Know-How Exchange : Strategy

No, tracking every minute of the day is not the way to go: even if you could physically do it, it would not answer your question on marketing staff productivity. The only question it would answer is how much your marketing staff produces (e.g. we organized 2 more events than last year, or sent out 100 more brochures for less money).

Instead, measure the business results: how many customers did your marketing staff bring in, keep in or convinced to increase their spending, and how much is this worth to the firm? It would be great if you could measure this long-term (lifetime customer value), but short-term measures with some reasonable assumptions can get you far. Divide these business results by the resources consumed by your marketing staff, and you have your measure of productivity, which you can track over time and benchmark to others.
Cost of a perticular sale would be basically all the cost that the company beared to get that deal.

Marketing can require a great deal of creative thought and tracking every minute of every day will do nothing but stifle creativity and cause your employees not to strive for perfection, but speed. I would prefer my employees take longer than is even allotted and give me a project late than to rush through it and not deliver their best. In my opinion the only thing that matters in marketing is results. The person who gets the most done in a day may also be your weakest marketer.

Objectives my dear boy, objectives.

To analysis what someone is doing you need to know what their objective is. If they meet or surpass them then they are doing well, if they do not then look at the reasons why they are not.

These objectives should be set by the stake holders in consultation with the marketing team, based on results and facts not “what would be nice this year is 100,001% increase in website visits”

Make sure that you have over arching objectives which are broken down into smaller and smaller targets and that they are quantifiable.

No, marketers are not the same as factory staff, they do need creative/ thinking time etc so shouldn't really be clock watched, but they are employed to deliver results and should be monitored.

I am the owner of a marketing agency and I find the creative process fascinating. We engage in brainstorming sessions on behalf of our clients for particular projects, very often ending the meeting without the result we were looking for. But, we have planted some seeds into the fertile soil of creative minds and, given time to germinate, these seeds produce the answers our clients pay us for.

I have seen it over and over again, the best ideas can take 30 seconds to pop out while others require days, or even weeks. So, tracking time, keeping a log of every minute of every day, is one of the greatest wastes of time imaginable. It does not give you good information.

Results. This is what you need to focus on. You cannot begin a project without having developed some objectives, goals, and parameters particular to the project. If someone wants you to do that, you need to refuse because there is no way to satisfy such a request.

If you have particular goals, you can then develop the strategies to achiecve those goals. Strategies mean that certain people have tasks to perform within a given time frame and as a part of a bigger picture. Connect with your team on a daily basis to make sure that all of the pieces are being accomplished in the manner consistent with the results you want. Take measurements along the way and test variations on your strategy.

The only people who need to track the minutes of subordinates are those that are not in control of their own schedule. If you are confident in your ability to monitor the progress and process of a creative team toward the agreed upon goals and objectives, and if you are reasonably sure that you are the one guiding the ship and setting the direction, then you need to get out of the way of the people you have tasked to make you look good, and let them do their jobs without being micro-managed.

Micro-management shrinks the ceative space, constricts the flow of positive and synergistic energy, and diminishes results. Letting go allows the room for miracles to happen.

George Wallace
The Discovery COmmunications Group
Salem, NH

I teach sales vs marketing. But I think my approach would work here. In sales, effort almost always means results. When I am working with a newbie, we define daily actions and we track their completion. Then I sit with them weekly, as a group, and ask for a SOFT report-- Success, Opportunities, Failures, Threats. I do this as a group because when one hits a brick wall, often the cumulative knowledge of the group can resolve the issue. And if one has found a tactic that works, they all benefit and jump on it themselves.

So break down what you expect from them and inspect what you expect. You need x # of phone calls, each day, to who and for what purpose. I sit with each person and they create their daily action plan. They track it (simple line form), and we review it-- and revise what isn't working.

Marketing, sales, creative types like to hide under their creative umbrella. We inspect the work of the close to minimum wage window washer, but not these high paid producers. Its not micro managing-- its good leading.