Sitting around a table at a pool party, someone asked the question, "What would you have for your last meal if you were going to be executed?" Of course, your typical summer outdoor barbeque question while you are hanging out by the pool with friends? What kind of people ask this type of question? The answers were pedestrian. One person wanted steak, one wanted lobster, one a pizza, (seriously? The chair and you want pizza?), another chose a great cheeseburger. It came to my turn. My response was a little more detailed- "I would start with the copper-pot escargot from Peter's in Indianapolis, (although out of business, this is my fantasy, so I am going to imagine it anyway). Definitely I would eat three shrimp from St. Elmo's, downtown Indianapolis. I would eat the flying wing bean salad I had from a street vendor in Thailand. For the main course I would have Steak Diane from Morton’s. I would finish with Bread Pudding from the Commander's Palace in New Orleans." As I was mentally working my way through this meal, looking up as a person does when he or she is trying to remember something, I missed the observation that people were moving away from the table. When I hit the last part of the meal, dessert, I was alone. That's Ok. In the question that was posed, my next step was execution anyway. How many restaurant meals have you had? Events that you have gone to? In the business world, you do a lot of entertaining. Conferences, client or vendor meals, golf, concerts, sports events and even more exotic. I know a CEO who liked to take his top clients to the "Burning Man Festival" each year. I can't explain what that is, you have to look it up online, but it will surprise you as a business entertainment venue. For the vast number of business professionals, business entertainment becomes a blur. You remember the basketball game, but not the company that took you. The restaurant, but not who paid for the meal. These lapses in memory don't happen the next week or month, but in a relatively short period of time, the memories are lost. The memories become one more of many. Somewhere during his travels and sales entertaining, my brother Tim came up with a simple idea; entertainment was not worth spending money if it was not memorable. All companies in our industry entertained. We had about fifty competitors that were worth considering. To stand out, we needed to do memorable things. One of the processes he developed is a checklist for many memorable things besides business: 1. Several days before arriving to our city for a site visit, someone from our support staff would call our prospect. A list of questions were asked; What time did the person like to wake up? What type of pillow did the person prefer? Did he or she have a preferred snack? What were their flight arrangements? Could we assist in any way with flight planning? 2. The day of arrival, someone from our support staff would pick up the guest with the key contact person and bring the prospect to the hotel for check-in. The prospect would be escorted to the prospect's room by hotel staff, with charging arrangements made and keys already secured. The room would be set with a welcome card, snacks, water and the alarm clock set for the next morning. The time for dinner was on the itinerary for the prospect's stay. 3. At the designated time, the prospect would be picked up at the hotel by the support person and the contact person. They would proceed to the restaurant. The restaurant manager would greet our guest by name and then the rest of our group, including the president of our company. The president of our company would propose a toast. The sommelier would stop by and introduce himself to the guest by name. He would tell the guest that he had selected some special wines for tonight's meal specials for the guest to try. 4. The restaurant manager would come over and ask if we were ready to go to our private dining room. She had reserved “the library” for us so that we could have a quiet meal. The chef came through the sliding doors to the library and introduced himself by name to our guest. He then handed out menus. He indicated that there were several items not on the menu or offered in the rest of the restaurant that he understood might be favorites of our guest. He then told the guest about those selected items. 5. Our waiter, (we always had the same one, even if he came in on his day off), came in, introduced himself to our guest by name, and took drink orders and brought hors d’oeuvres that we had pre-ordered. 6. The sommelier entered into the room some time later before we had ordered our meals. He asked our preferred selections and made recommendations. He offered to bring tasting glasses if there were curiosities. After the wines and food had been decided upon, the waiter appeared and took orders. 7. After the meal, soufflés were served. Soufflés require 20 minutes to prepare and are a specialty of the restaurant. These were brought in with some flare, three of the kitchen staff bringing them in and lifting the lids at the same time. 8. The sommelier returned and offered after dinner drinks and cigars. 9. After the meal, we left and the prospect was returned to the hotel by support staff person and the key contact. 10. The next day was planned similarly until the moment of departure. 11. If there was more than one person on the prospect team, appropriate adjustments were made. Qualified close rate for sales was 87%. How did Santa's magic all happen in one night? Tim had contacted three of the top restaurants downtown and told them that our company would be doing a lot of entertaining. We would do it with one restaurant, but that restaurant needed to understand our business and what we were trying to accomplish. One restaurant took the invitation. That restaurant's manager and chef came to our offices and took a tour, asked questions, discussed our needs and then did one of the most important things- they got excited. Very few companies asked them to partner. They created the, "We could do this!" and "We could do this!" energy. They built out the amazing restaurant experience including the greeting and the staff each coming and doing their job face to face. They were so excited to see us and our clients it was always a little too much, but we did not turn the gas down on that fire. The hotel already had a VIP program, so we slipped right into that one and it went well. Here is the point. Compliments, notes, raves came back. The "I have never been treated like that before!" "My husband hates you! He says he will never meet that level!" It was memorable! What did it cost? Fifteen percent more. We guaranteed the restaurant all of our business forever and that we would pay 15% more on all of our checks. It took a few dry runs, but not near fifteen percent of any one of our staff's time. Memories only cost fifteen percent if you decide that memorable is what you want rather than just enough. Birthdays, anniversaries, annual Christmas parties, bonuses, whatever… what does fifteen percent more planning, fifteen percent more panache and fifteen percent more money get you. In our case, it got us double the conversion rate of our industry. We believed it was worth it.