As organizations have become flatter a constant flow of information is required not only throughout your organization but you must mimic the flow of information needed by your customer. This information flow cannot be funneled thru one person or even most of time who is saying what, when. The ultimate water cooler talk has now become a virtually oasis of knowledge. Not one person is an expert anymore. Not even one department can sell a job anymore. Your customer’s VP wants to talk to your VP, IT wants to talk to IT and Purchasing wants to talk to the Supply Chain Leader. The only person that no one wants to talk to is marketing (joke). Marketing must take the responsibility of making sure that the knowledge continuously flows and through the right channels – hence knowledge management. An excellent case study of this is Amazon. The information that flows as you click through their site is extraordinary.

Marketing must create systems that allow employees to collaborate, capture and share their knowledge without creating additional work or interruption of their job. It must become part of the process of work that they do. Of course, there will be times that this is not possible but it cannot be underestimated the importance creating an environment that a customer interaction is not an additional burden. Through the use of technology all types of information can be shared but great connections and relationships may be enhance through technology but seldom sustained. Live chats, personal connections, and community involvement must be emphasized.

Marketing must also take control of that knowledge transfer moment. Making that moment memorable is equivalent to those cute and clever sound bites. What differs about this type of marketing is this is when the person is most receptive to new ideas. They are the seekers and what they learn at this moment will be remembered and/or put to use.

In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, your one source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. Yet, few of us understand the true nature of the knowledge-creating company—let alone know how to manage it. According to a article by Japanese organizational theorist Ikujiro Nonaka, the problem is that most Western managers define knowledge—and what companies must do to exploit it—too narrowly. They believe that the only useful knowledge is “hard” (read “quantifiable”) data. And they see the company as a kind of machine for information processing

The challenges facing marketing and organizations in this climate are extraordinary. It is just not enough to start doing it. There must already be a shared vision, a set of guiding principles and culture within the organization that values this type of communication. Lean Companies have the necessary culture to succeed. However, I don’t believe that a company that is just starting a Lean journey is ready. They are still to tool orientated. Lean companies that are well on their way to developing a Lean Culture, 2^nd or 3^rd stage have the necessary ingredients to begin this journey.

Related Information:
The Future of Marketing is Lean
Why Lean Marketing? Because it is the Future of Marketing
PDCA for Lean Marketing, Knowledge Creation
Lean Marketing Creates Knowledge for the Customer

The new wave of marketing has seen an entire new set of tools being used with the components of social media leading the way. No longer do we trust print media, radio, television and other forms of traditional media. The tools have all become a commodity. Some organizations have even questioned the need for a sales force. To make effective marketing decisions, you need a clear understanding of what the customer values and what your company strategy is to support them.

Companies have found that they must listen at higher level than ever before to their customers, focusing on improving processes, and using teams. Companies have to build a culture that supports agility, relevancy and speed. To accomplish this there has to become an open sharing of information that will accelerate creativity and innovation. Value has to be understood that it is delivered at the point of consumption, not when it leaves your hands.

Lean Marketing is about installing a continuous improvement methodology to your sales and marketing process. It’s about constantly improving ever step up the way. In the smaller scheme of things it is about improving a launch, an advertising campaign and even a sales call. However, in the bigger scheme of things it is about building a structure that creates a learning organization based on an ever increasing knowledge of what the customer values.

The Lean practice of PDCA is ideal for learning and creating knowledge activities. Following this process it allows individuals and teams to recognize and take advantage of opportunities, make decisions faster, and be more responsive to customers. As part of the PDCA cycle you get feedback on the action from listening to customers and the companies’ measurement systems. Having information, taking informed action and getting feedback is part of the natural PDCA cycle.  Effectiveness comes from when you use and take advantage of all your resources.

This why I believe the Future of Marketing is Lean!

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Why Lean Marketing? Because it is the Future of Marketing …
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Start with A3 for Continuous Improvement in Sales and Marketing

This step involves taking the improvements and implementing them. We will document standard operating procedures, create are process control plans, and establish a control process. The one final step is handing off the process or transitioning the process for implementation. It is imperative that we create an operation that is stable, predictable and meets the customer requirements. This is the implementation supported by documentation and project management to put all the work into practice. Another way of saying this is how we are going to guarantee performance.

In the marketing funnel it comes down to the basic decision to commit or buy the product or service. As I said in my last post, clarity is the number one issue that may prevent you from succeeding if you meet root cause. Customers want consistency. At this stage, you will see price and confidence that you can deliver what you say seemingly becoming the greatest issues. If price was the overwhelming issue, just think of how many times you have lost a job to a better known brand. Why? Security and your lack of ability to address the root cause with unquestionable clarity.

The Control process of Six Sigma can certainly teach us a few things. Creating an operation that delivers a stable and predictable outcome is the purpose of not only the Control stage but the entire DMAIC process. If you have identified predictable measures that the customer can visualize and satisfy the root cause of his problem, you are well on your way of obtaining commitment.

Another stage of Control is handing off of the project for implementation. How many marketing projects are not supported by sales or vice versa? Sales efforts can be undermined especially when the process is does not monitor predictable results. The ability to control this stage of the process may prevent you from caving into unreasonable demands that prospects may place upon you. However, most worries are not about the prospect but in the effort to close sales many organizations will take their eye off the target and take jobs that may or not solve the root problem for the customer. Seldom in that circumstance will you deliver the product or service that the customer is hoping for. It may even be over delivering, which not only is wasted but to the prospect unclear and not evaluated appropriately. Sales will look at this as part of these results and either determines that there is a greater degree of flexibility in the product/service than there is and/or that pricing could be adjusted because the next customer may not need all this. This is not a problem of sales, you have built the platform and handed off a poorly designed control phase. Build a process management plan for implementation and establishing ongoing measure and methods to be used for improvement will facilitate your process.

