Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hi Ron,

I think the bigger question is whether you are enjoying the work you're doing.....and LEARNING. You will likely learn a lot more than you would with a large marketing department.

Now, as to the title....I've never cared about titles. You can call me flunky for all I care. If you're getting the job done and the right people know it, you shoudl be all good. Others whom I respect would disagree with me.

Take it a step at a time. Propose tracking and ask for an assistant. If no one in the company has time, ask to "hire" an intern.

Believe it or not, you're in a good spot.

Michael

Hi Ron, the place to start is:
- Determine who the main stakeholders and decision makers are.
- Identify their goals for 2012.
- Prioritize what is reasonable to achieve.

Then spend the next few months defining the tactics, necessary budget, timeline, approvals and start executing.

It's the reasonable way to do it properly.

Hope that's helpful. Good luck!
-Roland

Start with developing baseline metrics and share the numbers regularly internally. That will make concrete your actions.

Next, as others have mentioned, work to support ongoing milestones, and again, measure the contribution you're making to the result.

Once you show the ROI of your efforts, it'll be easier to increase your budget (and team size).

Thanks for all of the responses so far, guys! I really, really appreciate it.

Right now, I am stretched far and wide - receiving requests: from sales teams to coordinate, hold, execute events (which we have no metric for); to build powerpoints (for which we have no mission, industry info documents, competitive advantage research to support); and develop a list of networking opportunities for 2,500 "prospects."

Do I demand that we put these on hold or? There is just so much to be done, that I feel like start-to-finish projects are needed. Perhaps it starts with an understanding what our company does, why we do it better than others, and how to articulate it.

Management, thus far, has been rather inflexible.

Michael, I haven't quite decided whether I enjoy it. The barriers to information, bottle-necks, and overall resistance really make it difficult to make any sort of change; thus is the challenge of change.

The advice you're getting here is right ... but it would sure be nice if you could get the biggest problems solved quickly so that you can focus on the job management wants done and not have to worry constantly about all the things that are broken and/or will undermine much of your effort.

Do you think management might agree to have an outside consultant come in and "fix" the most important things quickly? That would be ideal if they'll agree. You'll have to start with positioning and marketing strategy issues, then move to a strategic plan, then get to detailed implementation planning and execution.

It will probably take a few months, but it will take years if you try to do it yourself ... and it will detract from the things management really wants you to do. Side benefit for you: You will get to learn a lot by working with the consultant. Just make sure part of the agreement is that you get to learn, so next time you can do it yourself if/when the need arises.

If you can persuade management that it's worth the investment, there are several of us here on the MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange who can do the job. You can browse through the profiles of leading experts, or you can post the project in the "Hire an Expert" section of the website.

If you try to do this yourself, and also do what management wants you to do, the project will take forever and you risk doing both jobs not-so-well.

Hello Ron,

I too was and am in the same situation. What you have to decide is it worth your time to stay in this situation. I love marketing and found that I learned more about how to do things correctly by seeing how others did it incorrectly. The wealth of knoweledge will be tremendous, but so will the frustration.

As I have expirienced it many many times, most don't see the larger picture. They see little projects that solve little problems and either can't or don't want to take on big complex issues, becasue it involves change. People are affraid to change from what they have done in the past, because of fear. Fear in what the bosses will think if it fails, fear of more work, fear of more problems down the road. Why rock the boat when the boat is still floating.

If you are willing to go through it, then follow these steps.

1.Find the most wastefull amount of spending that you can find. Either advertising or an event that has consummed money that has not provided any leads or more importantly poor quality leads. Then find one that is operating very effciently, providing many leads at a lower cost per lead.

2. Like others have said prioritize, but I will be a little more specific. Prioritize based on markets, by asking the decsion makers what the highest priority market should be. Then gather the data sales figures, sales growth rates, sales expectations and leads generated of those top 1 or 2 markets. Then do that for the very bottom of the prioritized markets. Given your statements of how mismanaged marketing has been, I am sure there will be many expenses in the non top markets.

3. Make a list of all the waste/problems as you see it (general figures) and give your findings to the decsion makers. Show them what is going on and what you think should be done along with some goals.

4. Design a strategy to implement your findings

Yes, this will take a lot of time, but it will show the decsion makers on how foolishly the company has been. Then you would have an arguement as to what your strategy is in fixing the problem. You have to make them see it as a problem first, before you can provide solutions.

If they can't or won't see the problems, then you have to make the decsion if it is worth it.

Here is what I did. Took a marketing campaign for our priority market. Looked at the # of sales vs # of leads, which was 1%. Then took the total amount spent on the campaign vs the profit of the sales. Yes, that got the attention of the decsion makers real quick. Processes changed that day, but only after I showed them that there was a problem that they could understand.

You have gotten some great answers and your plate is full. I want to pick up on one key phrase you wrote: "inflexible management." How do you make darn sure you that the outcome is a win for you, regardless of circumstances, given all the time and energy you are investing?

It will take some self-discipline, but is worth the effort. Set aside some time, best every day, but at least every weekend, to document everything that is happening (or not). That is the raw material for a) negotiating for yourself a senior management slot with the firm, b) or with another firm, c) and, the wonderful world of the Internet, all kinds of Electronic articles, case studies, and possibly an E-Book series (to be sold on amazon.com, the Barnes and Noble Nook books, etc.).

A year later you will have enough raw material for some serious publications. That puts you in a much more powerful negotiating position with the inflexible senior managers. If they do not become reasonable, you leave, polish and market that content (without slandering anyone or revealing corporate secrets) and leverage it to new opportunities.

Regards,
JH