Fire up your marketing by delegating

Fire up your marketing by delegating

What one thing, if done extremely well, is a powerful key to highly successful marketing in technology commercialization organizations? And what, if done poorly, is an enormous marketing obstacle? The answer is delegation. How well you delegate will have a direct impact on how effectively you are able to commercialize your technology. In this article I will share some delegation tips on how to maximize your technology commercialization marketing efforts.
Why delegate
Delegation provides several major benefits to your organization. First, delegation is an effective process of assigning activities to maximize how much your technology commercialization team can accomplish in the area of marketing. This is one of the most critical aspects of developing a high-performance team. It’s important to convey this message to your team so they feel included in your marketing accomplishments rather than being “dumped on.”
Delegation also helps you to grow the people on your team. Your team gets smarter when you regularly delegate important projects to them. More specifically, they want to be an integral part of solving tough challenges in areas that are critical to your organization’s success. A broadly delegated marketing program is definitely critical to your organization’s success.
Revenue generation should be one of the critical success factors of your technology commercialization organization. Your organization exists to generate revenue. The power to generate technology commercialization revenue faster comes through effectively delegated marketing activities.
Coach’s Tip: Make sure you communicate the importance of the delegated task to your organization’s success. If a task cannot be related to your organization’s success, seriously consider whether it should be delegated, or even done at all!
How to delegate
The best way to delegate technology commercialization marketing is to break the process down into its primary components, such as those identified below and then assign (delegate) resources to successfully execute them. The major components to technology commercialization marketing need to include the following:
1. Create an overall marketing vision – integrate into organization’s vision and goals
2. Identify major marketing elements – i.e., research, contacting, presenting, follow-up, etc.
3. Define critical success factors – desired outcomes form basis for performance metrics (goals)
4. Define the skills required for each element – i.e., specific industry knowledge, Internet/search tools, presentation systems, telephone etiquette, etc.
5. Choose team members – based on experience/needs, availability and growth opportunities
6. Assign responsibility/authority – initially one-on-one, with written details followed by group announcement
7. Identify resources – consider internal and external systems, personnel, consultants, coaches, etc.
8. Develop a reporting relationship – to monitor progress and provide timely assistance or process modification
Coach’s Tip: Avoid the often cited concern that your team is already loaded down and you don’t want to burden them with more work. Delegating important marketing projects will actually energize them with the sense that they are truly contributing to your organization’s success.
__________
John Jenkins runs a business coaching practice (Your Coaching Edge™) with an emphasis on helping technology commercialization professionals. His career has taken him from General Electric in Boston to an extremely entrepreneurial technology commercialization group at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He was recruited by Lockheed Martin to lead the launch of a $4 million venture-backed spinout. You can contact him and receive his newsletter by sending a note to : john@yourcoachingedge.com. Or visit his website www.yourcoachingedge.com.
*****
The opinions expressed herein or statements made in the above column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wisconsin Technology Network, LLC. (WTN). WTN, LLC accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed herein.