The Sales and Marketing Professionals
Marketing Information Systems
Would you ever think of operating your firm without financial statements? Of course not, without timely financial statements you would not know if you were making or losing money until it was too late to do anything about it to correct the situation.
Yet, a surprisingly high number of sizeable firms operate without any marketing statements or any kind of measuring report to keep them properly informed about marketing results. Well some might ask , what are marketing statements anyway ? What are they supposed to do? Certainly they're not in the same league as financial statements some would say. But those who subscribe to that theory are dead wrong.
Marketing information is what ultimately feeds the financial reporting system. Many firms track backlog defined as work in process and under contract and some firms also add work in process with authorization to proceed. But more firms need to consider another form of "backlog." That is marketing backlog. I'm not talking about the gut feel of the marketing department about their business outlook. I'm talking about an ongoing thoughtful assessment of all project leads and client leads with a determination of fee (size) potential, probability of winning and timing of the contract decision. With these basic ingredients, properly "massaged," you are in a good position to forecast probable backlog three to six months down the road.
Would knowing, with reasonable certainty, how many new jobs you would be awarded over the next 3-6 months be of value to you? Would this information help you make better staffing, financial and other resource allocation decisions? You bet it would!
Most firms don't expect as much from their marketing departments as they should. Marketing is more than putting out proposals, sending out press releases, writing brochures and going to interviews. Marketing is in the best possible position in most firms to provide the information on which to develop reliable sales and backlog forecasts. All you need to do is insist that they do it. They should be required to develop an annual forecast of awards broken out by project/client type, fee amounts and award time. Then use this list and forecast expected levels of backlog and awards as well as to monitor your marketing progress and efforts.
When you have developed a little experience with the format, you will get pretty good at it. Besides having highly-reliable forecasts of backlog for financial and operations planning, you will get the added benefit of building in accountability to your marketing efforts. You will be able to measure their progress, set objectives and develop meaningful action plans that ensure the desired results.