Employee Retention: The Exact Gifting Strategy to Drive Loyalty

Tal Keshette: When you think about an employee feeling appreciated for their tenure and how they contributed to an organization, that is something that they ultimately will share as their experience with their loved ones, with their family. And the list goes on and on. The promoter scores from those types of moments are, um, magic.

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Corey Cotten-Potter: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the B2B revenue executive experience. I'm your host, Corey, and today I'm talking to Tal Keshette. He is the VP of Sales at Snappy, the award winning gifting platform currently trusted by 56% of Fortune 100 companies. Now, Snappy helps build loyalty, recognition, and real human connection at scale. With more than 25 years in B2B enterprise sales, TAL has helped architect a, uh, go to market transformation at Snappy that earned the company two gold Stevie Awards in 2025, national sales team of the Year, and Sales Growth Achievement of the Year. He's been featured in Forbes and leads with his signature GDA energy. Great day ahead. And is one of the most genuine leaders you will find in the revenue space. Tal, welcome to the show.

Tal Keshette: Thank you so much, Corey, for the introduction. It's great to be here.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah, I'm excited to get into it. Uh, we've got a fun episode ahead to give our listeners a little bit of a roadmap. We're going to dive into employee gifting and what that can do for the employee experience and retention. And we're also going to tease out and talk about the transformation of Snappies behind those studio boards. But first, let's start way back at the beginning. So, Tal, you studied business at Hofstra, you came out of school, landed at Verizon Yellow Pages, and for anyone who remembers that was old school. Door to door, grinded out selling. I'm curious, was sales always the plan for you or something? You know, like many of us, we kind of fell into along the way and discovered we were good at, you

Tal Keshette: know, it's such a great question, Corey, and it brings me back. Um, it was either, uh, stay in school and be a lawyer or get into the corporate world and get into something that was exciting, which was sales. And, um, while the younger generations maybe don't remember, uh, the Yellow Pages, what I'll tell you is that, uh, a lot of what I learned all those years ago is still very much top of mind today and relevant. I'll tell you that I worked for Verizon, which was originally part of Reuben H. Donley, which was in corporate America standards, had the number two best training program period behind Xerox. On day one Corey of training that was two months long. We needed to remember verbatim a nine page script and uh, a training class that started with a team of around 60 shrunk to half because um, the other half didn't know the nine pages verbatim. Some of those things that I learned back then in that script we still apply today. It's the place where I met my wife, where I started my career, we started our family and it brings me um, here, uh, now. So it was again a very important um, um, let's say step in my career. Selling the Yellow Pages taught me a lot including uh, persistence and ultimately helping our customers solve problems which for them was how do you get more customers through the door with your advertising? And so what's interesting is, is that when you, if you uncover your customer problems, you're going to win more, help help them solve those problems and lose less.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Wow, it's a fascinating story. One and two, like you said, the, the lessons that you learned there seem extremely applicable and still resonate today. And of course like the Xerox program was legendary. I had no idea that that was number two. But you know, I don't know, I kind of missed the rigor of some of those programs in a way.

Tal Keshette: Absolutely.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Okay, and then fast forward. So you spent 17 years at buy Worldwide before coming to Snappy. You know, I feel like in this day and age, a lot of revenue leaders, for better, for worse, you know, they're making a jump 18 months every 18 months either because they have to or because you know they're moving on to the next challenge. Um, so I'm curious, what was it about um, that company that kind of kept you coming back and that you know, you really felt like you made a home there.

Tal Keshette: So uh, let's start with the first part of the question. Got me to keep staying and coming back for almost 18 years. Corey BI Worldwide is a best in class organization. There were tremendous amount of experiences and relationships and lifelong um, memories, um, and learnings, um, that I am very much so ever grateful for. At the same time, uh, when I made the decision to look for my next ah, chapter, um, I was uh, just turning over 50 and it was an opportunity for me to reflect on my career, my accomplishments and I landed on, uh, what was important for me at the time is to find an opportunity to join a new organization that I can make an impact to on day one, that, like biw, has a great culture, um, is in an industry that is very near and dear to me, um, and is a company that I believe I can help make an impact, um, with. And that's why ultimately I made the hard. But what has been a great decision, uh, to leave one, uh, great organization and join another great organization in Snappy.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah, it makes sense. And I love the point too, about the culture being up there. Right? About leaving one great culture, bi worldwide and then moving into another. That was, that was very important for you. So, speaking about culture, I feel like this is a good segue because we can actually really get into the corporate gifting side of things. And first I want to tackle what I think is a pervasive sort of misunderstanding around corporate gifting. I think most people hear that term. They think, oh, um, holiday jam boxes or whatever, the occasional branded T shirt, you know, that's going to disintegrate after two washes. Um, but Snappy is doing something altogether different. So help us understand the distinction between transactional gifting and what Snappy is doing, which I think we'll agree is really a strategic business driver.

