There will always be a strong debate between Lean and Six Sigma people about using the 2 terms jointly. I am not positive of the lineage of it but I believe Michael George at the time of the George Group (later to be Accenture) coined the term. I assume he viewed the two methodologies as compatible and more effective in conjunction with each other versus separately. I am not even sure that many (Case in point being that many of today’s “Lean” consultants were trained as Lean Six Sigma Black Belts) disagreed at the time except for the very traditional Lean stalwarts.

Dr. Mikel Harry, credited as one of the founders of Six Sigma states that Six Sigma is not a culture and was developed as a quality tool to gain breakthrough performance for an organization. I adhere to that statement and think Six Sigma offers great opportunities for an organization and provides a very precise and workable structure in achieving this. I am not against the hierarchy of belts and the formalities of DMAIC, DFSS, etc. Many organizations need this type of structure to be successful. I am avid defender of Six Sigma in the Lean circles many times to the chagrin of others.

Lean was developed by the MIT group under Dr. James Womack from a study of automotive companies and more specifically the Toyota Production System. Its approach is based on continuous improvement with a direct correlation to PDCA and Dr. Deming’s philosophies. Lean made its first inroads in many companies and gains in popularities (IMHO) because of the ease of entry into the methodology. Removing waste and improving flow was Lean’s mantra in the 90’s and the tools of 5s and Value Stream Mapping soared in popularity. However, as Lean continued developing tools of A3, Hoshin and Standard Work became common place. But even more so, the culture of PDCA and the spirit of Kaizen started to take hold.

Six Sigma was the methodology of choice for many manufacturers as a result of the significant strides that GE and Motorola had made. Later, Lean seemed to gain and Six Sigma wane in popularity. Lean became the path to a customer as an enabler of some quick wins. You could then take the deep dive with Six Sigma when you wanted to get “serious”. As Lean continued to steamroll and Six Sigma still continued with somewhat lackluster performance many organizations and consultants dropped the attachment to Six Sigma and became “Lean”. Popularity does create a crowd. This may not be an entirely accurate description but it serves as a basis for my views and the following comments.

What makes Lean Six Sigma work? When you first start using any methodology, you are typically introduced through the tools. Using Lean initially versus Six Sigma makes perfect sense, it is an easier introduction. And why reduce variability on non-value activities? But sooner or later you get to the fork in the road. One path says Six Sigma and the other path is this thing they call culture (Lean). So do you want to take the deep dive with a breakthrough structured approach (still has a steep incline) or do you want to try and instill a culture of empowerment. There is not a right or wrong answer. You can take either. Where I disagree, is that you can take both.

Six Sigma has always been about structure and tools. It is very, very good and does an outstanding job when applied properly. In Six Sigma thinking, you can use Lean tools initially and get to 95%. To finish the job, you use Six Sigma. And as a result, Lean Six Sigma was developed. If your organization grew out of the Motorola and G.E. world it seems like a perfect fit.

If you adopt the Lean mentality and the spirit of Kaizen (continuous improvement is not an event) you become immersed in the culture of Lean, as Dr. Balle wonderfully described in the Zen Story about the mountain. Summed up in the blog post: Lean Tools and Culture as it Relates to Zen

Have you ever played yourself in a game? On a basketball court or even a simple game of checkers, sooner or later you have to pick a side to win. It is inevitable. This is the ultimate wedge between the two methodologies and can simply be stated. Six Sigma is a structured methodology and Lean is a cultural driven by a learn by doing approach. That is not to say that Six Sigma does not have its prototyping options and that Lean is not without statistical control (it did evolve from Deming). But it is saying that both are two completely different paths that you must choose between.

If you take the path of and see Lean as Lean, Six Sigma does not make sense and is not a compatible technology. There is a significant culture difference and approach. If you take the path of Six Sigma, you view Lean as only a set of tools nothing more and why not, Lean has a great toolbox. If you take the path of Lean you still can be just as efficient and just as effective as Six Sigma, you just do it differently.

