There is a wide variety of planning needs that an organization may encounter, ranging from enterprise-wide strategic plans to tactical department execution plans; from long range plans to individual project plans; from new product development plans to sales plans.

After more than 10 years of extensive business planning and prioritization work in a variety of environments we have discovered there is one irrefutable certainty … even the best plans seem to lose energy (or life) very quickly in an organization when care is not given to making the plan operational.

There are 4 key factors that we focus on in helping make a plan operational including:

• Clarity – which impacts ownership (or buy-in) and direction of the organization.
• Visibility – has a profound effect on synchronizing and harmonizing a team.
• Relevance – influences the speed and precision of an organization.
• Accountability – gives a plan legs and an organization resolve.

The focus of planning work should be about prioritizing the needs of the organization down to a manageable, coherent plan that meets your goals and your team can execute. Our work goes well beyond creating the initial plan. We help you “Operationalize” your plan so that it lives and your organization achieves its goals.

We always bring a collaborative, team-based approach to helping your business plan for the future. Contact us to discuss your goals and learn more about our full spectrum of services available to help you develop and achieve your plans.

Today’s marketplace is becoming increasingly demanding. Customers are: getting more choices, becoming more discerning, searching for more convenience, insisting on a better experience, wanting better quality and demanding a better value. The bar is continually being raised by competitors, as well as customers. This reality mandates that organizations must continually improve to meet the rising demands. However, many organizations are not equipped to thrive in this challenging environment.

Both, Six Sigma and Lean, process improvement approaches have been implemented in many businesses, all over the world, to solve quality problems, lower costs, improve productivity, reduce lead times and improve customer satisfaction. These approaches to improving processes can provide an organization with a framework for success.

In 12 years of working with organizations to improve their processes and advance in their continuous improvement journeys we have observed some additional noteworthy benefits…

• The more an organization advances on its continuous improvement journey the more focus and resolve they seem to have when facing a problem. Typically, there is less activity and effort that falls outside the main thrust of the team.
• Most organizations gain confidence and have higher expectations. They know they can unleash the power of their team to solve most problems they face.
• Collaboration improves and teamwork becomes a core strength of the organization.
• Resources are deployed faster and problems are solved quicker resulting in a more nimble organization.

At Kleis Consulting Group, we help organizations become more productive and more competitive. Our “lean sigma approach” focuses on eliminating wastes and non-productive efforts that occur in a business. With the use of rapid continuous improvement techniques, significant results can be achieved quickly. Best of all, this methodology can be applied beyond just operations, to all functions of an organization including marketing, sales, human resources, customer service, and finance.

We always bring a collaborative, team-based approach to help your business solve problems. Contact us to discuss your goals and learn more about our full spectrum of services available to help your business become more competitive.

There are a myriad of challenges to growing a business just as there are a number of issues with managing the operations of a business. Six Sigma and Lean practices have been implemented in many operations, all over the world, to solve quality problems, lower costs, reduce lead times and improve customer satisfaction. In most cases, if we carefully think of the marketing and sales funnel as its own unique production process the “Lean Sigma Approach” can be applied to yield dramatic improvements.

After more than 7 years of developing and implementing selling processes and creating fact-based approaches to managing the front-end growth engine of organizations a few issues become apparent…

• Most marketing and sales organizations do not consistently utilize facts and data to make decisions. Rather, they rely on gut instinct or their experience with what has worked in the past.
• Most do not think logically about the process and controllable inputs to generate leads and transition those leads into profitable sales that can be managed on a weekly (or even daily) basis. Rather, they see marketing and sales as a mysterious art and they focus on, after the fact, results.
• Most do not think about the progression of a marketing investment turning into a sale, having multiple “customer transitions” and “points of slippage”. Rather, they rely on higher spending and extreme effort.

The end result is often a feeling of uncertainty and randomness - each sales person does their own thing, marketing and sales are not integrated, no unified sense of direction, little reliable feedback to drive improvement, etc.

At Kleis Consulting Group, we help organizations develop fact-based approaches to managing their marketing and sales effort and improving their return on investment. Our “lean sigma approach” centers on eliminating wastes and non-productive efforts that occur in marketing and sales. Our work includes: facilitating team development of marketing and sales strategies, developing customer focused sales processes, creating and implementing sales management practices and tools, marketing and sales integration, creating marketing and sales performance management systems, and more.

We always bring a collaborative, team-based approach to help your business solve problems. Contact us to discuss your goals and learn more about our full spectrum of services available to help you improve your marketing and sales productivity.