One Small Task to Save £10K

In my last blog The £10K Planning Mistake, I shared the mistake that cost a business £10,000, but which could have so easily been avoided.

It was one 1 task that was omitted and that was a loss of £10,000.

One task that is too often overlooked ; such an expensive mistake to make.

What is it?

Quite simply a briefing note. Nothing complicated. In fact just six sentences is all that's required. It sits on one page or in a short email or a quick face to face or as part of a team briefing cascade.

It doesn't take much time, just a little thought, effort and of course, pre planning.

I've used this format to brief teams on high level changes, campaigns and tactics. It works every time. My first blog on this topic was way back in May 2012.Here's the link if you'd like to see what life was like 8 years ago!

It is the six questions made famous by Rudyard Kipling.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?

Write one or two sentences to answer each of these questions and you are done. That's all you need to do.

Let's see how it should have been done...

Briefing Note: To all regional directors, office managers and all customer facing staff

Date DD/MM/YY Brief before date DD/MM

Heading Finding new home sellers that we can serve.

Why? It is important for us to continue to attract new customers for our estate agency. Our buyers are looking for a continual supply of new properties to purchase and our sellers want a quick sale.

What? Homeowners are hot prospects when their house has been on the market for 12 weeks! That's why we have decided to send them a promotional postcard offering our help to achieve a sale.

When? This campaign starts on DD/MM and will run every week. Postcards are posted every Thursday to homeowners that our market research team have identified.

How? We make a proactive approach and ask them to contact our branch. We need our customer advisors and sales representatives to quickly understand that these leads are hot prospects and engage the enquirer and make them feel valued.

Where? Postcards are sent from head office to prospects. A sample is attached. We ask you to be ready for enquiries responding to our postcard campaign.

Who? We need your help to convert these hot prospects into customers. It is important that all customer facing team members know about this important campaign and are ready to assist any new enquiries. Discuss in your team how that will work in your office.

Any questions? Please contact A.N. Other.

Now that shouldn't take too long but it will make a massive positive impact on the teams dealing with customers. When teams know what is happening, especially from a remote head office a briefing like this avoids a huge amount of frustration and stress. AND will save you thousands of pounds!

Does your next marketing campaign have a briefing note for your team?