To be a true service directed and quality-oriented
organization, you should recognize that people and companies: “Can and
do expect to get things right.”
By being close to the customer and addressing each sales/service
customer contact as a solution to the specific customer problem you can
expect to achieve a positive positioning (remember that?) in your
customers’ minds as the leading supplier to meet their drumming and
percussion needs. This is the true added value equation. Starting with a
marketing document, or business plan will assure a groundwork for a
quality management organization. “If you fail to plan, you plan to
fail.”
The marketing document should answer the following questions:
Where are we now?
Where do we want to go?
How do we get there?
When do we want to arrive?
Who will get us there?
What will it cost?
The need for a well defined written plan will enable you to set
goals, measure your results and effectively target new products/services
with a focus on sustained growth and profitability. The plan will also
enable all of your staff to share in the same vision; the same focus.
Additionally, budgets must be developed to insure achieving profit
projections. Banks love em!
Some companies communicate their goals and some do not. Some
companies announce their goals at annual meetings, but do not
communicate them to their employees. More companies are recognizing the
benefits of ensuring that employees know what the organization is trying
to achieve and the reasons why these goals are important.
Goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Tangible.
(S.M.A.R.T.) There must be company benefits from achieving set goals and
the individual managers and their staff must reap personal benefits. In
identifying the goals, the internal and external obstacles and their
solutions and/or alternatives should be mapped out. Along with this goal
setting is a well defined action step program and the appropriate
method of tracking progress.
ideas create attitudes, that prompt actions, that deliver
results.
By tracking accomplished goals this, in effect, becomes the
individual’s trophy case. The critical factor to the growth and future
success of your people. It is a belief that ideas create attitudes, that
prompt actions, that deliver results.
I strongly believe you can’t manage people, only their commitments.
Following the development of a marketing plan staff should be
encouraged to write down their personal goals. These sets of goals would
then be incorporated into an action plan to achieve the short and long
range objectives as set out in the company plan.
It is recommended that a program of tracking and charting progress be
developed to assure personal score keeping.
Tracking and charting is most effective when:
- It is self administered.
- It measures important elements.
- It is developed with the input and commitment of the users.
- Results are used for appropriate recognition and correction.
Furthermore, the benefits to tracking and charting are:
- Identification of quality and effectiveness standards.
- Establishing expectations.
- Generating feedback.
- Avoiding problems.
- Providing information.
All of these processes combined with progressive management tactics
will ensure your future growth.