911 - Help Rescue My Failing Marketing and Sales Operation! Marketing Articles | February 4 Wholesale Baseball Jerseys , 2010 Having been through a number of turnaround situations (most of which turned out successfully), Christopher Ryan, well-nationally known?B2B marketing expert, imparts some definite rules of the road and helpful insights.
If you spend some time in marketing or sales Wholesale MLB Jerseys Cheap , you will probably face the challenge of rescuing a failing operation. Perhaps you are now in such a situation and despite the difficulties, you can probably relate to what Winston Churchill said: ?Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.? After all, you probably are getting shot at, figuratively speaking. Having been through a number of turnaround situations (most of which turned out successfully) Wholesale MLB Jerseys Free Shipping , I can impart some definite rules of the road.
The first thing you should do is decide if the turnaround is possible. Sometimes you are faced with a situation where the handwriting is on the wall and despite your best efforts, success is not in the cards. It is better to discover this early so you do not have to spend your time and money on a losing cause.
Depending on the pathologies of the current situation, you may not have the luxury of a lot of thinking and planning time. In this case, you will need to quickly assess the situation and make very fast decisions Wholesale MLB Jerseys From China , based on factors like:
·???????? Level of commitment from the board and senior management.
·???????? Strength and loyalty of the existing sales and marketing staff.
·???????? Capabilities and loyalty of the existing customer base.
·???????? Major problems, both actual and perceived.
·???????? A product or service that has an identified value proposition.
·???????? Past and present budgets.
·???????? Competitive landscape.
There are two very important things to remember in the early stages. First, people will be watching to see if you stumble early (with some perhaps hoping that you do). You should be careful not to make grandiose promises. Your early enthusiastic projections can come back to haunt you, so it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than vice versa. Second Wholesale MLB Jerseys China , ask for the resources you need early, while you are still in the honeymoon stage. This may sound counterintuitive, but if you deliver early success on a meager budget, they will often try to give you less Wholesale MLB Jerseys , not more, going forward.
On a similar note, make sure you establish your authority early. Any ground you give up early will be difficult to regain later. And do not make the mistake of thinking that everyone is your friend. I?ve seen many talented marketing executives scuttled by entrenched but unproductive sales VPs and vice versa.
Do a quick but thorough assessment of the people you have to work with. Where are the valuable skill sets? Which people are the keepers and which are hurting the organization? Be careful here to understand the politics and alliances.
You should also do a thorough review of customers. Despite the difficulties, there are probably certain customer segments that are profitable and others that are not worth the costs and trouble to maintain. The point is to focus like a laser on the profitable segments and ignore the others. You can go back and revisit underperforming segments later.
Once you have completed your analysis of the overall situation Wholesale Jerseys Cheap , customers, and human elements, you need to dive into the numbers. You need to quickly find out whether there are any aspects of marketing and sales that are working and can be leveraged and expanded. You can probably find some non-working or marginal programs to kill.