If you would like a FREE copy of this book email me with "Send Book' to george.evans@thepdfchef.com Part 1 of The Executive Summary shows you a technique that will have you smashing targets like an adrenalin fueled downhill ride and not an uphill struggle.

2. Meet-Beat Your Way To Market
Beating Sales Growth And
Performance Improvement
Part 1 In The Executive Summary Series of
Business Insights
by George Evans
Copyright 2010 George Evans
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means including
information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the author. The only
exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short
excerpts in a review.
First Printing: November 2010
Published for the Internet by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0010-5

3. Dedication
This book is dedicated to my amazing wife Natasha;
lover, friend, home builder and guiding light.
Thank you for finding me.

4. Introduction To The Series
The Executive Summary – Succinct Business Insights
That Get Right To The Point
You’re an owner/manager or senior exec in a corporation
and flat out making your business a success. You’ve got
snatched moments for inspiration and nuggets of wisdom but
you want it delivered in fast and succinct way.
How many times have you bought a business book and
the concept is buried in 500 pages of padding. If you could
just get it boiled down into a few pages then you can
practically apply it in your own situation.
The Executive Summary gets right to the point. It gives
you the concept and some practical ways that the author has
used them and leaves the rest to you.

5. Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Targets as an art form
Chapter 2: What is an effective target?
Chapter 3: Why do so many people set the wrong targets?
Chapter 4: The impact of poor target setting
Chapter 5: Understanding an effective target
Chapter 6: “Meet-Beat” in the poker world (and start-up
businesses)
Chapter 7: “Meet-Beat” for the professional sports person
Chapter 8: How to achieve even higher levels of growth
Chapter 9: Build an environment of confidence
Chapter 10: Targets and motivation - the big issue
Chapter 11: “Meet-Beat” In a mature business – setting a
base level
Chapter 12: Summary of the “Meet-Beat” principles
Chapter 13: Time to do a trial of the “Meet-Beat” principles
Chapter 14: Rewards
Chapter 15: “Meet-Beat” and rewards in tandem
Chapter 16: Summary of the concept of “Meet-Beat” and
rewards
Chapter 17: Now go for it with “Meet-Beat”

6. Chapter 1: Targets as an art form.
We’ve all been there…. Set a target too high and it’s
perceived as too difficult or unachievable and it ends up
being a massive de-motivator.
Set it too low and people slow down as they know they
will get a bigger one next time.
Start-ups or big corporations, private or public sector it
seems we are constantly challenged by this dilemma.
If I could just get back the man-hours spent trying
countless systems and techniques to crack this most
intriguing of problems.
Yet when I looked around there were many examples of
individuals and organisations that did it; athletes and sports
men and women got to the absolute pinnacle of their chosen
sport; individuals got to the top of their chosen profession;
organizations that harnessed effective targeting owned their
chosen marketplaces; teams thrived on the aura that
continued success gave them.
I really wanted to know their secret of success and then
BINGO! I got it, tried it, and then used it in every area of my
life where I wanted to generate an improvement or achieve a
goal.
This book is not about positive thinking (albeit it will help!)
and I am not asking you to join some extreme business cult
or modern day religion.
This book is a common sense approach to the ART of
effective targeting and goal setting and how it underpins
personal and organizational success in the growth culture
that is the 21st century.

7. In fact I am pretty certain that once you understand the
“how?” you will say to yourself “sure I knew that” and “how
can it be that simple” yet individuals, teams and corporations
all over the globe are still wrestling with this most perplexing
of issues.
Adopting what I learnt will deliver outstanding results
whether personal, team or across entire corporations.
I am so convinced this book will change your outlook and
performance but be very careful…. whatever you do don’t on
any account share this with a competitor!
Chapter 2: What is an effective
target?
C’mon this bit is easy right? … or, is it?.... heard any of
these?:
In whose opinion is that target right?
Why isn’t it too high?
Why isn’t it too low?
Why does the most senior person get to set or agree the
target?
Why do we even need targets, were doing OK, aren’t
we?
Targets, targets, targets,,, please just let me get on with
my job! (or life)
Then there’s “gaming” to contend with.
Gaming is the counter measure to targets that the
brightest people use. Gamers are like water; they follow the
line of least resistance; give them a target and they see it as

