4 Lessons from 26 Award winning ceos
Learning from the Best
Author: Austin Adesso
Every 5 years, one of our fortune 200 clients hosts an award ceremony for the very best vendors they use. In order to determine who is the best, this industry leader conducts a formal review process every quarter where each vendor is scored on a variety of metrics ranging from price and quality, to deliverables and communication. In order to reach this elite preferred vendor status, each company has to reach and maintain top marks across the board for 5 consecutive years!
We scheduled production to record 26 business profiles (each with 2 interviews and b-roll) across the country in under 2 months. While this was a challenging and interesting project from a production perspective, we uncovered some very interesting threads that connected companies across business sectors and categories. Here, we want to share some common threads that seemed to almost slip under the radar.
Lesson 1:
Reward the best. For companies to remain aggressively competitive, they must give vendors and employees long-term goals for excellence, measure performance and reward high-achievers.
This award is only given to vendors with 5 consecutive years of the highest marks. It’s like getting As on all of your tests with the most complicated projects created for 5 years straight! Vendors were working so hard to get on this list that they would do everything they could to understand what was needed. The ones that made it are exceptional individuals and we are striving to be on this list for the next award ceremony. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it!
Lesson 2:
Treat Your Client’s $$ Like It’s Your Own $$.
This lesson is all about integrity and accountability. The business owners we interviewed are some of the hardest working people you can imagine, and along with that work ethic comes a shared level of ethics around money, spending, and accountability. This client expects and rewards vendors who they can trust, and this was a recurring theme throughout business sectors and organization size. I heard over and over, testimonials of how the vendors treated the money with the highest ethical standards.
We at Partners in Post are no different. We are prudent with our time, and efficient with our energy. Just last week one creative mentioned that they are worried that a task only took 45 minutes instead of an hour and they wanted to make sure it was being logged accurately. We do this so our clients can rest assured we are being diligent with their finances and trusted with the next project.
Lesson 3:
Going ‘Above and Beyond’ is Expected.
9/5, 5 days a week? Not when it comes to preferred vendors and dedicated partners! Going above and beyond is not only expected, it’s required! I heard stories of how electricians woke up at 2am to help mop flood waters out of a production facility in order to save the equipment from getting damaged.
In this day and age, there is only room for problem-solvers and we are proud to be among them.
Lesson 4:
Tomorrow’s Project is Not Guaranteed.
One of my favorite quotes from an award winner was that he does not expect another paycheck, or another project. ‘We fight for every project, every day, every time with every communication, estimate and invoice.”
This has stuck with us 2 years later and it is a mindset we have adopted into every one of our partnerships. It pays dividends because we end up working harder for each project, trying to win their approval every time.
So far, these 4 rules have been the foundation of our marketing strategy to keep our current clients and win new projects along the way.