Leveraging Six Sigma solutions to better align sales and marketing

Effective, market responsive companies keep a seamless balance between their sales, marketing and product efforts. This workshop will provide attendees with a live and interactive demonstration of how today’s Enterprise Performance Improvement solutions designed to support Six Sigma Initiatives can effectively apply Six Sigma tools and principles to better coordinate the relationships between sales and marketing strategies, tactics and execution and align them towards achieving agreed corporate objectives.

The session will include:

• Demonstration of high level business objectives translated into coordinate sales and marketing project criteria
• Separation of the day to day management and project framework for sales tracking, marketing measurement and Six Sigma project portfolios within a unified process improvement solution
• Coordinated reporting of Six Project results, marketing metrics and sales aligned with the desired corporate objectives or regional teams
• Wide sharing and reusability of the key metric between the sales, marketing and Six Sigma teams

Workshop Leader: Jeff Watts, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Instantis. As the leader in Enterprise Performance Improvement solutions for initiatives like Six Sigma, Instantis technology assures that every contributor in the organization has the right tools at the right time to most effectively deliver results. Jeff Watts is the leader of the marketing efforts at Instantis and brings over 16 years of experience in marketing, communications and operations to the team. Jeff has lead marketing teams in Web Services, Composite Application platforms, eCommerce and Financial Services Networks for market pioneers like Intershop and Commerce One. In both start-ups as well as large public companies, he has worked to effectively bring new technologies to market and to grow the teams and resources required to support them. Prior to this technology work, Jeff worked within advertising and marketing agencies for market leaders like Microsoft, McDonalds, Blockbuster Video and many others.

The basic guide to sales process improvement: What you need to know to gain more of the right customers at higher margins and lower costs with Lean and Six Sigma

Six Sigma offers so much potential for marketing and selling, there ought to be lots of common ground between the two disciplines. Unfortunately, in most companies there isn’t. Marketers and sellers see their work more as art than science. Six Sigma people struggle to identify relevant measures. Senior executives loose interest if measurable results don’t happen immediately.

This workshop identifies the common ground so you can focus your team on the right kinds of projects: ones that make money for your company – and for your customers. For Six Sigma belts, it provides a powerful project selection strategy and plenty of project examples. For marketing and sales managers, it provides an introduction to process improvement in marketing and selling terms.
In it, you’ll find topics such as:
• The Crisis in Marketing and Selling
• Why Process Thinking is Really About Value
• What Value Does Your Marketing and Sales Process Create?
• Designing Your Sales Process: Three Principles That Work Every Time
• Getting the Organization to Change (This Means YOU!)
• Six Sigma Process Improvement: The Fool Proof Path to Better Results
• Being a Change Agent

Workshop Leader: Mike Webb, President, Sales Performance Consultants Inc.. Michael is President of Sales Performance Consultants, Inc., a consultancy devoted to helping marketing and sales executives who are struggling with process improvement. He has worked to help clients such as American Express, 3M, Marriott, and many others to improve their sales processes and results. He also works with sales training firms, such as IMPAX Corporation, to help integrate the best selling practices into client company's sales operations. Mr. Webb achieved certification with the ASQ as a Quality Manager in 1998. His website (www.salesperformance.com) contains a wealth of information and resources for helping companies improve their organization’s sales performance.

How to build a measurement system for Six Sigma in sales & marketing

This workshop is a hands-on exploration of the critical-to-success factors in establishing a measurement system to support Six Sigma in Sales and Marketing. Because Six Sigma is a data-driven methodology, it is essential that you have a critical mass of reliable data to support projects.
At first glance the sales and marketing world seems to be ‘data rich’, but is typically ‘data poor’. The challenge is to build a measurement system that provides a rich data resource to support your Six Sigma efforts.

