Tag Archives: Growth

Business “Bracketology”

With the conference basketball tournaments in full swing, and the NCAA about to begin, hype about what teams will make it and which ones will stay home abounds. Not only do sport networks go into hyper-drive as “March Madness” begins, but the enthusiasm spreads to water cooler conversations, lunchroom TVs, frequent score checking on smart phones and computer screens, and office “pools” where real money can be made with a small entry fee.

The schedule for the 68-team tournament is depicted in the form of a master bracket, with four regional brackets that produce winners through single elimination games who eventually play one another in the Final Four and, ultimately, the two team national championship game. (Sorry for the details, but they are pertinent to the business world as will be discussed below.) The projections as to which teams will make the tournament, and their “seeding” (#1-16 in each region, with a four team play-in “First Four”) has been described as the “bracketology” process. Prognosticators great and small try to anticipate who will be selected for the tournament, who will make the Final Four, etc.

In the business world, companies develop marketing strategies that result in targeted prospects, hopeful “finalists,” and “winners.” It can be argued that the process of identifying prospects, analyzing the likelihood that they will matriculate through a given business development process, and ultimately become customers is strenuous in top sales organizations, yet chaotic in others. What type of approach does your organization take?

Are you a part of a company that waits for the phone to ring from random sources, or do you target those from whom you’d like receive new business? Adding intentionality to the mix can yield championship caliber results. Some things to consider:

  • Prepare a list of your best customers
  • Pull your team together and think about what makes them best
  • Brainstorm about other companies that are similar to your “best” list
  • Use databases to help you flesh the lists out
  • Incorporate the principal of six degrees of separation to determine who knows whom inside the target companies
  • LinkedIn may be helpful in building the relationship bridges
  • Analyze commonalities among subgroups of the list and build marketing plans for each subgroup
  • Assess performance against plan and determine how to increase the number of prospects that become customers

Hopefully, your bracketology will be more accurate than the NCAA prediction process!

 

Content With No Content

Does your professional services firm have a strategy to produce, distribute and repurpose content for multiple market segments? If it does, you are in the minority. Best practices are to create and disseminate content to enhance search engine rankings. Philosophically, billable professionals have insights to share and there are numerous venues for thought leadership to be established. The fact of the matter is, sadly, that the professionals simply are not easily engaged to sit down and generate the content.

The almighty billable hour, the internal metrics, and the likelihood that most would prefer to do the work than to write about it, are all reasons one may choose not to blog, write articles or white papers, or post updates ad tweets. Simply put, very few firms have much experience creating an environment that acknowledges and rewards contributions to thought leadership that do not produce an immediate return. Performance measurement and incentive compensation practices will need to be revised in order to encourage content production as a preferred behavior within the daily, weekly, etc schedule.

If, like other forms of outsourcing, the firm were to contract with a contractor to produce content on behalf of the billable professionals, it would most likely lack the technical acumen and personal passion necessary to be an intriguing, gripping read. However, contract content editors may be a very good idea. Either a staff person or outsider could help to determine themes, subjects, and nuances that would make the content more readable in layman terminology.

Revise & Refine

 

Become discontent with unsatisfactory content–both in terms of volume and quality. Find ways to change the corporate culture to celebrate the content revolution. Articulate the increased stature and visibility that authors enjoy. Recruit firm leaders to demonstrate their personal commitment to writing–even when it produces no immediate revenues. Finally, make writing an assignment. Section/niche leaders should have a scheduled slot for covering their “beats.” Those aspiring to become partners can demonstrate their drive by taking on writing responsibilities. With content editors, these activities can be managed to successfully produce great content, repurpose it for other social media uses, and promote firm expertise.

Ambiguous Marketing Budgets lead to… ambiguous results

Have you ever heard the rant of a financial executive who is fuming because marketing ROI is so hard to define? The lament is usually that “branding” is not enough–that some quantifiable return is desired, but no one really pins it down. Some argue that revenues are the only true barometer. Others feel that smaller yardsticks are better–number of new clients, number of proposals made, number of inbound calls, etc. But…what about % of proposals won, % change in inbound calls, etc to provide comparative data?

Yet…”return” still has to be measured in comparison to investment. In many cases, the investment amount is, to quote Churchill, “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Why is this so? In many privately owned businesses, it is because marketing dollars are enshrouded in expense reimbursements, dues and sponsorships. Actual agency costs, advertising spend, etc are sometimes separate line items on the income statement, but are often rolled up into an aggregate. In order to have credibility with the financial (& equity) folks, we as marketers need to ask for more detail. It is in our best interests to know travel & entertainment, training, and similar expenses that are charged by managers/executives and reimbursed but not clearly demarcated as marketing costs. However, because we are not considered part of the brain trust, we can be excluded from such conversations/communications.

What's Your Measurement?

