Human hardware: why we’re all built to be good at sales

by Sue Barrett ON 13 March 2012

For many, the thought of having to sell something sends people in to a nervous frenzy and denial about their ability. Even some sales people and business leaders admit to feeling this way. The fact is we can all do it. Every single one of us is selling virtually every day. It may not be a product or service, but we’re definitely geared toward convincing others of our credibility, our expertise and our opinions and views.

So why do people recoil at the mere thought of selling? It’s because so many ‘legitimate‘ sales practices we experience as customers are nothing more than manipulation and deceit, aggression and intimidation, or hard sell, pressure tactics. No wonder so many people shy away from selling as a career or cringe at the thought. Whether we are conscious of it or not most of us don’t like how selling is being sold to us. I don’t blame you.

It’s sad for the sales profession to be perceived this way, but it’s up to all of us to change this perception. Rather than putting a clear sales winner on a pedestal and attempting to emulate their sales approach, try your hand at better developing your own.

Your ability is there waiting to be unleashed. It’s not about having the ‘gift of the gab’ or being an extravert. The first point about becoming a good sales person is the ability to listen and being ‘other’ aware. Many of us already possess this skill and for some, it needs to be developed.

Learning how to ask the right questions and monitor your prospect’s needs, wants, likes and problems is paramount to a successful sales career or outcome. Everyone is born curious to some extent and this curiosity is how we discover and learn about the world. As children we want to know how things work, why this happens and where things come from. Children keep asking until they receive a satisfactory answer. So, where’s your inner six year old? As we grow up it seems we lose the ability to actively question and listen. We lose the desire to ask questions. We’ve either lost curiosity or we’ve lost confidence and our internal need to impress takes over. Nevertheless, we need to bring back our inner six year old and start to ask questions and probe for answers that help us provide a solution for our clients and prospects.

It’s also about being genuine and we all can be. In this increasingly networked world we all have the opportunity to connect with others all the time. However, the way each of us portrays ourselves, our companies, our values and our lives are at risk of being seen as superficial if we do not genuinely communicate, connect and create with others.

If we want to cultivate and sustain genuine, healthy, profitable and viable business relationships with our clients, partners, suppliers or peers where a fair exchange of value is achieved then we, our business and our people need to go out to the market place and put ourselves in a position to work proactively with people and help them and ourselves achieve our collective business goals.

Effective sales professionals truly add value to client relationships well beyond the product. The product is now only part of the sale, not the sale itself.

This approach to selling is seen as a distinct competitive advantage to businesses and any sales person or sales team not putting these skills into practice is at risk of losing sales and clients. Training sales people in these skills has a significant effect on the profitability of a business.

Whether you are working as a sales professional, business development manager, lawyer, accountant, engineer, consultant, internal human resources manager, procurement manager, business, manager, small business owner, team leader, psychologist, a jobseeker, or anyone in contact dependent career, we can all benefit from applying more enlightened, collaborative, worthy, natural sales practices in our daily lives.

Tiger and Jetstar big winners online

by Marketing ON 26 March 2009

Discount flight carriers Tiger and Jetstar are one up on Australia’s major airlines when it comes to website performance.

Tiger is reported to have the highest ranking flight search functionality, while Jetstar claimed fastest homepage load time, according to a report from Nielsen Online.

The report, which assessed Australia’s leading airlines’ websites for performance and availability, found Tiger Airways’ website flight search function performed better than any of its competitors, primarily as a result of its high performance search engine and low page weight, both of which directly related to the site’s low loading time.

Jetstar’s recently revamped website saw vast improvements to response time, with a 28% faster loading homepage, ranking it first among the websites assessed by Nielsen Online.

The website upgrade also resulted in 30% faster flight search times, earning the site fifth place in the flight search ranking.

“The performance of these two sites, Tiger and Jetstar, is raising the expectations of Australian consumers, and this will in turn raise the bar for airline and travel sites. In this industry where every click is critical, website availability is a key business success metric. If consumers can’t reach you online, it won’t take long before they start looking to your competitors instead,” explains Megan Clarken, managing director, Pacific, Nielsen Online.

The Nielsen report also looked at availability of airline and travel websites, using homepage uptime percentage over a two-week period to rank the key industry players.