If you’ve ever found your Six Sigma efforts mired because of insufficient data, or too much of the wrong type of data, this workshop is for you. What you can expect to learn:

• Why many transactional Six Sigma projects fail and deployments stall
• Special considerations to the Six Sigma Methodology for transactional projects
• The importance of operational definitions
• Building information systems that support Six Sigma initiatives
• Reducing the costs of capturing the right type and volume of data needed
• Extracting data from existing information systems for Six Sigma projects
• Tying information systems into statistical analysis software like MINITAB and other enterprise reporting systems

Workshop Leader: Evan Miller, President & CEO, Hertzler. Evan was first involved in Six Sigma with Motorola and its supply base in the late 1980s. Under his guidance Hertzler Systems has become the leader in building data infrastructures for Six Sigma, particularly in the difficult areas of service and transaction applications. As a leader in the industry, Mr. Miller has delivered seminars and presentations to industry organizations such as American Society for Quality, International Society of Six Sigma Professionals and Society of Plastics Engineers, just to name a few.

Using Six Sigma in client engagements

When dealing with clients, whether in a sales or a service environment, Six Sigma provides the basis for building and maintaining a true partnership between vendor and client. This workshop will present a realistic methodology for moving the vendor/client relationship from a reactive, triage based model, through life cycle management, to a proactive strategic partnership.
The focus is on identifying and managing key predictive indicators that define the common success for both vendor and client. Specific subjects to be covered include:
• Setting up and maintaining the processes surrounding reaction and fixes to immediate client issues
• Building Sigma tools and methods into service delivery to establish tangible measures of requirements and common success factors
• Defining predictive indicators key to the success of both vendor and client
• Establishing forum for managing predictive indicators throughout the relationship life cycle
• Moving to a strategic partnership
• Examples of methodology as applied to real client engagements

Workshop Leader:
Marilyn Ross, Certified Sun Sigma Black Belt, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. Marilyn is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) who has been involved with Six Sigma since it's initial deployment throughout Sun Microsystems. She was one of the initial proponents of using Six Sigma in client engagements and in developing services based on Six Sigma tools and methods. Her current focus is on using Six Sigma methodologies and tools to improve client experiences and to increase sales effectiveness. As an experienced Project Manager, Marilyn has approached the client engagement with a view to integrate the data driven power of Six Sigma with the principles of Project Management.

How to build a sales and marketing training curriculum that works for Six Sigma

Yet far too often, Six Sigma and a sales/marketing audience mix like oil and water. Training a sales & marketing audience in Six Sigma can make Sponsors and Black Belts feel like they’ve been thrown into a lion’s den. The resulting uproar can set back legitimate attempts to introduce systematic improvement for years. A root cause for this failure is that standard Six Sigma training programs have not been designed for sales & marketing audiences.
It doesn’t have to be that way!

In this highly practical workshop, Paul Selden will share the secrets of what made his Six Sigma for Sales & Marketing training programs so successful at pioneering companies like GE and AlliedSignal/Honeywell. By incorporating a simple list of common-sense suggestions attendees will be able to avoid the “train wreck” and “slow walk” syndromes that can occur when Six Sigma collides with a sales & marketing audience.

Topics covered will include:

• List of specific root causes for training program failure
• Differences between standard and sales & marketing training agendas
• How to translate the language six sigma into terms sales & marketing already respect
• What not to waste time covering – and what MUST be covered!
• Picking sales & marketing projects that matter to the participants
• Proven four day Sales & Marketing Green Belt agendas
• Suggestions for examples to use
• Practical tips and tricks for handling audience objections.
Six Sigma training consumes a huge proportion of an organization’s overall Six Sigma resources and budget. Your team must do it right, and there is often no second chance. Whether you are an executive sponsor or practicing Master / Black Belt, just planning your training or ready to “go back to the drawing board,” you won’t want to miss this informative and entertaining session.

