MANAGEMENT TOP TIPS
to produce and the anticipated sales to be a pro table strategy.” “You need to exercise some tact. You can’t say ‘no’ as it will be seen as being oppositional or not being con- sultative. Explain why, rather than just telling them you can’t do it, and they will react better to this. “ “Be open and realistic about risks. Don’t be overly positive or, when it goes wrong you, will lose trust.” A nal thought As one interviewee succinctly put it: “Keep a sense of humour and have fun with the relationship!” Thanks, and please get involved Many thanks to all those who con- tributed to this article. If you would be willing to get involved in this project and share some of your Top Tips please get in touch with me directly at caroline@carolinejwalker.co.uk or via www.drcarolinejwalker.co.uk.
“We nd that the technical guys tend not to argue with the market- ing guys and this is a disaster. For example, if we are discussing a marketing campaign and whether we have a launch in April versus May, if they don’t communicate that there is a production problem with the April date we will have delays. They technical guys have to understand that they are not just there to receive orders and that they need to engage and add value.” 4. Provide a grounding and run the numbers So, the technical team also have their superpowers and have an essential contribution to make in the collaboration with the marketing team: “Our objective should be to ground the sales and marketing guys. They are creative thinkers driven by different things but what we can do is provide the substance underneath this.”
This is a vital function, and one that the company is relying on the technical team to perform. The approach seems to be that once you have established rapport, found a way to communicate clearly, established a collaborative and trusted relationship, partnered in innovation it then become feasible to be effective at bringing this key contribution. “What we can contribute is our ability to run the numbers and show the true cost of a project – this is what really interests the business. It might be that from one side it seems simple e.g. marketing suggests that we start putting our beer into larger volume cans and, of course, we can just do it. “But you can take them through the cost of the packing materials, the tool- ing costs in order to modify the line, the extra change over time to do two different-sized cans and the reductions in ef ciency. This can then be balanced against the extra volume that we need
“It might be that from one side it seems simple e.g. marketing suggests that we start putting our beer into larger volume cans and, of course, we can just do it. But you can take them through the cost of the packing materials, the tooling costs in order to modify the line, the extra change over time to do two different sized cans and the reductions in ef ciency.”
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52 ● BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL I november 2019
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