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Strengthening Connections

Strengthening Connections. Tools to Help You ( Re)connect with Customers and Other Key Stakeholders. Beaty & Associates, Inc. What does it mean to be “Connected”?. It is an ongoing, dynamic, two-way exchange of ideas and feedback between you and your multiple communities Internally

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Strengthening Connections

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  1. Strengthening Connections Tools to Help You ( Re)connect with Customers and Other Key Stakeholders Beaty&Associates, Inc

  2. What does it mean to be “Connected”? • It is an ongoing, dynamic, two-way exchange of ideas and feedback between you and your multiple communities • Internally • Continuous shaping of a coherent organizational identity and truly shared values and vision across the firm • Clarifying priorities and allocation of scarce resources for highest ROI of marketing and operational efforts • Externally • Dynamic insight into the evolving needs, motivations, and expectations of consumers, business partners, employees, and social/political institutions • Constant awareness of trends, issues, and contextual forces that impact the future of your firm as well as your multilple communities.

  3. It’s About Completing the CircuitConnections require a two-way flow of energy WHERE ARE YOUR DISCONNECTS? Conversation: Are you talking at or listening to your customers? Congruence: Are you interfering with yourself? Clarity: Are you fuzzy in your customer/stakeholder priorities? Context: Are you aware of external corrosives & conductors?

  4. Research That Strengthens Your Connections CONGRUENCE Your organizational energy is focused CONVERSATION You are having a two-way conversation with your customers. Their point of view is guiding your organization. CONTEXT You are aware of and accounting for the dynamics of your environment and how that impacts you, your customers, and your connections CLARITY You have clearly defined and prioritized the groups that matter most to your business.

  5. Community Connections Conversation Perspective Matters

  6. The Conversation Disconnect • A conversation is two-way • Is your connection with your community unidirectional? • A conversation focuses on understanding the other’s point of view • Are you pushing your views out rather than bringing community voices and views in? • A disconnect occurs when your internal perspective or point of view dominates the conversation • Are you listening?

  7. Perspective Matters Over the years we have learned that: • Insiders are poor surrogates for outsiders. • The greater the internal enthusiasm for “what we know” the greater the need to confirm it “out there.” Your Internal Point-of-View or Perspective may be a key barrier to building connections.

  8. Perspective Matters: Consumer Community as Example • Why do consumers choose you? • Awareness: Are you on the radar at all? • Image: What is out there about you? • “Official” and unofficial image and reputation • Product Needs: What are emerging functional requirements? • Service Needs: What services are needed? • Why don’t consumers choose you? • Who else is on the radar? Why? • What is their image relative to you? • What product and service needs to they fulfill? • The Why’s vary by the Who’s – • Different segments have different perspectives and needs • Millennials • Baby Boomers • Majority Minorities

  9. Perspective goes deeper than “opinions” • You live and breath your industry, you are steeped in your services/products, your structure, your own expertise • You have a “supply-side view” of the world • Your community has a “demand side view” • The disconnect between the two may be very subtle • Taken for granted definitions of key terms that are really jargon • Perceptions of who you are or what industry you’re in • Points of view on what constitutes success • Views of who or what is really your competition

  10. Demand vs. Supply-Side Point-of-View Supply-side Do Your Push Your View Out? Or Bring Their View In? Demand-side

  11. Data driven – a double-edge sword? • When you “run the numbers” for reporting purposes, do you think about the motives and perceptions, the people, behind the numbers? • Are you relying primarily on data that only reflect the questions you care about or are you listening, really listening, to voices in your community? • Does your data reflect your perspective or your community’s? We can help you humanize your data, make it richer and more relevant to you and your community.

  12. Community Connections Congruence Parallel Universes

  13. Lack of Internal Congruence Diverts Energy • Are their Parallel Universes In Your Firm? • C-level vs. Managers vs. Frontline vs. … • Different, contradictory definitions/images • Silo’s of strategies, tactics, and behaviors at odds with moving forward • Working at cross-purposes and confusing your communities • Resources wasted due to lack of shared purpose and shared meaning.

  14. Lack of Internal Congruence Diverts Energy • Coherence is a critical foundation for connections • Ask fundamental questions about • Who we are • Who we want to be • What is keeping us stuck • Operational issues? Corporate culture? Environmental constraints? • We help your organization explicitly define and socialize an internal point of view so your energy can be focused more effectively.

  15. Community Connections Clarify Who is “Community”??

  16. Strengthening Connections – Clarity • Do you have a tangible, concrete, shared understanding of who your communities ARE? • Do you have a tangible, concrete, shared understanding of who your communities SHOULD be? • Are your resources and energies aligned with the communities that really matter most? • Do you understand the world from the perspective of those key communities?

  17. Thinking about “Stakeholders” - An Educational Institution Example • Students are traditional focus for colleges • Broaden thinking about who is important • De-homogenize to better understand key groups • Stakeholders and Segments • Expand view to encompass key Stakeholders • Particularize view to target key Segments • Critical tasks • Identify relevant groups • Describe them in actionable ways • Prioritize groups for resource allocation

  18. STAKEHOLDER FRAMEWORK – Educational Institution Example Student-centric Stakeholder Focus Community Engagement Stakeholder Focus

  19. The “Wheels” are different for every firm and industry– CLARITY for YOU is key • Segmentation allows for fine-tuning strategy and tactics • We help you: • Identify and clearly define stakeholder groups relevant to YOU • Fine tune your definitions and prioritize specific segments for targeted action

  20. Community Connections Context Environmental Influences

  21. Context – Impact Goes Two Ways • Understanding trends and dynamics in the larger context helps • Measure your impact: it is hard to know what or if you are impacting anything if you don’t know the baselines or larger trends • Anticipate impacts on you: political, economic, socio-cultural, media, competitive trends and events can create barriers or create leverage • Environmental scanning identifies factors that directly or indirectly impact you, your community, your connections. • Competitive intelligence keeps you aware of potential threats and opportunities. What are the unmet needs in your market? • SWOTs are helpful if they are broad enough to encompass the larger context, the future, and multiple stakeholder groups.

  22. Context – Vision or Tunnel Vision? ARE YOU • Looking forward or driven backwards by a focus on last month’s, last year’s data? • Unidimensional, focusing only on data or trends related to a single stakeholder group? • Defining the world and data from a supplier point of view, missing key issues from key groups? • Simply repeating the same old story with the same old data? With the same old results?

  23. STRENGTHENING Connections We Can Help Close Disconnects And Strengthen Your Connections

  24. We Help Strengthen Connections CONGRUENCE Your organizational energy is focused CONVERSATION You are having a two-way conversation with your customers and stakeholders. Their point of view is guiding your organization. CONTEXT You are aware of and accounting for the dynamics of your environment and how that impacts you, your community, and your connections CLARITY You have clearly defined and prioritized the groups that matter to your business.

  25. Decades of experience Helping organizations (re)connect Let us help YOU strengthen, deepen, and broaden your connections. • Identify disconnects that are blocking the flow of information or feedback to and from your customers. • Identify internal barriers that make it difficult to create a coherent organizational identity, truly shared values, and actionable mission. • Clarify customer segments and priorities to ensure optimal allocation of scarce resources. • Provide insight into the evolving needs, motivations, and expectations of your key customer segments. • Offer insight into external trends, issues and forces that impact you today and tomorrow. Beaty& Associates, Inc

  26. We Look Forward to Helping You Strengthen Your Connections Beaty&Associates, Inc Dr. Dave Beaty Dr. Patricia B. Sikora Denver, Colorado beatyinc@msn.com 303 830-1951 www.BeatyAssociates.com

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