When the Budget Axe Falls: What to Cut, What to Keep, What to Grow

Presenter: Pat LaPointe
Broadcast on Thursday, March 12, 2009
Duration: 90 minutes
Cost: $129

   

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Most of us have already been through at least one round of budget cuts where all the "fat" disappeared and the items of marginal importance were eliminated. But if you’re being asked for subsequent rounds of cuts, or fear you may be, you’re faced with very hard decisions about cutting into the muscle and bone of your marketing programs in ways that are supposed to leave at least some foundation of effectiveness for the future.

To help accomplish that, this online seminar will address the following questions:

• How do I identify alternative cutting strategies beyond the obvious?
• How do I assess the relative impact of cutting in one way versus another?
• Where is there still likely to be "waste" in our marketing plan which I can eliminate?
• How do I help the company most when all the options look bad?
• How do I preserve my credibility while all around me are compromising theirs?

This seminar will introduce you to a more strategic framework for making very difficult cutting decisions — one that even the finance department will respect. It’s guaranteed to get you thinking differently about cuts you have to make to leave both you and the company ready to fight again another day.

You Will Learn

• Looking beyond the conventional cutting wisdom
• Defining the right set of objectives for cutting "successfully"
• Four possible frameworks for prioritizing cutting options
• Selecting the framework that’s right for you

You will leave this seminar with an entirely new way of thinking about cutting strategically, along with four approaches you can use to identify your targeted reductions and make the case to executives.

Who Should Attend

• Marketing managers pressed to deliver aggressive cost cutting targets.
• Finance managers supporting the marketing function.
• Sales or operations managers with a stake in how the marketing budget emerges after cuts.

About The Presenter

Pat LaPointe is Managing Partner of MarketingNPV where he directs the development of client solutions for CMOs in the areas of skills, structure, processes, and tools to improve marketing measurement through greater alignment and accountability.

His book Marketing by the Dashboard Light: How to Get More Insight, Foresight, and Accountability from Your Marketing Investments is a pioneering work on the topic of marketing dashboard development.

Prior to launching MarketingNPV in 2003, Pat was an equity partner and senior vice president at Frequency Marketing Inc., a consulting and software company known for design and operation of large-scale customer retention and loyalty programs. Pat also directed the operation of a marketing department at Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), creating and implementing customer acquisition and development programs for both B2B and consumer markets. He started his career in advertising in the Y&R network and at Ketchum, where he managed large client portfolios in all aspects of marketing strategy and communications.

Pat is an MBA graduate of Stern School at NYU and holds a B.Comm. from McGill University in Montreal.

What Participants Said

Of the participants who evaluated this seminar, 84% would recommend it to a colleague. Some of their comments:

"Good tools with very justifiable decision-making opportunities from them. Models vs qualitative judgments."

"Got my thinking process to move from an across the board cut to a more stategic approach."

"This presentation gives you a broad perspective on how to define and defend budget cuts."

"It provides a methodical and scientific way to evaluate marketing programs. I felt like I was back in my MBA classes."

"This is an approach that allows marketers to do their cutting assignment without giving up control of their objectives AND with an opportunity to increase credibility with the finance department."

"It was probably a little advanced for me which is not a negative reflection on the presentation."

"Very complex information and sounded applicable to large companies with many programs, but not a small consultancy with small to medium sized clients."

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