The Business of You

Operational Marketing: Preparing for Success in Your Day-to-Day Responsibilities

When you see a well-produced television commercial, it is easy to discount the work behind the scenes. To produce that slick-looking advertisement, there was extensive customer research conducted (competitive landscape, demographics, spending habits, hot buttons, market-positioning analysis, etc.). Multiple script revisions were made to dial-in words, visuals, and sound effects. And that is not a comprehensive list of the prep work that happens before the actual filming and editing of the advertisement. A well-produced commercial is a powerful tool for companies. It shapes the consumer’s opinion of the company and its product. When executed correctly, it drives the purchasing decision and helps the company grow.

You can harness the same influential power to elevate your career prospects in the workplace. The difference is instead of a tightly produced commercial, you are packaging your performance in the platforms of meetings, presentations, and the way you lead projects. Every day, decision makers watch how you perform, and they are evaluating your competence and future potential.

A professional who excels at meetings, presentations, or leading a project is held in high esteem; those skill sets engender a positive association with the person’s internal brand. This positive association leads to more opportunities and being positioned to rise through the ranks quicker. These individuals have mastered operational marketing.

Operational marketing is based on delivering service that exceeds customer expectations. Think about a restaurant that you return to regularly. In many cases, your decision to return is not made solely on the quality of the food. One of the main reasons people become “regulars” is because the service experience is phenomenal. What creates that kind of experience is making you feel at home and loved. That means the staff knows your name, gets your order right, and does everything in their power to make sure you are enjoying yourself.

WHEN A PROFESSIONAL IN THE WORKPLACE EXCELS AT MEETINGS, PRESENTATIONS, OR LEADING A PROJECT, THEY ARE HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM, AND POSITIVE ASSOCIATION IS ESTABLISHED WITH THEIR SKILL SETS AND INTERNAL BRAND.

You need to be doing the same with your career. When you are in meetings or presenting, managers and coworkers should feel that positive association with you and your skill set. When you see someone excel, it appears to be second nature to the individual, which, looking from the outside in, can be intimidating. In most cases, it is not. That smooth delivery is the product of significant preparations behind the scenes. These are skills that can be developed. And they are important ones, because like the slick TV advertisement influencing a purchase decision, you can influence decision makers into giving you the opportunity to advance in your career.

If you are looking to consistently produce at a high level in the workplace, look no further than the sports world, where the hours of preparation outnumber game-time hours significantly.

It takes a fair amount of natural talent to get to the highest levels of sports. That doesn’t mean, however, that those born with talent always make it to the top. Instead, the individuals who typically “make it” are the ones who fully subscribe to concentrated practice and complete preparation. The reason is because an actual game makes up such a minuscule amount of time when compared to the work leading up to it. Those who thrive in the preparations are most likely the ones to succeed.

Corporate America is no different — the vast majority of our leaders aren’t the ones with the most natural intelligence or talent. Instead, they’re the ones who put in the time on the “practice field.”

Every meeting, presentation, and interaction, after all, is a chance to improve and shape how you are perceived in the organization. Wouldn’t you practice if you had a big game coming up? Work should not be any different.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF OUR LEADERS AREN’T THE ONES WITH THE MOST NATURAL INTELLIGENCE OR TALENT. INSTEAD, THEY’RE THE ONES WHO PUT IN THE TIME ON THE “PRACTICE FIELD.”

After my brief professional baseball career, I adopted the following mantra for my business career, and it has been a game changer: You do not have to be the smartest person in the room; however, it pays to be the most prepared.

This focus on preparation stems from a sports background of practicing and preparing for the games. Everyone loves the games. It is fun and exciting to show up and play in front of big crowds. The individuals who ultimately thrive in games are the ones who, beforehand, are doing everything physically and mentally to succeed. Especially the non-glamorous things, like working hard when nobody else is watching. Think back to a time when you didn’t prepare for a sporting event, recital, performance, or presentation. How did that turn out? Poorly, I imagine.

The same thing happens when you don’t prepare for the simple things at work, like a meeting with your boss. Most people will show up to a meeting with their boss and wing it. The unprepared person will hit some of the most important problems and topics; however, they will likely forget a couple of questions they should have asked. The discussion will bounce around and have no logical flow. If the manager asks a probing question, this person will likely stammer through an answer, without having conducted any research or put in much thought on the topic. What does the manager see when someone shows up for a meeting and just wings it? An unorganized, unprepared employee who doesn’t respect the manager’s time. The employee might come across as a shallow thinker, because the employee was not able to string together a cohesive response to simple questions.

