Why do some startups win
I drank coffee with one of my former students, today the head of the marketing department in a fast-growing startup. His company has successfully traveled all the way from customer analysis to identifying user problems, then approving solutions, and finally, increasing sales and marketing. Everything seemed to be going well.
But he was restless: he noticed that as the number of employees increased, the productivity of the marketing department began to plummet.
This did not surprise me. While the enterprise is still small (startups, small teams in companies and state structures), the “pioneers” are united by a common mission - understanding why they come to work, what they need to do there and how to understand whether they have achieved the result. However, when an enterprise begins to grow, what once formed a common mission and goal is buried under the recruitment process and KPI.
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I told him that a long time ago I came to the following thought: in order to avoid this, it is necessary to give the team an idea of ​​the mission and goals.
I got the position of vice president of marketing for a company that was just getting out of bankruptcy. We managed to ensure the flow of funds, but this was only a temporary solution.
In my first week at a new place, I asked the head of each department what they were doing for marketing and for the company as a whole. When I asked this question to the exhibition manager, she was very surprised: “Steve, don't you know that it is my duty to bring our stand to the exhibitions and install it?”. The remaining leaders also gave answers in the spirit of logistics. The head of the product marketing department, for example, said that their job was to request specifications from the technical department and compile documentation. I especially liked the answer of the PR officer. He said: "Our business is to compile information from the documentation in press releases and answer calls, in case the press contacts us."
If such answers seem quite normal to you and you are involved in a startup, I advise you to refresh your resume.
When I began to try to find out from the employees why the marketing department participates in exhibitions, writes press releases or prepares documentation, nothing intelligible, except for “Well, this is our job,” I did not hear. They perceived their positions as a reference to vacancies, which the personnel department in a company of 10 thousand people is in (office duties, necessary skills and requirements for a candidate, a place in the office hierarchy).
I realized that our department consists of people whose positions describe operations aimed at the process - despite the fact that we work in an area where constant flexibility and quick response are urgently needed.
Let the position - this is what is written on their business cards, but their work is not reduced to this. The obsession with the processes led to the fact that the staff behind the trees did not see the forest. In a company for which every day could be the last, you can imagine nothing worse.
For those who work in start-ups, a position is not the same as work duties. The whole point is this.
The point is not that I got stupid workers. What I heard was the result of bad management.
No one brought these people up to date. No one explained the difference between working in a startup and working in a large company. They all seemed to do what was required of them.
And the most important thing: no one gathered the marketing department and did not describe that Mission (yes, with a capital letter) that stands before it.
In most of the startups, the corporate mission is formulated because investors insist, or because the director remembered that there was something like that in the previous work. Most companies spend a lot of time trying to polish the wording of the corporate mission for outsiders to perfection, and then do nothing inside the company to translate what was stated there. What I will describe now is completely different from this approach.
Our marketing department lacked something that would direct employees every day, telling them what to do. When I expressed this consideration to the director, his first reaction was: “That’s why you are in charge of them.” And indeed, we could build a hierarchy, which would be managed from top to bottom through orders and control. But I wanted to create a flexible team of marketing specialists capable of working autonomously, without daily instructions.
We needed to formulate the Mission a company that would explain to everyone and everyone:
It should also include two words that marketing lives and breathes: revenue and profit.
For several months we had a dialogue with users and the sales department, and as a result, we identified the Mission of the marketing department (and, accordingly, our responsibilities) as follows:
This year, the marketing department should transfer to the sales department 40,000 active and proven leads, ensure brand awareness and product names of 65% in our target market and five positive reviews every quarter. In the first year of sales, our market share should reach the level of 35% with a resource of twenty employees in the state and a promotion cost of no more than 4 million dollars.
That's all. Two paragraphs, five points. That was enough.
The presence of the Mission meant that it was now clear to the team: what matters is not what is written on their business card, but whether the work they are doing contributes to realizing the goals set in the Mission. No more, no less.
It was not easy for everyone to switch to such a concept.