Tal Keshette: Yeah, this is such a great question, Corey. You know, at the end of the day, what m most organizations are, are launching is a transactional rewards and recognition program because they need one. They need to recognize their employees or a loyalty program to recognize their customers. Um, what we do is uniquely different in that, number one, we want to understand the why. Why are you looking to launch a recognition program? Um, why are you looking to launch a customer loyalty program? And we look at specific, specific metrics. This is where you are today, this is where you want to be tomorrow. And we design programs very intently on the outcome. And so in other words, Corey, when an organization as an example, has, uh, a churn issue where they are retaining 60% of their employees and they want to retain closer to 80 or 90% of their employees, we design programs that are data driven, based on science and technology, that are yielding the results that our customers need and want, in other words, we think about the problem first and then we design the right rewards and recognition, uh, solution to drive that outcome, to drive those results. And so for us, I'll say, simply put, it starts with why. And so one of the things that we do with our customers is again, clearly define the why for them. For their most important audiences, a their employees and B their customers.

Corey Cotten-Potter: That makes sense, right? I think that's the distinction in a nutshell. That's incredibly well said. You go from oh, we should have a gifting program to no, we actually have a serious business problem. We, you know, we, we have 40% attrition rate right now. We need to solve that. How do we do it?

Tal Keshette: That's exactly right. When we look at as an example, uh, working with a customer that is looking to engage their customers on the acquisition side or on the upsell side, again, we very strategically will design a program to ultimately tap into, inspiring that customer to come, uh, in and give their share of mine, their share of wallet to our client, uh, and, or buy more of their products and uh, their services. And again, when you think about tapping into the emotional side, which we know, uh, Corey, more decisions are made. We think we're so rational, but more decisions are made emotionally, almost like a three to one ratio than rationally. And so when we help our clients tap into the emotional side and inspire their audiences to demonstrate a behavior and, or drive an outcome, a result, it yields, um, above baseline results for our customers.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yep, I think we're going to be in firm agreement there. One of our CEOs, um, favorite catchphrases is people make, you know, logical decisions for emotional reasons. And it's true. It's very true.

Tal Keshette: I will borrow that.

Corey Cotten-Potter: So let's unravel that thread a little bit. I mean this is something you, you talked about when you were featured in Forbes recently. So why do emotional connections matter in a B2B context? I can imagine some organizations having a more old school approach, like hey, we pay people well, we give them the tools they need, they're set up for success. Why do we need all of this on top of that?

Tal Keshette: Yeah, it's again another good question. I'll tell you that one of the things that Snappy does incredibly well is to leverage the data, um, that comes uh, from our direct research and in our findings as we are engaging, inspiring millions of folks on a global scale. When we look at that data, what it's telling us very clearly, black and white, Corey, is that when you build, if you build emotional connection with a customer, you are at that point, um, taking that relationship from being transactional to transformational. And so, uh, when you think about your employee as an example, we started the conversation about what kept me coming. What we know is that keeps one coming as an example is feeling like they have a personal connection with their employer. The employee feels truly seen where they're understood by their employee. Um, and the same very much is true for the customer, where the customers today, they have gone through an evolution of sorts where what we know is that customers are a lot more selective about which loyalty programs they're going to be a part of, which brands they're going to proudly display as a logo, um, and, or give their share of wallet to. And so it's critically important to transform that what is again transactional to transformational relationship. And the start of that is building an emotional connection where again, you're building an emotional connection with your millions of customers or tens of thousands of employees. It's critical.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yep, that absolutely is. You know, you mentioned research at the beginning and uh, I've been meaning to ask about this because I recently read Snappy's um, state of employee engagement report that came out and I was struck by a couple stats in that, ah, one of which was 40%. I think I'm going to get this right. 40% percent of employers say, or employees rather say their company only sometimes gets recognition. Right. That feels like a big gap between, you know, the strategy behind it that you just covered for us, the intention. But then what is actually happening in the real world.

