Want long-term results? Start with short-term wins.
Here are three fast ways to get UMS on track with EOS.
Fitzgerald once wrote that the sign of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas at once.
By that measure, marketers are geniuses.
On one hand, we’re famous for encouraging people to take a step back. To think strategically. To take a 50,000-foot view. “Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint,” we claim.
And the very next morning we host a 30-minute brainstorm to come up with a new tagline. Slash deadlines. Tell our teams to “fail faster.” And report the results of a campaign that launched yesterday.
The problem? Both these viewpoints are valid. Strategy, process and long-term thinking ensure our company’s success. While short-term victories earn us the respect and budgets we need.
Now, this series is all about how to mesh estound’s Unified Marketing System with the hottest topic in business today, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. In our first post, we discussed why the two methods work well together.
But today, we want to talk about speed.
If you’re a marketer trying to run a sane, successful department with UMS, and your organization decides to adopt EOS, you need some fast ways to prove the two work together.
You need some quick wins.
Three ways to hit the gas pedal with the UMS.
- Add it to your scorecard
One of the six pillars of EOS is Data. And the system requires businesses to put metrics on a weekly scorecard. As explained in Traction, Profit/Loss isn’t the best number to track, because it’s a trailing indicator that doesn’t give you the ability to correct problems on the fly.
Traction suggests measurements that reach further up the funnel, like the number of sales calls or customer complaints. And if you’re a practitioner of the Unified Marketing System, you’re already analyzing a host of other metrics, too. LTV and CAC are the two big ones, of course. But we suggest a lot more:
- Conversion rate from MQL to SQL
- Email marketing opens/clicks
- NPS scores from a survey tool
- Organic search engine clicks
- Social media engagements
- Paid media impressions
And the list goes on. Think about which of these numbers will give your leadership team the most value. And then suggest tracking them. Because the more Marketing shows up on the scorecard, the better!
- Bring it to your L10 meetings
One of the keys of EOS is the L10 meeting. It’s a tightly orchestrated, never-missed, weekly moment for leadership to discuss progress and hash out issues.
If you read the first post in this series, you know the UMS slots in perfectly as one of Marketing’s 90-day Rocks, because it gives you an ironclad way to report progress.
If, for instance, your Rock was getting through the 13 questions in the Unified Marketing System guidebook, and six weeks into the quarter you’re already on question nine, you can confidently stand up in your L10 meeting, report that your Rock is “on track,” and sit back down.
But what if there are concerns or issues?
The data that you get from UMS helps you discuss the situation from a position of knowledge and suggest a solution.
For instance, imagine sales are down. Some marketers might have to shoulder the blame alone. But if you’re running UMS, you can be prepared with other data that matters. Such as the number of new prospects in the pipeline. And the actions you’re already taking to turn each sale into a high-LTV customer.
- Find your number
In EOS, “everyone has a number.” The CEO’s number might be the stock price. The Marketing Team’s number might be the ratio between LTV:CAC. And a factory worker’s number might be 0, as in “0 defects.”
What’s the old sales cliche? “50 dials a day will make dreams come true.”
Giving employees a number – any number – will establish a sense of clarity. Create healthy competition. And make feedback a breeze.
So what number can you give to each member of your team right away to get them inspired and focused?
Your social manager might need to earn 1,000 shares to consider a piece of content a success.
A salesman on a car lot might need to sell one car per day to hit her quota.
A copywriter might judge himself on whether four media outlets covered the launch of a new commercial.
And for the most important members of your team, it may be helpful to assign numbers directly out of the Unified Marketing System. Who will own calculating and maintaining CAC? LTV? MQLs? SQLs?
In EOS, everyone has a number. UMS can help you determine what it is.
Fast wins get you closer to the finish line. Wait… Where’s the finish line?
OK, you’ve got everyone’s blood pressure down. The Marketing team is reporting victories and progressing smoothly, bringing extra value to every component of EOS.
Now what?
In the third post of this series, we’re going to talk about the long, long, long-term. As in “Vision.” It’s one of the six key components of EOS. And we’ll share how we use UMS to help our clients define and achieve it.