8. a challenge to crack it; they will find the way to beat it without
a change in behavior or performance.
I would like to thank the gamers for they set me on the
right track. Harness the creativity of the “gamer”; get him on
your side. In a way we are all “gamers” looking for the least
line of resistance and an easy way through life.
Strange really isn’t it? We only come this way once and
we are happy to cheat ourselves out of our own true
potential and the success that is open to every one of us
irrespective of colour, creed, schooling or intellect.
So what’s the answer?
Well, I regret having to tell you that all targets in their own
way are wrong… if you were lucky enough to get them right
today then you have just ensured that they are wrong
tomorrow, next week or next month. There is no such
thing as a good target!
AUTHORS NOTE
It’s at this point you are thinking “this guy is a
crackpot”. You are probably now regretting the
purchase of this book and you’re wondering if you can
you cancel the purchase, get your money back and get
the free copy you gave away back from that respected
colleague before they turn a page.
STICK WITH IT…… by the time you get half way I
guarantee you won’t be able to turn the pages fast
enough.
Chapter 3: Why do so many people
set the wrong targets?
This bit is easy…..

9. First of all we are all pressurised into having targets.
They are a crutch we lean on to spur on performance. In my
experience they are rarely effective when used in the
traditional manner. They are particularly poorly used by that
brand of entrepreneur that thinks everyone is not giving their
best or as good as them … ignore this it comes from a
dangerous sense of insecurity and absolutely crushes your
self-esteem, creativity and high performance.
There is much confusion between a target and a goal. A
target is normally an actual amount, particularly in a sales
context. Words describing a goal are more like; ambition,
purpose or aspiration.
In my experience with motivating individuals I find that
agreeing goals in this context is far more palatable and
inspiring than giving out cold, hard targets which I find tend
to be a cause of conflict and are very often highly de-
motivating. If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of an
unrealistic target from an uninspiring, Neanderthal manager
you know exactly how motivating it is!
Chapter 4: The impact of poor target
setting
I’ve seen targets destroy the seed of brilliance and not
allow it to flourish and develop. I’ve seen targets destroy
confidence and talent because they were just totally
unrealistic. I’ve seen business goals and corporate cultures
distorted by poorly thought through targets.
And yet the majority of us are obsessed by them.
You will also be familiar with the situation where a sales
guy will rubbish targets he doesn’t believe in to all his peers

10. and before you know it you have a much bigger morale issue
to deal with.
I’m going to give a really strong clue here about the “how”
of really effective targeting…. The first rule of fantastic
targeting is not to set levels but to strive for continuous
period on period improvement.
Chapter 5: Understanding an
effective target
An effective target motivates, inspires and drives people
on to “show off” how great they are. Smashing targets
becomes like an adrenalin fuelled downhill ride and not an
uphill struggle.
Is this the thing of textbooks I hear you say.. hell no but
I’ve seen it working and experienced the rush you get.
Consistently beating target in every period
Ever heard of a target that works for any period, be it
hourly, daily, weekly, quarterly or annually?
Well now we’re onto it. The very essence of a great
targeting is not the focus on an absolute number. Instead I
would suggest that it’s about the achievement of that magic
word…. growth!
Imagine this… if we could do the same or better in every
period then surely we must grow. And whatever period I look
at it works.
You may have instantly got this but let’s just ponder on
this for a few moments…..
I have a team of 10 people and they can take £1,000 of
orders in their first hour. I ask them in the second hour to

11. focus on “meet or beat” the first hour achievement, it doesn’t
matter how small the improvement if they meet or beat that
last period they’re doing well. As a worst case I want them
to at least meet the first hour achievement.
What happens? Well, we all know the answer to this ….
three people (the rate-busters) beat it and do more than the
£1,000. In fact one of them does twice as much. Four of
them of them don’t fare so well but manage to “meet” the last
hour and at least feel good about themselves. The rest don’t
meet the goal but have observed the progress of the other
seven and are going to try harder next hour.
Then it all starts again in the next hour with the focus on
“Meet-Beat” again.
At the end of the day we count up and agree that
tomorrow we will “Meet-Beat” today’s achievement. We do
this for hours, days, weeks, quarters etc. Everyone gets
focused and really enthused about “Meet-Beat”.
I promise you that you will be staggered that with every
little improvement the compound growth achieved will stun
your competitors.
Here’s an example:
The following table shows a sales executive doing just
0.005% increase in sales every day for 90 days. He turns
his £1,000 per day sales achievement into £1,558.76 per
day which is a staggering 56% growth in daily sales and
delivers a compound month on month growth of 16%.