This is a basic interaction that is often taken for granted. It can be very damaging to your career prospects if not managed correctly. By not preparing, you are establishing a poor reputation with your manager. Remember, this is the person who likely has the greatest impact on your chances to advance in this company. How many other opportunities to shine are you not taking advantage of?

Imagine how different the meeting could have gone if you had spent just a few minutes to prepare. You could have:

This would have kept you organized, provided a logical flow for the meeting, ensured that you covered every topic, and showed that you are respectful of the manager’s time.

This would have helped you develop fully formed thoughts on these topics. You could have tried to find answers to the questions your manager would likely ask. What are the challenges surrounding these topics? What might the manager want to know about it (price, progress, etc.)?

Even a brief few minutes spent on preparation can have a long and lasting impact on your performance, how you are perceived, and your career. Now think about how many other opportunities you have daily to better prepare to display your talents and shine like a polished professional more consistently— thus sending your career on a different trajectory.

Throughout the remainder of this section we will outline a framework for how to prepare in the workplace, and we’ll demonstrate the framework in action in some everyday work situations.

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF STRONG PREPARATION

Define the objective; scout and research; develop a game plan; practice reps; mentally prepare; game time; and leverage feedback loops.

As Stephen Covey covered in his great book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, begin with the end in mind. In sports and in business the objective is the same—to win. In business, winning is not as easily measured as in sports with a scoreboard. Winning can come in many different forms. That is why it is valuable to define the winning objectives up front so you can focus your efforts on the correct ones.

Start by defining the broad, overarching end goal of the event, meeting, presentation, or project. This is your primary objective, and the majority of your preparation efforts should be aimed at accomplishing this objective.

Then drill down into your ancillary objectives. These are typically smaller, like changing a perception or demonstrating organizational skills. Chart these objectives, as you will try your best to accomplish as many of them as reasonably possible during your planning stages.

For improved alignment with your objectives, try to get into the mind of the customer or audience for your work product. Think in terms of what the end users are looking for from your output. What makes them tick? What are their end goals? Are there things that you would like to accomplish with this group to add to your list of objectives?

Once you have the objectives pulled together, use others to help dial in and test them. Get a couple of opinions from trusted sources (coworkers, end users, mentors, etc.) on your objectives.

As with defining your personal mission statement for projects, meetings, events, or presentations, it is important to have a clearly defined picture of what you are striving to accomplish. This target, or targets, will serve as a guiding force for your efforts. Refer often to your objectives list to stay on track with your preparations. An organic way to weave this in is to review the objectives after returning from a break. This can be a good transitional warm-up for the activities and reset your focus and efforts.

Another way to stay close to your objectives throughout the preparation process is to be able to see them. Writing your objectives on a whiteboard or somewhere prominent will help serve as a continual reminder of what you are determined to accomplish. Small guideposts like this are key in preventing you from deviating too far from your mission.

A clear set of objectives is the foundation of your preparations. As you go further into your preparations, you will often refer to this groundwork that you’ve laid down.

In the business world, one of the most commonly underestimated elements of the preparation process is the gathering of information about your audience or the customer for your work product. In sports, teams will fly evaluators to competitive teams’ games and watch film to scout their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies, in order to gain any slight edge over the competition.

Think about the leg up you can have if you just take a few moments to consider who will be attending your presentation or receiving your work product. If your manager has a preferred style or hot button about certain things, wouldn’t it make sense to tailor your presentation or product accordingly? For example, what if your manager hates PowerPoint presentations? How do you think your pitch would be received if you presented it in PowerPoint? Your manager would likely be put in an unfortunate frame of mind, and that would spill over and could negatively impact his or her thoughts on your pitch.

Do some investigating to establish facts, objectives, and potential impediments, so you can develop a tailored presentation that will give you the edge you need. Scouting reports to assess the involved attendees, team members, customers, and the tools at your disposal will reinforce a strong foundation for your project.

To help you better understand those who play a big role in your future (managers, influential coworkers, customers), a wise investment of time is to build a scouting report of things they like and dislike. Pay attention when these individuals provide feedback or comment at meetings or after events. Themes and preferences will start to develop. Over time you will collect enough information to help you optimize your presentations and tailor pitches toward those influential individuals’ preferences.

