Archive for September, 2009
Setting up your Marketing HourGlass
Posted by: | CommentsAnother way of using the hourglass is to determine the number of prospects(inventory)
that you need in each part of your hourglass. This is tremendous opportunity to really understand what is taking place in your process and will enable you to determine what is and what is not working. Where is your bottleneck or if you have ever read The Goal, where is your Herbie?
In your process do you understand your conversion rates? Are you converting 50% of your prospects from the Try phase to the Buy phase? You may not know each of these, but if you know several of them, you will have the ability to interpolate some of the others. The ability to create this chart will allow you to significantly increase your sales result. Have you ever considered where your constraints were in your marketing? Many people spend the majority of the time, money and even skill in developing new leads. They may be just piling prospects(inventory) in front of a constraint. Going through this exercise may significantly increase your awareness on what is your limiting factor.
An obvious example, is we alll know that a referral is our best form of creating business. Duct Tape Marketing emphasizes referrals and in fact, John Jantsch, author of DTM, next book is based on building a Referral Marketing System. I mention this, because, I believe your marketing is incomplete without a formal Referral Marketing system in place and by the way, I offer such a package. Seldom do I see the true cost of what it means to gain a referral. I think the chart below, demonstrates quite vividly what it means in the overall marketing flow. If you get a repeat buyer or a referral, you would drop them into one of the phases above. Notice, how it significantly it could change your marketing efforts. Consider the dollars and time you spend in the top of the hourglass. How productive would your efforts be in using the same amount of time and effort in the bottom of the hourglass?
We realize that referral efforts are probably short changed in most marketing practices. But that may or may not be your limiting factor. Every System typically has relatively few constraints. However, to operate at maximum efficiency, the limiting constraint must be identified. The Five Steps of Continuous Improvement from the Theory of Constraints methodology help identify and improve the constraint. That is the next stage and next blog.
Related Blog Posts:
Theory of Constraints, Lean, Six Sigma Integration
Posted by: | CommentsMark Woeppel is a master of organizational transformation with a lengthy track record of successful turnarounds. He is a recognized expert in the Theory of Constraints, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, and Continuous Improvement. He has earned the founder’s implementer certification from the TOC-ICO.
He is an internationally known author, speaker and lecturer on the topics of Theory of Constraints, Drum Buffer Rope, Cost Accounting, Organizational Measurement, and Critical Chain Project Management. He is the author of The Manufacturer’s Guide to Implementing the Theory of Constraints, published by APICS/St. Lucie Press, in English, Spanish and Japanese and Projects in Less Time, published by BookSurge in English & Japanese.
On the Business901 Podcast, Mark discussed the integration of Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma and how they significantly improve bottom line results. Mark is the president of Pinnacle Strategies and is located in Dallas, Texas.
Related Blog Posts:
If you are an Act Customer, you should be considering Swiftpage!
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As an ACT! by Sage customer, you already understand the importance of knowing as much as you can about your customers. To take this knowledge to another level, join the thousands of people who use Swiftpage to perform comprehensive management of email campaigns, and enhance their marketing and sales efforts.
Create graphical email templates with Swiftpage using its simple online editor, or import your own HTML.
Then send these emails directly to your ACT! Contacts, Look Ups, Groups and Companies – from yourself or on behalf of your sales team members.
Easily track who opened, clicked, bounced and more. Swiftpage also provides intelligence about your customers. A customer who has opened previous emails from you five times and has clicked on three links, is likely more interested than someone who opened an email once and didn’t click any link.
Snapshot by Swiftpage places important information about your customer, both from data in ACT! by Sage and from internet sources like LinkedIn into a display that’s intuitive to read and use.
It’s a long established marketing practice to continue to contact prospects at the appropriate time.
Swiftpage Drip Marketing blends simple functionality, like the ability to automatically send a sequence of marketing messages to a contact that fills out a form on your website, with intelligent technology that will send different messages to contacts based on their previous actions. For example, send a postcard to those that did not open the previous email – automatically!
From events or corporate announcements to a new customer welcome or product launch – Swiftpage provides the ability to automatically deliver marketing content and drive your ACT! by Sage sales processes.
Swiftpage and ACT! by Sage – bringing innovative technology to critical tasks, so that you can bring your talent, to everything else.
Disclaimer: I act as an affiliate resource for Swiftpage.
