Lean Manufacturing Concepts Applied to Lead Production

"So, Debbie, how do we apply lean manufacturing concepts to demand generation?" This recent question from not one, but two of my clients, made me start thinking how cool this could be. This is a topic I have been thinking about for some time and so over the next few months, using social media and client conversations, I'd like to open up this dialog.

The first wave of companies to adopt lead generation and demand generation practices and tools were primarily technology and business services firms with a sprinkling of financial services. As we enter the next big wave of adoption, the manufacturing sector is now looking at how they can embrace demand generation to help improve the revenue picture in 2009. And a big part of their discussion includes how to apply one of their foundation processes - lean manufacturing - into the discussion.

From Wikipedia, lean manufacturing is defined as "a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any other goal than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. In a more basic term, More value with less work."

I find this fascinating as my view of demand generation is very much like a factory production line. In 2004 when I bought my first marketing automation system, I actually produced a flash file of an assembly line that created leads in a predictable and measurable system. This is still a metaphor and language I use today with my clients. I often talk about "getting to a run rate" or "follow a Plan-Do-Check-Act" philosophy to test, test, test as you begin production or "demonstrating a measurable return" or "producing the highest quality leads." While these are all very common concepts to the manufacturing world, they are startling concepts to marketing. This is why I am so pleased to have this discussion. My belief is that lead production is a process and that wasteful time and effort can be driven out of the process to produce the lowest cost, highest quality lead that will delight our customer - the sales team. I also believe that by taking a manufacturing approach to lead production, marketing can get better buy-in and alignment to this invaluable initiative.

There are a few major areas we can dissect:

1. Eliminating waste
2. More value with less work
3. Test, test, test

The whole genre of marketing automation systems focus on the word "automation" in terms of reducing waste for the marketing team. This waste is time spent doing heavily manual processes and producing higher quality leads which eliminates "lead waste" or leads that aren't worth the follow up time required. The application of technology to improve process is widely accepted in manufacturing and has transformed the manufacturing industry through the years. The application of technology to transform marketing begins with less "transformation" and more "another project to do." Make no mistake about it. This class of technology is powerful and it is transformational. The most successful marketers see this, embrace it and drive the change across the company. Other marketers will get there, especially as this becomes a common set of practices that created a competitive advantage for companies.

My husband used to work for Lever Brothers and his plant produced Surf detergent. Their newly constructed plant had state of the art technology and processes which allowed them to produce a case of Surf and deliver it to the LA plant for less money than the LA plant could produce the same case of Surf. Which plant stayed open? In these trying economic times who doesn't want more revenue that costs less to get? That is part of the promise of marketing automation.

More value with less work speaks to the most common top challenge we hear from marketers responsible for lead generation - producing higher quality leads. With the power of functions like lead scoring, automated programs and automated responses based on online behavior, marketing automation fits this lean tenet perfectly. This shifts the responsibility for some of the key qualifying of a prospect from the expensive shoulders of sales people (it's even more expensive when they don't do the follow up) to the ever vigilant marketing automation system. When set up properly, it is executed well with a high level of predictability.

Finally, while I'm not sure if this is a part of lean, you must test, test, test. Every production line has to be thoroughly tested before full production runs begin. At my husband's plant, they would often run different formulations of Surf. The formulations would vary by the part of the world the product was being sent to. Before every full production run, they had multiple tests to ensure the end product met all the specs of their target market. Marketing needs to take a very similar approach. When beginning with lead generation and working with these powerful tools, you only think you know what will happen - you have a best guess. In order to produce the highest quality lead for your target market (sales), you need to test, test, test everything from your list to your message, to your subject line, to the expected prospect response and behavior.

Over the next few months I want to talk to the market and continue this dialog with an end purpose to apply discipline and rigor to the lead production process. This is going too be fun!