Are there bigger opportunities hiding across teams than within them?

Ever-increasing speed demand is a fact of business.  The gaps between complex processes across multiple teams are often bigger than they seem and relentless speed pressure can cause a depressing feeling of ‘never fast enough’.  Enabling processes to work smarter rather than asking teams to work harder can revolutionise operating speed.

The full story

Our top speed isn’t fast enough

The UK Operations Director of a global market research company had been pushing staff to increase their speed since she began working there.  Her team processed raw market data into customer reporting.  Customers were demanding reports faster and faster and she knew to stay competitive they had to deliver.  Her sub-teams had made huge processing speed progress, but it still wasn’t fast enough. 

Her budget wouldn’t allow additional resource and she felt concerned that her ‘go faster’ message was beginning to sound a little like ‘you’ll never be fast enough’. She knew the goodwill of her team would eventually run out.

Not increasing speed further wasn’t an option

Their customers were facing increasing competition and the earlier the reporting was received, the more impact it had on their ability to refine strategy and win market share. New sales and contract renewals were getting harder and customer facing staff were beginning to compensate by offering alternative reports, adding pressure on operations to produce more. 

If she didn’t work out how to squeeze yet more speed out of her team and reduce special requests she wasn’t sure how she was going to succeed at the required budget and not lose her best staff in the process.

The diagnosis process

I know my piece of the puzzle, but I’ve never seen the whole picture

We took a step back and she walked me through the production process from receipt of data to report delivery.  There were several process steps, each managed by a separate sub-team.  The processing software, developed by their head office, was standardised across all the countries they operated in. 

Sitting down with each manager, they clearly knew their step in intricate detail. They were rightfully proud of the improvements they had made but were facing speed bumps out with their control.  Common complaints included the central system’s inertia and compensating for delays earlier in the chain. 

I learned that each manager required the data in a different format. They had access to their particular data cut and format, within a unique platform housed in the wider system.  Opinion differed as to what happened after they uploaded their data and how it appeared in the next team’s platform.  There were obscured parts of the process which hadn’t been called upon for speed.

We needed to follow the data.

Letting the data tell its story

Digging into each of the platforms exposed endless process data, that even the team didn’t know existed.  Following the data flow revealed that each step didn’t require all the data from the previous one to begin.

There were large chunks of time where parts of the data sat idle waiting for other units within that step to finish, before being passed on.  Opportunity lay in organising the production batches so that work could happen simultaneously.  We could gain more overall speed by lengthening and overlapping each step allowing each sub-team to start sooner. 

It was about making the process work smarter not asking sub-teams to work faster.  The Operations Director was astounded by how much time was being lost inside the system that no one had seen, she was keen to begin recovering as much as we could and relieved that her ‘work faster’ message could become a thing of the past.

What we learned from the diagnosis process

By taking a step back and viewing the process comprehensively we’d revealed that the largest opportunity for speed wasn’t moving faster, it was capitalising on the idle time we had found lurking in the system.

Taking a step back can completely change the picture

The Operations Director had been focused on incrementally improving each step in the process; this close up lens had left the real opportunity out of view. 

Laying out complex processes in full can change your view and shine a light on where speed or efficiency or effectiveness opportunities may lie.

You don’t always have to accelerate to go faster

This business had always operated its production one step at a time; this was simplest system and ensured that nothing slipped through the net when it was conceptualised.  By intelligently dissecting the data, enabling simultaneous working; the time for each step can be increased and the overall process time shortened. 

Being open to and exploring different approaches to how to get work done can often yield large efficiency improvements.

They had more actionable data than they thought

The centrally designed and maintained processing system held more data than the team had ever dug for. This data had revealed the opportunity to improve production. 

Many businesses operate with legacy, centrally built or external systems and are not necessarily aware of data they have invested in. Taking time to dig can often expose data which can be put to work for your business.

Designing an effective solution

Now we were aware of what we could achieve, the question was how were we going to achieve it? 

The data model

I analysed each step one by one to create a connected data model. This model resolved the details of which production units were needed from the previous steps for the next to begin. I then crafted dynamic dashboards for each sub-team to understand, in real time, what needed to be prioritised for overall process optimisation.

Behavioural change is a bigger challenge

Asking staff to change work habits isn’t easy and has to be done carefully if it is to succeed.  Staff were asked to undertake the same work but in a different order depending on production events, asked to be responsive to change and to think beyond their processing step.  To achieve this we had to ensure we had three key components in place:

• Motivation for change
• Understanding they wouldn’t be asked to continually move faster
• Tools to show them the way

Through careful messaging and active communication with the managers and their staff we were able to put these elements in place.  The Operations Director could not only view speed improvements from reporting designed alongside the dashboards, she could feel it.

