I have always tried to follow the tenet – hire slow, fire fast. I’ve tried to hire individuals that would fit our team but I’ve had a bad run lately. I guess I am paying for the 20-plus years of having very few issues with employees. But this past month I had to fire my second employee in less than six months. The first one only lasted a week. It was that obvious that I had made a bad hiring decision. The second I have to admit I waited too long. She came from outside the marketing field and since it was a “new language” for her I made concessions. Never will I do that again.
I used an employment agency for these two hires. And, unfortunately I relied too heavily on their evaluation of the candidates. I now realize that I needed to vet them more as to our way of working. Yes, they had good references and passed all the “tests” but in the future I will require more testing within our office. Having the right team in place is definitely a major element of success.
So why were they let go? They weren’t following procedures. And not only were jobs not being managed as they should be, they were costing me money. Not a good combination at all.
Understand Client Expectations
Although we are a small company in number of employees, we primarily work with large corporate clients. And our clients are used to a certain level of professionalism and communication. It’s one of the reasons that our clients have been with us for so long. I’ve been told that no matter what, they each feel like they are my most important client. It’s crucial that we are on top of all the orders – even before they become orders – through production and delivery.
I came from corporate America and so I’ve structured my business accordingly. I have a procedures manual and a procedure for just about everything. I think it’s why we can easily handle 150 projects at varying stages of production at one time with a small staff, but of course, only if procedures are followed.
Early in my career I worked for advertising agencies in New York so I took many of my project management procedures from that experience and have modified them over the years to work for my business. I’m not sure how other companies manage their processes, but maybe my recent experience can help improve them.
Attention to Detail is Key to Success
The first issue was attention to detail. I think all of us can appreciate that promotional products are a detailed business. From the product, product color, logo, logo imprint color to the delivery address and in-hands date, if something is missed then it’s a problem.
My most recent employee was extremely inconsistent in her details of the jobs. Her duties included managing the projects once they were approved by a client. She had to set up job files, process POs, maintain our status report and generally make sure that the project kept moving.
We have a status meeting every Monday morning. Reviewing all jobs in production and as time went on it became increasingly obvious that she wasn’t staying on top of things. I admit, I have a pretty good memory, but when I’d ask about a PO that was just completed the day before and would get a blank stare I knew I was in trouble.
We have a job file for every client product in production. It includes all the details of the client contact information, the vendor information, PO # and date the project is due. Not hard, right? She decided she would set up master information forms for each client. Not a bad idea. Yet within most of our client companies we have multiple individual clients and she would forget to update the information. So, on a rush order I was leaving messages on the wrong client’s phone number!
Inside the job folder we include the client PO, our PO to the vendor, acknowledgements, layout proofs and approvals, shipping details and ultimately the client invoice and payment. For some reason we were always missing something from the files.
Cash Flow is King
We also have a process for the vendor invoices and delivered files getting to the bookkeeper for billing on a timely basis. As we can all appreciate, cash flow is another key to a successful business and when you are billing a client 30 days after their order has been delivered it is a cash flow disaster.
So, I am pitching in these days keeping our jobs moving. I am glad I am because at this week’s status meeting we discussed some possible changes to our processes. While to some our processes may appear redundant, our history has proven that the redundancy is so important for making sure all program details are completed correctly and timely.
Some tips to consider in developing your own procedures:
1. Review all your steps and develop a system that works for you
2. Have written instructions/procedures for your system and the various office procedures
3. Have a check list for most important elements of each of the procedures (did you check client information for instance?)
4. Complete one job process at a time (we all live in a multi-tasking world, but when it comes to most any business, paying attention to the details is truly better when you do one thing at a time)
5. Follow up (it’s why we review all our jobs in production every Monday, it can be easy for something to fall through the cracks)
If you have the proper procedures in place then it should be easy for anyone to come in and pick up the ball and run with it!
Danette Gossett is the founder of Gossett Marketing, co-founder of Promotions Rescource LLC and co-author of the best-selling book "Transform" with Brian Tracy. Danette utilizes her more than 30 years of advertising agency and corporate marketing experience to develop effective promotional campaigns and products for her clients. Visit GossettMktg.com or SalesPromo.org and follow us on twitter @MarketngTidbits.