That’s for New Customers Only

Episode 045

Ben Walters: [00:00:00] Ben with SuperPumped Podcast. Do you get all kinds of ads in the mail for different things? Like "switch to this credit card and get a $500 first statement bonus," or "switch to this internet provider and we'll give you $99 plus phone and cable tv," for instance. Or a cell phone. They are the ultimate. "Switch to us we'll buy out your old contract." I wish I got that deal. I recently got an ad from my bank and it was if you put a certain amount of money on deposit with them, the interest rate was like 5%. I was like, that is fantastic. So I went to my bank and I said, can I get that? Do you know what they said? No. That's for new customers only.

Ben Walters: As an existing customer, that really frosted me. I was like, okay, so the people who haven't been a customer, you're throwing out everything for them, and you're giving me jack squat.

Ben Walters: Well, do you know what you do? If your bonus structure is all about signing bonuses, you're basically giving middle fingers to your existing employee. You're saying, hey, Joe Blow off the street. We've never met. Here's a $5,000 signing [00:01:00] bonus to come into our company. And if you're the existing employee, you're saying, what about me? Where's my gig bonus? And they're like, well, you already work here, so we take you for granted.

Ben Walters: If you are thinking about the types of bonuses in your business, signing bonuses suck. They are terrible for business. They are terrible for slaying the turnover dragon. You're gonna spend big money on the very people who are gonna hop from signing bonus to signing bonus to signing bonus.

Ben Walters: If you're in nursing or healthcare. You see this all the time, especially with nurses. We throw all kinds of signing bonuses, right? And then they just move from this healthcare group to this one, to this hospital, to this outpatient surgery center. and nobody slays the turnover dragon, right?

Ben Walters: Second thing is you don't just give 'em the entire signing bonus on day one, right? It's usually at the six-month mark and the one-year mark, or whatever your metric is. You know what they're gonna do? They're gonna do just enough not to get fired in that time, but all the while they're gonna be looking for, where's the next signing bonus?

Ben Walters: That's not gonna help you. It's gonna waste a lot of money. And then, at the end of that period, guess what? [00:02:00] They're going to leave most likely, just like I would for a better internet provider or a better cell phone deal. So stop wasting your time on that.

Ben Walters: And finally, it is gonna upset the very people that you count on as the bedrock of your business. So stop doing the signing bonuses. These are bad. Forget the signing bonuses. I want you to put your money into referral bonuses for your existing people and, the most important, retention and performance bonuses. And if you do that, stop wasting money on signing bonuses, start throwing the money down here you are gonna slay the turnover dragon and you're gonna have an awesome workforce. 

Ben Walters: Thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Business Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, I have two quick next steps for you. First, subscribe or follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. And second, jump on over to superpumped.com to find out all the [00:03:00] incredible ways we can help you launch your SuperPumped Business.

Ben Walters: Keep well and I'll see you next time.