We are deep into my favorite time of the year – the NCAA tournament – “March Madness.” Every year we’re treated to the drama of David vs. Goliath matchups and the promise of an upset around every turn (sorry Kansas…). While I’m eagerly awaiting my beloved Syracuse to steamroll their way to a championship – I also enjoy the egalitarian nature of the tournament that gives all of its entrants the chance to walk away with the trophy at the end.
What do these teams have in common? Thousands of hours of practice and significant investments from many different sources that got them to the tournament in the first place. Coaches, families, schools, and the drive of the athletes themselves, are all integral parts of getting a team to the level needed to compete in the NCAA tournament. Malcolm Gladwell puts the number of hours training to reach a level of mastery at 10,000. In real terms, that’s about 10 years of practice.
Has your Marketing team put in 10,000 hours of training? For most of us, the answer is a resounding “No”. Well, your Marketing team – just like every NCAA team – needs to put in the time to attain a world-class level. And just like an NCAA team, this training cannot be a solitary effort. A successful Marketing training program must align itself with corporate initiatives and work to build support for the program across the organization. Makes sense, but easier said than done right?
The companies who are consistently successful in their training efforts have done just that. The Marketing Excellence Survey, a sister program of the Marketing Leadership Council, profiled Philips Respironics – and how they were able to build widespread support for their training program with fantastic results. Philips Respironics’ shared the five keys to success for their program:
1. Align Participation with Work Projects: Respironics selected participants for the training based on project work and ensured the training was voluntary. This helped Respironics avoid participant resentment and increase engagement.
2. Build from Small Successes: Respironics received funding for a full-time Marketing Excellence program by developing a training program where successes would be easily visible to a senior audience, such as with changes to pricing strategy.
3. Align with Corporate Objectives: By aligning the training to corporate objectives, Respironics kept its senior management supportive of the program. Every training session included a “destination statement” at the beginning of the session to reorient learners back to corporate objectives as a reason behind the training session.
4. Align with Business Unit Training Needs: By creating monthly feedback sessions with the Business Unit Marketing Directors, the Marketing Excellence Director shaped training programs to reflect changing business unit priorities in the context of the larger corporate objectives. The feedback sessions also helped to ensure the Marketing Directors remained supportive of the initiative.
5. Assign a Project Owner: Respironics felt that having a full-time staff member assigned to create, run, and track the training program was essential in making sure that milestones and deliverables were hit and that there was a driving force behind the training program.
MLC Members, check out the full Philips case study.
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