just how pervasive is marketing ?
TRANSCRIPT
JUST HOW PERVASIVE IS MARKETING ?
Using marketing to restore the profitability of a technical team
Serge Crinquand |PMP|MBA Glion Institute of Higher Education
Objective
Understand how pervasive Marketing is
and
how it could be used by people other than the creative types.
1 – increase revenue
Sell more equipments Margin ? Volume ?
Find niche product for higher price
Time ? Training ?
Sell more services
Sell better !
Define ?
How ?
2 – reduce costs
Reduce headcount Credibility ?
Find cheaper people Quality ?
Reduce fixed costs Define ?
The holistic marketing framework
« Managing a superior value chain that delivers a high level of product quality,
service and speed »
1 - take stock of your sales force
Account managers Engineers
• Hunt for new accounts
• Develop existing accounts
• Own the relationship • They have a special relationship
• They can bring back information
• Upsell / cross-sell
2 sales forces:
Even the engineers are professional sales men !
2 – train them
• sell
• price
• define
Training for all !
Services
Strong involvment of the engineers in the pre-sales phases
Rules • NO discounts
• NO free lunches • Upsell / cross-sell
Change of culture for sales staff and customers !
1 – understand your customer
How would customers react in turbulent times ? Reduced budgets for investments
Might prefer expenses vs investments
Avoid any new investment ! Focus on optimizing existing infrastructure:
Faster More secure More robust … find ways to add value !
2 – match your customer’s needs
Develop new services: Monitor infrastructure
Maintain / extend lifecycle of infrastructure Optimize: do more with less
Develop new ways of selling services: Projects vs hourly billing Discounted prepaid blocks of hours New maintenance models
3 – raise the bar on quality
Increase the perceived value:
Quality as a differentiator
First time right: reinforces the feelings of efficiency and technical mastery
Position our teams as the only choice
Hire the bests among the bests
Train, develop, raise the bar on the engineers
Internal resources management
1. Increase efficiency
2. Educate and empower
3. Manage by objectives
4. Build a cohesive team
1 – increase efficiency
Time reporting for engineers ?
« Hey, what did you do yesterday ? » « Yesterday ? I worked !»
1 – increase efficiency
Time reporting for engineers ?
Yesterday
work
Yesterday
administration training project 1 project 2
1 – increase efficiency
Time reporting for engineers ? Without:
Poor resource utilization / overload
Revenue leakage, gold plating
Project management issues (scope)
Longer billing and charge back cycles
Errors and delays in billing
Errors and delays in cost allocation
Inaccurate estimates / biased forecasts
With: Control of resource utilization
Shorter ‘order to cash’ cycle
Less billing errors
Accurate estimates and forecasts
Indentification of the time sinks
Future reference for service quotes
…
1 – increase efficiency
Measuring & Forecasting
Without:
Poor resource planning
Poor financial planning
No visibility on the business
1 – increase efficiency
Use a dashboard Use it
Every day !
Share it Colleagues Boss (and ask for his !)
Subordinates
Tweak it Your tool
1 – increase efficiency
Check your processes:
Are they still valid ?
are they flexible enough ?
do they help people do their job or do they hinder them ?
GOAL:
reduce order to cash cycle
1 – increase efficiency
Put new rules in place:
reinforce the right behavior
Show you’re serious about the change
Examples of new rules:
ALL service offers have to go through the Technical Manager’s desk for approval
New formal project closure procedure
Internal resources management
1. Increase efficiency
2. Educate and empower
3. Manage by objectives
4. Build a cohesive team
2 – educate and empower
Don’t just give ‘orders’, explain, coach, teach, empower !
Remove any ‘hang-ups’
Reward time management
Less overtime
Less time spent on site, increased efficiency
Time management = life management
Internal resources management
1. Increase efficiency
2. Educate and empower
3. Manage by objectives
4. Build a cohesive team
3 – manage by objectives
Set objectives:
To individuals To the team
Give the engineers the incentive to sell services
Make sure your objectives :
are S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound)
will cement the team and not make it fall apart
Internal resources management
1. Increase efficiency
2. Educate and empower
3. Manage by objectives
4. Build a cohesive team
4 – build a cohesive team
Why should you care ?
High cost of a recruitment
High cost of training
Highly difficult to find the bests
Good engineers are courted from all sides
How to retain engineers ?
Give them interesting projects
Train them, help them reach the next step in their career
Make them feel part of a family !
The results ?
➴
➴
➴
Billable time:
from 20% to 80%
Revenue:
target +30% the 1st year
Customer satisfaction:
4.8/5