12. Now you might say… “heh that obvious it’s just maths”.
Well let me tell you it is highly motivating to achieve such
high growth figures with what seems so easy to achieve,
even for the most average of sales guys.
And, there was no conflict or argument along the
way. Both manager and sales guy were both just
focused on “can I Meet-Beat my achievement last
period”
Now this is where it really works…. If I miss this hour
then I can still beat my daily period. If I miss my daily then I
still can beat the weekly “Meet-Beat” goal etc. So you see
there is never that feeling that I might as well forget it now as
I am never even going to get near hitting my target.

13. I promise you try this… the impact on the psychology of
the targetee is absolutely astounding and you will be
heralded as some sort of business god!
Another key point to make here is that the achievement
will not of course be in such small increments. They will
realize that so long as they move forward positively they will
achieve huge compound growth and then they also realize
that if they can make small increments they can also make
big ones. That is the tipping point when confidence kicks in
and you have an organisation of individuals who are totally
focused on growth.
It also helps massively as a manager or supervisor who
has the unenviable task of apportioning targets. This is one
of the most time consuming and debilitating tasks I have
ever had to endure as a manager. If I could have back the
time spent poring over targets and how to apportion them
fairly and equitably. And then there is all the endless coffee
chats with sales people who feel they got a raw deal from
me.
Focus on “Meet-Beat” and everyone has a challenge
before them, whatever their skill and experience level.
Chapter 6: “Meet-Beat” in the poker
world (and start-up businesses)
Here is a fantastic case study on “Meet-Beat” that every
poker professional will tell you is essential in their world.
One of the most important elements of being a
successful poker player (and, by the way, early stage
entrepreneur) is bank-roll management i.e. never running out
of money (cash flow for the early stage business).

14. I start my poker career with £200.00 and so as to limit my
risk I am playing in 2p/4p blinds games. This limits my
exposure to £8.00 in any given game which gives me the
comfort to bet freely and not worry about going broke.
So, to build my bankroll I am applying the “Meet-Beat”
principle. Every time I sit down to play I want to “Meet-Beat”
my last playing period, by however small a margin. As my
bankroll grows then I move up to bigger games keeping in
mind that each game I play I never risk more than 5% of my
bankroll.
This compound effect of tiny incremental growth steps
and the increase in game size produce massive increases in
my bankroll.
There are countless stories of online-poker millionaires
that used this method and are now playing in the biggest
games on the poker circuit.
BIO: Niman Kenkre (Samoleus)
SOURCE: BlueFirePoker.com
Niman Kenkre is a very smart person. He scored a 1580
on his SATs, and he is an extremely analytical player able to
break down what would be seen as a simple hand by most
players, into an in depth analysis with thoughts that most
people would not think of. He approaches the game in a
very unique way, and is probably one of the most advanced
poker minds out there. Niman was an all-american soccer
player in high school, and went on to play professionally
after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, and
then played a summer in Iceland after graduating Penn State
with a 4.0 in his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering.
He went on to work for a few employers as an electrical

