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CUSTOMER FOCUS
The team is customer focused and regularly reviews
the meaning of success
 Introduction
Those readers who have been following this series will recall that the
underpinning ‘Star Model’ is as follows (for those interested
in research into the Star Model please go to www.tms.co.nz/research).
Star Performing Team Model
Broadly speaking the top half of the model maps the ‘hard’
or ‘performance’ factors necessary in teams whereas the bottom
half of the model is more concerned with the ‘people’ factors.
Background
This is the third article in a three part series on ‘Customer
Focus’.
Dr. James C. Makens , who featured in our last # Issue 11, has also written
this paper providing some invaluable Marketing Planning Tips. We are fortunate
to have a world renown author and consultant, in the Marketing/Sales field
to give us his perspective.
Dr Makens provides consulting and management seminars in Sales Planning,
Strategy, Marketing and Corporate Strategy. He has worked with over 150
clients in many countries. He also served in the Breakfree program sponsored
by The Royal Bank of Scotland. He is the author of eleven books and has
four university degrees, including his Ph.D.
TOP 
“Marketing Plan Tips”
“The worst part of my job is writing a marketing plan.”
This is a common sentiment among marketing and sales executives. By nature,
these folks are action- and people-oriented. Yet the development of a
marketing plan means hours of desk or computer work and a mountain of
details. It is small wonder that most marketing and sales managers look
forward to marketing planning like they do the onset of flu.
The process of developing a marketing plan will probably remain distasteful,
but it can be made easier. A few tips taken from companies that write
annual marketing plans might help.
Keep accurate records.
Unless you are working with an entirely new product never before seen
by mankind, records are vital. Even new product marketing plans can benefit
from past data as these products generally replace existing ones with
a history of sales. Unfortunately, many companies maintain inadequate
records or keep them in a form that prevents their use by the marketing
department.
Customer profile information, frequency of purchase, seasonality of purchase,
monthly and annual sales trends, advertising expenditures, and salesperson
performance are only a sample of the data needed.
It is disconcerting to discover how many organizations do not systematically
gather and analyze vital internal marketing and sales records, to say
nothing of external information: a U.S. textile company had never analyzed
product line sales by territory. Commissions were paid to manufacturer’s
reps, yet in many cases the rep had never visited the client. Lines of
merchandise had grown out of control with several shades of the same color.
Inventory control had become a headache, yet no one had analyzed product
line sales in a systematic manner.
Data necessary for a marketing plan are also needed for sound daily management.
Despite the use of computers, many companies have no idea who their customers
really are or which ones are costing rather than creating profits. On
the other side of the coin, there are increasing numbers of well-managed
firms that have developed systems allowing them to analyze sales by product
line, by geographic area and sometimes by customers on a monthly or weekly
basis. The situation appears to be almost “bimodal.” Either
companies develop sophisticated systems or they do next to nothing.
The development of information systems that provide basic data on a frequent
basis concerning sales, customers, distribution outlets and marketing
expenditures is a prerequisite to effective management.
Allow time for writing.
There is a mistaken idea that marketing plans can be developed over the
weekend ten days before the end of the fiscal year.
 If
marketing plans are to serve as useful planning tools, they must be completed
several weeks or months in advance of the new fiscal year. Sales objectives,
budgets, forecasts, and projected personnel requirements are integral
parts of a marketing plan. These require integration with other departments
and approval by top management. This process does not occur overnight.
A realistic marketing plan is both “bottom up” and “tops
down.” Involvement by top management and other departments in the
development of the plan will increase the chances for its support. The
bulk of the plan must be completed within the marketing department, but
response from other departments is valuable. Top-management review of
the developing plan occurs with varying regularity in organizations. In
some, management prefers to review only the final version. A final review
and amendments by top management should be automatic within all organizations.
The process for developing a marketing plan can become too lengthy and
too involved. A major company takes six to seven months for the process.
“We are so sick and tired of the thing when it’s finally finished
that we throw it on a shelf and never open it again.” Those words
come from a Fortune 500 company.
TOP
Assign details to staff.
Most of the detail work required for a marketing plan can be completed
by staff members. A secretary can do part of the work. Management trainees
and student interns can be very useful. The process provides them with
an excellent means of quickly understanding the company. Increasingly,
these people have academic training in quantitative analysis, marketing
research and other disciplines that encourage collection and analysis
of data. They are often able to develop useful systems for the company
as they assist in developing marketing plans.
Budgeting and strategic decisions remain the province of line management,
but responsibility for gathering and analyzing data necessary to make
these decisions should be assigned to others.
Convince other departments to cooperate. (See
#Issue 11)
The assistance of other departments within the company can substantially
increase the effectiveness of a plan and reduce preparation strain. Accounting,
MIS, personnel, the corporate library and physical distribution are a
few of the departments that can serve either as roadblocks or as partners.
