Counting Beans and Forgetting People

If you dig deep enough, you’ll find most people have some sort of grievance about their work and it’s often something they can’t quantify. Bars are filled with colleagues grumbling about their situation and those chats are often not about products.

Companies spend most of the time refining their offer and trying to increase revenue. Time is spent more on the business and what suffers is time in the business and more importantly on the people. All too often a 'less is more' mantra is adopted. Supplies are thrown from the boat in the hopes the survivors will make it home safely.

Downsize to Success?

Sometimes cuts need to be made but before you make them, have a close look at what’s going on in your organization. Without superior talented and well directed strong people, the amount of money you think you are saving from the bottom line by making knee jerk cuts will evaporate over time. While a competitor who values people and internal customer service over a quick fix may win the day.

The passion and ideas of people are all we have and without them we can chase profit every day and we will never find it. Instead, try five powerful words.

How can I help you?
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Turn Collusion into Collaboration

If you dig deep enough, you’ll find most people have some sort of grievance about their work and it’s often something they can’t quantify. Bars are filled nightly with colleagues grumbling about their situation and those chats are often not about products.

Companies spend most of the time refining their offer and trying to increase revenue. Time is spent more on the business and what suffers is time in the business and more importantly on the people. All too often a 'less is more' mantra is adopted. Supplies are thrown from the boat in the hopes the survivors will make it home safely.

Downsize to Success?

Sometimes cuts need to be made but before you make them, have a close look at what’s going on in your organization. Without superior talented and well directed strong people, the amount of money you think you are saving from the bottom line by making knee jerk cuts will evaporate over time. While a competitor who values people and internal customer service over a quick fix may win the day.

A cynical colleague of mine often says; “Customers are profit. People are overhead”.
I couldn't disagree more. The passion and ideas of people are all we have and without them we can chase profit every day and we will never find it. Instead, we try four simple yet powerful words.

How can I help?
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

livingcivil

Managing Expectations

We make choices every moment of our lives. If we’re in a group, team, or company, those decisions are often magnified and frequently tied to a financial element.

Through every interaction, in tiny increments, we are making choices and creating expectations. We are agreeing on terms, making verbal and written contracts, setting deadlines, and creating anticipation for what we think will happen.

But are we articulating it well to others?

You see it when a supplier and a customer meet about deliverables, prices, quality, or a myriad other issues. Both parties think they’re right and as often is the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

The sales manager expects all of her reps to make a minimum of five prospect calls a day because she included it in an email nine months ago and it is how she built her client list so how could there possibly be another way.

Don’t bring me problems, offer solutions.

That sounds good on the surface, you don’t want a bunch of whiners and complainers, but if your team's solutions aren't implemented then they may stop offering them. Leaders need to create a culture where they are clear what they need and how each member can contribute.

The next time you share an idea, check in to see how it’s been received and how others may want to be involved. And with all of our technology and progress aside, a conversation can go a long way. A lesson I learn every day.

Managing perceptions might be our first step.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership and Culture Strategist, Writer, Speaker, Executive Coach engaging leaders to build successful talent and profitable business.

lifehack

Marketing: Budget Item or Necessity?

Underspend To Success

Few industries have been spared during the last 18 months. We’ve read about employee cuts and budget restrictions. As the cliché goes, the only way through it is through it. But how does that affect your business? If you are in a management position or you own the company you are well versed with budgets.

Budgets are delightful things that can consume you. They can reduce your hopes and dreams, your hard work and creative plans to a list of numbers and codes on a spread sheet.

Beans and Pennies

If you work for or own a large enough company, you may even have someone who sits in their office staring at said spread sheets with alarming regularity. If you or your boss is someone others call a “bottom liner” then those spread sheets can be the only focus. Lower the numbers at the bottom of the screen and everyone is happy, right?

In some companies, short-term thinking and this-quarter-only mentality is rewarded. What’s even scarier, some people are given additional financial compensation for making the line at the bottom as small as possible.

Where is Marketing on the list?

If the directive is to cut costs, which items go first? Do you cancel phone service? Do you stop paying the mortgage or rent? What about computers and utilities? It couldn’t be salaries and marketing budgets, could it?

The first stop seems to be items on the general ledger that are perceived to not be spent yet. After all, you can squeeze through a couple of quarters without letting customers and potential customers know about your offering, right?