I make no qualms about stating that I believe and follow a Lean philosophy. Lean works in my world much better. PDCA which is basically form a hypothesis, test it and adjust is what sales and marketing is all about.

I support the ideas of Lean and Six Sigma without hesitation. What I have trouble understanding is how you can be philosophically aligned in Lean thinking and practice Six Sigma. So I believe you must ask yourself; Which fork in the road do you take?

Related Information:
Profound knowledge for Lean Marketing
Lean Sales and Marketing Cycles are Knowledge Building Tactics
Lean is not a revolution, Lean is solve one thing and prove one thing!
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset

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• Customer value is the driving metric
• SSM has a unique set of value tools
• SSM uses a modified DMAIC approach
• Focuses on more efficient and effective marketing results – achieving sales goals at lowest cost
• Important goal is defect reduction – reducing lost customers
• Expands traditional view of marketing to 5Ps, adding processes to the marketing mix

The Six Sigma Marketing Institute uses a modified DMAIC Approach that I outline below:

Define: Identify and prioritize specific product/markets

• Principal tools are the Market Opportunity Analysis which identifies key markets based upon attractiveness of market and ability to compete within that market and the Product/Market Matrix which identifies and prioritizes product/markets based upon greatest economic and strategic returns

Measure: For each Product Market define value

• Principal tool is the Competitive Value Model which identifies the CTQs and the price/quality tradeoff. It is a market based model that captures the VOM (Voice of the Market). It is the information platform for Six Sigma Marketing.

Analyze: Understand the organization’s value proposition

• Principal tools are the Competitive Value Matrix which identifies the organization’s competitive value proposition relative to their competition (The focus is on value gaps) and the Customer Loyalty Matrix which identifies the loyalty of the organization’s customer base and the bases of that loyalty.

Improve: Focus on People, Product and Process Issues

• Principal tools are the Cause & Effect Matrix which links specific CTQs to processes and identifies improvement opportunities driven by the voice of the market. (The purpose is to close or open value gaps) and Value Stream Mapping which maps value streams and processes as they exist. The C&E Matrix links to the map to identify where and how to change the existing situation.

Control: Monitor changes in Value proposition and customer events:

• Principal tools are the Value performance monitoring which monitors the competitive value proposition of the organization on a periodic basis and the Customer event monitor which  monitors quality of specific customer interactions with the organization on an ongoing basis. Identifies defects and the means to improve and change them.

Eric has taken this a step further in a soon to be released program called the 5 C’s of Driving Market Share that is well suited to both Six Sigma Black Belts and Chief Marketing Officers. His recent eBook Best in Market can also be found on my website which will further outlined this approach to marketing. You can find Eric at www.6sigmarketing.com.

Related Posts:
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Value Stream Marketing eBook Released

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There are numerous marketing systems and methodologies in the marketplace but what makes all of them work is your involvement with your customer or prospect. I believe to a certain extent all systems will work or won’t work based on the level of  involvement. What most systems will do is help you develop certain touch points that will identify and link your product or services to your customer base. How well you can make this authentic and even transparent can be very important. Point in case is social media. It is OK to schedule tweets and blog post to become more efficient but without some actual real-time conversation it is soon recognized by your followers that this is indeed just a platform for you to blast out your message.

I have included a description of the first two  stages of the Value Stream Marketing process:

The Define(Involvement) Stage: The Define stage typically asks us to start with a problem statement. In the marketing sense, can you define the problem that you solve for your customers clearly? Where the problem statement describes the pain, the next statement should describe the relief that is to be expected. After that, we go into a process that is typically defined as Voice of the Customer. There are typically two major categories that are required; Output requirements and Service Requirements. The output requirements relate to the final product or service that is delivered to the customer. The service requirements relate to how the customer would like to be treated and served during the process. The final step in the Define stage is to document the process. Typically, this is done with a high level process map. Don’t worry about it being completely correct as we will use it and develop it further in the remaining processes. More on this Subject: The Marketing Funnel using Six Sigma DMAIC – Define stage