During the two weeks that the study took place, four sites maintained 100% uptime – travel.com.au, Total Travel, Qantas and Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand also topped the list for flight search function availability, followed by Flight Centre and Virgin Blue.

Digital up-skilling: dont be the digital dinosaur

by Marketing ON 23 March 2008

Technology continues to change the way we live. The manner in which we communicate and the decisions we make every day are invariably tech-related. It is inevitable then that when planning a marketing strategy, you need to be exceptionally well-informed and up-to-date with the very latest methodology to reach your target audience.

This is probably the number one challenge confronting marketing professionals in the 21st century.

The marketing and information technology departments are two of the most vital of any company as they hold the requisite skills and resources to drive a successful and profitable organisation. In order to more effectively reach their target markets, companies have quickly realised that a tech-savvy marketing team needs to work closely with the IT team in developing and executing strategies that deliver a competitive edge to the organisation. With the continual emergence of new and improved information and communications technology, you – as a marketing professional – are expected to keep yourself up-to-date with the latest and most efficient methods of communication in the digital world.

This not only aligns your marketing department to the IT team in terms of ‘lingo’, but it also keeps you and your team current with the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of the latest communication channels available.

Of course there is hardly a shortage of tech-savvy people in today’s tight labour market, as most graduates are appropriately informed of the world’s ever-evolving technology. Schools and universities are equipped with cutting edge technologies (computers, wireless connections, video conferencing facilities, online information, interactive online applications, etc.). Today’s children, from as young as two, are constantly exposed to online games, emails, mobile phones and other digital and interactive media.

Regardless of your educational background, you are, more than likely, highly exposed to (and in touch with) the high-tech world we live in through your everyday activities.

Companies that maximise sales potential by putting their high-tech foot forward – keeping a team that is capable of coming up with fresh ideas or improving on used ones to appeal to today’s tech-savvy crowd – will ensure the organisation’s competitive edge.

To consistently achieve this, you need to keep yourself and your company across new and emerging trends used by leading companies around the world – tried and proven methods or even brand new ideas to reach your target audience.

As most marketing professionals would have experienced, as soon as you get to grips with using the traditional banners and other variants online, mobile and interactive media cause a brand new wave, thanks to high-speed broadband. It is inevitable that something better and improved will constantly be introduced to the market and you are expected to keep learning them.

So how do you keep yourself constantly updated with the ever-changing technology of today?

There are a number of ways that you can stay ahead of the game, especially in the digital world. Below are just a few useful tips:

Watch and learn

The ever-growing high-speed digital medium we use today has made possible features such as vodcasts, podcasts, digital audio, broadband ad formats, voiceover internet and other online interactive functions. The employment of these functions allows online marketing campaigns to be more engaging and interesting for viewers – but, beware, innovation does not stop there.

One of the best ways to learn about new and improved marketing methods in the digital space is to observe what other companies are using. Of course, you should aim to be the innovator in your industry as opposed to being a follower, but sometimes it pays to learn whether a certain method is effective before investing a huge amount of capital in your own marketing campaign. It’s just keeping an eye on the competition. (They’re invariably keeping an eye on you!)

Ongoing training

Another way to keep yourself and your company at the forefront of the marketing game is to attend training courses on the latest and/or emerging marketing technologies. There are a number of online courses you can take – or, alternatively, you can attend short courses and seminars locally.

These courses are a great way to meet other marketing professionals and share methods and gain insights into what other companies are doing. Tertiary institutions with highly regarded marketing courses include Charles Sturt University, Monash University, the Australian Graduate School of Management, the University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland. Thompson Education is also a well-regarded publisher of online educational programs.

E-newsletters and trade magazines

More often than not, you can get the very latest news and ideas on innovative marketing in the digital space from online newsletters or trade magazines, so a monthly or quarterly subscription to sources like these is definitely beneficial. Many successful companies tend to get publicity through articles in trade magazines, where they share their outlook on trends and sometimes expose their methods and trade secrets.

Learn more about search engine marketing

There is no shortage of search engines on the web and considering the direction in which the world is heading, it is a good idea to learn how you can maximise exposure and results from your digital marketing campaign.