15. engineer, most notably MIT, until he turned to poker full time
in 2006.
Over the last 4-5 years since he began playing poker,
Niman has turned a single $25 deposit into millions of
dollars
BIO: Chris Ferguson
SOURCE: Full Tilt Poker
5 WSOP Bracelets
3 WSOP-C Rings
National Champion, Heads-Up No-Limit Hold ‘em, 2008
WSOP Main Event Champion 2000
Chris “Jesus” Ferguson was born and raised in Los
Angeles, California. As the son of two mathematicians, Chris
was destined to join the academic world. He spent a total of
18 years at UCLA, with five years as an undergrad and 13
as a graduate student. In 1999 he graduated with a Ph.D. in
computer science and left the comfort of university life.
Chris started playing poker on an Internet Relay Chat
(IRC) channel – one of the first forms of online poker - during
his student years, and quickly became the highest ranked
tournament player. He applied this knowledge of game
theory to live poker in the LA area in 1994 and played his
first World Series of Poker event just a year later. After
leaving academia, Chris decided to concentrate on his
game.
Within five years, Chris made seven WSOP final tables
and cashed in 12 events. He won his first bracelet in the
$2.5K Seven-Card Stud event, before going on to win the
2000 WSOP Main Event bracelet and $1.5 million the same

16. year. Known for his versatility, Chris won his next WSOP
bracelet in 2001, followed by two further WSOP bracelets in
2003.
Chris is recognized as one of the most skilled poker
players in the world. He’s made 25 WSOP final tables, won
five WSOP bracelets, cashed 42 times in a range of WSOP
events and won three WSOP Circuit championship rings. His
WSOP earnings alone total over $6.7 million.
In 2006, Chris took on one of his hardest but
humblest challenges – to turn $0 into $10K. Using strict
bankroll management rules that he’d set for himself,
Chris started with nothing but a Full Tilt Poker account.
In what became known as the Chris Ferguson $10K
Challenge, it took Chris over 18 months of hard work to
reach $10K, which he donated to the Save the Children
Foundation
I use the poker references, not just because I love poker
but they offer a great analogy to a start-up business. When
you are staring with zero sales then “Meet-Beat” is one of
the only ways to develop your business with a meaningful
growth goal and I promise you it works.
In 1994 I started a business and was lucky enough to win
a franchise to distribute Intel micro-processors into a mature
UK market. At the time I was a small privateer competing
against large scale multi-national component distributors.
We should never have been allowed to succeed in the face
of such mature competition, but we did!
We were so successful using this method of growth and
grew so fast that we achieved the highest level of market
share in consecutive years and were voted Intel European
Distributor of the Year, just 2 years after winning the
franchise (even though we only served the domestic UK

17. market!). Using the same growth methodology my team also
won recognition as Microsoft Distributor of the Year on
multiple occasions.
I have consistently applied this learning in every business
I have been involved in and it is no coincidence that they
have all shown outstanding levels of growth against
competition.
I invested in Ten Lifestyle in 2006 and joined as Business
Development Director responsible for Corporate Client
revenue growth. Again I embraced the “Meet-Beat”
methodology and we have achieved a 45% compound
growth ever since. In 2006 Ten Lifestyle was voted a
Sunday Times Fast Growth 100 company and in 2010 noted
as 14th fastest growing business in the UK by
GrowthBusiness… no coincidence!
If you haven’t got the message yet you need to start
using “Meet-Beat” as soon as you can implement it to
improve your results and crush the competition that is still
setting traditional targets.
Chapter 7: “Meet-Beat” for the
professional sports person
A very good friend of mine has a son who is a highly
talented junior tennis player and is showing fantastic promise
to rise to the top of the senior game. So my friend asks me
“how do I set my son realistic targets for improvement” and
being somewhat of a pushy parent I’m guessing he is
struggling getting to grips with realism with his traditional
target setting [sound familiar?]. Well, by now you will have
worked out my answer.

18. I suggest to him that he uses the “Meet-Beat” method of
personal improvement. In a one hour training session he
hits 35 unforced errors or his first serve percentage in a
practice set is 65%. So in the next hour can he “Meet-Beat”
the number of unforced errors or serve % . You are
beginning to see how much easier it is to “Meet-Beat” than to
say “you must get your serve % from 65% to 75%”. So long
as he is not going backward then improvement, however
small, is hugely motivating and makes him want to drive
harder to improve. There is no burden to meet (the
sometimes) unrealistic expectations of others. I just have to
beat myself. The only pressure I feel is one of self-
improvement and betterment which I can easily channel into
positive thought.
Like the professional poker player I am rehearsing or
playing every day and if I keep good records of each session
played, or in the case of the budding tennis pro, each
practice session then I can easily apply the “Meet-Beat”
technique to improve my performance. Remember, beating
last period, however small the increment, sets me on the
road to growth and improvement.
In the world of professional tennis a budding pro has to
get used to the notion of losing. On the way up they are
going to lose far more matches than they win. To progress
they are constantly coming up against higher ranked players
to which they are inevitably going to lose. Winning matches
against stronger players is too big a step to make to use it
alone to build confidence. The player must break the match
down into its constituent parts and analyse where the match
was lost. Only when this is done can the “Meet-Beat”
principles be applied to the areas that need the most
improvement.

