Getting enough money to do the job right
Published on 04/12/1993 under Budgeting
It's one of the most important things we do as business-to-business marketing communications practitioners, and yet it's the one thing we're least prepared to do well.
I'm talking about money -- getting enough to do a job right and hanging on to what you need long enough for your efforts to produce measurable results.
And with all the recent pressures on Corporate America to streamline organizations and reduce expenditures, the task is getting harder, not easier.
So how do you do it?
For one thing, you can't treat budgeting as a once-a-year process. You wouldn't sit down once a year with your spouse to determine how much money you'll need for household and personal expenses, and then forget about it for the next 11 months. Would you?
Of course, not. Budgeting for household and personal priorities is an on-going challenge -- one you struggle with at least several times a month.
So why would corporate budgets be any different? Many people have the attitude if it's not in the "blue book" or the "O&O budget" then you'll just have to wait until next year. Why is that? If it will help us build our business now, then why would we want to wait until next year?
The best thing that can happen if you treat budgeting as a once-a-year process is that you'll actually get to spend the amount of money you thought you were going to spend. Usually, however, you end up spending a lot less. Because budgets get cut, or money ear-marked for a new product launch goes away because the product is hung up in R&D, or some other reason.
I discovered a simple tactic a number of years ago that serves as protection against the Incredible Shrinking Budget monster. When you prepare your annual marketing communications plan, go ahead and develop detailed strategies for all identified communications needs, even those you know you can't afford right now.
Then list the extra projects as an exhibit of "optional items for future consideration" in the back of your plan. Be sure to include the anticipated cost of each activity. In many cases, your clients will discover they really can't wait until next year to start these items, and one-by-one, they'll start picking them off the optional list for implementation now.
At the very least, you'll have a ready list of viable project substitutes when other items on the current budget plan start looking shaky.
Also, be sure as you prepare your marketing communications plan to tie communications objectives and strategies to marketing objectives and strategies. There should be at least one marcom strategy directly supporting every marketing strategy. If the marcom budget gets cut, management should be willing to cut the marketing objectives by a similar amount.
Another way to get more money is by monitoring competitive activities. Have you ever noticed how many marketing and sales managers are perfectly content to do little or no advertising until their major competitors launch a major blitz?
Then, all of a sudden, they're asking you to jump through flaming hoops to prepare a quick and equally major response. You can usually avoid this fire drill by making it your business to analyze and report all competitive marcom activities to your clients on a regular basis. Route copies of ads, brochures, direct mail pieces, and other promotional materials to the entire sales and marketing management team. Take photos of competitive displays at trade shows and write a brief report describing their key messages.
This habit of monitoring competitive communications programs will help you spot strategy changes as they occur, and enable you to solicit additional funding for efforts that will enable your client to stay in front of the pack rather than scramble to catch up.
Is it possible to get more money without even asking for it?
It is, if you can get someone else to do the asking. And the more leverage that person has, the more likely the request will be honored. If the president or the senior vice president wants to do something that's not in the budget, is there any problem finding the money? Not hardly.
Even the district sales manager or a salesperson can have leverage to get additional marcom funds, because they're out there "on the firing line." Planting "idea seeds" with people on the firing line will usually pay big dividends in terms of budget growth. It's kind of like having a "pull through" marketing effort for budget development.
And while we're on the subject of planting seeds, it's always a good idea to merchandise your successes within the company (or if you're an agency practitioner, from one client to another). Don't assume that one group knows fully the glorious details of a program you did for another group. They may be vaguely aware of it, but haven't taken the time to study its implications for their products and markets.
We use an inexpensive, 4-page newsletter to describe some of the successful programs we'd like other clients and prospects to know about. You never know what will strike someone's hot button, but it stands to reason if you don't tell people about successful efforts, you're not maximizing your chances to increase ad budgets by stimulating their thoughts.
Which leads to another way you can get additional money to do a better communications job: ask sales and marketing people lots of questions. Yes, it's true, sales and marketing people can be very unkind to advertising people. They find numerous ways to show their contempt for what we do ("If it was up to me, I'd cut the ad program altogether and hire five more salespeople").
But the fact is, they need marketing communications support to do their jobs better, and if you ask enough questions, they will eventually start telling you ways you can help. When enough sales and marketing people identify similar needs, it's real hard for management to turn a deaf ear. They will almost always open up the purse strings for additional programs.
If you've ever been around someone who believed passionately in a cause, you probably noticed that he or she had no trouble whatsoever in asking others for money to support that cause. As business-to-business communicators, our CAUSE is to convince our clients to believe as passionately as we do, and to invest enough money so we can do a good job.
No more Mister Nice Guy when it comes to money. It's time we demanded our fair share.