The head of the marketing communications department has transformed his department into a mission-oriented organization. The new exhibition manager quickly realized that his job was not to set up stands (for this we hired workers): exhibitions are our opportunity to popularize the product and collect leads. And the one who runs the exhibition department assumes responsibility for both. Stand - the tenth case. I don’t care at all whether we have a stand or not, if we can achieve the same result by jumping naked with a parachute into a teacup.
The same story with the PR department. The new manager quickly learned that my secretary could answer the calls of journalists. The job of a PR man is not to send out press releases, and then sit back and wait, if someone suddenly calls. What matters is not how much he does, but what results he brings. And the results were not measured in the usual values ​​for PR - how many press releases were sent, how much ink was spent. It is not interesting to me. I wanted the PR department to describe the stages of the sale process, identify the sites where it is possible to spread information about our product and attract interest, get in touch with the press, use them to increase demand, and finally sent it to sales channels. We constantly conducted internal and external audits, created metrics to track how various different messages, channels and audiences influence brand awareness, customer interest and sales.
Same story with the product marketing team. I took the position of manager as the person who ran the marketing department at a previous job, and then moved even closer to the center of events: I headed the sales department at the same company. We decided to hire him after my question: what proportion of the materials that were created by him personally, did the team use in business? He replied: “Ten percent,” and it was obvious from his face that he was embarrassed. Then I realized that we needed him. And our head of technical marketing was perfectly able to understand the user's needs and explain them to the technical department.
Now that we have a powerful team, the next step was the realization that our mission may change along the way. “Wait, we just got into the whole idea, and now it turns out that she can change it?” Maybe if we have to maneuver, if the competitors release a new product, if we learn something new about the audience.
Therefore, we have introduced the concept of “mission objectives”. To define goals, you need to answer the question: “Why was such a Mission chosen, what does the company want to achieve?”. In our case, the company's mission was to sell the product at $ 25 million with a gross profit of 45%.
The point is to devote employees to goals in that, understanding what our Mission is aimed at, they will be able to work together to help us achieve results.
We realized that it may happen that at some moments the marketing department does not pull out or some external factors come into play, and the Mission will fail (for example, we will not collect 40,000 leads). Consider goals through the prism of the old saying: “When alligators stuck to you, it’s no longer up to clearing the swamp”. For example, according to our Mission, these 40,000 leads and a 35% market share were needed so that the sales team could earn $ 25 million with a gross profit of 45%.
We tried to convey to the staff the following: the goal is more stable than the Mission. “Let's think about it. The company wants to earn $ 25 million with a gross profit of 45%. If marketing fails to deliver 40,000 leads, what else can you do to ensure the same level of revenue and profit? ” Mission is what we strive for, but it may vary according to circumstances. Goals, on the contrary, always remain the same.
When the usual startup problems with deadlines, a huge number of tasks, lack of time began, we began to teach employees to work with an eye to the five theses that we put forward in the Mission, and a common goal. When they began to overwhelm them with tasks, they learned to ask themselves: “Do we need this work to achieve our goals? If so, which ones? If not, then why am I doing this? ”
They began to realize that the goals behind the Mission are to maximize revenue and make a profit.
By the end of the first year, our team finally worked together (over time, we introduced the “ No excuses ” system to instill in employees responsibility). The department has become a group of people who are willing to take the initiative, reasonably align the workflow and are ready to be responsible for the result.
I remember how, at the end of a difficult week, the employees, who usually reported to me, came just to talk about the small victories we won during these days. And at some point, exchanging such stories, they suddenly realized that our company, which, it seemed, had just barely breathed, is now beginning to overtake its competitors - large enterprises with better financing than ours. This was for us a moment of pure delight.
What we have learned:
But he was restless: he noticed that as the number of employees increased, the productivity of the marketing department began to plummet.
This did not surprise me. While the enterprise is still small (startups, small teams in companies and state structures), the “pioneers” are united by a common mission - understanding why they come to work, what they need to do there and how to understand whether they have achieved the result. However, when an enterprise begins to grow, what once formed a common mission and goal is buried under the recruitment process and KPI.
')
I told him that a long time ago I came to the following thought: in order to avoid this, it is necessary to give the team an idea of ​​the mission and goals.
Why are you here?
