You are ready, and set, for the New Year. As CEO, you recently completed strategic planning with your team. Now, it is time to go. You are asking yourself “Can the team execute this strategic plan? “
In my practice, I work with CEOs to convert corporate strategy to marketing and sales execution. Over the years, I have learned a few things. Here are some suggestions:
- Maintain a weekly meeting cadence with your Product leader, CMO, and head of sales. These meetings should not take longer than one hour. The objective is to make sure alignment does not erode over time between these three. Put the three of them in a room for 1 hour every week. Force them to communicate.
- Break the annual revenue and EBITDA number down into product, marketing, and sales metrics. You should have a goal hierarchy. This hierarchy should establish linkage between outcomes and activities. Review these in the weekly meeting.
- Force the leaders of product, marketing, and sales to have weekly meetings with their middle managers. Attend a few unannounced. Make sure your strategy is being driven deep into the organization.
- Audit the content of these meetings to make sure they are customer focused. A rule of thumb is for a 1 hour meeting, 45 minutes should be spent reviewing direct customer input.
- Hold HR accountable to the product leader, CMO, and head of sales. Best-in-class strategy execution requires a well-trained and highly engaged workforce. All of your planning goes up in smoke without talent.
- Deploy visual management. Every employee in the organization should have visibility into how they are helping, or hurting, the department and company make the revenue and EBITDA goals.
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