The Outcome

She got the speed she needed and enjoyed some other benefits too

Customers began receiving reports on Wednesday and Thursday rather than Friday and the following Monday as they had before.  Customers enjoyed up to 2 more days with reports allowing them to use the data much more effectively for the following weeks’ strategy and planning.  By going through the diagnosis process and unlocking potential in their data we had also achieved some unexpected benefits:

More time to focus

Production sped up dramatically and each sub-team could get started and therefore finished sooner, allowing them focused time for their other responsibilities.  Sales and customer facing teams could now refocus on speed as a selling point and the need for special requests diminished; creating yet more time for focus.

Stronger team relationships

Sub-teams understood the impact they had on each other; the new tools and the process they had been through allowed them to ‘speak each other’s language’.  They were able to empathise when things went wrong and the blame culture was eradicated.

Culture of continuous improvement

By bringing the staff along on the journey and from the resulting impact for them and the whole team, they developed a desire to improve other areas of their operation.  Opening the dialogue between them created a willingness to work together to resolve issues to improve their business.

Do you have a complicated process you need to optimise?

Like this Operations Director, are you worried you are approaching the saturation point of goodwill with you staff but still need to make improvements to survive and thrive? Do you need help stepping back and getting your whole process in view?  Are you using systems that may have hidden data you haven’t tapped yet? 

The answer may be exploring different ways of working and making your data work as hard as you are asking your staff to. You don’t need to tackle it alone; I can guide you through a process for you to unlock the value in your data and harness its power.

To chat through your optimisation opportunity please get in touch.

Schedule a Call

Should you drop some of your product variants?

Product variants and differentiated pricing can be powerful revenue generators.  Businesses augment their basic product to generate more customer value and can charge more for perceived higher quality.  To operate this model successfully, businesses must be able to trace product and ongoing service costs.  If not, some of those variants can unknowingly cost profit.

The full story

Does what goes up, have to come down?

Rapid growth is the ultimate dream of many businesses.  An ambitious CEO of a young digital marketing firm had successfully navigated the complicated journey in securing initial financial investment which allowed the founders to exit.  He was now fully in charge of his business. The business generated and sold customer leads for financial services products such as life insurance and mortgages. 

He’d achieved rapid growth in the UK market and grew from a team of 10 up to over 30. But, as sales volume increased, he faced a new challenge, the law of diminishing returns. As the business produced more leads the quality rapidly declined.  His customers weren’t happy and began to decrease order volumes, he knew if he wasn’t able to get the quality and volume up he wasn’t going to convince investors his business model could be expanded abroad and potentially worse, the UK business would shrink.

The unique pricing model

The business operated a unique pricing model; asking customers to only pay for leads that they were able to contact. Finding one person looking for life insurance online is easy; finding the 100^th or 1000^th person becomes more challenging.  The business was innovating finding more and more ways to drive traffic to its lead capture sites; but increasing their supply was disproportionately pushing up the volume of leads that were uncontactable and thus valueless. 

How could he continue to grow without compromising quality?  He was dying to move onto the overseas expansion chapter of the business but knew he couldn’t leave the UK business until he figured this out.

The diagnosis process

The business had been on quite an adventure

He was passionate about his story of growth,  I could sense that in the early days the team was very close knit and could adapt quickly to messages they heard from each other. It sounded like the type of start-up journey all entrepreneurs hope to tell. 

By comparison, the post investment growth phase, sounded like a bit of a roller-coaster. Things were changing almost every day, lots of new faces joined the journey and he clearly missed the experience he lost when the founders exited.  The new monthly meetings weren’t as fun, there was a big disconnect between supply and sales.

Understanding supply

The CEO was keen to introduce me to the supply teams; praising them for the additional volume they had achieved.  Their main supply source was search engine marketing, paying for search engines to display their adverts based on keywords. 

Supply teams had heard the message loud and clear ‘we need volume’ and were proud of how fast they had achieved more.  They were self-confessed geeks who loved optimising and pushing their targets; generating new keywords had become almost a team competition. 

Each month they were given a target volume and provided with an average sales price from the previous month; which they used to continually optimise their keyword portfolio to maximise profit as they saw it.

The sales team had experienced growth differently

The sales team also had a lot of passion but were very different to the supply teams.  Convincing customers to try a new marketing channel where they only paid for real customers had never been a particularly tough sell. 

However, as they grew the average lead quality or contact rate their customers had enjoyed was declining and long standing customers were beginning to decrease their orders. They recognised the cost of their staff unsuccessfully attempting contact was not just in efficiency but also in morale.  At month end when customers reported the contact rates and price they were going to pay, teams were getting more and more deflated, especially when the subsequent orders were for lower volumes. 