I got the position of vice president of marketing for a company that was just getting out of bankruptcy. We managed to ensure the flow of funds, but this was only a temporary solution.
In my first week at a new place, I asked the head of each department what they were doing for marketing and for the company as a whole. When I asked this question to the exhibition manager, she was very surprised: “Steve, don't you know that it is my duty to bring our stand to the exhibitions and install it?”. The remaining leaders also gave answers in the spirit of logistics. The head of the product marketing department, for example, said that their job was to request specifications from the technical department and compile documentation. I especially liked the answer of the PR officer. He said: "Our business is to compile information from the documentation in press releases and answer calls, in case the press contacts us."
If such answers seem quite normal to you and you are involved in a startup, I advise you to refresh your resume.
Position is not a job
When I began to try to find out from the employees why the marketing department participates in exhibitions, writes press releases or prepares documentation, nothing intelligible, except for “Well, this is our job,” I did not hear. They perceived their positions as a reference to vacancies, which the personnel department in a company of 10 thousand people is in (office duties, necessary skills and requirements for a candidate, a place in the office hierarchy).
I realized that our department consists of people whose positions describe operations aimed at the process - despite the fact that we work in an area where constant flexibility and quick response are urgently needed.
Let the position - this is what is written on their business cards, but their work is not reduced to this. The obsession with the processes led to the fact that the staff behind the trees did not see the forest. In a company for which every day could be the last, you can imagine nothing worse.
For those who work in start-ups, a position is not the same as work duties. The whole point is this.
The mission of the department: what should I do today?
The point is not that I got stupid workers. What I heard was the result of bad management.
No one brought these people up to date. No one explained the difference between working in a startup and working in a large company. They all seemed to do what was required of them.
And the most important thing: no one gathered the marketing department and did not describe that Mission (yes, with a capital letter) that stands before it.
In most of the startups, the corporate mission is formulated because investors insist, or because the director remembered that there was something like that in the previous work. Most companies spend a lot of time trying to polish the wording of the corporate mission for outsiders to perfection, and then do nothing inside the company to translate what was stated there. What I will describe now is completely different from this approach.
Our marketing department lacked something that would direct employees every day, telling them what to do. When I expressed this consideration to the director, his first reaction was: “That’s why you are in charge of them.” And indeed, we could build a hierarchy, which would be managed from top to bottom through orders and control. But I wanted to create a flexible team of marketing specialists capable of working autonomously, without daily instructions.
We needed to formulate the Mission a company that would explain to everyone and everyone:
- why did they come to work;
- what they need to do;
- How do they understand whether they have achieved the desired result.
It should also include two words that marketing lives and breathes: revenue and profit.
For several months we had a dialogue with users and the sales department, and as a result, we identified the Mission of the marketing department (and, accordingly, our responsibilities) as follows:
Help the sales team get 25 million with a gross profit of 45%. To do this, we will create demand on the user’s side and direct them to sales channels, convey to users and the sales department, what our product gains against the background of analogues, and help the technical department to better understand the needs and desires of the audience. To achieve this, we will conduct a series of events generating demand (advertising, PR, exhibitions, seminars, launching a website, etc.), analyze competitors, channels and materials for users (technical descriptions, documentation, product reviews), We will conduct surveys and audience research.
This year, the marketing department should transfer to the sales department 40,000 active and proven leads, ensure brand awareness and product names of 65% in our target market and five positive reviews every quarter. In the first year of sales, our market share should reach the level of 35% with a resource of twenty employees in the state and a promotion cost of no more than 4 million dollars.
- Create demand on the user side (in accordance with the planned revenue);
- Direct this demand through sales channels;
- Set a price for a product that would allow us to achieve the target figures for revenue and profit;
- Provide information to the technical department;
- Help the technical department to better understand the needs and desires of users.
That's all. Two paragraphs, five points. That was enough.
We create a team focused on the Mission
The presence of the Mission meant that it was now clear to the team: what matters is not what is written on their business card, but whether the work they are doing contributes to realizing the goals set in the Mission. No more, no less.
It was not easy for everyone to switch to such a concept.
