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The company’s management left their planning retreat
energized and excited. They had created a vision and a mission for the firm and
a business plan to support it. Every person felt prepared to do his or her
part—contacting clients, networking, following up, writing articles, increasing
the company’s visibility.
Two Months Later
These same management sit at the weekly management
meeting discussing progress made.
“I called The Engineering Director. They have a
project coming up.”
“We submitted on the Z project; we’ll know results
next week.”
“I still need to schedule a meeting with the
Production Director to see what’s going on over there.”
People may be plugging away. But the enthusiasm and
sense of purpose are gone. What happened?
Where Is the Vision?
Why is it easy for technical professionals to retain
their enthusiasm for project work, yet lose all incentive for business
development? One reason is that they feel uncomfortable—and, worse,
unproductive—when doing business development. Projects have clear demarcations:
Phase 1, we do this activity; Phase 2, we do these. Tasks are accomplished. All
tasks lead to a larger product that will be delivered to the client. The client
is updated, task by task. The client is invoiced. And it’s over until the next
project begins.
Business development, by comparison, is very
different. We call for an appointment, lunch perhaps. It can’t be fit in this
week—how about next? Once on the calendar, it may get postponed. Or the RFP
expected last week is delayed. Or... It goes on.
Business development is a flowing river—sometimes
moving so fast it’s hard to keep your head above water; sometimes so sluggish
it’s hard to see progress. There are no clear benchmarks, no beginnings or
endings. Yet, that river of business development is absolutely essential to the
health of the business.
So, how can we give more structure to business
development activities? Give people a greater sense of accomplishment in the
process rather than making them wait for the final payoff—winning the job.
One key is to find ways to keep the vision—the
primary goals driving the marketing plan—in sight. It’s hard to stay focused on
the vision once you get into the action plan’s specific tactics. But the vision
is critical to motivation.
Keeping the Vision in Sight
There are a number of things we can do to keep the
vision in sight and people motivated at the same time.
First, it is important to define a structure for
business development goals and strategies. Set up action plans like projects,
with assigned marketing job numbers and strategies broken out into tactics (or
tasks). As people use marketing task numbers in filling out their time sheets,
they will be reminded of the larger strategies.
Once the structure is in place, it is equally
important to chart progress graphically. For example, if the firm’s vision is to
gain national visibility (do larger projects on a national scale), one of the
primary goals supporting that vision might be to increase projects for Fortune
500 companies by 20%.
Some of the strategies to accomplish the goal might
include:
-
initiating a direct-mail program to national
targets
-
writing articles for placement in targeted
publications
-
strategic teaming with firms already playing in
the national market.
Whatever the goals, strategies, and tactics, using a
visual tool to show progress, tactic by tactic, will help keep the overall
vision and goals in sight. The visual tool might be a chart, a map, a
free-flowing diagram or a symbolic representation. Whatever tool suits your firm
will work, provided it illustrates the firm’s progress toward its goals in
minute detail, tactic by tactic.
Whenever marketing progress meetings are held,
people can look at the graphic illustrating progress made. If the graphic is
posted in the conference room, the kitchen, and/or on the internal web site or
bulletin board, everyone can see the big picture—the progress made with each
small step, each tactic, toward the major goal. Graphically illustrating
progress toward the vision is equally important. It might be updated quarterly.
The benefits of visually portraying progress are
many. It helps achieve our primary goal of retaining enthusiasm, motivation, and
momentum for the marketing plan. Also, in keeping people focused, we are more
likely to use marketing and business development time and dollars more
efficiently. People won’t be as tempted to go after clients and projects that
are not in the plan.
A Caveat
Many entrepreneurial types do not work well with
structure. If you have a successful business developer who bridles at being tied
to a weekly, monthly, or quarterly plan, don’t insist. Allow that person’s
intuitive energy to function. But check in with him or her periodically to get
an update—and to update the progress graphic for all to see. |