Tal Keshette: Yeah. One of the things that we're seeing that we're helping our clients, number one, realize and number two, evolve around is measurement. Uh, the first question that we often ask customers with an existing recognition program, Corey, what are the results that that program is yielding? And um, I'll tell you that for the majority, they don't know. And so one of the things that again we help our customers establish is a recognition framework with measurements along the way. And so as an example, uh, one of the things that we help our clients track is NPS of a program. So, uh, what is the likelihood that if Corey is recognized by his employer as an example, that he will not only receive the gift, but promote that experience and promote the fact that he, uh, feels an emotional connection with his employer to his friends and family. And so one of the things that again we track very closely is NPS around our, um, uh, recognition programs, our customer loyalty initiatives and such. Um, and then the other piece is how we define engagement. And so engagement is helping us, uh, track that at the end of the day, the employee or customer, when they again receive a gift, they feel belonging, they feel like they are, uh, part of the organization and that the organization truly understands them. Probably the most important piece is that we leverage A.I. um, I can share a little bit more around the personalization piece to make sure that your reward options are specific to you and how powerful is that? That when Corey goes in to redeem something that he earned from his employer or the company, that again, he is a consumer of, um, that reward is truly personal where, wow, they really understand me. And that's where the emotional connection again, is measured and the engagement and, um, how often that employee, as an example, is engaged in different initiatives, um, is what you see is on the incline as a result.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Wow, that's fascinating. That's really a robust measurement framework all the way from net promoter score all the way down to actually measuring the engagement with the gift and how that creates that loyalty. That's fascinating.

Tal Keshette: Yeah. Uh, one other piece that I think is important is to consider, uh, to meet your employee, where they're at and how they communicate and how they engage with each other. Um, and so think about as an example, the truck driver or the employee at the plant or on a construction site that is completely deskless. How do you engage with that customer? How do you make them feel like she or he is, as an example, a part of the organization? And so again, by leveraging our technology, we engage with that deskless employee by, um, engaging by, I should say, integrating into our, uh, customers technology and meeting the employee where they're at. And again, when we use the engagement word now, you see that, that deskless or disconnected employee, well, they actually feel connected. And, um, that again, uh, of course drives inspiration and engagement to best in class results.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah. And such an important point too. I've brought this up on, I think, multiple episodes because I was so floored the first time I heard it. I was talking to a VP of sales, I want to say, six, seven months ago, and he said something I never heard before, talking about meeting employees where they are in communication. He said that once he got in, uh, many of us have the experience of like, well, we'll, we'll. We'll tailor our communication to the individual, to our boss, maybe to the board, maybe a little bit differently. Right. But he said that he took the first several weeks, learned all of his teams, so down to the manager level and the rep level, their communication styles, and then deliberately tried to match their style of communication. For I think he was across 25 people on the team. And I thought, wow, that's, that's incredible. One, of course he saw he earned a lot of trust that way and built a lot of rapport very quickly. But, you know, uh, it all goes back to meeting people where they are. I think you're absolutely right. It's Huge. Yeah, I love that story. Um, and I'm glad that you brought up personalization too, because you just had another Forbes article come out, I think three or four days ago at the time of recording. And particularly when we start talking about personalization. And this seems to be vital for Gen Z employees. Can you share a little bit more about that?

Tal Keshette: Yeah. You know, um, have you ever, around the holidays or, uh, birthdays, uh, met someone or yourself, you met someone that had a wish list or you had your very own. This is what I would love for my birthday list. Have you come across that?

Corey Cotten-Potter: Oh, yeah, sure.

Tal Keshette: Imagine if you can create that and recreate it over and over and over again, um, in a digital way where the employee, the sales rep, the partner and, or the customer feels like, oh, my God, I gave them my own wish list and look what I got. In terms of a personalized gift experience, uh, specifically the Gen Zs, it's really important for them to feel like there is a relationship, uh, between them, uh, as an employee and their employer. They downright need it. They need to have that personal connection with the organization that they are a part of. Again, uh, earlier on in our conversation we spoke about tenure being somewhere maybe on average of 18 months. Well, why is a Gen Z or Millennial staying twice or 3 or 5x that 18 months? It comes down to personalization. It comes down to a relationship that they feel they know they have with their employer. And when you do that with a Gen Z, well, she or he takes the next step and they. Again, we spoke about promoter, um, a little while ago. They will be your biggest advocate when, as they are referring friends and family members as an example to join the organization that they're a part of. And so Gen Z's, I, uh, will say that it's not a nice to have a recognition program. It is a need to have recognition program that is based on, again, building a relationship, uh, with each and every one of their, um, employees.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah, that's fascinating. Going back to your research study, I mean, I was, I was intrigued by the stats around how much gifting can increase engagement. But the one that really floored me was I think 72% of employees. And this wasn't Gen Z. I think this was across the board that got an anniversary gift, said it would make them more likely to stay at a company.

