At the end of my speeches, I often do the ‘large conversation manager test’. It’s a simple test to find out how conversation-minded you are. The digital version of this test can be filled in on this blog as well (feel free to try).
What is our conclusion based on the data of the test and the real-life tests during speeches? Most people fail because there is no flexibility in their marketing budget and they don’t use conversation-related KPIs.
Boosting the conversation culture in your company really creates the need for a new set of KPIs. Several ones are available: consumer activation, followers on Twitter, fans on Facebook, % positive conversation on social media … It’s a matter of having new performance indicators and convincing your management that this is a new element in customer management that needs to be taken into account.
Furthermore we need to change our budgeting techniques. Consumers are fast and very flexible. They will always be more flexible than any organization. However, in order to grasp opportunities and to avoid disasters, companies need to have more financial flexibility. If you need approval from 5 VPs to clear some additional budget spending if an opportunity pops up, you will be too late. Being more flexible in a large cooperation is strongly related to financial flexibility.
Conclusion: in order to know how big companies work and to have an impact with conversation management, we need to change the financial policies and the KPIs. Quite a challenge!