The Measure(Influence) Stage: In the DMAIC methodology we use tools such as Critical to Quality and other tools to determine what is important to a prospect. Instead of thinking about this step from an internal point of view step back and consider what the prospect would use to measure your product or service and make the decision to move through the funnel. Developing measures with customer input will certainly help a prospect move though the funnel. At this stage, do you know how a prospect is measuring you? What is the most Critical to quality standard that influences your product or service? What is more critical than others? The old saying is that people perform by how they are measured? If your company is based on how they are being measured, do you have measurements in places that influence your performance? More on this Subject: The Marketing Funnel using the Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology – Measure stage

These are a couple of the DMAIC principles that you can use to guide someone through your marketing stages. But what are the marketing concepts that you are using in these stages? These concepts are many of the building blocks in the Lean Marketing House Foundation and are the basic marketing tools that you are familiar with when evaluating your marketing. From the general terms such as; Advertising, PR, Social Media and Referrals to the more specific tools that you use such as; Public Speaking, E-zines, Blogging and White Papers.

A Value Stream Marketing Concept: The one concept that many fail to consider is the In direct marketing of “Staying in Touch” with your customer base. Many times your customers are just folded back into the above mentioned terms or with your regular prospects. I would like to challenge your thinking on how you can become involved in your customer’s communities. Becoming active in these areas will not only increase your involvement with your customers and other prospects but there is nothing more effective in making your marketing more efficient. Understanding their needs, what they are looking for, where they are being undeserved is the single greatest marketing concept that I know of. So, if I ask this question: Where are your customers being undeserved? Can you answer it? And/Or, is that a market you have the ability to take care of or build a future alliance from? (Related Book Seeing What’s Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change)

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Related Post with other pertinent links: (Why you should use Kanban in Marketing?)

Followers of my blog have seen how I use DMAIC principles in discussing the marketing funnel and the discussions about adding toll gates for identifying when prospects should move from one stage to the next. Inside the stages, we have different marketing programs that are taking place. But I really never talked about the personnel that were handling these programs. In most sales and marketing applications, you have marketing assigned by the duties they do and salespeople assigned to certain accounts. I think it might be interesting to consider what we have learned in U-shaped or L-shaped work cells.

Instead of the typical arrangement, what would prevent an organization of assigning the personnel and cross-training them within one of the marketing stages. This way they would become experts within the stage and be able to respond to the needs of a prospect better and more efficiently. Since they are handling the tools of the stage, that particular area would have a better chance of improving the methods utilized within it.

In recent times, quality has suffered in sales and marketing. Many times, the customer seems to be more of an expert than the salesperson calling on them. Other times experts have to be brought in and duplication of manpower takes place. Many companies have a sale’s closer; maybe sometimes a sales manager that would come in and have the power to close a prospect when ready. If you were doing that during each stage, the likelihood of passing on better qualified and more prospects may occur. Another consideration that someone may find fault with this type of thinking is geographic boundaries. However, I believe that excuse is seldom the case.

The key to your thinking should be in flow rather than function. Taking each individual stage and think about creating a work cell by defining the operations that take place within that stage. The number of resources within that stage will have to correlate to the number of prospects within the stage. It must be recognized that numbers don’t always work out perfectly or that certain talents may still have to be utilized in several different stages. But I believe that the quality of the interaction would increase with this type of system.

The goal in lean is continuous flow or as close to that as possible, while eliminating waste of waiting and a waste of overproduction. I believe that this type of arrangement would be an organizations first step in leveling sales volume. I’ll save that discussion for another blog post.

Do you think work cells can work in Sales and Marketing? Are they already?

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Using DMAIC for your A3 Report in the Lean Marketing House

Value Stream Mapping

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Kanban is a way of limiting work in process and the amount of new work that is introduced into the process. As a result, work would be pulled from the previous stage as work is completed and levels demand. It emphasizes throughput rather than numbers. If you have read my previous posts, you would recognize the emphasis I put on throughput and the need for this to be monitored in the sales and marketing process.