Just remember to be discreet with your personal files. Your “scouting report” is an innocent and well-intended research product; keep it confidential.

Before every meeting or presentation, take a moment to evaluate the attendees and figure out their perspectives. What are their roles in the organization, and what are their objectives? Consider how your message or potential comments will change or impact them. Are there topics the attendees are sensitive to? In most cases, the last thing you want is to provide opportunities for the discussion to dwell too long on one of those sensitive areas and completely derail the mission of the meeting or presentation (unless the objective is to tackle this sensitive topic). Ultimately, the key is to be mindful and tailor your message to the audience to put yourself in the best position to succeed.

In your network or in the office there are likely many resources at your disposal to improve the quality of your work product. Leverage these tools as much as possible. They will help you to produce a higher-quality product in a shorter time frame. Within your company there are likely a lot of intelligent people who have produced significant pieces of work, so be efficient by avoiding having to learn from scratch or re-create something that has already been developed.

Awareness plays a big role in your ability to identify needs and resources to utilize. It is important to uncover what assets you have at your disposal, but it’s also important to have self-awareness of your areas of expertise and limitations. Then find areas to round out your strengths and weaknesses when you are working on a project.

Consider the subject matter. Are there experts on that subject within your company and network? How could they play a role as you prepare for your project or presentation? When you engage others for assistance, show the appropriate level of humility and appreciation. You are asking for help, and they can make your life, as it relates to this project, exponentially easier. Their expertise will accelerate your progress and elevate your work product. Before you start a project, assess what resources you can access that could assist you with this specific task:

You can now see how a strong network can be a powerful tool for you and your career. Your relationship-building efforts from chapter 8 will pay great dividends. Just remember that if you utilize the talents of others, be prepared and willing to do the same for those who help you. It is a two-way street, and most productive professional relationships are those that give freely back and forth.

With your objectives defined and research conducted, you are ready to develop your game plan. Your game plan should consist of the tactical elements you are going to use to accomplish your objectives. For a meeting your game plan will consist of several elements. Your agenda is the backbone of your plan. It outlines the topics and the sequencing of the topics you want to discuss. Put careful consideration into what is covered, when it is covered, and why it is in your agenda.

An agenda is a powerful tool that should be used for every work activity and meeting. That means preparing an informal agenda when you are having a simple one-on-one meeting with your boss, subordinates, or a coworker. This simple task will aid you in accomplishing your objectives and ensure that you cover the topics you need to cover in the meeting. It will also demonstrate your organizational skills to your colleagues.

Part of your game plan is to prepare for the unexpected, and it should include a plan for contingencies if something goes awry. Say, in a meeting, the discussion veers off track to a topic you would like to avoid. For instance, are you prepared if “Bob” vents about his department’s lack of visibility in the rollout process? Or if you are giving a presentation and the AV goes down? These types of things happen more often than we might expect. How would you respond? If the AV goes down, be prepared with paper copies of the presentation, or know your presentation so well that you can deliver it without the AV.

It is impossible to prepare for every potential imperfect situation. However, if you have a plan and have prepared for the major potential negative scenarios, you will be able to respond like a pro and put yourself in the best position to succeed and limit the disruptive impact of whatever went wrong. Ever notice that when one of these “bad” things happens to a top performer, they seem unrattled and plow ahead? Often it is because they have already prepared for this kind of “disaster” scenario.

Regardless of the task, what are the chances of you executing a given task perfectly on your first attempt? Extremely low. That is why people practice everything ranging from fire drills to walking through a big presentation. Take the time to work out the kinks before getting in front of an audience. This shouldn’t be limited to just presentations, either. Practice what you are going to say before you attend meetings. Even one simple practice run-through will help you to have a smoother delivery and more confidence, resulting in an enhanced profile in those meetings.

One of the most common mistakes here is practicing the wrong way. Many people will read over what they are going to say, without attempting to re-create the environment for the “performance.” For a more impactful practice, do what you can to re-create the live situation. Use the tone and energy that you would in the “real” situation. When practicing, mimic the little details. Will you be standing or sitting? Visualize the people who will be in the room. Who will you be looking at when you are speaking? These types of considerations can go a long way toward making you feel more confident in the real-life situation.

Practice enough times to become comfortable. Embrace the concept of diminishing returns when it comes to practice. There is a point you cross when you have gone too far with practicing, where your performance can come across as overly rehearsed and lacking energy.