Making the connection between supply and sales

I wanted to see what the data’s story was like. 

Initial analysis didn’t tell me much; there wasn’t a conclusive pattern to follow.  We needed more detail.  Digging into their system I found a lot of lead source information that wasn’t being passed through.  I took a set of the data and matched it to obtain the connection between generation and performance; suddenly this revealed the insight they were missing.  Analysing by keyword showed consistent differences in quality. 

Interestingly some of the highest priced keywords weren’t producing the highest quality leads.  Consistently connecting keywords with the quality they generated would allow supply teams to push for more of the best leads. 

The CEO was delighted by these findings and instantly saw he had what we needed to solve the problem.  Understanding which exact sources were commanding higher quality and therefore higher average prices would mean the team could differentiate spend and generate more volume.

What we learned from the diagnosis process

By connecting the data across the value chain, it was possible to lower spend, increase quality and increase volume.

The flaw of averages and failing to differentiate masks the true picture

By using last month’s average price for supply optimisation not only was it out of date, it didn’t provide enough detail; in some cases foregoing supply actually increased profit. 

The true cost of product variations must be known to understand their profit to the business.  Many businesses have complicated product portfolios but are unable to differentiate product profitability, unfortunately they are often leaving money on the table.

Communication is a process that needs to be optimised like any other

When the business was small everyone could easily talk to everyone else; as the business grew no new mechanism was put in place to ensure smooth communication and clarity along the value chain. 

This is not a new problem and many businesses face this issue as they grow and become frustrated that everyone isn’t on the same page.  This business needed to communicate the value of each lead source back to the supply teams but had no mechanism to do so.

Higher cost doesn’t mean higher quality and vice versa

The new data set had revealed that the most expensive keywords weren’t always producing the highest quality leads and that some keywords that the search team had considered the ‘best’ were producing only uncontactable leads. 

It’s easy to assume that you get what you pay for but for businesses with complex product inputs this isn’t always true; connecting the information across the chain and verifying the source of the quality element can drive real optimisation and profit opportunities.

Designing an effective solution

We had revealed the key to higher volume at higher quality but needed to work out how to pass that information back to the supply teams. 

I created matching tables taking data from keyword tools and lead information from the customers back to the source.  Using these new tables we were able to craft a series of real time dashboards that let both the supply and sales teams optimise the business. 

The CEO was also provided with a quick view dashboard so he could check in on progress, volume and quality.

The outcome

He got the sustainable business growth and enjoyed some other benefits too

Revenue and quality increased and costs decreased leading to month on month profit growth for the business.  He had proven the UK business model worked and strengthened his business in other ways too:

Increased prices

Most customers provided not only contact rate information but also conversion rates; the business was now able to predict which leads would be most likely to convert for their customers.  They had a real understanding of lead quality from the eyes of their customers and were able to command higher prices for those leads more likely to convert and customers were delighted to pay. 

Competition amongst customers

The higher and differentiated quality, led to customers competing for the very best leads and asking for higher volumes than the company could supply.  They began offering even higher prices to guarantee supply and in the first year of implementing the new system they achieved 100% retention of their key clients.  Their business had become very effective at solving a problem for their customers and the scarcity of this solution pushed up the price and strengthen the relationships with the key buyers.

Improved team morale

Sales and production teams had the information at their disposal to optimise for the entire business, they were performing better and working in harmony with each other.  Monthly meetings became about communication not negotiation.  Data had provided a new communication mechanism linking the teams together.

Are some of your product variants perhaps costing you money?

Like this CEO, have you been through rapid growth or change and are facing new challenges?  Do you need to focus on the financial side of the business but know operations needs to improve?  Do you know the margins of each of your product variants? Do you know there must be further optimisation for your business?

Using data to create communication mechanisms or creating full data sets to allow for optimisation along the value chain might provide the answer.  You don’t need to tackle it alone; I can guide you through a process for you to unlock the value in your data and harness its power.

To chat through your optimisation opportunity, please get in touch.

Schedule a Call

Is data without context harming your performance?

If meaning isn’t assigned to data at collection, interpretation and action stages; subsequent decisions and assumptions can be very damaging. Poor metric design causes staff to loose motivation and, frustrated, they completely ignore metrics, or worse, actively fight against them.  Management become confused, pushing extra resource and not seeing improvement. 

The full story

We’re not going to hit target at this rate

A Director at Europe’s head office of a global consulting company was grappling with the poor efficiency of her staff’s face to face customer contact scheduling.  The numbers just were not where they needed to be.  At this rate they were not going to hit financial targets and head office had already announced tighter travel budgets. 