Tal Keshette: Uh, and do you remember the second part of that?

Corey Cotten-Potter: No, I don't. So please tell me.

Tal Keshette: And then getting a raise. And so when you think about an employee again, feeling appreciated for their tenure for and how they contributed to, uh, an organization for a period of a year, three, five, et cetera. Right. That is something that they ultimately will share as their experience with their loved ones, with their family, with their parents, and the list goes on and on. Uh, what's interesting is that we share that. But what happens when we, let's say, get a merit increase? Well, we keep that very private and we keep it personal. And yet again, when you give someone a gift that makes them truly feel appreciated and recognized and seen, they broadcast that on their social media, they share it on their feeds, and they share it with their friends and family. The promoter scores from those types of moments are magic.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah. Excellent advice. Like all excellent advice. Once you hear it, it seems so self evident. But I would have never guessed that um, going in, that's wow. Because you're absolutely right. Tal, what are you going to do? You're going to go on LinkedIn and say I got a 15% raise this year?

Tal Keshette: Of course not. So again, uh, that's where emotional connection and personalization and um, engagement. Ah. And a recognition program that builds the relationship, um, uh, pays off dividends, um, in a very powerful, meaningful way.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Okay, let's zoom out for a second here. Let's go back to maybe a high level thinking about this as a business perspective. I think this will be kind of near and dear to your heart. As a, as a sales leader, I was struck by, you know, so not only can gifting, you know, help with engagement, it can help with the tenure of employees, but also you can start using it as a system to actually change behavior over time. Absolutely. Um, that sounded really fascinating. How does that work?

Tal Keshette: Yeah. Is it okay, Corey, if I position it as a sales leader?

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah, please. Yeah, that's great.

Tal Keshette: And what, what I've seen it again, um, drive for sales leaders again and again on a consistent basis. Um, you know, I think there's a conversation to be had with sales leaders around inspiration and compensation and they actually complement one another where they come together. So we obviously need the compensation side. But in order to drive above baseline results, we know, um, the data is clear. Over the last 25, 30 years, the data, the researchers have told us that throwing more cash at uh, let's say salespeople, whether they're SMB or enterprise, it doesn't matter, will not drive double the results if you, let's say, give them a variable raise opportunity of double. So what do we need to do? Well, we spoke about tapping into emotion, um, the emotional side. What I would add now is tapping into the inspirational side. What the data and the researchers tell us is that when you use hedonic merchandise and experiences, Snappy has the largest rewards marketplace on the planet for a reason. We need to support our clients in close to 200 countries, regardless of where their employees or customers are. We need to inspire them to demonstrate a specific behavior and, or drive a specific result. And so again, going back to sales leaders, when a sales leader is looking at his sales organization, they are almost always seeing the 80, 20 rule. 80% of the revenue coming from the top 20%. What we do is we inspire that top performer, um, that may be new hire, but that ever important middle group, 60% as well. We inspire that sales leader's entire org to go above and beyond. And when that sales rep goes above and beyond, when she or he demonstrates that incremental lift, um, and, or that behavior in incrementality, they receive a gift. Well, what the data tells us is that when you give them an opportunity to earn something they want versus something they need, something hedonic. Think of a trip or a big screen TV or a barbecue for the summer, right? Versus an additional, let's say $500, the hedonic merchandise and the experiences will yield by far better results in incrementality for that sales leader. And so again, that's one of the things that not only the data tells us, but one of the things that we share with our clients on specifically helping them drive above baseline results.

Corey Cotten-Potter: That's fascinating again. And you know, it almost seems like we've been doing a version of this, uh, for years with Circle of Excellence with president's Clubs. But like you said, that's namely the top performers, or always the top performers rather. It's not that middle group. And it's also, I feel like there's a certain delayed satisfaction.

