Lean Marketing House – A3 Report

This A3 report is a high level look at building a Lean Marketing System. I created this to accompany my presentation at the ASQ Columbus Conference. You can develop this A3 for a customer or a business segment. The instructions are below.

Lean Marketing House - A3 Layout

A3 Instructions:

1. Complete the customers name and date.
2. The next section is based on the 5 Cs of Driving Market Share program. This is the Value Stream in the Lean Marketing system. We identify the customer’s product/market segment, the value proposition that drives that segment, whether the customer is either new(acquire) or being retained and how they have been monitored. Without this, we will not know or will have to re-acquire critical information that drive a customer (market) decision process. For detailed information review the 5 Cs of Driving Market Share website.
3. You should use the Define Involvement step to express what prompted the increase interest.  Has something changed that initiated the inquiry? Did you solicit the inquiry? Who requested the information?
4. The next stage is to simply map the customer’s decision process. This may be difficult if it is a new customer but you should attempt to be as complete as you can. The important thing is to get a beginning and an end point for an iteration cycle that includes the involvement of the customer. Drawing a value stream map can be very effective. 
5. Next, break down each of the customer’s decision making process steps. The key is to understand what will drive them to the next step. Knowledge of the future steps are not that important at this time. Many things change as the process continues and the customer receives new knowledge along the way.  
6. As move to the right side of the A3, you will evaluate your marketing based on the process demonstrated in step 5. Mirroring your customers decision making cycle is at the heart of Lean Marketing. Who will be involved to answer your customer questions? What technology will you need to demonstrate? What content do you need to offer at this stage? This all done in short iterative PDCA cycles. Each step in the process has its own PDCA cycle. Both organizations will grow in knowledge of each other and the need and capabilities of each. This mutual respect is imperative in the latter part of the buying cycles.
7. If you fail, it is important to document the reasons why. Sharing your learning will assist you and others in defining and improving future efforts.
8. Having  proper handoffs seldom happens without accountability. Finishing the A3 this way will greatly enhance your future sales and marketing efforts.

This is the first draft for the Lean Marketing A3. Additional clarification is included in the Lean Marketing House and Marketing with A3, The Kindle versions are listed on the right side of the page and if you purchase the 2 of them on the Business901 website in PDF format we will send you the PDF of the Marketing with PDCA book when completed..

Related Information:
The Future of Marketing is Lean
Why Lean Marketing? Because it is the Future of Marketing
PDCA for Lean Marketing, Knowledge Creation
Lean Marketing Creates Knowledge for the Customer