Marketing Their Benefits and Connecting With Veteran Clients The Value of a Veteran Marketing Their Benefits and Connecting With Veteran Clients Are any of you military, Hollstadt & Associates June 21, 2016

Your Corporate Allies Major Noelle Racette Alan Hill 14 Years MN Army National Guard 30 Years Team Building 20 Years Leadership Experience Alan Hill Army & MN Army National Guard service 30 Years Corporate Experience 5 years Veteran Career Coach Tell our story

Top Challenges Identify one key takeaway you want from this presentation What are your top challenges? Overcoming Stereotypes of Veterans Explaining the Value of a Veteran Connecting with Veteran Clients Can you explain the value of a veteran to me in 20 seconds? How do you sell “it” to your customers?

Myths & Misconceptions Hollywood gets it right Mindlessly follow orders Combat = PTSD Broken or Heroes Can’t make it in the real world Lack skills & education

Beyond the Stereotype

Beyond the Stereotype What do you know about THIS guy Value of a veteran – perspective & varied experiences What makes Birch different? How many Birch” do you have? How many do you want? Can you identify “birchs” and how do you sell them to your clients?

Thousands of Birchs 200,000 people join the military each year Between 240,000 and 360,000 service members separate annually Only 17% of all service members “retire” With the drawdown, the military is expected to separate 1,000,000 service members over the next few years The nation spends billions of dollars a year to train, educate and outfit service members 75% of potential recruits are rejected. BCT Talk to your recruiters to get on the gravy train

A Life of Service Warrior Ethos We Still Serve I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. We Still Serve

Value of a Veteran Veterans have experienced highly engaged work environments and strong leadership The opportunity to serve creates meaning and purpose in their work Veterans expect input from all levels to develop cohesive teams, improve mission success and make course corrections Veterans are experienced in matrixed organizational structures and comfortable in ambiguous circumstances Veterans have compound perspectives & experiences This is what makes Birch so valuable to your clients

Connecting with Veteran Clients Attempt to Understand the Culture Talk about Parents and Coaching Ask questions, listen to the stories

Rank – Simply Complicated Rarely is there a straight career path in the military. Various jobs provide breadth, depth and/or perspective Education equivalent

Rank and Title Enlisted – Heart, Hands & Feet Individual Contributor Future NCOs and Officers Entry Level – Experts NCO – Backbone of the Military Supervisors/Managers Morale and Execution Leadership Experts Officer - Brains Directors/VPs/Executives Plans, Strategies, Vision NCO’s Cares about you Protecting you Holding you accountable to care about others

Cultural Differences Military Civilian Identity related to position/rank Identity related to job Escalate intensity Escalate diplomacy Merit leads to positions Networking leads to jobs Results through relationships Results through merit Success leads to challenges Success leads to bonuses Accomplishments are a team & part of the job Individual accomplishments are exceptional Mission First, People Always Sees accomplishments as part of their job. TEAM!!!!!!! Not individual Trust between veterans vs. civilians experience

So What, Now What Do you know who your veterans are? Will you market veterans differently? How? Top Take-Aways Have your top challenges changed? How? Overcoming Stereotypes of Veterans Explaining Value of a Veteran Connecting with Veteran Clients

Value of a Veteran Now that you have a better understanding of what a veteran is and has to offer, be confident that you are doing the right thing for the veteran, Hollstadt and your customer. Veterans have the secret sauce that ensures Hollstadt will continue to dominate the targeted markets while staying true to its values.

The Value of Veterans Questions Your Corporate Allies, LLC Noelle Racette noelle.racette@yourcorporateallies.com 952.201.8926 Alan Hill alan.hill@yourcorporateallies.com 612.819.1803

AAR – After Action Review Sustain Improve w/Action