Strategy Strategy Strategy

Think long and hard before you interpret that marketing and people are expendable because they are the only reason your company is different than others. Marketing is not advertising, it is not a campaign, it is a fully integrated part of your company.

Marketing is just as crucial as the phone system. In fact, stop your marketing efforts and you may notice the phone is ringing a lot less than usual.

Road Maps not Blindfolds

Your marketing efforts must be carefully planned. Simply carrying out activities that seem to look and smell like marketing is not enough, you must know the reason for this action.

We all must be fiscally responsible. Spending must be done wisely, but simply getting out the hatchet and calling that a "revised business plan" can be dangerous and potentially suicidal.

You must understand the potential results of each effort and manage your expectations behind them. If you have a strong strategic plan, marketing will quickly become as big a priority as keeping the lights on.

What are your thoughts?

@knealemann
Let's create experiences, not campaigns

image credit: dallasobserver.com

Marketing: Vital or Superfluous?

Five years ago while working for a large publically traded company, I received a call from head office less than a week before we were about to roll out a significant promotion and marketing initiative.

The call went something like this:

“We cut your marketing budget”
“By how much?”
“All of it.”


That was a three hundred thousand dollar phone call. You couldn’t find enough wind on the planet to get my sails working again.

Zero. Gone. Nothing. Numb.

Count The Beans

The Corp needed to cut costs or some other market needed the cash or I didn’t much care at the time. All I knew was that two months of strategy had vaporized with a click of a mouse.

Into The Black Hole

Suddenly the marketing budget was deemed unnecessary, something of a luxury that was slashed to make room for some other priority. When there is no money, there is no money but simply deleting an entire initiative simply to save money isn’t enough of a compelling reason.

Why?

The message must be sharp, the writing must be on target, the money must be spent wisely, the mediums must make sense, the reasons for marketing must be clear and the focus must be intergrated with your overall business strategy.

But if you think marketing is a dispensable item on the general ledger, then leave it out of your budget every year and roll the dice. I wish you luck.

What says you?

@knealemann
Let’s create experiences, not campaigns.

image credit: dpchallenge.com

Are They Wearing The Right Hats?

You’re running your own business. It's going well. Growth is happening. Then suddenly you start hearing and reading reports of an economic collapse.

You wonder how it will affect your business. Will you lose money? Will you make less than last year? Will you need to curtail your growth plans? Does this mean the death of the five-year plan?

Yes. Maybe. Perhaps. Your call. Long ago.

What’s In The News?

So you ask around to other business owners, start sifting through mind numbing financial sites and blogs and circle around the cul-de-sac of bad news. Some are downsizing, some are decimating their marketing budgets and major corporations’ foundations are cracking before your very eyes.

Self Doubt Is Not Your Friend

Suddenly you may question your motives, your tactics and your own staff. Perhaps others are right, you do need to lower your prices and fire some people? Possibly the answer lies in making people wear more hats and work harder? Conceivably you will simply need to cut the highest paid on your roster and hope for the best?

Take A Moment

It might be time to examine your external and internal communities. After all, customer service begins at home. If you and your team are not giving each other good service, it’s doubtful you can do your best for your paying customers.

Obviously fiscal responsibility is crucial. There is no shortage of situations where a dysfunctional community negatively affects the bottom line. Many are now being told as a benefit for keeping their gig, they are now doing two.

Reality Bites

I remember years ago working with an ad agency that had three founders. One was creative director, one was head of sales and the third was art director. They went out and hired a president to run the day-to-day. They realized what hats fit them best.

Forest: Meet Trees

It’s tough to think clearly when we hear downsizing at Google and Microsoft but that doesn’t mean it has to happen to you. But long before wondering if you're widgets are right or what your competition is doing, it's time to examine accountability – when everyone in the building is accountable to everyone in the building. Now could be your opportunity to sharpen everyone so the wasted time on backstabbing and butt covering can be removed in place of progress. Your competitive advantage could be better teamwork, for real.

Do you wear too many hats?
Are you wearing the right hats?
What about your entire organization?

@knealemann

photo credit: flickr.com/photos/mamluke

Marketing: Time To Change Our Ways

I’ve been chatting with some ad agency colleagues lately and it’s been an eye-opening experience. It's tough for a lot of them. But others are angry because of news reports are causing more fear. No one has their head in the sand, but the negative news certainly isn't helping.

