Would you consider yourself a marketing rockstar? If you answered no, then we strongly advise reading on. If you answered yes, then you should know the importance of gaining new knowledge, and therefore, should also read on. Over the next three blog posts, we will examine how you can achieve marketing rockstar status, via internal value, thought leadership, client value, and truly knowing your clients.
In this first piece, we’re looking at arguably an organisation’s most important commodity - its employees. According to a recent study, a company loses 10 to 30 percent of its original staff capabilities every year. Within three years, it loses 41% of its staff, and by year six, only 24% remain. Companies can often live and die by the success and drive of their employees, and so it’s essential that you keep them motivated, engaged, and educated on the product or service they are selling.
Below are three important questions that each and every company should be able to answer:
Do your employees know what they’re selling?
You may have a broad and well informed knowledge of the product or service that your company is selling, but can you say the same for all of your employees? You want your current and future clients to receive the best information possible, however this is only possible if your workforce attains a high knowledge and understanding themselves. You can’t expect people to sell a product to the highest standard if they haven’t been appropriately trained and educated on what they’re actually selling. The more they know, the more they can sell, and succeed.
Less than half of the workforce (40%) are aware of their company’s goals, tactics, and strategies. This is a staggeringly low number, especially when you consider how essential it is for a business and its employees to be on the same wavelength. By keeping your workforce informed on what you’re hoping to achieve, you create a solid sense of community and camaraderie. Every worker wants their own success, but an individual that also wants their company and employer to succeed is a far more valuable commodity. A commodity that can be enhanced through training, and a healthy and social relationship between employee and employer.
Are you providing consistent and digestible information?
So you’re training your employees and providing them with in-depth information on your company and service? Great. But is the information you’re providing consistent and digestible? Are your employees taking the knowledge in and implementing it into their work, or is it going in one ear and quickly heading out the other? 40% of employees who receive poor job training leave their position within the first year, so it’s imperative that you’re offering a high standard of internal knowledge.
Though it may be hard at times, try to put yourself in the shoes of someone new. Someone who has never worked for your company and knows very little of the organisation, the brand, culture, what you sell and how you sell it. Now if that was you, what are some of the essential pieces of information you would need to know right away? Whatever they are, make sure that this knowledge is being passed on to new and current employees, but is also presented in a clear and understandable manner. Even the most complicated and complex services are presented to clients in a clear and often simplistic manner, and the same should be said for how you train your staff.
How are you measuring success?
Replacing an experienced worker can cost 50% or more of the individual’s annual salary in turnover-related costs, along with the additional financial repercussions of losing an employee to a potential competitor. To avoid an upheaval of employee turnover, it’s imperative that you measure the success of your training and teaching. Are you doing enough to inform and engage your workforce, and if not, how can you change that?
Some of the ways to measure the success of your teachings can include word of mouth, traffic on the intranet site, or employee and team performance. What you’re ultimately trying to discover is - does more knowledge result in new or increased business? 91% of highly engaged employees always or almost always try their hardest at work, compared to just 67% of disengaged workers. If you’re noticing a drop in sales, productivity or morale, this could be due to a lack of guidance or training from senior staff. Perhaps you should spend a few days sharing knowledge and training a number of workers, and examine their performance moving forward. If there is a noted improvement, then the training should be deemed a success and you can move on to training the rest of your workforce accordingly.
Concluding part one:
Disengaged workers reportedly cost the economy $300 billion or more every single year. The internal value and importance of your employees and co-workers cannot be stressed enough. They are an essential component to the success of any company and need to be treated as such. Whether you work in legal, financial services or nearly any other sector, it’s hard to disagree that retaining valuable employees is one of the keys to company triumph, and one of the vital factors to becoming a marketing rockstar.
This concludes part one of our three-part series, but there is plenty more to come. Keep a look out for part two and three over the next few days, where we will examine the remaining components for reaching marketing rockstar status.
