During the past several years, I have seen more marketing efforts geared towards increasing prospects at the top of the marketing funnel. This has resulted in increase spending, greater efforts in innovation and jumping on the Social Media bandwagon. Few will attribute greater profits or increased revenue to these efforts. My contention is that the top of the funnel is the least effective and most expensive method of generating leads. All of these methods will increase variation and can be demonstrated by Deming’s funnel experiment which illustrates the effects of "tampering" with a process and increasing variation rather than decreasing it.
Video courtesy of Rumba Training Ltd –
It is not enough in this day and age to just increase marketing efforts. The reason the pellets miss the target is because of the inherent errors or causes built into the system. Attending to you Value Stream (Marketing Funnel) will decrease variability and create significant improvements. Why would you need to take the riskier methods of innovation and product improvements?
This is were many think that I would discuss the typical Lean theories of reducing waste, improving cycle time, and managing your work in process. Though that is not a bad thing to do but you have to innovate and improve or you will fall behind.
This is what the new wave of Lean Marketing solves. It is an effective way of staying on the leading edge. It is a way improving the way you sell and market through tightening those inherent errors in your system. You cannot predict the future. However, you can build a process that adapts quickly to the changing environment and quicker than you competition. The Future of marketing is Lean!
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