There are plenty of clients who still want to promote and market their goods and services. Clients are more cautious but slashing marketing and promotional budgets is the wrong tact. It is tough ‘out there’ but if you focus on that, you will get what you wish.

We need to cut costs
If you replaced the word “marketing” with “coffee cups” how long would Starbucks or Tim Horton’s stay in business? If you replaced the word “promotion” with “steering wheel” how long would you be able to keep your car on the road? If you want to see your company decline, stop telling people you have a company.

Where’s the map?
Imagine you are driving in a snow storm. It’s 3am and the gas meter has been on empty for the last fifteen minutes. You are lost. All you see is the odd light on the side of the road, no signs to indicate what is there. How many gas stations could you possibly drive by without knowing it? And how long will that gas station stay in business without a sign out front?

It worked yesterday
Years ago I worked with a guy in radio who didn’t see the need for us to tell people the name of the station. I’m serious! He said: “Everyone knows who we are.” Really? He saw little need to do marketing or outside promotion because the brand was that strong. No brand, product, or service is immune to softening markets or competition. No company has survived on their past successes.

The community is much too fickle.

Spam scam and scram
It gives none of us solace to watch major household brands crack under the pressure. But the companies that will continue to thrive – yes thrive – will sharpen their proverbial pencils and find out how they will do it. Those “hows” include: more targeted marketing, paying attention to the marketplace and needs of consumers, customers, audience, community, and staying aware of all technology available to them. And most importantly – have something worthwhile that others want to buy or use!

The best marketing campaign in the world, conceived by the brightest in the field will have a very difficult time convincing people to buy-in if the product or service fails to deliver on its promise.

Now what?
One agency veep told me last week that their goal for next year is to increase their client base by 20% and billing by 30% by “offering clients a soft place to land”. His plan is to give fearful business owners realistic solutions to their marketing and promotion issues rather jamming people in to the same old tired ideas. He said: "The lemmings and laggards can stayed scared while I build my business."

The U.S. auto industry is teetering. GM, Ford and Chrysler have been doing things the same way for far too long. If you are unwilling to be nimble and change with your environment, you can expect diminishing results. No mandated production levels will increase consumer demand no matter how much you want it.

What’s in it for we?
Of course I have a vested interest in all this – I am a producer. But I am also a marketer, a writer, a creative guy and I enjoy when something well-made is well-marketed and sees a healthy profit.

What are your thoughts?

km

What's Your Plan? What's Your Goal?

As the world freaks out about money, this is the wrong time to panic. We're all worried about money, we're all unsure of the financial picture over the next year. Let's put on another pot of coffee and cozy up to the table.

Have you been there? The big boss says times are tight, budgets need to be trimmed and the first thing to go is the stuff that is perceived to be unnecessary or yet spent. That usually means marketing and promotion.

Next to go is people, because according to some, the perception is that fewer salaries means more profits and leaner organizations are more successful and solvent.

Everyone makes mistakes and every company lives through ups and downs. It's not easy but without a plan or realistic goals, it's even tougher.

Obviously we have to be financially prudent - especially now - but under-spending to success is a steep hill to climb. Lobbing buckets of water out the side of the boat with wild abandon can be risky too - some boats tip easily.

In the world I live, as mass media fragments into smaller niche pieces, it has become paramount for all of us to sharpen our proverbial pencils. We clearly need to spend wisely, manage expectations, and know what we want do before we start. Then be nimble, not foolish.

The hatchet and last year's game plan may not be wise first moves.

Marketing, media, promotion and content choices are splintering all the time. It's no longer easy to launch a new idea and spread the word. It used to be print, terrestrial radio, and television. Now there are fifty places to get content and get your message out. Whitewashing the world with one thick brush won't cut it anymore.

And what is crucial is integrating all facets of a project. In order to do that there needs to be clear knowledge that everyone contributes to the success, everyone actually needs to work together, communication is key, and everyone needs to have an understanding of each other's role and goals.

It's like the kid who is asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and he says "Rich!" but he has no clue how to achieve it.

Too many companies want to slash budgets, cut employees, enter relationships to get a leg up on the others, make more money than last year, but have no clue how they will do it.

In the ever-changing world of media, if your team doesn’t know everything there is to know about everything there is to know, it becomes more difficult to succeed. And we all have a long way to go in that area!

"Because we did it like that last year" is a phrase that should be stricken from your vernacular.

km