Marketing and business development people are a unique breed. In fact, some of your best project managers and principals also fall into this category.
What is it?
They don't look at market conditions and ask, "Why," or complain about tough economic conditions. They look beyond the trouble, sort through the chaos, understand competitors and find creative solutions. They bring optimism into the office every day. Not the pie-in-the-sky, nothing is ever bad kind of optimism. But, optimism that however bad things are, their hard work, intelligence and creativity will make a difference. The glass is never half-full or half-empty for them. Any amount of water is good enough for them.
They are also always hungry.
Many firms decide the best way to keep their stars hungry is to not feed them. Although this sounds counter productive, it is true. Sometimes this is simply a default position. Let me explain. When I was marketing in the parking industry, many owners deferred maintenance on parking structures because they believed these facilities were indestructible. Unfortunately, their understanding of deterioration mechanisms usually came with a multi-million dollar repair price tag.
If your firm is like the parking structure owner, you might think these people are never hungry or give them a bland diet that doesn't satisfy. Either option works for a while. People on a diet know that not eating will start them on their way to losing weight. However, this is only a short term fix for the dieter, who will end up eating more when the results are not worth the pain of starvation. The same thing happens when they switch to a bland diet.
The diet you need to feed your superstars (aka marketing business development, principals,and project managers) are the three Rs: Recognition, Reward and Resources. Most firms concentrate solely on Reward. However, even this element of the diet can have unintended consequences for principals and project managers. For example, the yearly goal includes a 20% commitment to marketing for a project manager. That goal is not met, but all of the projects have high multipliers. During the yearly performance appraisal, you reward the person anyway and send a message to the superstars that marketing isn't really that important. It is the equivalent of management telling Babe Ruth that home runs are not important and he should try to reduce the number of strikeouts.
If you aren't doing it now, you need to begin offering a balanced diet that will keep these people hungry. You need to develop ways to recognize peak performers in the areas of marketing and business development. Affirmation of a job well done is not the icing on the cake for these people, it is the cake. The main course is winning the work. Going into battle with the competition and bringing home the prize.
Resources are considered the appetizers, salad or soup. They get you ready for the main course. Resources include allowing them to participate in appropriate training, personal development and education programs.
Are you now ready to develop a plan to keep your people hungry in 2010? You need to do more than the CEO of one firm told me recently, "Why do we need to send them to training or develop recognition programs? We pay them to deliver results." He was also the guy who complained about losing his best people to competitors.
Marketing and business development people are a unique breed. In fact, some of your best project managers and principals also fall into this category.
What is it?
They don't look at market conditions and ask, "Why," or complain about tough economic conditions. They look beyond the trouble, sort through the chaos, understand competitors and find creative solutions. They bring optimism into the office every day. Not the pie-in-the-sky, nothing is ever bad kind of optimism. But, optimism that however bad things are, their hard work, intelligence and creativity will make a difference. The glass is never half-full or half-empty for them. Any amount of water is good enough for them.
They are also always hungry.
Many firms decide the best way to keep their stars hungry is to not feed them. Although this sounds counter productive, it is true. Sometimes this is simply a default position. Let me explain. When I was marketing in the parking industry, many owners deferred maintenance on parking structures because they believed these facilities were indestructible. Unfortunately, their understanding of deterioration mechanisms usually came with a multi-million dollar repair price tag.
If your firm is like the parking structure owner, you might think these people are never hungry or give them a bland diet that doesn't satisfy. Either option works for a while. People on a diet know that not eating will start them on their way to losing weight. However, this is only a short term fix for the dieter, who will end up eating more when the results are not worth the pain of starvation. The same thing happens when they switch to a bland diet.
The diet you need to feed your superstars (aka marketing business development, principals,and project managers) are the three Rs: Recognition, Reward and Resources. Most firms concentrate solely on Reward. However, even this element of the diet can have unintended consequences for principals and project managers. For example, the yearly goal includes a 20% commitment to marketing for a project manager. That goal is not met, but all of the projects have high multipliers. During the yearly performance appraisal, you reward the person anyway and send a message to the superstars that marketing isn't really that important. It is the equivalent of management telling Babe Ruth that home runs are not important and he should try to reduce the number of strikeouts.
If you aren't doing it now, you need to begin offering a balanced diet that will keep these people hungry. You need to develop ways to recognize peak performers in the areas of marketing and business development. Affirmation of a job well done is not the icing on the cake for these people, it is the cake. The main course is winning the work. Going into battle with the competition and bringing home the prize.
Resources are considered the appetizers, salad or soup. They get you ready for the main course. Resources include allowing them to participate in appropriate training, personal development and education programs.
Are you now ready to develop a plan to keep your people hungry in 2010? You need to do more than the CEO of one firm told me recently, "Why do we need to send them to training or develop recognition programs? We pay them to deliver results." He was also the guy who complained about losing his best people to competitors.