Among many other things, you will learn how search engines function, what affects their listings, how you can manage and manipulate multiple domains, track every visit and, most importantly, protect your brand by avoiding ‘bad links’ in a negative cyberspace neighbourhood.

The online search engine is forever morphing and improving; therefore, learning about them will not only equip you with knowledge on how they affect your business, but it will also keep your planning well ahead of the game.

Learn from digital marketing companies

Often organisations look to specialist marketing companies for expert advice and assistance in their new or ongoing marketing campaigns. This is because specialist marketing companies have the product and industry knowledge to advise their clients on what marketing strategy and medium is – or is not – relevant to their products/services.

Talk to recruiters

Recruiters today not only perform their traditional function of recruiting, but also act as ‘career managers’ or advisers to many of their candidates. Most importantly, they are extremely useful sources of information as they have first-hand knowledge of the industry constantly fed to them by their clients and other candidates. So the next time you have a meeting with a recruiter, don’t hold back in asking what they know about the latest trends, or what experiences and skills their clients are looking for. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Armed with that new-found information, you can look up what you don’t know and familiarise yourself with it. Your potential employers will be more than impressed with your initiative in learning about new and emerging trends and technology.

As a 21st century marketing executive, it is largely your responsibility to update your skills and convince an old-fashioned employer to change with the times for the sake of the company’s future (not to mention, your career development). And if that fails, you should seek other opportunities where you will be able to experience the professional growth your career demands.

Retaining promising employees

by Marketing ON 18 March 2008

Acquisition, life cycle planning, retention. If you’re a direct marketer you think about these aspects of a customer journey on a daily basis. But have you ever thought about your employees in the same way? At The SG Group we are encouraging our clients to think more strategically about how to go about attracting the right candidates and then retaining them. It’s the reason behind our continual support of the annual Marketing Employer of the Year survey. The survey has been running for five years and in 2006 more than 370 individuals from 45 companies participated – from both agency and in-house marketing teams.

A great way to start understanding how to retain people is to look at reasons why they would want to leave. In the 2006 Marketing Employer of the Year survey we found the top five reasons to be (in order): better salary, better career prospects, to work for someone who inspires them, to have a more flexible working style and changing career.

What we can clearly see from these results is that it’s vital to provide employees with a clear career path, and this is as equally important for acquisition as it is for retention. Lesley Brydon, executive director of the Advertising Federation of Australia, says, “The key thing graduates are looking for from an employer is a defined career path and the opportunity for personal and professional growth. This was a clear priority – more important than travel opportunities and financial incentives.” Regular performance appraisals can help you understand the career aspirations of your current workforce and gives individuals a game plan in order to work toward those goals. In the words of Bono, “I’m tired of dreaming. I’m into doing at the moment. It’s like, let’s only have goals that we can go after.”

A lack of inspirational leadership is another factor that can push the people you need most out the door. Every year in the Marketing Employer of the Year survey we have found that the most successful companies have a leader who is full of positive energy. Being positive and inspiring is not limited to being an upbeat, energetic type; it’s more about your attitude toward your people. Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager has this insight: “Too many leaders act as if the sheep – their people – are there for the benefit of the shepherd, not that the shepherd has responsibility for the sheep.”

The push for flexibility comes from individuals who are crying out to be noticed as being human beings not human resource.

The McCrindle Research Study 2006 reveals that the average retention rate per job per employee is just four years. And people aren’t just jumping from company to company, but changing career entirely. Generation Y is our most formally educated generation and has myriad options when it comes to career choice. They don’t believe they should be limited to just one or two careers during their working life. This desire to change career may sound like a factor outside of the employer’s control. And it probably is if the individual is looking to completely opt out of marketing altogether. But the idea of changing career may be masking a greater need for challenge and stimulation that may be provided elsewhere in the company.

An overwhelming 95 percent of respondents in the 2006 Marketing Employer of the Year survey claimed that they were unlikely to leave their current job within the next 12 months. All respondents were asked to give insight as to what makes them stay, the top five reasons being: they enjoy their job, they have a good working environment, their colleagues are easy to get on with, they are proud of their brand or company and they feel valued.