Knowing they needed to win new contracts and that in person customer touch points dramatically increased contract renewal probability; more visits per trip was the only answer. Account Executives were responsible for scheduling business trips and they weren’t being efficient. 

They have what they need, don’t they?

Leads were available for Account Executives to target and they were generously incentivised to improve travel efficiency metrics.  The Director just could not understand why Account Executives were still not improving scheduling. 

Why were there still so many trips with just one visit?  Why didn’t they understand that missing financial targets would have even worse consequences for next year’s budget? 

She had to ensure travel efficiency improved, and eliminate ‘one visit days’, to have any chance of reaching the financial goals.

The diagnosis process

Understanding the metrics

Together we went through a process to unravel the problem and identify the root causes we could address.  Their focus was on the ‘one visit day’ metric.  I discovered, the metric hadn’t taken into account visits close to their company base, where Account Managers could travel directly to and from the office; and visits which occurred on the first or last day of a wider continental trip, where for example one last visit was squeezed in before the flight home. 

Removing these scenarios dramatically altered the ‘one visit day’ metric and while this offered her a little relief; the data did reveal significant opportunity for improvement in average visits per trip.

Understanding the people

The Account Executives walked me through their scheduling process and, to my surprise, they all wanted to schedule more visits per trip. They understood their bonus depended on it and understood that more visits were needed to hit financial targets.  They weren’t operating inefficiently out of naivety and felt each of their scheduled trips were as close to optimal as they could get. 

The problem they were facing was not being aware of any other potential visits they could fit in. Using the sales lead data, they had to copy and paste addresses one by one into Google maps locate them.  A frustrating process that often yielded no results. 

Revealing this to the Director instantly changed her perspective, shedding light on how we could solve the problem.

What we learned from the diagnosis process

The real root cause wasn’t the Account Executives inadequacy, it was the metrics themselves and that the sales lead data wasn’t working for the business in the right way. 

Data without context can be damaging 

The metrics were painting the wrong picture and causing unfair blame to be directed towards Account Executives, and worse still, it discouraged scheduling visits close to home or squeezing in one last visit on a bigger trip. 

Performance metrics can be very powerful, when designed carefully and used correctly, but unfortunately many businesses haven’t placed their data in context leading to poor and harmful metric design.

Making assumptions about root causes leads to bad decisions 

The Director had assumed Account Executives needed more incentive; this was costing money but not adding value. 

It’s all too easy to make assumptions, especially when viewing problems from a distance, digging for facts and identifying perceptions is the only way to understand ‘why’.

Investing in data is not enough; it has to work for the business

Time was being wasted wading through the sales leads organised as a list; the data wasn’t user optimised. 

Data considered alone is just data; to have an impact it needs to be usable and insightful for the user it guides.

Designing an effective solution

I designed a seemingly simple solution to address the root cause.   The value of the sales leads data was high but locked in the wrong format.  The director was aware that revenue could also be generated from existing customers with timely visits.  I formatted both sets of information so that it could be displayed simultaneously in real time on Google Maps.  Account Executives could see where all the opportunities lay and click on links back to their system to obtain contact details. 

We reviewed the metrics and crafted a suite that told the true story behind travel efficiency.  The Director and Account Executives had the tools in place to make a difference.

The outcome

We hit the goal and achieved other improvements too

Partnering together we wanted to achieve financial targets through travel efficiencies.  When fully rolled out we estimated the solution would bring in $600,000 to $1,200,000 in additional revenue or up to 17% of her annual target. 

By going through the diagnosis process and unlocking potential in her data we had also achieved some unexpected benefits:

Improved morale

An effective tool which eliminated the need to endlessly copy and paste addresses, removed frustration and improved the Account Executive’s efficiency. Team morale went up.   

Managers were happier too, they could focus their efforts back on improving sales skills, conversation rates and customer service.

Rebuilt team relationships

Managers recognised that blame was unfairly being placed on the Account Executives. They now had the tools they needed to do their job efficiently.  The relationship between the two groups improved.

Enhanced customer experience

When extra sales visit opportunities were exhausted, any white space left in Account Manager’s schedules could easily be filled with courtesy visits to existing clients creating more opportunity to engage with the customer base.

What potential is your data hiding?

Do you feel staff aren’t acting in line with the intention of your metrics, as the Director did in this case?  Are you left a little perplexed as to why? Do you need to improve efficiency to hit your targets?  Are you making the most of your data?

Adding the right context to your data and making it work for you can seem easy in retrospect but can be torturous from the inside.  Don’t fight alone, I can guide you through a process for you to unlock the value in your data.

To chat through your optimisation opportunity, please get in touch.

Schedule a Call