Workshop Leader: Paul Selden, CEO, The Paul Selden Companies. Paul has worked in sales process improvement, training, and automation since 1978. His success in applying Six Sigma to the sales & marketing culminated in working with both AlliedSignal/Honeywell and General Electric, developing programs specifically geared to their sales and marketing personnel. Five of his programs have been licensed by Learning International (now AchieveGlobal), the well-known sales training firm. Paul is author of many articles and several books, including Sales Process Engineering. Sales & Marketing Automation magazine has named Selden one of the “10 Most Influential” people in customer relationship management. A seasoned businessperson, he sits on the board of a number of firms and participates as an advisory member of Rutgers University’s CRM Institute. See www.paulselden.com for helpful articles.

Speeding up the project cycle

Have you ever considered the Non Value added time a practitioner spends in conducting a Lean Six Sigma project? Have you ever witnessed, or experienced the time a practitioner spends managing the tools and data in their project? Have you ever thought there must be a better way? has a better way, and During this presentation SigmaFlow will explain how to improve project cycle time and results by applying software tools and project techniques developed by practitioners for practitioners. The techniques and products reviewed during this session are included with admission and are designed to be part of your everyday workflow. Topics included in the seminar include;
• Connecting the dots, controlling your data instead of it controlling you.
• Getting new tricks from an old dog, enhanced application of classic tools
• Project attitude, using the tools and a practical attitude to focus our efforts
• It’s the results that count, using the tools and techniques to get what we want

Workshop Leader: Jay Holstine, President & CEO, SigmaFlow & George Pesansky, Master Black Belt, National Starch & Chemical. Mr. Holstine brings best practices to process improvement through leadership roles in consulting, industry and software development. SigmaFlow’s desktop and enterprise solutions elevate corporate process improvement initiatives to a significantly higher level, reducing learning curves and project completion time, while improving results and cost efficiency. Global corporations, such as Albertsons, ConocoPhillips, First Data Corporation, Pratt & Whitney, and Tyco International, are already deriving results from SigmaFlow’s integrated toolkit for Best Practice Management, Sarbanes-Oxley, Six Sigma, Lean, Statistics and Simulation.

The 2nd Annual Successfully Implementing Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing conference will bring together senior-level quality and process improvement professionals from a broad range of organizations.

One of the key benefits of attending this conference is the networking opportunities you will find.

Organizations wishing to take further advantage of these opportunities should contact Vijay Bajaj of WCBF about taking an exhibition booth or sponsoring one of the lunches, breaks or evening receptions.

WCBF’s 2nd Annual Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing is being extensively researched and specifically tailored to meet the requirements and interests of professionals working within this area.

You will profit from this conference if your area of expertise is in Marketing and / or Sales and you are on a journey towards process improvement.

Equally you will benefit if you are a Six Sigma / Quality Manager seeking examples of where to apply processes to Marketing & Sales. Or, you are a Master Black Belt / Black Belt with Marketing and / or Sales experience.

Specific job titles have been listed below.

Commercial Director

Chief Commercial Officer

Commercial Manager

Corporate Marketing and Communications Director

Marketing Director

Chief Marketing Officer

VP of Marketing

Marketing Manager

Sales Director

Chief Sales Officer

VP of Sales

Sales Manager

Head of Sales & Marketing

Director of Quality / Continuous Improvement

Director of Operations

Director of Six Sigma

Business Process Improvement Champion

Productivity Manager

Head of CRM

Deployment Leader / Champion

Master Black Belt

Black Belt

Green Belt

VENUE

The Conference has been moved from New Orleans to Chicago due to Hurricane Katrina. The details will be released by latest Wednesday August 31, 2005. We can confirm the Hotel will be in the Chicago Magnificant Mile area.

Travel & Accommodation

Hotel and travel costs are NOT included in the registration fee. However, WCBF will negotiate a reduced rate accommodation with the hotel. When booking please quote: "WCBF Group"

The conference experience is unique, but we can still provide you with the documentation of the event you missed! Please visit the "Workbooks, Tapes, CDs" section on the left hand vertical menu on our website.