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The Marketing Funnel using Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology
Most Marketing Systems are Out of Control.
If you control it well, it flows well!

Marketing Cycle Time = Customer in Process / Closed Sales

Little’s Law is a pretty cool tool and more important than it might seem. Many of us may not know what our average marketing cycle time is, let alone the variation of it. But knowing when someone enters your Marketing Funnel and when they exit it might seem immeasurable. The thought of having to track a prospect through all the stages in the process may seem rather daunting. However, with Little’s Law and segmentation of your individual channels, you can get a reasonable estimate of these factors. We only need two of these factors to get the third. It is just math! We need reliable estimates but if you look at segmentation closely and how Little’s Law applies you can go a long way in getting some very useful numbers. If you know your customers and the process and how many sales you are closing you can estimate your cycle time. If you know your cycle time and the number as sales you close, you can estimate the amount of customers in your process.

These customers will be waiting between different stages or activities. It may be either internal or external reason but for this conversation it is not important. In lean, we consider this as someone’s queue time. This time in waiting (queue time) counts is a delay, no matter what the reason. As you begin to track your customer’s flow it soon becomes obvious that some of your activities from the eyes of your customers are of little value. A critical metric of waste for any process is what percentage of the total cycle time is spent in non-value added activities and how much of this is waste. The metric used is process cycle efficiency, which relates the amount of value added time to the total cycle time of the marketing process. Typically, marketing cycle efficiency of less than 10% indicates that the process has a lot of non-value added time or added wasted opportunity.

Marketing Cycle Efficiency = Value-added Time / Marketing Cycle Time

Waste is any time, cost, etc. that has no value in the eyes of your customer. All organizations have some waste. Lean shows us how to recognize waste and by utilizing these two simple and doable formulas. Don’t accept that Marketing is not measurable, it is!

Picture courtesy of Wild Hare Decor

Related Post:

Most Marketing Systems are Out of Control.

If you control it well, it flows well!

Value Stream Mapping for Marketing

Technorati : Cycle Time, Lean, Little’s law, Marketing, Six-sigma

Typically, when I create an A3, I go about it a little differently by utilizing the Six Sigma principles of DMAIC. This acronym stands for Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control. The Six Sigma process improvement process(DMAIC) is closely related to the PDCA lean process. The difference is the set of tools being utilized. I believe DMAIC has a stronger set for variation and process control. The PDCA process has a more simplified version. Depending on your needs either tool applied appropriately can be utilized. Lean has a tendency to be favored initially because of the lack of measurements within most organizations and that process is a little more forgiving. The important part is that you start the process. The chart simplifies the DMAIC process:

• Define -What is important?
• Measure – How are we doing?
• Anaylyze – What is wrong?
• Improve – What needs to be done?
• Control – How do we guarantee performance?

Whether you decide to use DMAIC or PDCA for your A3 makes little difference. The tools are just that, tools. The important part is that you have flexibility to format your A3 report in any way that most effectively can tell and demonstrate your story to your team and others. Your goal is not to complete the A3 report, it is to harness all of the benefits through implementation from the problem solving that took place.

I use A3 Reporting in the marketing process. It demonstrates and recaps the thoughts, efforts and actions that took place for a particular campaign, such as advertising or public relations or even a launch. This report can really highlight the value that marketing supplies. I will be discussing DMAIC and A3 and how it applies to the foundation of the Lean Marketing House™ in the upcoming weeks.

Related Information:

Lean Six Sigma Templates for DMAIC and A3

Why use A3 in Marketing

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

Lean Marketing House™ – Foundation

Technorati : A3, DMAIC, Lean, Marketing, PDCA, Six Sigma

1. Clarity, few people understand the strategies.
2. People may not be directly linked or measured by the outcomes.
3. Money, the entire process is not totally funded.
4. Management looks for quick wins versus building a platform.

Most organizations build their pillars at the strategic business unit level, in the marketing departments within the business. However, they must include and receive buy in from customers, sales and other parts of the value chain to make it work. If it is pushed down it will seem like just another program.

Once we have designed The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House™, we need to implement it throughout the entire organization. This requires careful planning and coordination with all parts of the organization. It is beyond the scope of this post to go into an entire Product Launch but we basically should know, how to organize, coordinate efforts and establish deliverables within the organization. Also, we should have knowledge of the time, availability of data and the resources needed. Another important aspect is the degree of support and funding both in time and money that management is willing to commit too.

When completed, The Pillars provide clarity, the budgetary requirements and a platform for management to buy into and support. However, it lacks the foundation needed for implementation and measurement that is required for successful deployment. We will need to integrate the Hourglass into lower level blocks or the Foundation of the Lean Marketing House™. The blocks provide the stability to the The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House™. They are made up of the tactics we will employ to move prospects from one stage to another. As we move the forward, a more formal collection and reporting system will emerge. Once we get more and more blocks working, we will begin to link the different segmented pillars together.

Building The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House™. often require continuous testing and modification to see if the process is working. This can be frustrating for many who routinely expect perfect solutions. Many times you are testing something that you never had applied or had measurements before. You will revisit your pillars, adjusting and re-aligning it to fit with the organization. It is not unusual to postpone the rollout of pillars until the first pillar is well established and working. The foundation of the Lean Marketing House™ will be explained in upcoming posts.

Related Information:

Lean Marketing House – Foundation

The Pillars of the Lean Marketing House Webinar

Duct Tape Marketing

Technorati : Duct Tape Marketing, Lean, Lean Markeitng House, Marketing, The Pillars