“Because those needs are being met, they are less inclined to move on for reasons like financial satisfaction, location and holiday entitlement. Managers of marketers and agency staff would be well-advised to investigate just how many of their staff would actually say ‘I enjoy my job’,” says Jacqui Pollock, The SG Group’s managing director. Job satisfaction being at the top of the list really just sums up the other four reasons listed.

The onus of a good working environment comes down to the people at the top. Naomi Simson, CEO of RedBalloon Days, which was ranked overall second in the 2006 Marketing Employer of the Year survey, says, “My role as CEO is actually ‘chief experience officer’ and I am responsible for the experience that everyone has with RedBalloon, including my team. RedBalloon Days’ philosophy is all about giving great pleasure, both to its customers and to its staff. We give great days out through our experiences and we provide great days ‘in’ for our team.”

Third in the top five reasons to stay with an employer is that colleagues are easy to get along with. The latest McCrindle Research Study also found this, particularly in relation to Generation Y: “Forty-two percent of all Gen Y survey respondents placed ‘relationship with peers’ as one of the three top reasons for getting or keeping their job. An environment where they could interact socially and work collaboratively was highly regarded. Interestingly they didnt necessarily want a workplace full of people their own age: Gen Ys have known nothing but cultural diversity, gender diversity and respond well to generational diversity.”

Pride in brand or company ranks high on the list for retention. While Nokia, which was named overall leader for the 2006 Marketing Employer of the Year survey, is arguably one of the world’s best-known brands, smaller companies can take heart. Pride in one’s workplace can come from other areas such as making a difference in the world or having an excellent internal rewards program. And it’s the smaller companies that are more often able to provide a working environment where people are treated and trusted as grown-ups.

While ranked five in the reasons to stay with an employer, the feeling of being valued as an employee really is the bottom line of retention. A big part of being valued means the company is demonstrating that they care about well-being among staff.

In this year’s UK Financial Times Best Workplaces awards, health and well-being initiatives featured prominently, and it’s because they are seen as a value-add to employees. Jacqui Pollock says, “A lot of marketers are doing things like doona days (where you can take the day off if you just don’t feel like going into work), flexible working hours, the option to work from home, time shift days for doctor and dentist appointments. Also gym membership, workplace massages and free fruit, wine and beer at the end of the day – they’re all clever, memorable ways of enhancing the overall benefits package.”

Montgomery Burns, the richest man in Springfield and owner of the nuclear power plant, is famously quoted as saying, “Family, religion, friends… these are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.” If you think the way of The Simpsons’ antagonist, you can be guaranteed not to attract or retain a high calibre of employee.

Remuneration negotiation

by Marketing ON 17 March 2008

Achieving a pay rise depends on a number of key factors, and not all of them are directly related to your personal performance; some are out of your control. Firstly, the performance of your company is a crucial factor. If your company is doing well, achieving targets and making a healthy profit you are, of course, more likely to be able to negotiate a pay rise than if your company is underperforming and not making a profit. Do your homework. If your company has no profit to share, then you do not need to feel insulted if your pay rise is modest, as your company may simply be unable to offer you more. If your company is having a record breaking year you know that your chances for success are higher.

Assuming your company is performing well, you feel within your heart that you have performed well and you choose to negotiate, call a meeting with your manager to discuss this in the correct forum and environment. Once a date and time is set, it is important to ensure that you negotiate from a position of strength and power. To maximise your chances of achieving a pay rise you must be able to clearly demonstrate your direct contribution to your team’s tangible output. Better still, attempt to link your output to key business issues such as: your company’s revenue stream, any cost saving initiatives and exercises that you have driven or been a part of, customer service excellence or business/departmental growth.

The key message is not to assume that your boss knows everything that you have achieved, and what you have contributed to the team and the broader business. This is a mistake that a lot of professionals make, putting in the effort all year and sitting back and waiting for their boss to reward them accordingly come salary review time. The reality is that your manager may not be aware of the contributions that you have made; so document them clearly and concisely in readiness for your meeting.

It is also important to review your job description prior to the meeting, as your job role may have changed a little over the course of the year. You may even have taken on extra responsibilities that are not reflected in your formal job description. Make a list of the extra tasks that you are doing outside of your job description and, again, link each task to a tangible outcome wherever possible, such as: revenue generation, a new business outcome, a cost saving and so on. If your job description includes key performance indicators (KPIs), assess your performance against your KPIs before the meeting.