Many departments have information they regard as proprietary that could
be of genuine assistance in the development of a marketing plan.
Marketing success begins within the company. A few invitations to lunch
during the year and an occasional memo of praise for managers of other
departments have purchased untold valuable assistance. Unfortunately,
marketing departments are often considered aloof. Many fail to acknowledge
or cooperate with other departments.
Get away from the office.
The final stages of developing a marketing plan are best performed away
from the office. Generally, an intense period of strategic thinking is
necessary. This is accomplished with the aid of key members of marketing
management such as product or brand managers, sales managers and advertising
managers. Outsiders, like consultants and account executives from advertising
and public relations firms, can sometimes provide valuable support.
Don’t attempt to finalize a marketing plan during normal working
hours in your office. Interruptions are defeating, and anyone with six
months of corporate experience has learned to play the game of asking
a secretary to send a midmorning message that he or she is needed elsewhere
to resolve a critical customer problem.
Use a management conference center, a hotel or a lodge sufficiently distant
from the company to prevent “dash backs.” A few days of intense
and serious work can produce near miracles. It can also build team spirit
within the organization.
Select a center with enough break-out rooms for small group discussions,
as well as a central conference room. The center should be equipped with
blackboards, audiovisual equipment, outlets for PCs and reproduction equipment.
Many hotels still pay more attention to the shape of the swimming pool
or the brandy snifter crystal than to these utilitarian/commercial matters,
so check them out before booking.
Take along PCs, hand calculators, paper, pencils, records and a long
list of other materials needed for any planning sessions. Don’t
forget to take secretaries. They are indispensable! This means that the
dates for the planning session must be set sufficiently in advance to
allow all parties to clear their calendars. It may be wise to spell out
the requirement of occasional overnight travel in the job descriptions
for secretaries.
TOP
Develop a team awareness; involve the entire department.
Marketing planning is serious and it is everyone’s business. Nevertheless,
team members have been known to sabotage the process, and there is often
a common perception that marketing planning is properly the business of
someone else.
Sometime during the planning process, everyone needs to be involved.
Members of the sales force, including the rawest recruit, need to prepare
sales forecasts for their respective territories.  Secretaries
should provide their responses, such as types of training needed to update
skills.
Remember, a marketing plan involves a monthly, quarterly, and annual
budgets. This means that line items must be examined. The concept of team
involvement and improvement is not limited to the production line.
Many companies that believe in and use a marketing plan have developed
departmental consciousness. Team members may not look forward to the process,
but they generally view it as serious. If marketing planning is greeted
with snickers or an empty glaze in your organization, there is probably
room for team development.
Customize the plan; keep it current.
Relevance is the password to writing a successful marketing plan. Organizations
usually develop standard formats for writing a marketing plan. This is
essential, but it can also be dangerous since a perfect marketing plan
format does not exist. Periodic reviews of the process can be helpful.
These reviews need not be cumbersome; nor should the process become cluttered
with committees, six-copy forms and bureaucratic ritual. If the review
process becomes overbearing, there is probably need for change. Sometimes
process becomes more important than the reason for its existence. Remember,
the purposes of a marketing plan are to help an organization establish
realistic objectives and create winning strategies within a realistic
framework of cost and time.
Market success depends on creative and outgoing sales and marketing personalities.
These same personalities have responsibility for creating a detailed annual
road map called a marketing plan. Organizations that used to assign this
task to a staff department usually experienced user resistance by the
marketing professionals with responsibility for implementing strategy.
Thus the process became a corporate game and led to empire building with
a surplus of planners.
The development of a marketing plan will probably never be viewed as
a choice task but observing a few guidelines may ease some of the pain
and just might help produce a “Winning Marketing Plan.”
 Dr Makens may
be reached at jim.makens@mba.wfu.edu or in the U.S. at 970-875-1342
Planning to Plan
Marketing planning is a dynamic process of continuously assessing your
desired future, the current situation and plotting your next move. This
requires a solid understanding of your organisation as well as a thorough
understanding of the environment that you operate within.
The most successful organisations are consistently and routinely engaged
in some form of ongoing strategic planning and marketing management and
involve as wider group as practical.
By combining both practical experiences and the latest theoretical approaches,
TMS has developed robust planning facilitation processes. For more information
please go to http://www.tms.co.nz/strategy.htm
- For further information on team planning workshops contact John
Richmond, TMS facilitator on 09-836-5317 or 021-628-665 or e-mail john@tms.co.nz
Next Issue
The next Star factor in the series is “Stretched” which is
all about going the extra mile as a team. Watch out for the next three
articles which will cover this theme.
TOP
Peter Robinson
Chief Executive Officer
Team Management Services Ltd.
P.O. Box 21-194, Henderson, Waitakere 0650, New Zealand
Tel: 64-9-836-5317 Fax 64-9-836-5318
email: peter@tms.co.nz
Website: www.tms.co.nz
© 2005 Team Management Service
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