Delegating involves five distinct steps for you as the manager:

• Deciding on objectives
• Selecting the right mode
• Following up
• Following through
• Tracking the results

A lot of people start by delegating tasks, which can be very demoralizing. Everyone — regardless of their level of experience— needs to understand why they are being asked to perform a particular task. So the first step in delegating is to translate the task into a higher level objective. Objectives should be SMART:

• Specific
• Measureable
• Action oriented
• Realistic
• Time sensitive

So “generate 10,000 sales of Product X by March, 2002″ is a SMART objective. “Demand generation” is not.

Generally speaking ,the best comments to come from a technical product manager (who is often asked to comment on behalf of engineering) or from a VP of Engineering or CTO on a piece of marketing communications are ones that show you understand what the marketing person is trying to accomplish and are supportive of that intent.

A great technique to demonstrate your understanding is by asking the right questions. This is also a good opportunity for you to educate the marketing person on how the marketing strategy touches the technology strategy and vis-versa. Important if the two organizations are to remain in synch. The best way to get a marketing person to see things from your view point with respect to marketing strategy issues is by:

• commenting (versus rewriting) the non-technical aspects of the copy
• limiting your rewrites to only those portions of the copy that is not technically correct.

Here are 4 guidelines that may help:

DO feel free to rewrite any copy of a technical nature

if it is not correct and to propose these rewrites for what they are – verbatim changes you are suggesting in order to describe the product correctly from a technical perspective.

DO feel free to suggest changes in word choices, tone, or style

if the piece is designed to go to a technical decision maker. The presumption is that your point of view and knowledge will be closer to the target’s than will be the marketing person’s. The converse is also true. The less technical the decision maker, the more you’ll want to defer to marketing, since they would then have the closer affinity to the target.

DON’T dictate any non-essential changes in copy

as it will only defocus the marketing person from the rewrites you MUST HAVE in the piece is to be technically correct.

DO feel free to point out writos and typos

A good marketing person tries to eliminate these entirely. But even so, another pair of eyes always helps, especially in these fast times, when turnaround cycles are greatly compressed.

Background
The purpose of this memo is to summarize the recent focus groups with consumers and IT professionals regarding Product X.

Recommendation
The positioning worked well for the technical decision makers but was way over the heads of the average consumer. For this reason, we recommend launching the product with “see through” plastics in support of the positioning of Product X1 as “a lot of storage for a little money” when it comes to consumers. For IT professionals, we recommend the design of separate and distinct plastics to support the positioning of Product X2 as part of our “high performance line” of hard drive replacements and upgrades.

Rationale

• The average consumer doesn’t have a clear sense of what seek time means
  High seek time may be better, they?re not really sure. Even when we annotate the charts to say that lower scores are actually better, consumers remain confused. Some more technical consumers were engaged by the charts and graphs comparing our performance to the competition. However, on balance most consumers felt that we were telling them “too much” “too early” in their decision process.
• IT professionals liked the positioning and expressed interest in the product
  IT felt that the product could solve a problem that no other product in the category yet solved. Price was an issue for both consumers and IT. When we exposed consumers to the feature set …

Next Steps
We need your decision on the recommended plastics/ positioning/branding strategy by no later than August 1 to stay on schedule for the planned January launch.

A practical guide for writing brief memos that actually (gasp!) get read

We live in a post-literate society. Between email, instant messaging, voice mail, and the Powerpoint decks that litter Corporate America, the volume of communications is overwhelming. That said, here’s how to write something that has some possibility of cutting through the clutter. (For an example, click here.)

Write one level up
Your goal should be to get the person you are writing to, say the Director of Product Management, to scribble a note on your memo and send it to their manager, say the VP of Marketing.

Format your memo into 4 main sections

• Background
  The background statement should tell why you are writing in the first place. Even if the person you are writing to knows the background, you’ll want to recap it very briefly for the benefit of that “next-level” decision maker.
• Recommendations, Summary of Findings, etc.
  This runs counter to the academic style of writing most of us were taught in school, where recommendations and conclusions come only after you’ve laid out your argument. Putting your recommendations/summary/key message up front makes it easy on your reader. If they agree with your recommendation or summary they don’t need to read the rest of your memo.
• Rationale, Findings, Support, etc.
  Here you lay out the facts, analysis, and thinking that got you to the point of arrival outlined in Section 2. I like to see these as bullet points with the first sentence bolded, to make it easy for me to skim. If you did a lot of analysis etc. reference it in Section 3 but put the detailed spreadsheets or whatever in the Appendix to your memo. This allows the reader to focus on understanding your logic versus getting distracted by extraneous detail.
• Next Steps
  Generally, you’ll want to use the next steps to let the reader know what you want them to do in response to your memo as well as what you’ll be doing once you get their response. If your memo doesn’t have a call to action, possibly it didn’t need to be written in the first place.

