hamber Ambassadors are rewarded for their Chamber outreach – attending meetings, making member renewal calls, recruiting new Ambassadors. In the past ten months Ambassador Eddie Wilkes has missed only two ribbon cuttings out of 75.
Wilkes was the first Ambassador to win the Ambassador of the Month honor three consecutive months, and now as Ambassador of the Month for May, he has held the title five times.
To no one’s surprise then, the regional vice president of marketing for Seniors Home Reverse Mortgage is the Ambassador of the Year for 2009-2010.
“Eddie is just remarkable,” says Mandy Senn, Chamber coordinator of community outreach. “He sets the gold standard for an Ambassador’s performance. And he makes the most of the opportunities to use his Ambassadorial duties to leverage prospecting for clients. He will tell you that the Chamber is great for business.”
Indeed, Wilkes recalls that during his years as national accounts manager for a furniture company he dreaded making cold calls. He would buy a pint of premium ice cream, pack it in dry ice and place it with a scoop and a bowl at a potential customer’s door. Attached to the surprise would be a note: “I hate cold calls.”
“Now,” he says, “I’m not making cold calls. I meet people in the social atmosphere of an A.M. Networking or a ribbon cutting. People are there because they want to be there. They’re enjoying food and conversation with business associates. I get to know people and their business and they get to know me. I can make referrals to them and they recommend people to me. The Chamber is the most incredible organization for networking and meeting people and making sales.”
Wilkes says bankers, financial planners, realtors and individuals with elderly parents become interested in reverse mortgages which allow homeowners 62 and over to receive a portion of their home equity and continue to live in their home.
His participation in the Ambassadors has also led to civic involvements. Wilkes serves on the Bicentennial Library’s senior advisory board and volunteers for the Friends of Hixson and the Furniture Bank, a United Way and Salvation Army initiative to provide furniture to formerly homeless individuals who have found housing.
Besides his service as an Ambassador, Wilkes supports the Chamber as vice president of membership for the Hixson Council and as a member of the Business Retention and Expansion Visitation team.
“I was very happy when my daughter, Jenny Wilkes, joined the Chamber,” he says. “She is a cellist and the owner of Bridge and Bow Classical Music. In June Bridge and Bow performed for the Downtown Council. I call it chamber music for the Chamber.”