Key to your preparation should also include arming yourself with knowledge of your worth. Talk to as many people as possible from within your industry or field of expertise, use salary surveys to add weight and tangibility to your request, look at job advertisements in the newspapers and online, and consider talking to a recruiter who will be able to review your skills and provide an honest synopsis of your worth.

Upon presenting your case, do not rush your manager into giving you a decision. More often than not your manager will need to refer your request and your case to Human Resources, and their own manager, as well as ensuring that departmental budgets have room for the level of increase that you desire.

If your company is performing well, you have prepared well, the market is right, your expectations are realistic and you have presented your case professionally, there is a high likelihood that you will succeed. If you do not receive the news that you were looking for, however, try to ensure that you have prepared a suitable contingency plan and do not overreact or say something that you will regret.

If you feel your salary is not a true reflection of your ability or market worth, and the salary increase does not bridge the gap, changing jobs may well be an option, particularly in the current candidate-short environment, but you should aim to do this on your terms and to your own timetable.

If you do not receive the pay increase that you were looking for, but you are keen to stay within your current role, an alternative could be to seek non-pay related rewards as part of your overall package, such as access to extra training, financial assistance with your further education and time off to study, parking, access to a company-funded mobile phone, contribution to your home internet bills etc.

Your strong performance over the duration of the year should always provide the platform for a salary negotiation, and your rewards should be linked to improving your work performance. So, the bottom line is to roll up your sleeves, add value to your business in any way you can and work as hard as possible to become indispensable.

Creating competitive advantage in recruitment

by Marketing ON 8 March 2008

The war for talent in Australia has the battlelines drawn across all industries and many specialist roles, with marketing and sales no exception. Analytics and direct marketing are marketing niches where the competition for candidates is most fierce, while in sales there is huge demand for candidates with solution sales experience. The professional services sector is also a particularly difficult area for attracting talent due to an exodus of marketing and business development managers into commerce and industry.

Four out of five organisations generally are experiencing the effects of the talent war in their recruitment efforts, according to in-depth client research commissioned in the past six months by LINK Recruitment. Just one in four organisations says it is tackling this challenge, while one in five is not even sure how to.

Many employers recognise they need help in negotiating the fundamental and growing gap between the workforce needs of the market and the supply of quality candidates available to meet those needs, which is the basis of the talent war. This partly explains a growing trend towards the use of recruitment agencies, either as the chosen approach or as part of companies recruitment armoury.

The Buyer Behaviour Survey 2006, bringing together feedback from 660 client organisations nationally, provides some valuable insights into whether, why and how organisations are choosing to use agencies and what they value in their chosen provider. Employers said they value using a recruitment agency because the right one: can access a larger, quality pool of candidates with specialist skills; is able to place people more quickly; saves them time by conducting the initial screening; and can draw on psychometric tools to determine the candidate who is more likely to stay, thereby saving the costs of a bad recruitment.

Responsiveness and ethical behaviour were the agency attributes most valued by clients, followed closely by professionalism.

Selecting the right recruitment agency

As a hiring manager, it is well worth investing time upfront in really getting to know the agency and the individual account manager. Spend at least two hours before you embark on a campaign with an agency to get the fundamentals right.

The following check-list may help you select the agency that will best meet your needs. While its an inexact science before youve had the chance to actually work with a recruiter, this information will create a clearer picture of a particular agency and how it compares with others. Rank each agency Yes, No or Maybe against each question. You may then consider doing trial contracts with the couple of agencies that score the most Yes answers. Does the agency:

promptly respond to email and telephone inquiries
have an ethical business charter
offer access to a quality candidate pool
offer human resources support such as psychometric testing and coaching for current staff
have a demonstrated understanding of your industry
work with you to develop tailored solutions
act professionally at all times
have experienced staff who are friendly and courteous
have the skills and resources to handle bulk applications, and
offer value for money?

Prompt response to email and telephone enquiries

First impressions are critical, so think about how that 90-second initial encounter with an agency unfolds when you pick up the phone and call. The way the receptionist answers the phone, how they handle your initial enquiry and answer your questions, whether they keep you waiting and whether they refer you with confidence to the correct consultant are all important. Take note of whether the consultant follows up promptly with information by email or responds quickly to your email query. If theyre falling down on the job at the purchasing stage, theyre unlikely to improve on appointment.