The Reasons for a Kanban can be summed up in these previous posts:

Improve your Marketing Cycle, Increase your Revenue : Speed is important in the buying process. Your total cycle time can be improved. However, it seldom can be done without more feedback loops in your system.  Develop process blitzes to reduce these non-value times. Go to Gemba or the customer’s place of work and find out what happens during this time. See what is stopping them from moving forward. It may be an internal constraint within their company. However, the constraint may be yours. You may not be responding to the customer’s latest needs. Your ability to focus your resources on the customer needs may provide the overall clarity he needs this to make a more rapid decision.

Improve throughput, cut your customers in half!: In a manufacturing system cutting WIP just about always will increase throughput. Why? You end up working only on what is needed and when it is needed. You also will have less waste, less material to handle and fewer mistakes. Good things happen when you are not handling excessive amount of material. In a marketing system cutting the amount of customers in half works very much the same way. You end up working on what a customer truly needs and wants. Your marketing will become more personal, more direct, and fewer mistakes.

Using the Six Sigma Tollgate in your Marketing Funnel: Have you thought of using DMAIC as a way of defining your marketing funnel? We looked at Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control and utilized these basic principles to walk a customer through the marketing funnel. In other posts, I discussed the ability to create a shorter cycle time by decreasing the non-value time in between each of these stages. One of the methods of doing this is to have a strong call to action for a prospect to move from one stage to the next. However, how do you know if a customer is ready to move from one stage to the next?

What kind of questions would you ask at a tollgate?: In a recent post, using the Six Sigma Tollgate in your Marketing Funnel I went through the concept of using a tollgate in your marketing funnel. Below is a list of questions that might help general a few ideas that you may want to consider. (Review Post)

The essential points needed in a Kanban system are:

1. Stock points
2. Replenishment Signal
3. Quick Feedback
4. Frequent Replenishment

If you would consider the typical marketing cycle as a prospect moves from one stage to another, you imagine it as step by step process and certain events taking place within that stage. With a Kanban method or a tollgate you could have certain trigger points for each stage or even a phase within that stage allowing one marketing effort to pull from the previous. The method would also limit the number of prospects within that cycle so that the proper amount could be managed or more importantly satisfied! Or, you could have an unlimited supply of leads flowing into each stage? You probably wish you had the latter. However, which would prove more effective?

Photo Courtesy of Systems2win.

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The benefit your service/product is to the user:
A. Provide Modest Enhancements
B. Add substantial value
C. Gives dramatic productivity gains.
D. Changes the competitive field

The pain of obtaining the benefit to the user:
4. Significant reengineering, new systems
3. Major changes to existing systems
2. Modest changes to existing systems
1. Integrates with existing systems

When completing this of course the more opinion and arguments the better. You will have to create a consensus, however and a decision reached. Sometimes positioning the competitor’s products/service around yours can assist. Are more changes required, do they add less or more value? If you end up at square A4, no Gain with a lot of pain, you can probably throw the product/service away. It simply will not work. In fact A2 and A3 should probably cause the same reaction. The truth to the matter is that unless you are doing a startup, you probably end up in the twilight zone. The problem being in the twilight zone, according to author Geoffrey Moore is that these offerings will cause little market movement. In other words, they are not COMPELLING. The other areas follow this pattern:

• D4, you are in an early market category.
• D2/D3 is about market segmentation and making the pain a favorable trade-off to that group.
• C1/D1 means that your product can move to widespread adoption and you are ready for that transition.
• A1, B1 is being accepted in your target market and an easy solution.

This description is a take-off from the book but to fully understand you have to read the Crossing the Chasm. It is a must read and still today it is one of most cited books in the innovation area. I have bought the book around 5 times. I keep giving it away.

However, the point to this entire exercise for me is differentiation relative to the gain and pain of the customer. It is an exercise that enables you to look at your product/service more objectively from your customer’s eyes. Are you really that different if all you are doing is complicating their life without making a significant gain? Another item it addresses is your market segmentation. Are you targeting a customer that your product/service causes little pain? If you are in the twilight zone, where are you headed? What will it take to move you to the outer perimeter? It is a simple answer make yourself more valuable by making the gain greater or the pain less!

