Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Measuring Effectiveness of Systems
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Q. We have hefty marketing expenses, but how do we measure their effectiveness?
A. Start with your customers. Do you have a customer profile, or multiple customer profiles if you serve different categories of customers? If you try to market with a shotgun approach to try to reach everyone, you can throw your money away.
First, focus. Learn and understand who your customers and potential customers are. Build communication channels with them. What channel works for them: a phone call, personal email, ad, social media, article, event, trade show, webinar, video? What do they need, and what do they want? How do you serve them to meet their needs?
The more focused you are, the more connected you are to your customer, the more progress you both can make. It’s a win-win partnership. Help each other learn and grow.
The most successful businesses really understand their customers and design their work to meet the needs of the customers. Customers rave about their experience and return for more satisfying experiences.
They also are your best ambassadors. Do your customers tell their friends about your products and services? That’s your free, organic marketing. It’s the most powerful! Your customers decide what your brand is. They position you in the marketplace.
Your most important measures are not analytical and minute. The most important metrics are actually unknowable. Decide what your business team will do to delight others.
Q. Our founder is full of ideas, but the business is barely surviving because we start one project and get re-directed to stop and put our attention on a new project. How do we manage our frustrations of not being able to finish a project?
A. The job is not for you to manage frustrations. You can, however, speak up about the lack of project completion. It impacts the team’s and customer satisfaction, too. Productivity wanes, and profits decline.
The founder’s creativity and ideas are gifts. But taking ideas to market is innovation. A healthy business succeeds when there is a decisive process about which ideas to pursue; choose the team to engage; and provide the focus and resources to proceed. Clear direction and communication are fundamental ingredients for progress and success.
Two very different systems (generating ideas and innovation) are created and managed to be successful. Too many ideas that create a culture of continual chaos becomes frustrating and unsatisfying for the people whose energies and work are continually re-directed. As frustrations grow, turnover will also increase. People want to experience joy, satisfaction, and meaning in their work.
The role of the founder (or another leader and the team) is to focus. Be clear about the purpose of the organization and what needs to be accomplished to achieve it. The more focus there is, the more success the business may experience. Also, the leaders’ communication and direction is relevant and essential to achieve a competitive edge.
