The Winkler Group

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Improve Your Marketing Productivity

What is marketing operations?
The marketing function has historically viewed programs and promotions as the core of its management responsibility. The focus has been on what to do to attract and retain customers, increase revenue and improve margins. As a result of increased business complexity, the activities surrounding the programs and campaigns have grown to equal, if not exceed, the program and campaign budgets. This is the “how” and this is what we call marketing operations. By tying marketing activity to financial performance and instituting stronger discipline in marketing operations, it is not uncommon to reduce costs by 20-30%, while improving the quality of the programs.

What are the “tools”?
The Winkler Group tools help you align marketing activity with the financial goals of marketing and make better use of existing resources. Some examples of tools include:

The result is a strong framework for accountability and decision-making. The tools are built with the “know how” of what to look for by breaking down marketing elements into specific areas that may have appeared too vague to measure in the past.

How does the pay for performance work?
Pay for performance means that The Winkler Group’s fees are funded by the improvements achieved from The Winkler Group’s work. In this way, your risks are minimized and you are always ahead.

A component of The Winkler Group’s compensation is based on a percentage of the financial value that we create. Our approach includes a quick overview of the current situation and the possibilities for increased performance. In most cases, we can produce a target financial improvement number within 30 to 90 days, as well as a plan for achieving the improvement. By scheduling areas to be addressed strategically, financial value can begin to flow within a budget year.

Upon an engagement, we gain consensus about the scope of work and the deliverables, the percentage of fixed to variable fee, and the percentage of the financial value created that you agree to share with The Winkler Group along with the methodology for arriving at the calculation.

How do you support the results you are claiming?
While The Winkler Group recognizes that every client is unique and has its own financial accounting systems, budgeting methodologies and processes, our approach has been tested on a range of clients. Probable results come from using ratio analysis which will then be applied to your current budgets to generate the financial results you can expect.

The Winkler Group Tools are based on predefining the elements of marketing operations from a best practices point of view. This allows us to advise you on which areas of your marketing operations can get the best payback in the early assessment phase of the engagement. As a result, we help you realize savings in the amount of time typical consultancies use to develop scope of work.

How do you monitor progress?
The Winkler Group Tools include a set of integrated monitoring and measuring processes and dashboards designed specifically for the areas you wish to address in your marketing organization.

I’ve had trouble getting people to agree to metrics — how do you do it?
Our methodologies include benchmarks and dashboards that are tangible as opposed to attitudinal or opinion based. Then the hard work begins—the metrics must be embedded into all of the relevant marketing process at the right points in the process. By giving staff clear metrics, the reason for their importance, a roadmap for achieving them, and then communicating progress on a regular basis, we have found less resistance to agreement and adoption.

Does The Winkler Group help me implement the recommendations or only assess the areas for possible improvement?
We help you implement the recommendations by providing you with a clear action plan of how to go about each recommendation. The action plan includes such items as how to announce the changes internally, assign the project team, break down the activity into concrete tasks, set the target goals, measure progress and monitor on an ongoing basis. The Winkler Group team members will participate with your internal team members in assuring positive progress on the agreed on targets.

How much effort and people resources will I have to allocate to this project?
We would like to say no effort is required on your part, but all good things do require effort and commitment. In order for you to be successful, we need you to appoint a “Champion” who has the clout to get things done in your organization. Our QuickStart tool identifies a process for structuring a team, communicating, collecting information and reporting in a way that gets the job done while minimizing disruption to the day-to-day activities and responsibilities of your staff.

How do you get people to accept your recommendations?
Our approach deals with the issues of change — how to communicate, motivate, monitor, enforce and measure progress.

How long does a typical engagement take?
The length of the assignment depends on the number of areas that are addressed and the complexity of the organization. Complexity factors include globalized organization, degree of centralization/decentralization, quality of data and accessibility, size of marketing staff, number of outside resources and so on.

Can I get started with a small project?
Yes you can. As long as we are confident that we can help create value, we
can engage with you at the part of marketing operations where you feel the greatest pain.

About The Winkler Group
We are senior executives with strong performance records in global marketing, general management, branding, technology development, advertising, and change management who are dedicated to helping you maximize your marketing opportunities. Our group of consultants is augmented by strategic partners who join us on an as needed basis.

Marketers are under considerable pressure to answer, “What am I really getting for my marketing spend?” This leads directly to other questions such as, “Am I making the right program and campaign choices? Do I have the streamlined integrated process to get the programs and campaigns out the door?”

The Winkler Group helps you answer these questions and more by providing your organization with the tools and skill sets to:

Define, value and manage your marketing assets
Align your marketing processes with financial metrics
Run your marketing function like a business

Through The Winkler Group’s unique approach and 40+ best practice and optimizer tools, you can free up 12 to 15%+ of your marketing budget and substantially increase brand equity, enhance cash flows and improve your marketing ROI.

To help you identify your most pressing challenges and biggest opportunities for value creation, contact: moreinfo@TheWinklerGroup.com