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“The first storyboards were originated in the Disney animation studios in the 1930’s. According to Walt Disney, the storyboard was invented by Web Smith, an animator and one the first story men at the studio. When Web planned a story, he would draw it instead of describing the action in words. At first he simply spread the drawings out over the floor of his office, but soon graduated to pinning them in order on to the walls. In this way, the unfolding story gains the valuable visual dimension. According to legend, Walt was none too happy with the innovation. He had just redecorated the offices and the marred walls in Webb’s office stuck out like a sore thumb. But Walt also recognized the order imposed by the posted drawings and the ease with which the entire feature could be analyzed and manipulated. So he ordered 4′ x 8′ corkboards and the storyboard was born.

Soon, every Disney cartoon for so life on the storyboard, and the board themselves moved to new departments as the project progressed. The story men would pitch their ideas to Walt on storyboard, color and sound were both added using the storyboard as reference point, etc. When Walt hijacked the studios innovators to design the attractions for Disney land, they brought the storyboard along with them. And today, it has evolved into a standard technique among the Imagineers.”

I think there should be a happy medium somewhere between the Disney storyboard and the Six Sigma storyboard. However, if you error, error toward the Disney side.

As many of you already know, the PowerPoint presentation was developed by engineers for exactly the same reason that most develop a Six Sigma storyboard, to tell the story of a project. However, the main purpose of a storyboard is to tell others outside of the team the story and maybe more importantly to depict to others what is going on inside the project as it is unfolding. Try hanging your Storyboards in the hallway or cafeteria much like the trophy cases in a school. You may be surprised on the amount of activity and comments that it may stimulate. Ask for comments by putting a suggestion box or post it notes next to the storyboard. Get people engaged in the planning process not just at the end.

You may create the typical PowerPoint utilizing SIPOC, VOC, House of Quality and other Six Sigma or Lean Tools. If you are on the team ask yourself, how will you get others engaged? Consider your audience, the storyboard is not about you it is about them. Take a lesson from Disney or even have your fifth grader help you on this project. For example, using a DMAIC process, below are some simple guidelines on how to develop an entertaining storyboard.

Define the problem: What is the first thing you learned in 5^th grade about writing a story? You have to have a hook! Appeal to the emotions of your audience!

Measure: Your metrics must clearly define the problem and visually display it. Do not limit yourself here to simple metrics; maybe pin the defect on the wall or the cause. If a failure causes a catastrophic condition, display visually what that means.

Analyze: Create some drama in analyzing the problem. A typical process here would be identifying the vital few metrics that are important. Create some drama in finding the root cause. Think about how if you don’t find the real problem what may happen.

Implement: We have taken the story to the critical stage, there has to be a solution. This is where everyone wants to jump in and help. We are all problem solvers but are we all MacGyver’s? We have to find the best answer that addresses root cause and is measurable. Who will be the Hero?

Control: Now, is the time of the story that the problem is solved and life goes on happily ever after. Can you depict that in your storyboard? Can you show and prove the results that prove this? Did you reach the other side of the rainbow?

Creating a compelling presentation that depicts the story accurately and allows others outside the team to participate is extremely important. Remember, your storyboard should not be a report but an active document that truly makes your project come alive!

Related Information:

Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service
The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook: An Implementation Guide for Process Improvement Teams

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The Disney Way
Using DMAIC for your A3 Report in the Lean Marketing House
Lean Six Sigma Storyboard

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Define stage:

Why is the change necessary?
What is the proposed scope of this project?
What if we do nothing?
What alternatives have been looked at?
What will be the key objectives for this project?
What is out of scope?
Who is the sponsor for this project?
Who are the key stakeholders?
What are the principal risk to success?

Measure:

What specific benefits of this project deliver?
How will this project contribute to our goals?
What budget and resources will be required?
What assumptions and constraints should be considered?
What dependencies or interfaces should be considered?
What are the major project deliverables and milestones?
Who will manage this project?

Analyze:

How will all the work is scheduled?
Who will be responsible for each work package?
How will identified risk be manage?

