I have to admit, I was always and still am a Scooby Doo fan. Those famous words “Scooby Doo – Where are you” still bring a smile to my face. Where are you…in marketing circles seldom do I win a lot points by asking that question. 
Where are You? Defining your current marketing state can be quite a job. Most feedback has been received from current customers or people that will take the time to respond; people that like you. Sure, you have a few real disgruntled people that give you feedback but you rule them out as extremists..right?
Where are You? Do you understand your marketing process? I mean the progression people take moving through your system…you have a system don’t you? Mapping this process and creating an accurate value stream is seldom created without proper customer segmentation.
Where are you? Measurements, we talk about them but do we really follow them. Are we making decisions on metrics or are we spending time justifying why they are what they are? I see a lot of metrics floating around these days but understanding them and what they mean is an entirely different story.
Where are you? Do you understand what triggers your customer/prospect to move through your value chain? Learn what causes a response, both positive and negative and determine if you are providing enough value at each stage? Think, would your customer pay to get it?
Where are you? Are the right people participating at the right time during the sale process? Key staff members may be required at critical times. Don’t think this only happens at the end of the cycle, star power can work practically at any point.
Most organizations want to know where they are going versus where they are at. I can use all the corny phrases that we have all heard but the point is you need to know what you need to change before changing it. Running new ads, publishing new material and just creating new material for the sake of movement is wasteful and non-productive.
Shameless Plug: Jim Luckman was a recent Business901 podcast guest and discussed Applying Value Stream Concepts. Jim will be facilitating Value-Stream Mapping for the Office and Service for the Lean Enterprise Institute workshop June 22-23, 2010, in Indianapolis, IN. This link will take you to the full list of Lean Management Workshops.
This interactive workshop demonstrates how to apply value-stream mapping, a fundamental and critical tool, to address what many companies find difficult to do: making a fundamental change in business processes such as administrative, professional, and transactional activities. You will see how the key elements of lean thinking and value-stream mapping apply to such activities by identifying key processes to tackle, drawing an accurate current-state map of each process, applying lean principles to envision a leaner future-state for each process, and implementing the future-state in a way that can be sustained.
P.S. Learning how to create an accurate Current State Map may prevent you from screaming these words - “Scooby Doo – Where are you?”
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Your Marketing Funnel from your Customer’s Perspective.
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Pull: The Pull in Lean Marketing
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