Narrator: Right.

Corey Cotten-Potter: It's coming way after the behaviors have changed. It's not in the moment.

Tal Keshette: Yeah, you nailed it. Uh, typically again, uh, the, the, the, the president's club like trips recognize what the top 1, 3, 5%. In order for a sales leader to hit, if not exceed their numbers, what do they need? They need their entire audience, their entire organization to go next level. And so with inspiration, tapping into our rewards marketplace helps them do that.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Okay, so now that we, I feel like we're firmly in the territory of sales leadership, I want to move to the second half of the episode and talk about snappy, uh, itself. Um, because you all have a fascinating story as a company, I don't think it's any Secret that you've been through a period of rapid growth and achieved some pretty tremendous results. And most recently it seems like you all have been focused on the enterprise market. Um, how did that come about?

Tal Keshette: Uh, so uh, the organization itself, um, over the just recently ah, celebrated its 10 year milestone. And over that period, Corey, as you said, we have grown rapidly year over year. What we've known is that um, in addition to the success that we've had, we wanted to put our go to market team, our sales organization, in a better position to ultimately own the outcome where they are uh, taking the relationships that they established and building them to be more of annuity based, more transformational. We spoke about transactional and transformational earlier. While it also relates to our customers today. As you mentioned before, we work with about 50% of the Fortune 100 and thousands of other organizations on a global scale. And what we are again going through is the transformation of helping our clients ultimately solve their biggest problems. Um, ultimately what are the business and or corporate objectives that are keeping the B and the C suite executives up at night? We help them solve those problems. And again that's something that has been a bit of a shift for us as a company that we're very excited about.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Yeah, no, I think it makes a lot of sense. Right. Especially when you, like you said 50 some percent of Fortune 100 companies. Right. You really have to target a meaningful business problem to make that kind of change. So I'm curious when you started going upstream, when you started to work with these larger and larger companies, um, and you took a look at your own sort of go to market motions, your sales motions, um, I know you mentioned now more of a focus on those high priority business problems, but what else had to change or what else did you find?

Tal Keshette: So what we knew is that our sales team um, is in a perfect opportunity to take the conversations to the next level. And what I mean by that is to lead conversations around outcomes. This is where my organization is today. We spoke about retention or churn or sales results or um, customer acquisition and such. And this is where we want to be tomorrow. And so um, that is uh, uh, uh, what I see today as something that's really exciting for us as a relatively young organization, uh, relatively speaking that we're going through this transformation where we're helping through um, an agenda, lead a customer towards a specific outcome that again is critical importance, top uh, priority for them and their organizations.

Corey Cotten-Potter: That makes a lot of sense. And kind of looking at the approach, I'd love to dive in a Little bit more to specifically. So you mentioned that alluded to a new team structure. And then I know that you also brought in the sales methodology, brought in value selling. And I'm curious when you started to put all these pieces into place to uh, as you said, you know, here's our goal folks, here's where we're going to get there. What did that look like from a rep experience? You know, what really changed from them? What behaviors did they have to unlearn? What behaviors did you focus on?

Tal Keshette: Yeah, I want to start off by saying that partnering with uh, the value selling team, um, uh, helped in putting all of this together as a strategy, as a roadmap, uh, that includes pre work, it includes multiple off site meetings, uh, that we took our entire teams, uh, from their homes and offices and went somewhere warmer, um, and nicer for an off site where again, we gave them the tools to add to their existing toolbox that are helping us lead a discussion with our customers around that outcome. And value selling was the perfect partner to help us take us from where we were to where we're heading. In other words, again, that personal connection, that human connection, um, leading a discussion around the outcomes and the priorities, well, it's in the value selling name. Ultimately what is the value that Snappy can bring forward to company A, B and C? Right. Those are the types of discussions that we are leading now more consistently, uh, because of the help of um, the value selling team and of course the hard work of our entire sales organization as we've gone through this transformation.