Improve:

How are we progressing against our schedule?
How are we doing against budget and resource requirements?
What issues do we face?
What new risk have been identified?
What changes do we need to make to the plant?

Control:

Have we completed our handover to the users?
Have we closed the project and communicated where needed?
Have we captured useful knowledge and lessons learned?
Have we evaluated the results that we have achieved?

P.S. Implementation is a great book to have as a companion before, during and after providing the leadership in a project management process. It is on my trashy section on my bookshelf with other highlighted, written in and dog-eared page books.

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Speed may be the biggest Determent to your Marketing Success

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A lesson that marketers can learn from the Six Sigma Methodology is the utilization of the Tollgate. The tollgate is use to clearly define measurable objectives that will allow a prospect to pass through the gate or to the next stage, or be held until the objectives are completed. Consider how many times that a prospect enters another stage of your marketing funnel and has not experienced the previous stages. When this happens, do you find yourself explaining at the last moment certain objections that should have been dealt with previously? The tendency to slip into the next phase can be common early in the timeline. The desire to move someone quickly through the funnel and to the buy stage or the “close” will often compromise your original standards set. Our typical response is to flood the prospect with the additional information, or make additional sales calls to explain the situation. More than likely this situation will cause the process to be held and dealt with as a “special” situation. Other times, a tollgate is created on an as needed bases causing further confusion downstream.

Overview of a Tollgate: Tollgate Reviews help determine whether all the goals within each stage have been achieved successfully and whether the project can progress to the next stage.

Preparing for a successful Tollgate Review: Many reviews fail due to lack of preparation. If you are going to have a tollgate review, prepare for it. This should include a minimum of a check sheet, milestone list, deliverable documents, etc. for review. This could even be an automated process that the customer knowingly or even unknowingly completes.

Let the numbers be your guide. Spend time developing good metrics and methodologies for their capture. If you do Tollgate review process is as simple as you either made the numbers or you did not. If you leave metrics be general like using the words most in lieu of a defined number, you will create an ineffective tollgate. If you always find exceptions to allow someone to pass through the gate defeats the purpose of the tollgate. Stopping the line, will take some courage initially and that is why many times management or an independent party, in Six Sigma it is the Black Belt, must press the button.

A Tollgate is exactly what it sounds like. The gate comes down and you must pay the toll before continuing. Now, what makes this such a strong feature is how many times do you ever pay the toll without knowing where you are going?

Picture Source: 123 look at me

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This step involves taking the improvements and implementing them. We will document standard operating procedures, create process control plans, and establish a control process. The one final step in handing off the process or transitioning the process for implementation. However, it is imperative that we create an operation that is stable, predictable and meets the customer requirements. The implementation should be supported by documentation and project management to put all the work into practice. Another way of saying this is how are we going to guarantee performance.

In the marketing funnel it comes down to the basic decision to commit or buy the product or service. As I said in my last post, clarity is the number one issue that may prevent you from succeeding if your product/service meets the criteria for the root cause. Remember, customers want consistency. At this stage, you will see price and the confidence that you can deliver what you say becoming the greatest issues. If you believe price is the overwhelming issue, just think of how many times you have lost a job to a better known brand. Why? Security and your lack of ability to address the root cause with unquestionable clarity.

The Control process of Six Sigma can certainly teach us a few things. Creating an operation that delivers a stable and predictable outcome is the purpose of not only the Control stage but the entire DMAIC process. If you have identified predictable measures that the customer can visualize and satisfy the root cause of his problem, you are well on your way of obtaining commitment.

Another stage of Control is handing off of the project for implementation. How many marketing projects are not supported by sales or vice versa? Sales efforts can be undermined especially when the process does not provide predictable results. The ability to control this stage of the process may prevent you from caving into unreasonable demands that prospects may place upon you. However, most worries are not about the prospect but in the effort to close sales many organizations will take their eye off the target and take jobs that may or not solve the root cause or problem for the prospect. Seldom in that circumstance will you deliver the product or service that the prospect is hoping for. It may result in over delivering, which not only is wasted but to the prospect unclear and difficult to evaluate appropriately. Sales may look at this and determine that there is a greater degree of flexibility in the product/service than there is and/or that pricing could be adjusted because the next customer may not need all this. This is not a problem of your sales department, rather you having built the platform and handed off a poorly designed control phase. Build a process management plan for implementation and establishing ongoing measure and methods to be used for improvement is crucial to overall success.

