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Monthly Archives: June 2007
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Film company finds out what clients really think of them
Pollock Spark finds the answers to those questions that so many companies want answered: “What do our clients really think of us? Where do we fit in the marketplace? What about prospective clients – have they even heard of us?”
A leading NY film production company (identity withheld here, but call us if you want to know) wanted to discover where their brand stood in the minds of ad agency folks and who was their real competition. They were deciding whether to extend the current brand for a new venture, or to create a new one.
Pollock Spark talked to Creative Directors and Senior Producers, to writers and art directors. They also dug for fresh thinking within the client company: finding out how things looked from the point of view of individual members of senior management. Pollock Spark did the research, analyzed the responses, had the insights and made recommendations.
This client said of the experience:
“I said good things about you to your face and I’ll say them behind your back as well. I thought you navigated a potentially difficult internal political situation at our company very well (difficult because of the self-perception differences between the partners), advertised your services accurately and delivered an analysis that is relevant, clear and integral to creating forward movement.”
Coaching senior staff
A well-established film production/post production company (identity withheld here, but call if you want to know) had promoted one of their staff to the position of Executive Producer. But the owners were not sure that he was running on all cylinders. He wasn’t even really sure what the job actually entailed.
So they asked Pollock Spark to come in and work with him to discover what he was doing right and to help him with those areas where he was weaker – or didn’t even realize needed attention. They knew that using an objective outsider to do this would be far more effective than doing it themselves.
According to the owners of the company, the results were immensely successful. The EP’s attitude to the job changed: he was more efficient and productive. His bids were better and his relationships with clients were stronger. “Even the CFO was impressed!”
As a result, the owners have asked Pollock Spark to come in again. This time to work with their creative staff to help them focus their talents, develop their careers and sell themselves more effectively.
This client said of Pollock Spark President Michael Pollock:
“Michael has a very strong ability to focus deeply on a company and draw out important, often overlooked, issues. His suggestions for next steps and action plans are excellent. Michael has been instrumental in helping us clearly define goals and working towards achieving them.”
What our clients say
“Pollock Spark delivered an analysis that is relevant, clear and integral to creating forward movement”
“You took us to a whole new level that we would not have reached on our own”
“..suggestions for next steps and action plans are excellent”
“..instrumental in helping us to clearly define goals and working towards achieving them”
The big 4 questions for your future
1. What are your goals?
2. Where and what do you hope to be in the future?
3. What do you do if and when you get there?
4. How will you measure success?
Who is your best salesperson?
Your good clients are your best advocates. Millions of research dollars have been spent to prove this – but I suggest you go with your gut here.
Keep your advocates close. Make them feel they belong. Their valuable word of mouth is amplified by the internet: blogs, IM, social media. (And, don’t forget, the “new advocates” are spreading both the good news and the bad news.)
Create and maintain a dialog with your advocates � help them to feel good about you and spread the word for you in a way that will count. They are your best salespeople.
Investment and return
One of my first bosses used to pull pound notes out of his pants pockets and start throwing them around the room when the expenses got to be too much for him. (this was in London – I’d not yet seen my first dollar bill). I hear all the time: “I have to spend x dollars on printer ink again, or y dollars on client lunches. It’s just money thrown away.” Even some of the salary checks you have to sign can leave you feeling this way.
I suggest you look at these costs another way. Look at each of them as an investment. With the paper you bought you can print out so many more project proposals and invoices – resulting in so much more revenue. With each meal you buy a client you are investing in getting that next job. With that salary check, you are paying someone a lot less than you are paying yourself to do the things that you don’t have time to do but that need to get done so that you can take on those new projects that you just invested in the ink for.
It’s easy really – consider each check you write as an investment, and picture the projects and revenue that it will make possible. If you can’t picture the return on a particular check, then think twice before signing it.
How much can you do yourself?
How much can one person do? Not everything, that is for sure. Your time is limited � so you had better make every bit of it count. I’ll bet you are filling big chunks of your day with things you can easily have someone else take care of. I know it’s fun – and even sometimes it’s good for you – to do those simple things that need no inspiration and that stay done when you are through. But now and again is fine. I suggest that each evening for the next few days you review your own personal timesheet (real or mental) and see what you have done that day that you could, with the minimum of effort, have one of your staff take care of so you would be able to do the real work.
What are the most important things that you bring to the company? Creative and intellectual skills: certainly. Marketing know-how and experience: hopefully. Business chops: sure – you got this far, right? Are these the things that you are using each day? For too many people, those instant gratification tasks like balancing the checkbook and fixing the coffee pot seem just so much easier and more fun – and then the day is gone.
But the real and lasting fun is in designing and implementing the bigger picture. Use a logic model. Know what your goals are. Identify the steps that will get you to that goal. Identify the people and resources you have to help you. And make the best use of your time.
How your printed materials expose your weaknesses
All aspects of your business are tested when you create a printed marketing piece.
It�s going to cost you some money – so you need to review the marketing budget, for which you need to review the business planning, the revenue projections and the cash flow. So all that has to be in place and understood so you can be sure it will be money well spent.
Of course it has to represent your brand – so that has to be clearly defined. The brochure or whatever has to be the exemplar of your look and has to communicate your positioning. Which means you have to know who your audience is and what you want them to think or do.
Now you need to get together the portfolio and case histories – you have to deal with other people in your company to get these organized. And perhaps to get testimonials from clients – you need your sales guy to get these for you. This exposes them to the project and they will surely give you their opinion. How well are they versed in the positioning and the desires of your audience? How efficiently can you make the requests and get a response?
Let’s be honest this stuff can take a lot of time and be very frustrating. Let’s say you get that together. Next you are dealing with the writer and the graphic designer: artistes and marketers all of them. And then there’s the printing and the paper stock and how many do we need and on and on. Do you have the time? It takes a lot longer than it should.
So the simple decision to make a printed marketing piece has exposed your business planning and your cash flow, your marketing strategy, your ability to define what your company does, your internal communications and responsiveness, your own role and responsibilities in the company, your company�s internal communications and your staff’s understanding of what the company does.
This is quite a test! Preparing a brochure might be a good exercise (even if you never print it) because all these aspects of your business are critical and if you haven’t been paying attention to them this will be a way to force it.
Monitoring your marketing
You’ve sweated bullets strategizing, making your marketing plan and getting it off the ground. “Phew, that is done,” you say.
Well no. There’s not much point in starting a marketing effort if you don�t track it to see how it works. Of course the easiest measure is the “direct” way: did a specific piece of marketing lead directly to a sale. But you�re doing a lot of marketing that is not so directly measurable. Remember my Rule of Two? Many jobs come to you because the buyer has heard the right things about you from two separate sources or channels. So how to add these? Of course you should ask people where they heard of you and what they heard. You can look at your electronic newsletter stats and see who clicked through on which links. You can track your website traffic and associate its spikes with your mailshot or a press mention or a party you threw.
You don’t just care about sales, of course. You also care very much about the kind of work and quality of clients you are getting. You can do surveys of people’s attitudes to your company over time and see what effect your marketing has. There are even simple and inexpensive ways to see what is working and what is not. If you are using word of mouth techniques for example, you can send out your talking points and see when they get back to you. Attune your team to be keeping their ears to the ground all the time.
If you track all these things you should see some patterns emerge. You should be able to connect your efforts with your sales and the quality of your clients over time.
But it is no good knowing what works and what doesn’t unless you are ready to make the necessary adjustments. If something isn’t working don�t be afraid to change it and make it better; this will demonstrate how smart and adaptable you are.