Corey Cotten-Potter: That's definitely tremendous to hear. And I think while it sounds like a small mindset shift, it's really huge in practice and definitely does pay dividends sort of across the board. When, you know, you mentioned that, you know, you took everyone off site, brought them somewhere a little warmer, a little nicer, you know, get the focus back. It's interesting because I've spoken to a lot of companies this year and uh, a few that stand out were really in growth mode. Right? They were growing fantastically, but they had their sets, they had their sites rather set on a specific point. Like we want to end up at X, you know, in the next nine months. And I think like snapping, please jump in if I'm, I'm wrong. Tal that they made what some might view as kind of a difficult decision. It's like we're gonna hit pause for just a little bit. You know, we're gonna take people out of the field, we're gonna bring them somewhere nicer, somewhere a little bit Warmer. Right. We're gonna, you know, change up the behaviors a little bit and then move forward. And ultimately, I think, as is with the case with Snappy, you ultimately that proved to be an accelerator. But I'm curious, what would you say to another sales leader that is maybe in a similar position but just thinks they can slow down to do that?

Tal Keshette: Well, I would say two things. The first piece is that you have to invest in your people. I think the data tells us very clearly. We spoke about retention earlier, Corey, that when folks are given an opportunity to, um, let's say sharpen a tool or add a tool to their toolbox, that employee, when you're investing in them, they are more likely to be higher performers, uh, they are more motivated, uh, more inspired. I didn't even say more likely to stay because it's so obvious that that would be the outcome. Right. And so I think the investment is clear is that there is, uh, nothing that I feel substitutes, uh, the opportunity to be in a room together. We are more engaged, we're more creative, uh, we are, um, building stronger personal connections. And at the same time, uh, there is an opportunity to role play, to um, real time, uh, take what we're learning, uh, what we're discussing and applying those learnings. Um, and I think the outcome again is very clear that uh, when you invest in your people, uh, when you bring in great partners, you get great results.

Corey Cotten-Potter: I love it. I couldn't agree more. And I think it comes back to many of the things we've been talking about. Right. It comes back to building those connections. Right. With the company, with each other, and then ultimately, you know, giving people the tools they need to succeed. When you invest in someone, they're going to recognize that and that's going to be a part of their decision to continue and to grow with that company. They're uh, at. I want to talk about the Stevie Awards for a second. Um, as we mentioned earlier, Snappy won National Sales Team Award and Sales Growth Achievement Award. And as anyone who's ever been involved with the Stevie Awards knows all too well, awards like that don't go to a company that they merely have a good quarter. So talk us through what that recognition meant for you as a company and what that meant to your team. Um, when you look back at where you were and then sort of where you are now.

Tal Keshette: Yeah. So first, it was a great honor. And second, I will say that for our team, it's, ah, let's say a confirmation that we are more consistently owning the outcome, which again, for Us, it's to bring value to our customers in an incremental way. Bring more value to them by leveraging our technology, our rewards marketplace. To what? To inspire their most important audiences to demonstrate a specific behavior and drive, ah, specific results. And so again, it was for us a confirmation, um, in addition to the results, that we're realizing that we're on the right path.

Corey Cotten-Potter: That's fantastic to hear. Um, and speaking of the path, I feel like I'd be remiss to not talk about the future. And it feels like a contractual obligation to bring up AI in every episode these days. So I noticed that you were recently, um, at the GDS CMO Insight Summit down in Memphis. Um, and so what did you take away from that event about where the future of the gifting and loyalty space is heading? What are the questions that people are asking, revenue leaders are asking right now? And where does AI really fit into the mix?

Tal Keshette: Yeah, just plain, uh, and simple. Everywhere, um, in every conversation, Corey, with every cmo, uh, that we had, conversations with AI came into, uh, the mix, into the fold, uh, specifically how do we leverage AI to build a stronger connection with our customers, with our brand? Uh, what Snappy is able to do, again with the power of AI is to help drive more consistency, to help actually drive, um, uh, more personalization. So imagine through our AI, we're able to help Corey write um, that personal recognition to his team member. Um, that makes it magic. And so imagine if we replicate that over and over again and with simplicity, um, and relevance. We spoke about uh, personalization earlier. Again, by leveraging our AI technology, we're able to create a custom curation that's relevant to you. It's on the same budget parameter that was preset, but it's personal and unique to you. And so again, in those conversations, um, that was uh, I think top of mind for marketing leaders. At the end of the day, what does AI mean? Ah, to me, in one sense, how can it help bring my customers closer to my brand? Right. And so Snappy helps, um, organizations and marketing leaders do that in a number of unique ways that are unique in the marketplace.

Corey Cotten-Potter: I mean, it's great to see too.

Narrator: Right?