The same goes for memorizing your statements. Memorize your general thoughts and the messages you are looking to deliver. If you attempt to memorize every word, it is easy to get tripped up when you slip up on a single word.

One of the easiest tricks to performing at a higher level is to mentally prepare before going into a meeting or presentation. Block off three to five minutes beforehand to get your mind right. Take a few breaths and review your game plan for the meeting. Remind yourself of your overarching goal for the next meeting or event on your calendar. This will get you focused on what you need to accomplish instead of bringing your other meetings or responsibilities to the task at hand. All too often we jump from meeting to meeting and don’t make the mental transition, ultimately undermining the quality of our attitude and performance in each situation.

For peak performance, consider when you operate at your best. What time of day are you at your best? This is the time you should use for production or scheduling important presentations or meetings. Put yourself in a position to shine. Additionally, think about what helps to relax you and put you in the right mind-set. Does a quick walk outside help settle you? Have you ever noticed that a basketball player does the same exact thing before every free throw? Routines and patterns help put a player in the right frame of mind to replicate a successful performance.

The performance should be the fun part. You have put in the work; now it is time to trust your preparations and shine. Be present and focus on the moment. Don’t get ahead of yourself. For example, when you are presenting, zero in on the current slide and give it everything you have. Staying in the moment will allow you to provide your best effort, rather than being distracted and focusing on future content or areas that you are not yet able to influence.

Soon after you have completed your presentation, meeting, or sales call, it is important to take a moment to review your performance. Whenever possible, record them (using video or audio). It can be a bit awkward to watch or listen to yourself on tape, but the perspective it provides is invaluable.

Earlier in my career I had a sales position—which is not my forte—and I struggled at first. I decided to record myself and dissect the calls to find where I had opportunities to improve my delivery and process. This process was eye-opening and humbling. After only a couple of weeks of reviewing my performance and applying the necessary modifications to my calls, my results improved dramatically. It was no coincidence. Those successes built upon themselves to help create some positive momentum for me in that role.

One of the most important factors in a personal and professional execution is a feedback loop. Your feedback loop should cast a wide net. This means going beyond recordings to peers, managers, direct reports, skills assessments, and performance measurables. A well-rounded feedback loop will provide you with the information necessary to assess performance and gauge your progress. To create your own personal platform to collect feedback, structure it to collect input from multiple areas and various levels of your professional network.

The first step in the feedback loop is to collect the information and identify opportunities for enhanced performance. Then the important work starts. This means distilling the feedback and identifying a couple of key areas to focus on to improve your performance. Do not attempt to take on too many improvements at once; your attention will be spread thin and you won’t be nearly as effective.

Also, the enhancement opportunities should be prioritized by the potential impact they can have. The higher the potential impact of the opportunity, the higher the priority of that opportunity. From there, develop an actionable game plan to work on improving in this given area. This follow-through is the most important part. You have laid down a significant chunk of work leading up to this point, and if you don’t put a plan of action in place and act on it, this effort will be for naught.

Sports offer a great comparison. Think of how world-class athletes push themselves every day to get better, stronger, and faster. The same strategy applies to the business world. Ask yourself if you are making the effort to be smarter, more effective, and more well-rounded in the workplace.

We began this chapter by talking about professionals who execute their daily responsibilities and handle disruptions in stride, while making it look effortless. Their work product is excellent, and their personal brand is held in high esteem. These are the individuals who excel in the workplace and are given those opportunities to grow and advance. You can be one of these professionals if you consistently leverage the practices behind preparation. If you put in the work behind the scenes to put yourself in the best position to succeed, the sky is the limit. The secret is that you have to be willing to put in the work.

▸You do not have to be the smartest person in the room; however, it pays to be the most prepared.

▸The key elements of a strong preparation are: define the objective, scout and research, develop a game plan, practice reps, mentally prepare, game time, and leverage feedback loops.

▸Prepare for the unexpected. Your plan should include contingencies in case something goes wrong.

▸Practice reps are the secret to consistently performing at a high level. Take the time to work out the kinks before going in front of an audience.

▸When it is time to perform, trust your preparations and shine. Be present and focus on the moment. Don’t get ahead of yourself.

▸Every client interaction, meeting, and presentation is a chance for you to demonstrate your skills. These are your “games” and will be the basis for how managers and coworkers evaluate you.