19. It remains a mystery to me that others have not
experienced this and that “Meet-Beat” is not more widely
used as a universal strategy for improvement and growth.
My friend’s son has just made the semi-final of Junior
Wimbledon and a bronze medal in the Spanish Junior Tennis
Championships. I must catch up with him and see if he is
still a strong advocate of “Meet-Beat”
Chapter 8: How to achieve even
higher levels of growth
I’m now going to demonstrate how to accelerate growth
even further. Take our example earlier of the team of ten
sales guys. If you recall I gave the example of three of the
sales people that are typically the rate-busters who will
always out-perform any target given to them. If you assign
two of these rate busters to buddy with the two lowest
performers in the team then chances are you will bring the
weaker performers performance up to, or above, the
average. I have found this buddying used alongside the
“Meet-Beat” goal to be a highly effective way of advancing
team performance.
This approach has the added benefit of the strong
supporting those who need to improve their levels of
performance in a totally non threatening environment. In my
experience this structure engenders extremely high levels of
team spirit and confidence levels soar, which in itself drives
forward progress on growth.
Buddying in a “Meet-Beat” environment is really effective
when done with the right type of rate-buster. You want the
coach/team player to buddy and not the out and out
individual performer. Leave the individual performer to keep
smashing his target as this in itself will set standards for

20. other to strive towards. If you are going to buddy an under
performer or newby then you need a coaching and
supportive environment if you are to build their confidence.
Chapter 9: Build an environment of
confidence
Also, as the manager you must be sure that you instill an
absolute belief in your under-achievers (or face up to it and
change them). If they have any shred of an idea that you
don’t believe in them then any attempt at improving their
confidence levels will be undermined and you will not
achieve the performance improvements you are seeking
from your teams.
If I haven’t made it crystal clear before now “Meet-Beat”
only really works where there are exceptionally high levels of
confidence. You need to have the confidence in your
performance before you can even start thinking about using
the “Meet-Beat” methodology. And your teams need to have
the absolute confidence that if they continue to “Meet-Beat”
then they will be handsomely rewarded.
It was only this morning I listened to an interview with Lee
Westwood on his achieving the No.1 spot in professional
golf.
He recounted that back in 2002 he had slipped back to
lower than 200th in the world. He put this down to poor form
and loss of confidence. The worse he played the more his
confidence waned, the lower his confidence went the worse
he played. Performance and form can easily spiral down in
this scenario yet look at him now … sitting on top of the golf
world!

21. Look at any professional sportsman when they get on top
of an opponent or in their exhibition matches they perform at
an extraordinary level and hit out with amazing freedom.
They all talk about the aura of being “in the zone”. If you
haven’t experienced this it is an absolutely amazing feeling.
To hit out at tennis with absolute abandon and see winners
fly off your racket is one of the most amazing feelings in the
world. Yet come up against a stronger opponent, have your
confidence dented, and the all of a sudden you get tight and
nothing works. Having high levels of confidence in your
ability to perform is a real game changer in every field in
your life but particularly where you are striving for high
growth or rapid performance improvement.
There have been many examples of sports stars that
have dominated their chosen sport; Roger Federer; Tiger
Woods; Steve Davis; Michael Schumacher to mention just a
few. When they stepped into the arena they had already
psychologically beaten their opponents and won the contest
before it had even started .
Yet bit by bit they began to be beaten. The aura slipped
away, their opponents began to believe, confidence kicked in
and suddenly these “unbeatables” returned to the mortal
world where they had to compete once again with the rest of
us.
In my experience “Meet-Beat” instills incredibly high
levels of confidence which in itself then drives positive
forward strides in performance. Get these two working for
you and, believe me, no one will catch you in the race to the
top.

