It’s always the stupid stuff that stalls progress, especially when you’re managing the creation of a new media plan from scratch. And one of the quickest ways to cross wires with your team is to leave the budget area ambiguous. Without your decision in this area, your team will struggle. You’re not the only one with this problem. But with this process, you might be the quickest to get to the bottom of it.
Some budgets only pay for media. Are they only paying for paid media with the budget? Or maybe we have a staff member who’s writing the articles, but when they’re at capacity, we hire a contractor at a certain rate. And what’s already covered by overhead or paid for by other budgets?
No company is the same. Some have internal resources they want to use, while another, similar company will use a vendor instead.
Most managers either don’t want to waste time talking about something so mundane. Others don’t want to have these conversations because we’re not even really sure of the answer. So, you want a quick way to start this conversation and get everyone thinking and asking questions?
Here’s what you do. It’s almost too easy.
- Schedule a 15-minute standup.
- Ask them to bring a list of inputs to the media plan. Everything they can think of. Don’t even worry about cost right now.
- Write a simple list of 3-5 bullets of things the budget pays for and 3-5 things it doesn’t need to (things that come from other budgets).
- In the meeting, discuss each and every input to determine which budget it comes from.
- Give each other a high-5.
Misunderstanding these little things will kill momentum. What makes it worse is that people don’t want to ask, because it seems like they should know. So instead of doing the budget, they stall.
So schedule the meeting, cut-and-paste the above bullets, and make it snappy. If nothing else, you’ve shown leadership and support for your team. But at best, you’ve just moved the process along much faster than it would have gone.
Need help? Before you embark on this journey, consider your brand. Compelling content is great, but if your brand doesn’t earn their trust, it might compel them to get someone else to help them. At Resound, our system focuses on brand first, positioning you as the one who can help. Contact us to find out more.
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