Lean Marketing House » Lean Marketing

Updated the Lean Marketing House

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:35:45 +0000

Updated the Lean Marketing House with a short video that shows the utilization of Value Stream Marketing and the Marketing Kanban. A couple of glitches in the transition of slides. This is the first time I used MS Powerpoint 2010 to record within the program.

A Little more on applying Little’s Law to Lean your Marketing!

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:48:00 +0000

In a previous post, I transformed Little’s Law to marketing utilizing this formula: Marketing Cycle Time = Customers in Process / Closed Sales. I would like to simplify this formula and change the nomenclature a little. I think more accurately it should be called Sales and Marketing Process Time(SMPT) = Prospects in Process(PIP) / Customers(C). You could also use the same formula substituting Prospects for possible Revenue opportunity and Customers for Revenue.

However, if you put your Theory of Constraints hat on for a second, you would consider Revenue as the Throughput. Though this is not a major change in thinking, Throughput is the measure that drives Theory of Constraints. In your marketing process, this makes perfect sense, you should be measured in Sales Revenue, correct?

Reviewing some basic teachings of the Theory of Constraints, you may start looking at your marketing process a little differently. If you believe reducing your SMPT is important you simply have to reduce the number of Prospects in Process (PIP) if your Throughput(TH) or Customers(C) stays relatively constant. If you have large amounts of PIP it is a pretty simple task. However, the question maybe, what if you don’t have enough prospects in your pipeline?

You know your SMPT is a function of all of your process time. It represents all the stages of your Marketing Cycle both value added and non-value added time. So to reduce cycle time you must reduce value added, non-value added or a little of both. Since common sense dictates that non-value added time makes up for the majority of the time and if anything you would like to increase value added time, you must attack the non-value added part of the process.

We must accept the fact that there is waste in all processes, and we must work on a continuous basis to remove it. As we remove waste, another large culprit of efficiency is variability will be reduced. However, the other item that Little’s law demonstrates is the PIP in the process. As we evaluate this number think about the cost of having access PIP. Not having a targeted market, you may waste mailings, telephone calls and a few other inexpensive items, but I think about this on a much grander scale. Think how much you may be diluting your message. Can you afford to do that? You have heard me discuss how clarity may be the single most important reason that you lose prospects or sales. You cannot increase value-added time or decrease non-value added time without clarity.

How do you increase clarity to your prospects? Again, hopefully this does not sound like too much like a broken record but there are only two choices: reduce the number of prospects or segment your list or both.. Effective segmentation may be your single biggest constraint in improving sales. What do you think?

Great Resource on the Theory of Constraints: Ebook on Integrating Theory of Constraints with Lean Six Sigma

Improve throughput, cut your customers in half!

Lean your Marketing thru Segmentation

Technorati : Lean Marketing, Little’s Law, Marketing Funnel., Theory of Constraints

Using the Theory of Constraints in the Lean Marketing House

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

This video series will explain the process I use in building the Lean Marketing House. This particular segment is an overview of the Theory of Constraints and how it applies in the Lean Marketing House.

The entire series will be posted during this week.

Related Information:

The Pillar Worksheet

Lean Marketing House Overview – Video

Your Marketing Vision should define your Customer’s Core Problem

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Today’s products and services reflect greater marketing segmentation. As you know, I use the Duct Tape Marketing Hourglass as The Pillar of the Lean Marketing House™ but there is no universal terminology, it is just convenient to stay with one message because even as you segment your list you still have to recognize the marketing process into stages such as Know, Like, Trust, Trial and Buy.

As you segment, each segment will include fewer customers. However, it should enable you to identify the individual stages more effectively or determine your material and information flow needed in each step. It will also allow you to define waste and create better value for your customer. In fact, this is basically the definition of Value Stream Mapping.

As a result of this exercise, you will change the shape of your Pillar. You should be able to shorten your cycle in some and as a result decrease your expenditure in the marketing process. Others, on the other hand, may be lengthened and a total different approach may have to be utilized. A good example of this may be in the pursuit of a governmental contract. The point to be taken is that there is nothing wrong with either situation, what is wrong is treating each segment the same.

The key ingredient to get started is developing the NEED statement for each marketing segment or Pillar. The statement should clearly define your CUSTOMER’S CORE PROBLEM and your ability to solve that problem. Defining this alone will provide clarity throughout the various stages in your marketing process. The NEED statement is a living document that will evolve as your product/service and the customer’s use of it changes. Further development of this statement should include limits on cost and time to keep your Pillar within boundaries that you are able to manage.

The point of defining the Need Statement is to succeed at developing a manageable process. We want the resulting marketing phases (Know, Like, Trust..etc.) to meet our customer’s needs, at the right time and at the right cost. It must do this in a way that maximizes our investment in the process. Marketing can be a complex and often risky process and in today’s world it mandates speedy development. The Lean Marketing process is geared to provide a framework and specific tools for efficiently and predictably reaching goals.

Following the Customer’s Need in your Value Stream Map

The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House

Value Stream Mapping for Marketing

Get Rid of Your Marketing Vision Statement and Address the NEED!

Why do The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House™ crumble?

Applying the Marketing Hourglass: The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House

Technorati : Duct Tape Marketing, Lean Marketing, Lean Marketing House, Pillar

Using Value Stream Mapping for Marketing

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

This video series will explain the process I use in building a Lean Marketing House. This particular segment is a overview of applying Value Stream Mapping to Marketing. It centers more on the marketing then actual VSM principles.

The entire series will be posted during this week.

Related Information:

The Pillar Worksheet

Lean Marketing House Overview – Video

Pillars of the Lean Marketing House

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:00:00 +0000

This video series will explain the process I use in building the Lean Marketing House. This particular segment is an overview of the Pillars of the Lean Marketing House. It discusses the use of the Duct Tape Marketing Hourglass, The Ultimate Marketing System and Segmentation of your Marketing Channels.

The entire series will be posted during this week.

Related Information:

The Pillar Worksheet

Lean Marketing House Overview – Video