22. Chapter 10: Targets and motivation -
the big issue
For me people confuse motivation and confidence.
Look at some of the descriptive words for motivation:
Incentive; inspiration; drive; enthusiasm; stimulus; spur;
reason
We all know if people are motivated they will work harder.
Let’s not get bogged down in motivation drivers here (I might
write on this later because it is interesting).
The concept I am putting forward here is that high
confidence levels are a real driver of rate-busting results and
high-growth teams. If you inspire and engender high
confidence in personal performance then the “Meet-Beat”
method really works to your advantage. Conversely, if your
team lacks confidence in their own abilities or if they sense
you lack confidence in them then you have bigger problems
than driving for improved results…. I can suggest some
other books you need to buy real fast.
Chapter 11: “Meet-Beat” in a mature
business – setting a base level
We’ve talked about the poker analogy and how using
“Meet-Beat” can be really effective is start-up situations
where no norms exist and you are starting from scratch but
what about in a mature scenario.
Well this is what I have previously done in mature
businesses and honestly it is so simple: To get started in a
mature environment you need to establish a Base Level of
performance.

23. The first thing to do is to find a “norm”, the existing
average performance. For example I have a team of ten
sales guys and I want to find what an OK performance is. I
break out three of them, one rate-buster, one average
performer (steady eddie) and one newbie and ask them to
spend one week selling with no specific target but just to do
the best that they can between the three of them. Over the
three days I remain close giving encouragement and working
amongst them driving the best performance we can over the
period.
I can then use the team performance to set a Base Level
for the team to start their “Meet-Beat” approach. And
individually I can agree that their individual Base Level is the
starting point from which they can then start using the “Meet-
Beat” method. Actually the larger the sample used for the
“trial” the more realistic the start point (and by the way the
easier to get agreed with subordinates).
This is a really short description but really it is that
simple. Once people feel that their start point is realistic and
achievable then you are a long way to the sort on mental
attitude you need to make a start at the “Meet-Beat”
approach.
Remember, you will need to establish your Base Level so
that you can begin to apply the “Meet-Beat” principles. If you
find that you have a run of periods where you are
consistently falling below your Base Level then you have not
prepared well or been honest enough with yourself about the
realism of your expectations. Performance can be super-
human if you create the right environment and build
confidence levels but as a cautionary word… be too
aggressive and you will stifle confidence and snuff out
improvement before it even starts.

24. Chapter 12: Summary of the “Meet-
Beat” principles
OK, let’s try and summarise where we are.
• Traditional, old fashion targets are hard to set, get
right, be realistic and achieve high levels of “buy-in”
from both superiors and subordinates.
• Get your target setting wrong and you will destroy
morale and confidence. And you have to contend with
the “gamers” who will conspire against you and your
targets.
• An effective target motivates, inspires and drives
people on to “show off” how great they are. Smashing
targets becomes like an adrenalin fuelled downhill ride
and not an uphill struggle.
• “Meet-Beat” is all about meeting or beating the
achievement of the last period by however small a
margin. Even very small increments in growth have a
massive compound impact. Focus on any period and
then “Meet-Beat” in the following period be it hourly,
daily, weekly monthly. Whatever the period “Meet-
Beat” will deliver incredible compound growth.
• “Meet-Beat” when used well engenders extremely high
confidence and morale but won’t work where
individuals lack confidence or the individual doesn’t
feel they have the confidence of their manager.
• “Meet-Beat” works in both start-up and mature
corporate environments. Be sure in mature
environments to set your Base Level before you start.

