Video Transcript

Reid: All right, Kaylee. So today we want to talk a little bit about when an organization has decided that they need an outside marketing partner’s help, whether that’s for outside thinking, momentum, any number of reasons, how to make sure that these organizations are operationally prepared to take on this marketing partner and what the considerations are there. Can you talk me through some things that are valuable to think about?

Kaylee: Exactly. Yeah, I think three off the top of my head are focusing on project velocity, what your goals are as an organization, and who your internal stakeholders are going to be.

Reid: Ok. So if we’re thinking about operational velocity, project velocity, how does that come into play when we’re talking about bringing in a new person or partner into that process?

Kaylee: Sure. What’s really helpful is if you understand your own velocity internally. You need to know how quickly you can push a project forward so that your marketing partner can clip in and really help you keep the velocity up. One thing to consider is how many stakeholders you have in your organization. If you know you have a lot of layers that you have to run ideas through, it’s helpful to know that upfront as a marketing partner so we can build that into the project plan.

Reid: So as the team’s thinking through, whether it’s large scale projects that take more time or something that in theory might move faster, we know how that’s going to function with another partner.

Kaylee: It’s helpful to know where you have the ability to either push faster or when you know you have to take your foot off the gas because of something that is going on in the organization.

Reid: OK, so you’re ready, you have your team prepared, and you’re ready to set the expectation of how fast you want projects to move. How do knowing your goals and having alignment around your goals play into that picture as well?

Kaylee: Yeah. So it’s really important that as an organization, you are aligned on what your goals are and where you want to be. That allows any marketing partner to really come in and develop strategy to support those goals and help you run toward them.

Reid: Yeah, I guess if you can’t speak to what you’re searching for, what value marketing means to your organization, then that’s going to cause friction as you’re bringing somebody else in around how they actually add that value?

Kaylee: Yeah, exactly. And you might get to the end product and realize it’s not at all what you wanted because we weren’t aligned at the beginning.

Reid: Yeah, that’s interesting. And I guess the third piece, we’ve talked about it a little bit, in terms of in these very leveled organizations, how stakeholders are an important piece of the puzzle. What’s important around that for knowing how to prepare yourself for these other partners?

Kaylee: Sure. A couple of things. It’s really important to know who the final decision maker is and who really needs to have buy-in. Not only that, but someone is also going to need to own communications on your end. There is a lot of information that might be second hand to you that an outside partner is going to need and someone is going to really need to be the champion for finding that information. And pushing any work through your organization to ensure that we’re keeping up velocity, that we’re hitting our goals, and that all the stakeholders are getting the information they need.

Reid: Yeah. So I feel like, you know, those three things, right? That making sure that you’re ready, you have velocity set. It’s all these expectations that you can put internally and also with your partner — just essentially really drive towards that goal of just having a better result and a better customer experience on your end and clarity for your partner as you’re looking to get some additional support.

Kaylee: Absolutely. Nailed it.

Reid: Awesome Thanks, Kaylee.

Kaylee: Thank you, Reid.