Archive for Design/Sell
Marketing Systems are Out of Control.
Posted by: | CommentsMost Marketing systems are out of control. They have not been managed with understanding of the process speed and the effect of the flow on the process. As a result, performance has to be sub-standard. My marketing has too many variables to define my Value Stream! Can you afford to say that?
Depending on your industry, marketing can be anywhere between 5 to 30% of your total expenses. In most operations that I am familiar with it runs in the neighborhood of 5 to 10%. It is not uncommon to find labor at a similar amount. Would you accept the same amount of variability in your workforce? If you have variability in your marketing, why not cut the budget? Increasing it only will increase the variability. On the other hand, if you have low capacity you have little variation. Is that the problem you want to have?
Variation in demand and in processing time will have a major impact on your total process lead time. If you are functioning close to your optimum level, customers in your value stream, and you get a sudden rush of opportunities, the opportunities will be severally minimized by just variation alone.
How do you minimize variation and get a handle on the process? It has to do with segmentation. If you have not segmented your list properly, you have tremendous variation and the numbers you are looking are skewed. You must segment until you can get a handle on variation. It does not mean you have to segment to, there is none. You have to segment until you can start to minimize the variation that is incurring. You must conquer complexity by narrowly defining your problem.
Related Posts:
Value Stream Mapping for Marketing
Lean your Marketing thru Segmentation
Product Turnaround – Do it with Lean
Posted by: | CommentsIs anything working? Are you in trouble yet? Is it you, or is it the economy? In a past blog post, I went over this issue and the fact of the matter is, IT’S YOU! Why, you are the one that has to survive, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. Without change, things will stay the same, so how do you go about initiating change.
On an upcoming Business901 podcast, I discussed with CEO Bob Wiener, how PAS Technologies climber from near the bottom of industry rankings to the top. What significant change did he make to leapfrog the competition? He invested the 1st week of his leadership in Lean training. An old saying that I use repeatedly: How many good ideas get wasted because of a poor plan? I think Bob reinforced that adage once again.
Most professionals today have not been involved in a turnaround. They do not realize that turnarounds require a different set of skills and management techniques. My methods do not work for all and are just one way of doing it. You must decide on your course of action. I have been involved in several and failed at one of them, the results that I had were all different. I broke companies apart, sold some and worked through some. They were all different, with different goals and different results. And bottom line is I lived to write about them. Now, with my experience what would I do if I was involved with one today? Though PAS did not create the model, they executed it which is a much greater feat. My model may look a little different than how PAS did it, but it is similar in the respect that I would walk in and create a Lean System. 
Most people don’t respect the fact that you have to document what you are doing, precisely. It really is like starting on a journey without knowing where you are at. If you would try to get directions from Google and typed Indiana in instead of Indianapolis, you may be only 1-hour or 4-hours away.
Your metrics play such an important part. How are you going to measure success? What in the short term will allow you to survive and in the long term build a business? Measuring simply by results is just not enough in today’s world. Using Lean Metrics measured by drivers are at the heart of making your plan effective. Lean is a system focused on and driven by customers.
Optimizing the value stream from their eyes and in an efficient process takes your processes to a level not experienced before. Review your past sales and processes that are performing well. Determine why and what may be different about them. This may help you identify a value stream much more quickly.
Mapping the Future State is where we start seeing it all come together. This is the step everyone typically wants to jump to immediately. As a result, it can be easily abused and a lot of waste can be left in the process. We make plans and instead of having a sound basis, we use instincts and tools that are not directed and often based on what I call “Tribal Knowledge.”
Kaizan is the Japanese word for continuous improvement. It is all about idea submission, not acceptance. Kaizan has three steps. First, create a standard. Second, follow it. Third, find a better way. Create Kaizan events on a weekly basis to improve on a particular area or metric.
A great learning tool is to start with a task that is working well, has little waste and just walks through the process. After you see how the process works, take one that has what you perceive a lot of low-hanging fruit. Walk through that process. The secret I believe to successfully implementation is trying to do too much at once. It is a journey made up of multiple events or Kaizans.
Related Post: Are an Ideal Customer for a Turnaround
Do you have a Marketing System
Posted by: | CommentsWhen people start talking to me I normally can tell if we are a good match very quickly, I simply state; “I believe in installing a marketing system.” Depending on the answer, I know right where to slot them in my marketing funnel. Convincing someone in a short amount of time that a system works is very difficult. It has to be nurtured. I have yet to find a process that accelerates that learning curve. Convince someone that a system works is usually a process that is better served through webinars, ezines, etc.
Here is my normal follow-up after my first comment:
Our experience is that a system will always outperform any other approach. Building a plan on where you are is one of the most important processes that you can do. Then we can define your objectives; develop strategies to achieve them, and then institute tactics to carry out your strategies. If your objectives are not being met, your strategies and tactics may need to be changed. But without a baseline and a plan to work from, the process and achievements are only arbitrary.
Systems do not complicate your life, they make it easier. The secret to any good system is how well it can be tailored to what you need NOW. The system is developed and implemented around your needs, not the other way around. An effective marketing process spans from lead generation through sales closure. Pick one area at a time and make a commitment to improve that. You might have a long list, but you have to start somewhere and before too long you’ll have dramatically improved.”
As an example, most businesses have no marketing, nor sales process whatsoever. Too often you think of marketing as manipulative tricks to get prospects to notice and respond. The truth is marketing is a process of presenting real value in an attractive, competent and compelling manner. In the marketing process you need to have questions prepared, value points outlined, and an understanding of exactly when to listen and when to ask for action. When a prospect says, “I’ll think about it,” they really mean, “You blew it.”
So tell me, do you need a SYSTEM, Or do you need to think about it?