Corey Cotten-Potter: We've been talking about, as a marketing leader, talking to other marketing leaders, we've been talking about personalization at uh, scale for it feels like the past decade. And I think that now in the example that you just brought up Tal, and the example earlier about you know, meeting employees, whether they are, I mean, the deskless employees in the field where they are.

Narrator: Right.

Corey Cotten-Potter: And Personalizing to them. Now it feels like we're finally unlocking and able to fulfill that promise in many ways. Which is, which is exciting.

Tal Keshette: It's very exciting. And uh, it also in certain respects makes m. Me a bit nervous. Um, right. That uh, we could potentially lose personalization and the human connection, the human element as a result of it. And so again, um, uh, for me there's a good balance. Um, what uh, are the best ways to leverage the power of AI to optimize and what are the best ways to include again the right human connection elements that help our clients and their people and their customers build a stronger relationship?

Corey Cotten-Potter: That's such a great point. I'm glad you brought that up because in the sales world I think we've seen a lot of good that AI has done. But I think you and I have both seen that the power of human to human connection, especially in these large enterprise deals, it really is vital still. And so I appreciate that you bringing it up right of like, let's not lose sight of that, especially when we deploy this in service of that it's, it's almost a more sensitive area to tread in. As we move toward the end of the podcast, um, there are two questions we ask every single guest. And the first is we're recording this in the um, well, near spring of 2026, but let's fast forward five years out, um, 2031. What uh, is the biggest shift you see coming, um, for the B2B loyalty gifting, recognition space, um, that a lot of people aren't talking about yet?

Tal Keshette: I feel like our last uh, uh, topic of conversation is the perfect segue into this, uh, because I feel that I, uh, know, um, and I'll take it actually a step beyond that. I believe that the organizations that are going to win, let's say in the spring of 2031 will be the ones that um, leverage AI and maximize uh, the human element, uh, the human connection. I'll tell you that. I will say this is. My belief is that um, organizations that are going to be winning in the spring of um, uh 31 are actually going to report out the number of relationships that they have, um, and for how long they've had those in air quotes, relationships similarly to how we report out customer churn and sales revenue and such. Um, that human element is going to be top of mind, the number of true meaningful relationships that an organization has. And those that um, have the most will win the most and will be in the best position to prosper long term. And so again that Human element that we spoke about a number of times here in this discussion, I think is going to be more and more and more relevant, um, as AI becomes all around us. Um, and we, uh, are today engaging with AI throughout the day in a number of different interactions. Where's that going to be in six months, in two years? And so in five years, that human connection will be priceless. It'll be a top priority.

Corey Cotten-Potter: I absolutely agree, and I love it. I've never heard that about. They're going to, they're going to measure the relationships, and that's going to be. I feel like, I feel like you should get to name it.

Tal Keshette: Do.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Do you have an acronym in mind for it?

Tal Keshette: I don't, but. But you know what? Let's come up with one. Um, I think that at the end of the day it'll be a KPI that will be top of mind. So, uh, maybe we'll take it as a parking lot item.

Corey Cotten-Potter: Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, final question for you. Um, Tal, looking back on the course of your own career, if you could go back, um, five, ten, maybe even 15 years, what's the one piece of career advice you would give your younger self, and why?

Tal Keshette: First, I have to say this. I'm a big quote guy, Corey, and a quote that I absolutely love is that the bad news is time flies. The good news, you're the pilot, and it's something that I would tell my younger self. Again, I'm 53 now, so let's go back 10 or even 15 years. Is focus on what's important. Um, the time is the most precious commodity that we have, who we spend it with, how we spend it and such. It's really important, uh, both short term and long term. And so focus on what's important would be my advice to self, uh, my younger self.

Corey Cotten-Potter: That's excellent advice. Well, that, ah, brings us to the end. Tal, thank you so much for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure. Um, if people want to learn more about you, more about Snappy, where should they go?

Tal Keshette: They can go to snappy.com, they can certainly m message me on LinkedIn. Happy to connect. Corey, this was a blast and I want to thank you. This was my very first podcast, uh, discussion, and you made me feel comfortable. Um, and this was a great experience, so I want to thank you for that.

Corey Cotten-Potter: You're very welcome. And I don't think anyone listening is going to believe this, your first podcast episode, because you've been a tremendous guest. Um, but thank you nonetheless.

Narrator: You've been listening to the B2B revenue executive experience. To ensure that you never miss an episode, subscribe to the show on itunes or your favorite favorite podcast player. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.