An ethical business charter

An agencys website is a good starting point for all research. Check whether they are members of the industry watchdogs, the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RSCA) or Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI). See what they say about their mission and values on their site and ask if they have a conflicts policy.

Access to a quality candidate pool

Given that every agency with any marketing nous claims this, whom do you believe? In todays highly mobile labour market, an agency working in specialist areas should have a database of quality temporary and contract labour candidates. Such claims are less credible for permanent placements. A sophisticated recruiter knows the whole market, whether or not a certain candidate is registered on their books. That candidate may simply be part of the wider pool of people to whom the recruiter has access for a short time: no one good these days is stuck on a database for long. The recruiter who has genuine access to these candidates is probably the one who is out there talking to people, networking at industry functions and is adept at managing a dynamic web of relationships with employers and candidates, past and present.

Human resource support

While you may not be able to try before you buy, the agency should be willing and able to supply you with examples of the tools that underpin these services. Ask for a psychometric profile report or a reference template. I have even been known to send my own profile out to clients so that they can see exactly what it entails. You could also ask to talk to one of the agencys other clients to gauge the service experience. Always check whether these additional services are fee-attracting or value-adds.

A demonstrated understanding of your industry

Test an agencys knowledge by asking what previous experience theyve had recruiting for your industry, for the names of clients for whom they have worked or testimonials from them, or to describe similar projects theyve undertaken in your industry. Have you seen them at industry events – networking, as speakers, sponsors or exhibitors? Does their website or proposal provide evidence of claims to agency or individual expertise in your industry? You should also ask about their specialisation in recruiting for the particular role. A general agency is unlikely to be able to provide the technically astute talent required for specialist roles if they have not worked extensively in that marketplace niche.

Work with you to develop tailored solutions

A good partnership with a recruiter begins with a discussion about the best methodologies to achieve your project objectives. Theres a commonly held belief that all a recruiter does is take a brief, check their database, go on Seek and send you a bill, and that perception is really the fault of our industry for not educating clients. For some assignments, I’ll know that the individual will only be found by proactive networking or tapping people on the shoulder, so what is the point of spending my clients time and money doing a whole lot of other things? As the experts, we need to consult you, the client, about the best solution because it will impact on things like the length of the assignment, the risk and the cost.

Act professionally at all times

Professionalism means different things to different clients. At the most basic level, it begins with the agencys staff being polite and well-dressed, with clean, welcoming offices and efficient business equipment, punctuality to meetings and responsiveness to requests. It is also the sum total of everything on this check-list.

Experienced staff who are friendly and courteous

You are embarking on an important relationship with an agency so ask yourself: do they listen to what I say I need and seem to respect my opinions? Look at individual CVs of team members assigned to your project to understand how long they have been in the business and what assignments they have undertaken. Ask them who you will be working with most in the team and ask yourself: ‘Can I work with this person?’ Have a clear understanding of who has ultimate responsibility for your project if things go wrong.

Skills and resources for bulk applications

A capacity to handle bulk applications mostly lies in an agencys technical resources. The number, calibre and geographic spread of an agencys consultants can also be an indication, although small agencies with great IT and systems can do an excellent job. Does the agency have the IT functionality to undertake online search, for example? IT also contributes enormously to an agencys ability to manage its candidates, whose satisfaction in a tight market impacts directly on the reputation of both agency and client. It can streamline application processing and response, ensure candidates are kept informed and provide them with regular newsletters and updates in electronic format.

Value for money

While the proof is undoubtedly in a successful placement at the end of the recruitment process, you can evaluate value for money upfront before the relationship begins. When organisations are surprised at what recruiters charge they often dont realise what goes on behind the scenes, especially in a market that is getting tighter by the day. More importantly, an agencys costs should be linked to specific, costed stages of a transparent recruitment process that they can walk you through before you commit. If need be, a good recruiter should be able to remove steps in the process and reprice the package to suit your needs.