25. • Once you have established your Base Level of
performance then you can start using “Meet-Beat” to
drive improvement.
Chapter 13: Time to do a trial of the
“Meet-Beat” principles
What I suggest you do now is to time out on your reading
and to go and try out what we’ve learnt. Do this in a small
way in your private life, in a sport you love or why not go for
it in your work. Make sure you start with hourly or a short
session and then extend it to daily and, if you’re really going
for it, a week or a month. Make sure that you religiously keep
accurate records of each session so you can accurately
monitor your progress. And here comes the price promise…
if “Meet-Beat” doesn’t work for you somewhere in your life
then send me back the book and I will give you a full refund.
“Meet-Beat” has served me incredibly well during my life at
both work and play and I am extremely confident that it will
do the same for you.
When you’ve done that and you come back we will
concentrate on how to build in a rewards and bonus scheme
that works in tandem with the “Meet-Beat” method.
Welcome back.
By now you are either convinced that “Meet-Beat” is a
real winner or you have just come back to find details of how
to get your money back! However I doubt it somehow. I
think you will have come to the same conclusion as me…
how on earth could it be so simple and how could “Meet-
Beat” solve so many target related issues.

26. Chapter 14: Rewards
I will probably write another book on rewards and
motivation at some point but let me give you one piece of
advice that again has served me extremely well when driving
for extreme levels of rapid growth:
REWARD THE BEHAVIOUR NOT THE ABSOLUTE
NUMBER!
So many managers and corporations get this so wrong.
They are obsessed with absolute targets and the
achievement of numbers. There are many stories
(particularly in the UK public sector) where the real
objectives have been compromised in pursuit of absolute
targets.
When you combine “Meet-Beat” and the reward of the
behavior of “Meet-Beat” together then you will see the full
potential of this method and can file this book away, or give it
to a colleague and start enjoying the fruits of your success.
By the way don’t forget to send me details of your progress
and success. It would be great if we can share our collective
success with others.
Chapter 15: “Meet-Beat” and rewards
in tandem
OK so here’s the concept and again it’s a real easy one.
Use a simple traffic light system which everyone can
easily associate with:

27. So every period I can score myself against the previous
period. Now the great thing about “Meet-Beat” is that even if
I miss my previous hourly performance I still have the
chance to get back on track for the day. And if I miss the
daily achievement I still have chance to correct it for the
week. This takes away all those feelings of missed targets
and the tendency to just let the target go as it is now
hopelessly unachievable.
How many times have you been in this position where
you have set an annual target and missed it in the first
month to the point that you felt like just giving up. With the
“Meet-Beat” method you need only concentrate on doing
better than the previous period you chose to measure and
record. You will be totally amazed at how the compound
growth just happens.
Now you need to be prepared for push back here. So few
businesses or teams “get” this concept that you are going to
have to prove the concept before you will get universal buy-
in. You will need all of your persuasive skills, particularly with
your bosses, to allow you to fully exploit this method. Don’t
forget or lose focus on the fact your trials have been
successful… if not I am not sure you should be at this stage
of the book right now!
So we are recording each period and looking for a
consistent “Meet-Beat” performance. Now as I am sure you

28. have witnessed in your trial there are of course very few
periods where you have achieved an exact AMBER period
where you achieved exactly the same performance as the
last period. Remember, “Meet-Beat” is about any and
indeed very small increments in growth. So what you will
find once you start recording results is that most of the
period scores will be either RED (missed) or GREEN
(beaten).
Here is an example: Daily Measurement/Monthly Reward
I score each day as either RED, AMBER or GREEN
based on the performance against the previous day.
Then based on the number of GREEN, AMBER or RED
days I can determine the score for the month based on the
number of days in each sector. I also want to reward
exceptional performance so if I have a rate-buster who
scores Green in say 90% of all periods then he is GOLD
standard which gives him the top level of reward.
GOLD standard works really well if it has a cumulative
element to it over a sustained period. Make GOLD quite
hard to achieve yet equally hard to lose if continued high
performance is maintained. You will be amazed the lengths
that team members especially will drive to achieve and
maintain GOLD standard.
You can also publish league tables (if you’re into them)
based on the traffic light system but believe me you won’t
need to. The power of peer group pressure for everyone to
achieve GREEN and GOLD status is immense and will work
far better than even the most sophisticated manager.
Before you know it all your team members will be
showing off their GREEN or GOLD status and with this
method you are rewarding the action of achieving growth

