip provides an opportunity to build deeper relationships at a personal level since so many of these heroes spend a good chunk of their time working at a professional level. One Executive VP explained, “many of our employees extend after the trip to spend extra time with the friends they’ve made within the organization.”
Why a Top Producer Trip?
“We pay our folks well, so why add another expense into the mix?” Good question, and the answer simply put is competition. Or retention. In today’s job marketplace, employees seek opportunities that allow them to earn a living and enjoy attractive fringe benefits along the way.
Job interviewers often go to the same “cliché well” and fetch the same “work hard play hard” mantra when sitting across from a prospective hire, but imagine showing pictures of your past President’s Club trip.
Internally there is also a competitive environment that can be sparked from starting a President’s Club Trip. People develop a competitive spirit when they see a colleague earn a free trip to the Caribbean while they are stuck home in cold, wet weather. It is no surprise that most companies announce the destination of their next President’s Club Trip during their Sales Kickoff or very early in the year. This allows their employees to fully understand the qualification rules and reverse engineer what it would take each month to achieve elite President’s Club status.
Who Should Attend the Incentive Trip?
Alright, you’ve designed your qualification rules, and you’ve seen an uptick in loan production amongst your team. Now, you wonder if you are missing anyone from this trip.
Look at also rewarding your mid-level managers and or newly-hired producers by using tiered rules. If certain regions are knocking it out of the park, think about inviting the managers who are behind that activity.
Besides revenue generators, you should invite Senior Leadership (CEO, CFO, EVP, VP) to allow the attendees time to mingle with them and for the execs to compliment and recognize these rainmakers.
In the last few years, the club trip has evolved from just including the top-earning salespeople and senior leadership to the addition of non-producing key personnel to these trips as “they add to the value of the interpersonal experience” commented one Mortgage Company CEO. These support positions or “non-revenue” producing positions are identified as key company players that have helped the winners produce at such a high level.
Several clients allot a few spots for “friends of sales.” These typically go to employees nominated by the attendees or selected by the leadership team for doing the dirty work that allows the President’s Club winner to produce at such a high level.
President’s Club Trip VIP mortgage brokers providing VIP treatment is paramount to leaving a lasting impression on winners.
Providing VIP treatment is paramount to leaving a lasting impression on winners.
How to Determine Qualifiers for Top Producers Trip
Now that you have decided to embark on rewarding your top performers with a President’s Club Trip, how should one decide who goes, or more importantly, what are the qualification or criteria involved. Many mortgage companies qualify strictly on volume.
A typical production requirement is 50-75 mortgage loan closings and/or $25,000,000 – $30,000,000 in production. Anyone that meets that criterion within the firm is qualified to go! $25 to $30 million in production is a good metric for an incentive trip to a US48 destination, the Caribbean, or Mexico at an average budget of $5,000 per person or $10,000 per couple. Increasing the production goal to over $30 million in production and the trip budget can go as high as $7,500 per person or $15,000 per couple, which could fly your VIP-producers to Hawaii or Europe.
Another common criterion is allowing the top 20% of your salesforce to attend regardless of volume, which rewards truly elite producers but could leave other high producers out in the cold. Click Here to learn more about how great companies award great employees with a variety of reward solutions.
How to Start a President’s Club Trip
You have decided to start a President’s Club Trip, defined the guidelines for qualification, and have begun rolling it out to your team; now what?
This is where Brightspot comes in. We help you plan the perfect program with amazing customer service and creative ideas. Our CMPs (certified meeting professionals) leverage our experience and expertise to identify the ideal resort and destination for your team. We aim to be the “bright spot” in your event planning process by helping plan the trip from ideation to execution and every step along the way.
See these helpful pages for what an incentive travel company does and the cost to hire an incentive travel agency.
If you would like any assistance with your mortgage incentive travel program, head over to our handy Travel Calculator, visit our group incentive travel page, or drop us a line for more bright ideas on how we can make your trip the best it can be!
