Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Follow up comment to my question above - most of the branch offices do not have a marketing resource. The local activities (small ads, regional trade shows, etc.) are completed by adminstrative staff at the direction of the branch manager.

Thanks Phil. They're looking to me to provide a proposal with department organizational chart, budget needed, etc. so I don't think they're looking to bring someone else in to run things. I was hoping to get some input on what that structure would look like specifically with supporting the branch offices in their marketing efforts.

I think I'd start by talking with a bunch of branch managers to see what they think they need. They'll probably start with a lot of logistics and tactics (marcom stuff), but once they get past that you can engage them in a discussion of strategy, new products, customer needs, habits, attitudes, etc. They probably know more than they realize about these things.

Once you've spoken with at least a dozen of these folks, you'll be in a much better position to figure out what YOU need, and you'll probably have their support for whatever you decide to recommend. You might also include the R&D folks on your list of interviewees too, and bump the number to 15.

It would be nice to get to where you have at least 4 or 5 on staff ... a couple who keep doing marcom stuff, a couple who work on new products, pricing, major new initiatives, etc., and one (you?) who sets the strategic direction and "conducts the marketing orchestra."

It's hard to imagine a company of that size without more of a marketing department. Are some of your senior management good at the strategic stuff? If so, you need to be careful not to look like you're trying to take their jobs!


P.S. If you'd like someone to take a real look and/or mentor you through this, I might be interested. Where are you located ... Atlanta? (Contact through email in my profile, if you're interested in discussing.)

Thanks mgoodman. Not all of our sr management staff is good at developing vision/strategy and they do look to me to provide guidance on marketing strategies. We have aquired these branches rather quickly and are on our way to that $400M in the next year.

Good idea to reach out to branch managers. I will certainly do that to see what they think they may need from us. I'm not sure how much should be "controlled" by my department at headquarters and how much the branches should do on their own. My CEO did say that marketing was going to stay centralized as we are all one brand but I think the branches need to make some local decisions (ads, shows, etc.). I can provide them with general guidelines.

Since the branches don't have marketing staff the adminstrators tasked with these functions have been relying on the two of us at HQ to help them. This is starting to take a lot of time and will only increase as we purchase more offices. I'm thinking of developing a "Sales Support" position to work with the branch offices and also be responsible for our corporate events and trade shows.

Thanks Peter and mgoodman. Re: local marketing, I'm not sure I'd be best at making those decisions. Wouldn't the local office know the best regional shows and local marketing vehicles? Good point that I should be involved to know what works in order to replicate it elsewhere. What kind of department structure would you imagine I'd need for fully supporting the local offices? I'm thinking one person that would support them full-time? Or do you see a more general MarCom resource that would work on HQ and branch marketing? Their needs would go beyond just trade shows and ads though.

Peter- do you have any resources for sample style guidelines? I have a basic one fleshed out for our dealers but I imagine it'd be slightly different and more involved with the branches.

thanks very much for the input.

One question which will color your direction rather than direct it, but it is worth asking. Are the branches you have just bought from independent dealers still staffed by the same people, particularly the old boss whose customer feel you need. If you are not careful, they will carry on as they always have done, regardless of what you do and say, without worrying about the overdraft this time round. If there are such people you need to win them over and do it quite quickly or they will cut your legs from under you!

You ask for generic structures and templates for communications – they exist but I’d not use them for anything relating to a real-world. The only structures and communications which are likely to work are those devised by you because you have included them in a marketing plan which is costed and has a purpose!

Another question – does your organization have a sales manager or a dealer manager? If not then that is unusual, so who looks after the nitty-gritty of ensuring that targets are agreed and achieved and dealer staff are trained and motivated. If you are not careful, someone will do this by proxy leaving you with the number 1 one dealer headache of “Your leads are crap” which than translates to a branch office headache.

Without knowing these and perhaps the product that you sell, I’m limited as to the advice I can give.

Steve

Thanks Steve. Yes, the same people are still in place. I've known most of them for many years and have good working relationships with them. They have looked to HQ in the past to assist with marketing as most dealers do not have any marketing staff. Once purchased they look to us more frequently as they are now branding our company name and are looking for packages already in place. Plus there are many other requests for varying things which cannot always be replicated - which is why I'm thinking there should be a support person in place to assist them full-time. We do have region managers that manage the remaining independent dealerships and branches. They work with me at HQ.

Not sure I understand your first point about the existing branch management cutting my legs out from under me. Thanks.