29. and not a finite number, thus letting the power of compound
growth CRUSH your competition.
In a business I worked in some years ago we were
making around 10,000 shipments per month of Intel
microprocessors and other expensive computer components
in an environment where we were making less than 5%
gross margin. One of the biggest challenges I faced was
that we had a scary 15% wrong pick rate and many of the
warehouse staff didn’t realise the value of some of the
components. One day I walked into the warehouse and
picked up an Intel chip that was laying on the warehouse
floor which looked like a squashed beetle. I asked the
nearest picker if he realized that the value of the chip was
over £500 so more than a week’s salary, which of course he
was totally unaware. What we had was a total atmosphere of
indifference and lack of motivation to perform at the required
level. This was also ingrained in all including I suspected the
shift supervisors.
In frustration I walked round to the Finance Director’s
office, whose responsibility the warehouse was, recounted
my findings and the frustration at the extremely poor pick
rate which we had endured for some years. To my horror I
had to sit through a lecture on expectation and how I should
not and could not expect people who worked close to the
minimum wage to care about such things as quality or
accuracy. I quickly came to the realization that my problem
was not with the pickers or packers themselves but the
leadership they were getting. One of the programmes I
implemented to improve performance was to buy a case of
beer (the preferred reward of choice for this team) to every
picker and packer that did a whole month without making a
single error (the GOLD standard).

30. I have to tell you that within very few months I was buying
a lot of beer and whenever I met a warehouse guy on my
way past the warehouse or during a walk round they would
proudly remind me of their GOLD standard status and the
beer they were looking forward to at the end of the month.
Our Finance Director moved on and I don’t recommend you
buy his book on managing warehouse staff. Hopefully he is
sticking to managing the numbers and not motivating people
for a living.
The other part to this story is that we began to hit record
levels of pick/pack quality by implementing an early version
of my “Meet-Beat” concept.
So I will leave you with a final thought on rewards….
REWARD THE BEHAVIOUR NOT THE ABSOLUTE
NUMBER!
Chapter 16: Summary of the “Meet-
Beat” principles
Let’s now summarise the whole concept of “Meet-Beat”
and rewards.
• Traditional, old fashion targets are hard to set, get
right, be realistic and achieve high levels of “buy-in”
from both superiors and subordinates.
• Get your target setting wrong and you will destroy
morale and confidence. And you have to contend with
the “gamers” who will conspire against you and your
targets.
• An effective target motivates, inspires and drives
people on to “show off” how great they are. Smashing

31. targets becomes like an adrenalin fuelled downhill ride
and not an uphill struggle.
• “Meet-Beat” is all about meeting or beating the
achievement of the last period by however small a
margin. Even very small increments in growth have a
massive compound impact. Focus on any period and
then “Meet-Beat” in the following period be it hourly,
daily, weekly monthly. Whatever the period “Meet-
Beat” will deliver incredible compound growth.
• “Meet-Beat” when used well engenders extremely high
confidence and morale but won’t work where
individuals lack confidence or the individual doesn’t
feel he has the confidence of his manager.
• “Meet-Beat” works in both start-up and mature
corporate environments. Be sure in mature
environments to trail and set your Base Level before
you start.
• Once you have established your Base Level of
performance then you can start using “Meet-Beat” to
drive improvement.
• At this stage “time-out” and run a trial to test the
concept
• Choose your first “Meet-Beat” experiment
• Be prepared for pushback from your boss… buy him a
copy of the book!
• Combine “Meet-Beat” and rewards and remember to
reward the behavior and not the achievement of the
absolute number.

32. • Implement the traffic light system of RED, GREEN and
AMBER periods
• Introduce GOLD standard for your consistently high
achievers
• Send me your success stories
Chapter 17: Now go for it with “Meet-
Beat”
So were done.
All that is left is for me to wish you every success using
the “Meet-Beat” method.
Try to overcome the skeptics who will say its bunkum and
can’t possibly work. I promise you it has worked for me in
just about every environment I have applied it in be it sales,
performance improvement, tennis or my poker play.
If I can be of any help or assistance then feel free to
contact me through LinkedIn and of course I will be happy to
assist.
And send me those success stories. I have always got
immense pleasure in sharing in others entrepreneurial
success.
I wish you well in your personal and professional life and
look forward to sharing some other concepts real soon.
George Evans
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/georgeevanslondon