The head of the marketing communications department has transformed his department into a mission-oriented organization. The new exhibition manager quickly realized that his job was not to set up stands (for this we hired workers): exhibitions are our opportunity to popularize the product and collect leads. And the one who runs the exhibition department assumes responsibility for both. Stand - the tenth case. I don’t care at all whether we have a stand or not, if we can achieve the same result by jumping naked with a parachute into a teacup.
The same story with the PR department. The new manager quickly learned that my secretary could answer the calls of journalists. The job of a PR man is not to send out press releases, and then sit back and wait, if someone suddenly calls. What matters is not how much he does, but what results he brings. And the results were not measured in the usual values ​​for PR - how many press releases were sent, how much ink was spent. It is not interesting to me. I wanted the PR department to describe the stages of the sale process, identify the sites where it is possible to spread information about our product and attract interest, get in touch with the press, use them to increase demand, and finally sent it to sales channels. We constantly conducted internal and external audits, created metrics to track how various different messages, channels and audiences influence brand awareness, customer interest and sales.
Same story with the product marketing team. I took the position of manager as the person who ran the marketing department at a previous job, and then moved even closer to the center of events: I headed the sales department at the same company. We decided to hire him after my question: what proportion of the materials that were created by him personally, did the team use in business? He replied: “Ten percent,” and it was obvious from his face that he was embarrassed. Then I realized that we needed him. And our head of technical marketing was perfectly able to understand the user's needs and explain them to the technical department.
Mission Objectives: what’s really important
Now that we have a powerful team, the next step was the realization that our mission may change along the way. “Wait, we just got into the whole idea, and now it turns out that she can change it?” Maybe if we have to maneuver, if the competitors release a new product, if we learn something new about the audience.
Therefore, we have introduced the concept of “mission objectives”. To define goals, you need to answer the question: “Why was such a Mission chosen, what does the company want to achieve?”. In our case, the company's mission was to sell the product at $ 25 million with a gross profit of 45%.
The point is to devote employees to goals in that, understanding what our Mission is aimed at, they will be able to work together to help us achieve results.
We realized that it may happen that at some moments the marketing department does not pull out or some external factors come into play, and the Mission will fail (for example, we will not collect 40,000 leads). Consider goals through the prism of the old saying: “When alligators stuck to you, it’s no longer up to clearing the swamp”. For example, according to our Mission, these 40,000 leads and a 35% market share were needed so that the sales team could earn $ 25 million with a gross profit of 45%.
We tried to convey to the staff the following: the goal is more stable than the Mission. “Let's think about it. The company wants to earn $ 25 million with a gross profit of 45%. If marketing fails to deliver 40,000 leads, what else can you do to ensure the same level of revenue and profit? ” Mission is what we strive for, but it may vary according to circumstances. Goals, on the contrary, always remain the same.
When the usual startup problems with deadlines, a huge number of tasks, lack of time began, we began to teach employees to work with an eye to the five theses that we put forward in the Mission, and a common goal. When they began to overwhelm them with tasks, they learned to ask themselves: “Do we need this work to achieve our goals? If so, which ones? If not, then why am I doing this? ”
They began to realize that the goals behind the Mission are to maximize revenue and make a profit.
Why do you need it
By the end of the first year, our team finally worked together (over time, we introduced the “ No excuses ” system to instill in employees responsibility). The department has become a group of people who are willing to take the initiative, reasonably align the workflow and are ready to be responsible for the result.
I remember how, at the end of a difficult week, the employees, who usually reported to me, came just to talk about the small victories we won during these days. And at some point, exchanging such stories, they suddenly realized that our company, which, it seemed, had just barely breathed, is now beginning to overtake its competitors - large enterprises with better financing than ours. This was for us a moment of pure delight.
What we have learned:
- Autonomous task execution must begin at the lowest level;
- Communicate to everyone the general Mission: why they come to work, what they need to do and how to understand whether they have achieved the desired result.
- Explain the goals for staff to view the mission in their context;
- Type a team, each of whose members agree to work independently on the implementation of the Mission;
- Enter the "No Excuses" system;
- Agree on what key values ​​will determine corporate culture.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/326404/
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