Other guidelines

• Make it clear what action is required
  Distinguish between decision makers and people who need to know. Write your memo “TO” the decision maker, “CC” people who need to know.
• Be brief
  A one-page memo is more likely to be read than a two-page memo.
• Spell check
  There isn’t anything more distracting than a big fat typo in the middle of a brilliant strategic analysis.
• Persuade
  Say what you mean and back it up with facts and analysis and a compelling visual or too if it helps to make your point with fewer words. Ideally, your memo should read like something you?d actually say versus filled with prose that is overly stiff, formal, indirect, or legalistic.

There are 7 behaviors that separate great leaders from the not-so-great.

Great leaders

• Overcommunicate goals and expectations
• Are consistent to a fault – allowing people to anticipate their decisions
• Recognize the difference between “great work” and work that is “good enough”
• Are champions for learning – at every level of the organization
• Use their networks – to open doors for others
• Encourages the organization and its people to innovate
• Think before they act (and speak)

There are a ton of books and systems you can use for time management but none of them are particularly practical in my view. There are two problems with them. First, most time management pros focus on individual contributors as opposed to managers who must both manage and do.

Second, few of the systems recognize the fact that most of us take notes in meeting and “to do” items get embedded in these meeting notes not written neatly in the appropriate place in our organizers, be it the paper version or the latest, greatest digital gadget.

The system I use solves both these problems.

• Take notes as you usually do. Leave the left-hand margin blank. Whenever there is an action item for you or someone on your team, put an arrow in the margin like the picture
• If the action item is for you, add the due date for the deliverable beneath the arrow
• If the action item is for someone else on your team, put the initials of the person you are delegating to above the arrow
• When you get back to your desk (post meeting) transfer all the to do items to your organizer … and check off the action item from your meeting notes.

BTW, The check doesn’t mean you’ve finished the action item but that you’ve transferred into the system you use for tracking purposes.

Now, you’ve got a complete listing in one place of everything you have to do, including stuff you intend to delegate to others.

A practical guide for managers at all levels

Great managers seem to know intuitively how to stay involved with the work without having to be in the drivers’ seat themselves. They do this by:

• holding regular one-on-ones with their direct reports
• managing by wandering around the organization
• sitting in on the occasional project meeting
• review and provide timely feedback on interim work products

Friday reports
Another tool you can use is to ask people to complete something on of my friends has dubbed “Friday reports”.

This is a very simple report, one that you ask every one in your organization to complete and send to you via email. Here’s the email I send that describes the report and why it works:

“Every Friday, please send me via email a very simple report like so:

• This week’s accomplishments: The stuff you did this week that moved the business ahead.
• Next week’s objectives: The stuff you plan on getting done next week to do the same.
• Kudos: Thanks to people on the team who went above and beyond the call of duty to help you and {company name}.
• Red Flags: Stuff you can see that – if not resolved – will keep us from becoming the company we aspire to be.

The report should take you about 5 minutes to do – is due every Friday – and is NOT optional. I know some folks will rebel against doing these reports (I know I did when first presented with the need to do them at another company) but most people who start doing them find them an incredibly useful way to cut through the clutter that makes our days so full and concentrate on what’s really important.”

And – think about it – as the company grows your management will actually know what everyone is working on, who is consistently going above and beyond the call of duty, and what stuff the people who work here are worried about. What a concept!

A practical guide for agencies and other professional services firms

Have a targeted list of prospects

While there is no magic number, 20 seems to work for most people.

Know why each company is on your list and be able to articulate this in your “elevator pitch”. Don’t have an elevator pitch? Check out this article from Fast Company.*

The most important thing is to be able to state in a short, sweet, and precise manner, the value you add and the problem you solve for the potential customer.

Have a quota – for example, decide you’ll make 3-5 calls per day. As it turns out the best time to call is between 8:30 – 10:00 am in the morning and between 5:00 – 6:30 in the evening. Most people are “in meetings” for the balance of their day. When you call, emphasize that the person you are targeting can reach you “anytime” and mean it.