 

Once we are able to acquire access to the true marketing financials, we can perform an ROI analysis more effectively. (I prefer to describe this as an “ROM.”) Then, tradeoffs can be evaluated. There may be some in the organization who are unwise in their expense management to the point that allowing them to ring up reimbursable costs is not an investment at all, but a distraction from effective, accountable marketing.

Having the frank conversation with the top financial executive/business owner(s) can set the stage for your voice to gain credibility. No longer may you be perceived as the “soft and fuzzy” management team member, but rather a strategic contributor to business performance. If you are savvy enough to learn what your industry standards are for marketing as a percentage of costs/revenues, then you can help set the budget requisite to drive growth and carve out better market share.

As the marketing budget becomes a management accountability tool, results are easier to predict. Sensitivity analysis can then yield insights into the levers that drive revenue performance. Congratulations–you are then on your way to concrete rather than ambiguous conversations and may soon find that the frustration of not being heard begins to fade away…!

The Internal Customer’s Perspective

This week, we are participating in the Capital Associated Industries’ HR Management Conference at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, NC. The theme is “Crushing Your Competition With Culture & Talent.” Several speakers have spoken about the need to transform the culture within our organizations to become more engaging. Engagement “management” is a huge topic for HR professionals, as we live in a day and time wherein employees’ minds are engaged/distracted by so many other forces. One of the speakers in particular spoke about the metrics for fun companies versus boring places to work.

While “fun,” may be a stretch for your organization, certainly, we can agree that “boring” is to be avoided at all costs. In between the extremes is where most of us live and work. The ultimate challenge is to find a way to treat the workers within our companies as customers–in doing so, we care about the unique interactions we have with each and become intentional in such.

Engagement takes collaboration!

Marketers think about the messaging, form of delivery, and psychographics of customers all the time. As HR professionals, we are challenged to do the same–both in our direct interactions and in the environment we help foster. There are always a zillion things that fall to our charge that distract us from this type of intentional awareness of what we’re doing for establishing culture. Slowing down to think thoughts like those below–and encouraging others to do so–can inject care and engagement into work life.

  • how will she perceive this communication?
  • is email the best way to share this information?
  • am I the best person to bring this topic up?

Treating our supervisors, peers, and subordinates as target markets changes the dynamics of what we do dramatically. We develop strategies per “market segment,” tactics within each strategy, and “solutions” for problems we did not even know existed until we adopted this approach. Bon chance in making this concept work in your organization!

Innovation “Stickiness”

“To innovate or not to innovate” is not The Question. We live in a business world (and, increasingly, beyond business) wherein the drive to be competitive means irrelevance lingers for those who do not continuously improve their craft. The Question becomes, “What is your organization doing to make innovation ‘sticky’???”

Management gurus like Jim Andrew of the Boston Consulting Group articulate the value proposition for innovation very nicely. (see: http://ow.ly/9aXoP) Yet, what seems to be lacking in many of the discussions is how to keep positive change going, growing, and gaining acceptance. In an upcoming presentation to HR leaders at the CAI conference, “Crushing Your Competition With Your Culture & Talent,” (http://ow.ly/9aYYl) we will be talking about the stickiness factor as it applies to innovation.

Silk fiber strength = stickiness!

Often, when we are trying to explain a nuance of a challenging problem, we turn to nature. The spider’s web is a great simile for innovation. How is it that a spider can weave an intricate web that catches others, but not itself, in its sticky strands? Scientists have studied these webs and found that the threads that are taut and strong are the stickiest, and the looser ones the pathway by which the spider traverses the web without becoming stuck. If the spider prey encounters, on the other hand, threads that are too sticky (strong), a struggle can break the strand and the prey is liberated. Yet, if the “glue” is only so sticky, a struggle may momentarily free the prey, only to become attached to additional strands that eventually fatigue the struggling prey before the battle is lost.

The concept of sufficient stickiness applies to organizations in this way: if we develop ideas with insufficient “strength,” they lack staying power because they don’t captivate; but ideas that are too strong/rigid break under the pressure of market forces. Balance is key! Whether you have actually read Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point or the brothers Heath’s Made to Stick, you have probably observed ideas that come and go versus those that have longer lives. It is incumbent upon us as managers, agents, and advocates of innovation to tell a story of uncommon sense that is founded in a value that can be demonstrated.

What? If our innovation does not lead to a competitive advantage that is unambiguous and precise, then there’s no point. Even if we have something of concrete value, there has to be a uniqueness that tackles an issue in a new way to capture the minds of your intended audience. Differentiated ideas/initiatives that are clearly articulated, finally, must be shared in such a way that the listener is drawn emotionally into the narrative and feels compelled to “get on board.” Resist becoming too enamored with one’s knowledge, however, as the inability to adapt/consider alternate viewpoints can be the hubris that breaks the strands of success!