In late 1998, Inward Strategic Consulting was contacted by the energy industry division of a rapidly growing, $160 million provider of information technology and business solutions. The energy unit realized that there had been little serious planning or marketing of its service offerings, with much of its business coming from repeat clients, and wanted to develop a proactive and focused marketing effort to help propel the division into the future. The client needed to develop an integrated marketing program that would position the firm to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace, create an awareness and understanding of the firm within the market and actively generate new leads. In conjunction with this, the client also had a need to educate and gain buy-in from a consulting staff not familiar with the role of marketing programs.
To achieve these goals, Inward proposed a Dialogue Marketing program for senior leaders of the energy practice and the marketing team. After conducting interviews with key leaders in the organization, Inward coordinated a four-day (two half days and two full days) workshop combining its unique facilitated process and expertise in the area of marketing. The workshop was designed to move through a series of steps, beginning with gaining a common awareness of the business and competitive environment and ending with the development of an implementable plan. On the first day, the team spent a half-day gaining a shared understanding of their business. The second day was spent developing a brand architecture and discussing how the energy unit would articulate itself. The third session focused on marketing tactics and programs and ended with voting on the various options that had been presented and discussed by the team. On the final day, the team spent a half-day developing a three-year plan to present to senior management.
The process was extremely successful, getting team members to approach the marketing options with open, probing minds and producing tangible results. A comprehensive, executable three-year plan, including a preliminary budget, was produced and the team quickly began to implement the recommendations. Members of the team who were initially hesitant and skeptical left with an appreciation of the marketing program and support for its methods and goals. Interviews with team members revealed that they were very satisfied with the process and the results and were especially appreciative of the facilitator's understanding of the consulting business and his applicable examples.
KEY LEARNINGS FOR INWARD
- Ending with an implementable plan was a big plus for the client.
- The process works well getting people without marketing savvy to buy-in to the need for a marketing program.
- The examples and anecdotes from the consulting world were very effective.
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