Point of entry

With direct marketing, it was easy the person in charge of direct marketing, direct response, relationship marketing, customer marketing, or upgrades

Ask for the VP of Marketing, but expect to end up talking to his or her assistant. Chat with the assistant to learn the person in charge of the function that is a key decision maker for your product or service e.g. direction marketing, promotions, packaging, collateral, annual reports, field marketing, etc.

Spend the majority of your time asking question and listening to the answers. When you are talking you aren’t selling.

The first contact can be made using email. Make your email short and to the point. Follow up with a phone call. Target your call for 2 days after you send the email. Script the call, particularly the questions you will ask.

Ask for the “sale”

The single biggest mistake people make in new business development is forgetting to ask for the sale. Usually the issue isn’t so much one of memory but of fear. Doing new business means you have to be willing to face rejection. Make it easy on yourself and your prospect. Close for a meeting not for a sale. You’ll find this is more difficult than it sounds. Schedule the meeting at a time that is mutually convenient for both you and your prospect to spend quality time together. If you know you are crazed with other things, push the meeting out a bit, to allow you time to get ready. About 1-2 days before the agreed upon meeting time, call your prospect to confirm that the meeting is still on and send an email as an additional form of confirmation.

Initial Meeting

The initial meeting is generally called a capabilities meeting. Here you introduce yourself, your firm, and what services and solutions you typically provide your clients. Come prepared with a point-of-view about the prospect’s business and the problems they are facing and how your firm can help solve them. Remember to make this a two-way dialogue, where you spend a little bit of time talking about your firm with the majority of time listening to your prospect and learning about their particular challenges. With your case studies, focus on the results that you delivered to the client. Make sure you leave the meeting with a good idea as to who is the decision maker and your next steps. Often times, this is phrased as a presumptive close like so:

• “So what I hear you saying is that we might be a good fit for Project X which is under budget review with a decision expected Monday. Do you want me to call you Tuesday a.m. to see if it’s a go/no go. The next steps from our perspective — after you have a budget in hand — would be get briefed in detail, set up a schedule….”

Follow Up

Even if the answer you get back is “no”, we awarded the business just not to you, you should follow up. First, the firm that won the business might not work out. Second, if you are diligent about doing so, you will learn valuable information about where your capabilities, team, or approach were lacking. Information you can use “next time” to refine the new business development process. New business development is a process not an event, so look to keep activity going in periods when you are “slow” as well as when you are at your busiest.

At both Firewhite and Miller/Kadanoff, we defined success as an inbound phone call, when someone calls us seeking out our unique skills and capabilities. This doesn’t happen immediately. You have to build your reputation in the market place. Here are some ways to maximize your visibility in the market place:

Positioning

Top of mind awareness starts with meaningful positioning. By meaningful, we mean positioning that expresses what makes you different/unique in the market place. Your positioning should answer the question: “The reason I hired BLANK is because ______________”. Good positioning should be something you can put on the back of your business card – with space to spare!

Awareness

Here are some tried-and-true techniques for increasing the visibility of your professional services firm:

• Speaking opportunities
• Lurking/posting user groups
• Events
• Contributed articles
• Ongoing PR campaign
• Quarterly mailings

Pitch materials

Guidelines for preparing the materials you’ll leave with a prospect as part of the pitch:

• Benefits not features

• Why should I hire you?
• Model your methodology visually
• All of your cases should showcase your methodology + results
• Make sure your cases are relevant to the category you are pitching … clients find it difficult to generalize from category to category

Marquee accounts

If there is an account you must have, go after it like with a full blown campaign. This can include doing unique creative e.g. a mailing campaign that is made up of 4 separate mailings designed to get noticed within that account.

Giveaways

Are they necessary – no. Do many firms use them – yes.

• Giveaway/leave behind should showcase your creativity but not at the expense of timing
• Keep it under $25
• Books work — if they are relevant to your target
• Personalization also works, but only if it is done well. The trade off here is that personalized items may not have passalong value, so be sure you are reaching the right decision maker. Consider customizing for the company not the person.
• Protypical budgets/schedules are something clients will ask for a lot
• Ditto for case studies
• Consider putting up in a closed section of your website
• Track usage statistics to understand how long prospects spend here