In a nutshell, you should be prepared to invest and to plan properly for your campaign by working with your recruiter. The more information the recruiter has, the more accurate they can be in the provision of a candidate that meets your criteria. There is also no substitute for great, ongoing communication. At the executive search and managerial levels in particular, the project is most likely to fail because communication has broken down. This may be in part due to mismatched expectations, but frequently because the message and the tactics have not been clearly defined and agreed at the outset.

Brand management – who is driving your brand?

by Marketing ON 21 February 2008

Brands communicate to their markets via a multi-supplier infrastructure. Meaning, if you aren’t launching your latest TVC, outdoor or direct mail piece, you are probably managing an internal brand communication project or activating an interactive campaign. Current day marketing responsibilities mean juggling many communication channels and working alongside a diverse plethora of expert communication channel suppliers.

Is that a typo, or did that just read ‘alongside’? Wouldn’t ‘alongside’ indicate that all parties including suppliers are working together towards a common goal? Well, in some instances they are; however, profits returned to a client are rarely shared with the respective supplier.

Agencies for instance may receive awards and the appointment of future business. In the short-term, however, like all businesses, suppliers have their eyes on one thing: their profit and loss statement.

So, do your suppliers really care about (a) the direction and long-term success of your brand? Or are they more interested in (b) selling you something that will benefit them directly? If you answered anything but ‘b’, you are very optimistic, trusting and unfortunately naïve. Suppliers have budgets just like you do. Suppliers need to make certain profits each month to meet running costs.

Does this mean that all suppliers are just in it for the cash? Yes and no. Supplier welfare will always figure ahead of a client’s brand performance. Most suppliers understand, however, that poor channel performance will result in a reallocation of resources away from them, so it is in everyone’s best interest for suppliers to perform well for their client’s brand.

OK, so now that you realise your channel suppliers are only your friends because you pay them, you also need to recognise that these friends often don’t play well with others. Particularly when these ‘others’ have the potential to starve one another’s P&L statements. For example, if your PR firm sells you a wonderful media campaign for the next three months that is outside of the designated budget, then you will naturally move resources away from another channel. Your channel suppliers know this and, consciously or not, are always competing against one another for your resources.

Your problem…

The implications of subliminal faction infighting and competition can be seriously damaging for any brand. The damage is most readily experienced by customers receiving a disjointed brand experience. The better performing brands have the correct weightings on the correct communication channels, and all are based on the optimal market brand interaction and experience. With so many parties naturally vested in their own interests, how can you safeguard the integrity of your brand?

A solution…

Some years ago, Microsoft tackled this issue by introducing a marketing procedure called ‘OneBrief’. OneBrief was the name given to a regular meeting of marketing staff and suppliers to discuss brand decisions. This multi-supplier WIP ensured that all marketing stakeholders were aware of and agreed on brand development pathways. Problem solved, I hear you say… maybe and maybe not.

The concept of OneBrief or ‘OneWIP’ (as named by some other brands that have followed Microsoft’s lead) has yielded some very positive brand consistency outcomes. The concept has also helped marketing and brand managers manage resources. The companies that are set to benefit most, however, are those who have taken this concept one step further and have established what is known as a ‘Brand Council’.

A Brand Council is a group of people, all of whom have responsibility to a particular brand. The most effective Brand Councils are made up of: the client-side marketing team along with representatives from the usual supplier arms: advertising, PR, interactive, environmental (marketing), HR and even L&D for the more intelligent brands.

Furthermore, the most efficient Brand Councils are facilitated by an independent brand custodian. This brand custodian is entrusted to work parallel with the marketing team in navigating a brand’s course. This independent must possess a unique blend of skills and knowledge around the brand in focus, the commercial interests of all parties and the human negotiation process.

Brand custodians are impervious to supplier influence, imposed obligation through wine and dine tactics, and ‘new’ inspiration from a change in staff at an appointed agency.

Holding the reins…

The fortune of a brand’s journey can often be told well before the wagon leaves town, by looking at who is holding the reins and those riding shotgun.

Ask yourself, “Am I truly leading or just steering?”, and have you chosen partners who are genuinely interested in your brand’s optimal passage, or are they more likely to shoot one another to gain greater spoils in the purse?

As cowboy folklore suggests: ‘Trust everybody, but make sure it’s you who cuts the deck and, whatever you do, never ask a barber whether you need a haircut.’