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Most Marketing Systems are Out of Control.
If you control it well, it flows well!

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After all the hard work of the previous stages, it goes without saying you must work on addressing the root cause of the problem not something else. It sounds silly to say, but the people that were good at doing all the detective work in the previous two steps are not necessarily the problem solvers in the organization. Roles may shift and different agendas may creep into this stage. This is important if this shift takes place, stay on task and work on the root cause.

All solutions are not equal. Typically, without too much analysis you can weed through them and narrow the good ones down to several ones that address the root cause. The remaining ones should be systematically eliminated or ranked in order of feasibility to include perceived effectiveness, ease of implementation, within budget constraints, and the ability to measure. What good is a solution if it cannot be measured on how effective it is? Another criterion that I recommend is the ability to pilot test. A sampling of your solution can be a very effective way of deciding between two seemingly equal solutions. Especially, if one requires a substantial investment. A solution matrix is a very simple and visual tool for comparison. Several other tools that can be used our Tree Diagrams and Design of Experiments (DOE).

This is also the stage that I develop a future state map using the Value Stream Mapping Tool.

Marketers frequently at this stage get someone to evaluate or try the product. They are thinking download for thirty days, use this sample, attend this webinar and other ways of evaluation. My thinking is that after you have accomplished the other three stages of the funnel; you are ready to demonstrate that you solve ROOT CAUSE. Can you? Most jobs are lost at this stage because of a lack of clarity. You solution must be crystal clear and be without a question on how you will solve the prospects’ problem and deliver that solution. It is also imperative that you turn your solution into dollars. What is the ROI you are contributing?

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This is also time to reiterate that the thinking process must be about the external prospect or customer. Are listening to your prospects requirements and measuring yourself on how you are performing based on those requirements? Have you properly identified, verified and quantified the root causes of their pain and statistically linked input with output? If this seems mind boggling, you are at the proper stage. Now, is the time to make sense of all the data and confirm the validity of it? However, this is the time that so-called common sense can get in the way. Even at the most basic level of Six Sigma training, examples are given of problems that when reviewed, the data seems to point at an obvious answer. It is an eye-opening experience when you input the data into a statistical program such as Mini-tab and see the results. If you would not have analyzed the problem correctly, you may have been working on a problem that did not exist and as a result have little impact. Remember the old adage, numbers do not lie! However, garbage in will equal garbage out, verification of the data is extremely important.

Using a high level process map or as I prefer, a Value Stream Map is important. The visualization of the process will help as you analyze the data. The first several times you do this, it may only involve several simple tools such as a Fishbone Diagram and/or a Pareto Chart. This is also the stage we look at Value-Added activities.  We can very often find many things that are adding little value from the prospects point of view at this time. Sometimes significant reductions that will pay for the entire improvement policy can be found in this stage.

As a prospect, I may have entered your funnel with a specific problem and now determined that you are someone that I should consider. It is time for me to analyze your organization and start developing preferences. How does marketing react to this role? Marketing at this time needs to identify root cause. I believe that it is very difficult for a prospect to move from consider to prefer without having their root cause addressed. If you start with the definition of the problem you are solving and take a marketing segment or even an individual prospect and using a tool such as the fishbone diagram, you will be able to determine whether you product or service addresses root cause. If it does not, is there a reason to continue with this customer? Is it a good fit? Maybe, there is a better product or service you should be offering?

Definitions:

The Fishbone Diagram, also known as the Cause and Effect Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram, is a graphical construct used to identify and explore on a single chart, in increasing detail commonly using the 5- Why technique, the possible causes which lead to a given effect. The ultimate aim is to work down through the causes to identify basic root causes of a problem.

