its cycle meet again!!

Brand Planning's almost over and.... its cycle meet again!!

Cycle meetings, some companies call it POA, others commercial meet, no matter how fancy the terms, its essentially the same thing. The huge difference is on the budget allocation. Some companies prefer a hotel-do while others settle for the in-house arrangement.

Unlike the kick-off meetings in January, the mid-year meetings are usually less stressful for the regular PMs, the bulk of the plans have already been dished out in the beginning of the year anyway. This would simply be a recap of YTD performances and (highly) possible mid-year budget hikes!

Still reeling from massive changes in the brand plan from the senior team, PMs now have to spend late nights harriedly preparing the slidedecks (pretty much cut and paste versions of the past POAs), liaising (ie chasing the pants off) with vendors and suppliers to ensure that the mockups of new collaterals are at least presented at the meeting, obtaining quotes for pens and other gimmicks, ordering reprints, getting SMs to commit to sponsorship numbers for the rest of the year and getting grumpier by the day cos the boss expects 'this' POA to be different, to be jazzed up, to excite, incite and never say 'buay sai'.

It does seem rather unfair, that the SMs only have to prepare 2-3 slides outlining sales performance and directions while the PMs does a whole lot more (and i heard the former gets a bigger paycheck!) and doesn't get his/her popularity ratings any higher with the sales team.

As a matter of fact, most reps dread the cycle meet. the dull repetition of the cycle plans and unoriginal showings of most tactics combined with the extremely unpleasant prospect of being picked to do a grand detailing in front of the entire company put most reps off.

But it is an important meeting. it allows the team to re-align themselves to the brand's objectives, understand market changes and obtain new directions. Management does not need to constantly try to generate a pseudo sense of excitement amongst the team. Simply ensuring that the plans are credible, deliverable and conjuring a successful consequence that is attainable will be sufficient to motivate and drive a sensible sales team.