Operations Overhaul within Lead Gen

When your job role, in operations, is to ensure that the right resources and processes are implemented across a company, it calls for a well-thought-out internal organisation. Luckily, this new way of working has introduced internal strategies that companies will benefit from in the long term.

As lockdowns kept being extended, so did the need to find a stable internal organisation. With a whole team working from home, the option of walking to a colleague’s desk to ask for an update or to see if she/he is busy is not possible. Therefore, it has truly been a reiterative process to adapt and suit the team’s challenges and needs, not forgetting about its wellbeing. 

One of the best coping mechanisms has been the initiation of a daily catch-up via Zoom, with the team, to share last night’s recipe or film and to discuss our work progress. Working remotely is not as simple as sending a team home with a laptop and a to-do list. This set time to gather together and to raise questions has been crucial, not only to encourage team bonding but also to avoid the inundation of messages on the many group channels which can, at times, be overwhelming. On that note, the creation of individual channels per account has been very useful to have a common focus within the team.

As is the case in most companies, a business development and lead generation agency’s ambition is to successfully exceed our b2b client’s expectations. To achieve this, the Strategic Operations Manager must have a full overview of the business’ activities (and a long to-do list!) in order to make sure the team agrees on the short and long-term goals as well as the procedure to fulfill these. 

Here, at Carbon Global, we have a scheduled ‘Monday Morning Speed Dating’ during which I virtually sit with the different Account Managers to relay client feedback on our previous Lead Generation and to strategise the best tools and activities that will meet the client’s needs and preferences. These internal meetings have also been a useful time to agree on my accountability for a task and to go over personal to-do lists to ensure the workload is feasible and realistic. 

Interestingly, remote working has also enhanced the need to improve business relationships by showing clients our commitment to full transparency in terms of progression and activities. For this reason, we have recently launched a new and clearer working platform that we share and use as a live reporting dashboard. To offer a quick glance into our most up-to-date interactions, we have included a ‘Tracker’ tab in which we highlight the evolution of our lead generation efforts as well as a ‘Timeline’ tab to lay out our plan of action to keep warm leads on the radar. This new channel of communication with our agency clients has been tested and approved with some of the more recently onboarded clients, all that is left now is to transfer each of the established accounts onto their new dashboard!

The new systems that the pandemic has prompted will have a long-lasting and positive effect on Carbon Global’s internal organisation.

 

By Elodie Smith

Strategic Operations Manager

Carbon Global