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Last month I spoke with Dan Flynn, CEO of Skyhawk Sales Consultants Inc., on how to set up a successful sales team. 
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CategoriesLack of Learning. We all make mistakes. Some campaigns work, others don’t. It is how you handle that information and apply it that is critical.
Fear of Failure. Marketing is about taking intelligent risks to grow the business. Learn more about becoming comfortable being uncomfortable.
Underspending. Too often, organizations underspend on marketing and limit their ability to achieve specific goals. This segment touches on how to properly think about and allocate marketing dollars.
Living in a vacuum is a problem faced by companies small and large, alike. Making decisions without proper intelligence gathering may be faster, but you are shooting in the dark and hoping to hit the target. Build better active intelligence gathering processes and utilize logic tree decision making to yield better decisions.
 Another one of my favorite books and a process I often bring to my clients is detailed in "The 4 Disciplines of Execution" by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling.
The four disciplines or 4DX is focused on helping organizations achieve their strategic goals. The key points include: 1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Prioritize a small number of critical objectives that will have a significant impact on the organization's success. This is key as it is easy to simply get bogged-down in every tasks. Moreover, by selecting a small number of critical objectives that will move the needle it helps avoid being spread too thin. 2. Act on the Lead Measures: Identify and focus on the specific actions (lead measures) that will influence the achievement of the chosen goals. These are proactive measures that drive success. In other words, if your lead measure for increased sales is X phone calls per week to potential customers and you focus on that, then the lag measure, sales dollars, will take care of itself. 3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard: Create a visible and engaging scoreboard that tracks progress toward the goals. This helps in maintaining motivation, transparency, and a sense of accountability among team members. The bottom line is that we all perform better when we are being visibly tracked and there is a sense of competition. 4. Create a Cadence of Accountability: Establish regular meetings and routines for team members to report on their commitments and progress. This ensures that everyone is aligned and accountable for their contributions to the shared objectives. Accountability breeds enhanced performance. I like to tell my clients that I want them to become comfortable being slightly uncomfortable. Not so uncomfortable that they are not sleeping at night, but enough that they feel just a touch uncertain as to what is going to work and what won’t. The reality is we don’t know. My job is to take all the information and data I have and make educated guesses. Sometimes, I am 100%. Other times, the market shifts or a competitor does something unforeseen, and the initiative misses its target. There are a number of extraneous variables, outside your direct control, that can influence the success or failure of your marketing plan. The best you can do is be aware and be nimble.  You should plan for such potential shifts with regular review meetings. Depending on the complexity of your plan and how truncated the sales cycle is (some companies do a majority of their sales in one quarter), you will want to have these meetings monthly or quarterly.
During these meetings you will want to accomplish the following:
“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Now you are in the thick of it. You have scrummed, schemed, planned, and socialized, and now is the time to put that plan into action. There is no turning back now. Executing a great marketing plan for the coming year requires thoughtful planning, ongoing monitoring and adaptation, and a touch of humility. Here is the play-by-play:  1. Review and Finalize Your Marketing Plan:
Ensure that your marketing plan is well-documented, with clear objectives, strategies, tactics, and a timeline for the year. Make sure all team members are aligned with the plan. 2. Allocate Resources: The plan should have outlined the budget, personnel, and technology resources needed to execute properly. Ensure that all necessary resources are secured. 3. Assign Responsibilities: Define roles and responsibilities for your marketing team. Clearly communicate who is responsible for each aspect of the plan. 4. Establish Performance Indicators (KPIs): Your KPIs for each goal should have already been established but take it down to the next level so that the individual contributors working on the tactics know what they need to get done and what success looks like. Tactical KPIs should roll up into the larger goals. This information will help you gauge the success of your efforts and make data-driven decisions. 5. Create a Content Calendar: Develop a content calendar that outlines when and where specific content pieces will be published. This includes blog posts, social media updates, email campaigns, and more. 6. Launch Campaigns: Begin executing your planned marketing campaigns and initiatives. Ensure that each campaign is launched on schedule and according to your strategy. 7. Content Creation and Distribution: Create and distribute high-quality content that aligns with your marketing goals and resonates with your target audience. This may include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more. Depending on your market and your target audiences the execution of your plan may include: 8. Social Media: Maintain an active presence on relevant platforms. 9. Email Marketing: Execute email campaigns and monitor performance. 10. SEO: Optimize your website for search engines. 11. Paid Advertising: Monitor and adjust paid ad campaigns for ROI. 12. Legal Compliance: Ensure marketing efforts comply with regulations. The execution phase requires an “implement and adjust” mindset, where you will move forward as outlined in your plan but with wary eye towards what may require adjustment. Make sure you are regularly reviewing how your target audience and the market is responding to your efforts and adjust accordingly. |
