Probably you have not even thought about it, but I know that if your Product department is fast and it works as a clock, you are selling and overwhelmed.
On my first post I said that your Design team is your engine driver; who starts your train. Let me ask you if your company is already a high-speed train? We are living through a very worrying economic moment. I prefer to get concerned than to get worried, and in an equal way, I prefer dealing to worrying.
Everything is uncertain, goes very rapidly, there is a lot of instability and it affects almost everything: companies and professionals of any part of the world. Because of this scenario, I think that it is important to be supporting departments and insist on speaking about the Product department. There was a time in which it almost did not exist – at least with this name-, later it happened to be the “most “pampered” department of the company. At what point is yours?
If you would like to advance a bit more do a checkup. With these 6 keys I would like to cooperate and give you a little push:
· Analyze: check if you have the suitable persons. If these profiles fulfill their functions, if you can increase or reduce staff. Every company is unique in its expositions and with your analysis you will obtain solutions to act.
· Plan: Have you got a calendar of collections? If you do not have it; get on with it. The countdown is what works for me. When are you supposed to have the production ready? This will be the date that is going to determine the steps to be taken. It marks the timing in your calendar, make it really visible and share it with all departments. Remember, sales must imply the whole company, not only one department.
· Organize: Give guidelines, instruct, coach, optimize and offer the necessary resources in order that the whole equipment works. And demand results.
· Liberate: Though it should be mentioned above; liberate yourself. How I wrote on the post “7 features of a top Design team: Your dream team” (https://soniaprada.com/7-rasgos-de-un-equipo-top-de-diseno-tu-dream-team/), all elements of the group have to be independent. And if they are, you will liberate yourself. Your duties are assigning tasks and responsibilities.
· Invest: In time to direct. If you apply the previous benchmarks rigorously, the personnel will execute. Your function is to check and to ask for results to the marked objectives.
· Be assertive: not only in your wishes but also in your intentions. Assertiveness is important in order that they follow you, that they accept the challenges and to motivate the group.
These applied keys will increase your sales. A proper work chain works better and a group that is understood, motivated and dedicated to a project will find the ways of improving the product and will introduce innovations to increase the sales. If you have any doubt you can send me an e-mail and we can discuss it.
This article was published in the journal LA AUGUJA · No April 42, 2016.
Read the full version in Spanish.