A Pareto chart, named after Vilfredo Pareto, is a type of chart which contains both bars and a line graph. The bars display the values in descending order, and the line graph shows the cumulative totals of each category, left to right. The purpose of the Pareto chart is to highlight the most important among a (typically large) set of factors. In quality control, it often represents the most common sources of defects, the highest occurring type of defect, or the most frequent reasons for customer complaints, and so on.

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Picture courtesy of Systems2win.

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Marketing people view their role as a series of events, task and campaigns versus a process. Not to over simplify but a calendar is a static document and does not support the use of a process. Once you start systematizing or building a marketing process deliverables, stability, variation and measurable results become important. Hence, Lean or Six Sigma can be a significant partner in improving the Marketing process.

Use of the DMAIC process is usually reserved for solving problem with existing processes. Other methodologies, such as DMEDI are used in the design functions and may be more suitable for certain marketing campaigns. In this series of Blog Posts, I am going to concentrate on the DMAIC method.

My early post correlated the Marketing Funnel to DMAIC and how we may use that methodology to walk our customer through our marketing process. The first stage in the DMAIC Methodology is the Define stage. In the marketing funnel the opening stage is usually reserved for the awareness stage. We typically think of this as our lead generation efforts of getting someone to enter our funnel. Even though we may use efforts as permissions style marketing it is still very much a bait and switch tactic. If we truly believe the Inbound Marketing is what is necessary in today’s marketing, using the Six Sigma Define stage opens a more correct way of entry into the funnel.

My explanation of the Define Stage previously:
Purpose: Identify the clients, their needs and requirements.
Deliverable: State the need of the client and the problem

Expanding on this explanation the Define stage typically asks us to start with a problem statement. In the marketing sense, can you define the problem that you solve for your customers clearly? Where the problem statement describes the pain, the next statement should describe the relief that is to be expected. After that, we go into a process that is typically defined as Voice of the Customer. There are typically two major categories that are required; Output requirements and Service Requirements. The output requirements relate to the final product or service that is delivered to the customer. The service requirements relate to how the customer would like to be treated and served during the process.The final step in the Define stage is to document the process. Typically, this is done with a high level process map. Don’t worry about it being completely correct as we will use it and develop it further in the remaining processes.

Six Sigma has some great tools on how to obtain and measure these processes such as Kano Analysis, Process Map and SIPOC . I just wonder why marketers shy away from them.

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Technorati : DMAIC, Marketing Funel, Process Map, Six Sigma

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In previous blogs, you have heard me mention that one of the main culprits is variation and the lack of proper segmentation. We think of segmentation both in a horizontal fashion and a vertical. Horizontal will typically result in segments such as: Direct, Internet, Distributor, Joint-Venture and so on. The vertical aspect of your Marketing Funnel is the image on the right depicted below. This funnel allows you to assign different products to each process stage in the hope of maximizing efforts.

However, if you attempt to improve your Marketing Funnel, how would you go about it? Being a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, the Marketing Funnel bears a close resemblance to the DMAIC process of Six Sigma. Not that I am trying to replace the marketing funnel with DMAIC, but it certainly would not hurt to analyze the resemblance to improve our marketing process. And if you know anything about Lean Six Sigma, the one thing we will attack is variation. However, just using some generic definitions of DMAIC and relating them to the Marketing Funnel can create some interesting observations.

Define
Purpose: Identify the clients, their needs and requirements.
Deliverable: State the need of the client (CTS) and the problem

Measure
Purpose: Quantify Process Performance
Deliverable: Determine baseline process performance

Analyze
Purpose: Identify, Verify and Quantify Root causes
Deliverable: Statistically linking input with output

Improve
Purpose: Create the Solution and Validate
Deliverable: Optimizing Process Operating Conditions

Control
Purpose: Document and Standardize Process
Deliverable: Meet Critical to Quality(CTQ) consistently (Involvement)

Looking at your Marketing Funnel from the DMAIC viewpoint is not that far-fetched, is it?

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Technorati : DMAIC, Lean, Marketing Funnel, Marketing Hourglass, Six Sigma

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