Archive for June, 2009
Quality it needs to be easier than tying a knot!
Posted by: | CommentsForget Six Sigma, let’s get some results. Think about the 80/20 rule. If you are going to get 80% of your results from 20% of the problem than narrow even further to 95/5 if you can. So when you institute a quality program focus on small areas that get big results. Why waste your efforts and money on anything else for right now. 
If you have a quality program instituted, you are probably operating at a minimum of three-sigma, if you do not you may be operating as high as two-sigma. I believe using simple control process success and institute the Six-Sigma principles you can easily get to five-sigma with a little effort.
What does that mean to you, especially in marketing? Who is going to measure product defects? Think about these numbers:
1. Most product and services receive value in 5% of their delivery time.
2. 25% of a office personnel’s time is spent looking for something.
3. Every time you reduce the time require to deliver a service by 25%, you double productivity and cut costs by 20%.
Now, one more thing, the more focus you become the more you can achieve. Laser focus will get your substantial results. One of the problem in focusing is people will get hung up n the measurements side of the problem Unless there are substantial savings move on to something you can measure. Creating measurements that may not be effective or true will destroy the process and the achievements you can make. Start with something that is easy and definable.
P.S. If it is not easy to do, it probably will not get done. Like tying a knot!
Related Subjects: 10-Step Project Management , Lean Six Sigma
Does your Sales People have their own drip marketing program?
Posted by: | CommentsYou pay a signinficant amount for a sales call, why not reinforce it afterwards. If you are making a sales call, maybe even introducing a new line what would you think about this scenario?
Day 1: Send an email out asking for an appointment and to introduce a new line of interest.
Day 3: Call to set appointment a week in advance, minimum.
Day 5: Send e-mail confirming time of appointment, people attending and that a postcard will be arriving soon.
Day 6: Drop postcard in mail that has a link for a download on the new product. You will know if they download it.
Day 9: Send e-mail with appointment confirmation and introduction to a webinar on this subject several weeks away.
Day 10: Sales Call explaining whitepaper on “How it would apply to their business” and “How the Next Webinar might assist them.”
Day 12: Send survey which will enable you to channel them as a cold, warm, hot lead.
Now, this is where you will channel the prospect into the drip program that you choose. Let’s say you have a Hot, Warm or Cold prospect. This will determine the ready-made program that you have.
The cold needs more nurturing or maybe not even need the new product. We drop him into a program that emphasizes the applications, testimonials, and maybe a little more glamorous look of the product or service. We will stretch this program out over a 90-day period with a little less frequent personal contact.
The warm prospect seems to be interested but has no need that will accelerate the purchase decision. We combine some of the items above with educational information, charts, graphs that demonstrate the savings and more practical applications of the product/service. Follow-up in person or through a phone call and try to move them into a presentation. The presentation could be a webinar, download or in person. A survey follows that will demonstrate where they need to stay segmented.
The hot prospect can see the opportunity but still needs to justify expenses. We also need to accelerate the learning curve of others in the organization. We put them on the testimonial track and start pounding home the saving s of the product. This particular program weighs heavily on personal contact, video and demonstration. A survey follows that will demonstrate where they need to stay segmented.
We have not tried to be very specific but just tried to demonstrate the ability to segment your prospects effectively and maximize your sales person’s time and efforts. All of these functions can practically be handled automatically and/or by an inside person. The sales person is in complete control of what the prospect is receiving, the window they have to call and the follow-up necessary. Sounds like a plan?
Quality Steps to consider
Posted by: | CommentsI was reading a past Ten Step Project Management Newsletter about the cost of quality and thought it a great addition to this weeks post.
Building quality steps in the workplan adds a certain amount of effort and cost to the project. However, these incremental costs will be rewarded with increased benefits and reduced costs throughout the life cycle of the solution. Examples of the cost of quality include: 
- Deliverable reviews. There is a cost associated with the time of the people attending the reviews. This includes any preparation, the actual review time for all participants, and the resulting follow-up work from the review
- Creation of the Quality Plan. The time required to plan quality into the project and the solution, including identifying completeness and correctness criteria.
- Client approval. The time and effort required to validate that the client has reviewed interim and final deliverables and has formally approved them as being correct and complete.
- Testing. Testing is a part of the development life cycle, but it is also done to ensure the solution meets requirements and quality standards.
- Quality control standards. Relevant standards utilized throughout the project and/or the organization.
- Audits. Audits are opportunities to have an outside party review the processes used to create your deliverables. Third party auditors provide a fresh perspective and unbiased opinion on whether good work processes are defined and are followed.
- Checklists. These are usually used to validate that all steps of a process were completed or all the components of a deliverable are in place.
- Quality Control and Quality Assurance Groups – If your company has distinct groups that specialize in quality control or quality assurance, their costs are part of the overall costs of quality for the organization.
- Gathering metrics. Metrics are normally gathered to show the status of a process and to correct or improve the process if necessary.
So what other cost, can you think of?
