February 13, 2025 • 9 mins
In part 2 of this discussion, Magnus Consulting's Managing Partner Teresa Allan presents a structured framework for aligning your teams against "The 7 P's Framework: Priorities, Planning, Positioning, People, Processes, Platforms, and Performance.” She emphasises the need for unified goals, cross-functional collaboration, and shared ownership of outcomes to overcome common misalignments. By integrating these elements, businesses can achieve measurable improvements in efficiency, customer retention, and revenue growth, fostering a more cohesive and productive working environment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Best (00:00):
Welcome back, and we're here to continue our
(00:01):
conversation with Teresa Allenon the Growth Workshop Podcast.
Jonny?
Jonny Adams (00:06):
Working in a B to C firm for 10 years as a sales
director, I think, and this isno thought of the organization
minister, in case they'relistening. But I don't think I
sat in a brand conversation. Andaren't we the brand in
businesses? Am I not steppingout after, after working,
someone goes, what do you do fora job? And you talk about that.
I'm curious about one thing. Iwas going to spin this up a
(00:27):
little bit. I'm going to askeach to answer with sort of one
response. We talked aboutalignment, which is, let's be
honest, we found it quite hard,right as a group, which is
interesting. I'm sure otherother businesses find that
clearly hard as well. But if wehad to summarize each of us.
What is that one problem of whythe functions don't align? What
would be the one thing that youwould come across as an I'll
(00:48):
start so I think logic andemotion kicks in quite a lot. So
logically, if we had apopulation of 100 people and
said, Look, would it be, wouldit be sensible to align these
functions and align the funneland the brand and all of that.
Yes, people are far moreweighted towards emotion, and
therefore, my opinion is theproblem stems from the people
function. That's that that'screating, or meant to be
(01:10):
creating, that alignment,because we're so emotionally
driven on our upper and personalgains. That's where, I think,
summary of the problem ofmisalignment in those functions.
Teresa Allan (01:18):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think it is. It does
come back to to people. I mean,it comes back to communication,
ultimately, and I think it alsocomes down to shared goals or
lack of you know, people areincentivized, especially sales,
to do what they need to do, andthey're compensated and
motivated in that way. Marketingdon't have that customer success
(01:38):
due to a certain extent, but themeasurements different. So until
that changes, people are goingto keep showing up for work and
doing what's going to pay thebills and get them to go on a
nice, swanky holiday.
Matt Best (01:49):
Sounds like a cop out, but that was I was going to
go with the with the holidaypiece. No, I was going to go
with the goals piece as well. Ithink quite often, even worse
than alignment. We've actuallygot misalignment. You know,
sales incentivized to win,perhaps wouldn't work at all
costs, not always right, butwouldn't work at all costs. CS
incentivized to retain. So we'retrying to retain a customer that
(02:10):
was mis sold. I think, like,that's a key thing, and I but
actually, I would maybe say tosort of help support that. And I
think one of the things is thisis the conflicting priorities as
you carry on up through thethread. I think if you're just
aligning at the CEO, it's gonetoo far. And I think, like,
that's probably the thing thatto sort of take that, I guess,
that metrics and that goals andobjectives thing just that one
(02:32):
step further. And if everyonefeels aligned to that customer
centric outcome, I think thatgoes a long way.
Jonny Adams (02:39):
I mean, the journey we've been on today's I mean,
I'm a massive advocate ofaligning this function. I've
seen it work really badly, andthe and the impact, I've seen it
work okay, and it's got better.And I'm and I'm a consultant now
with you two as well, and we'retrying, but it's still hard. We
know that there are aspirationsto align those functions. There
(02:59):
are issues, as we've justsummarized there and spoken
about. But if we were to put aframework together, what would
be the framework, Teresa, thatyou think would be valuable for
people who are listening, thatthey could start to maybe sketch
out and start to use anythingyou would use when trying to
align those functions?
Teresa Allan (03:15):
So we created, along with yourselves, a seven
P's framework that helps workthrough this and bring unity
across all the three functions.So starting with priorities,
which essentially looks at thepotential externally in the
market opportunities. So isthere a market there, where's
the drive coming from? Who elseis playing there? Do we have a
(03:37):
right to play which ultimatelykind of sets us up for success,
or makes us realize that we'reprobably in the wrong pace and
need to go somewhere else. Funnyenough, gets looked over quite a
lot, and everyone just keepsrunning. And secondly, it's then
bringing that plan together. Soonce we've got an understanding
of the customer, the need, thecompetitors, how do we bring our
go to market plan together andthen comes from that
(03:59):
positioning? So do we have theright message to the right
audience to deliver at the righttime, and are we consistent
across that journey that wetalked about earlier to make
sure that we're all showing upand giving the prospect to a
customer the a consistentexperience? Once we've got that
in place, we then moveinternally to have a look at the
(04:19):
people. So do we have the rightpeople with the right
capabilities in the right roles,and what do they need to be
upskilled? Do we get need tooutsource or get new talent in
to enable our go to marketstrategy to happen? Then we look
at processes. So what's theinterconnection between all of
the three different functions?What's the handoff? What's the
(04:40):
role? Just simply defining theroles, and then the process
between it. And how do we createthose feedback loops that we can
ultimately optimize on theinsights that we're learning
from each one of those along thejourney to feed it back to the
top and make sure that the planis still correct, right? And
then we move to. Platforms, dowe have the right tech in place?
(05:03):
And is the tech connected up? Imean, often we see, we know the
CRM, it's not utilized properly.People aren't putting things in
the right time, in the rightway. We can't pull out the right
reports. Marketing is as has ahas a different CRM to sales,
it's not connected up. So thatthat's a huge challenge. It's a
whole project in itself, andthen underpinning all of that is
performance, which ultimately iswhat we're all aspiring to get
(05:26):
right, right. So are have we setthose unified KPIs? Are we able
to measure them correctly, andhow is then that feeding back
into that continuous loop tomake sure all of those pieces
are working well together?
Jonny Adams (05:38):
So the priorities, planning, which is really
important as we talk aboutproposition. And then we've got
the people, process andplatforms, platform enablement,
performance being the seventh Pputting together, that's the
alignment buckets. And then whatat the output is, is the
performance tracking throughinputs and outputs, and then
that holistic element of pullingtogether the teams, and as we
spoke about before, puttingtogether, that people function
(06:00):
to deliver against it?
Teresa Allan (06:01):
Yeah, absolutely. But that has to be done all
together. It can't be done theseparate rooms and then come
together and they will. We'vegot a plan. We've got a plan.
It's, it's a singular plan witheverybody really kind of getting
behind it and having clarity oftheir role within it.
Jonny Adams (06:15):
What are the expected outcomes of a biz for a
business and individuals, ifthey were to sort of nail the
alignment. Like, what? What arethe outcomes for people in the
business? Like, if we were toget those six, seven P's nailed,
what would be it?
Matt Best (06:27):
For me, it's imagining the opposite, where
it's not aligned, and everybodypulling the amount of wasted
effort and the amount of wastedenergy and the amount of dropped
balls and dropped customers,yeah, that is a result of not
having that. And I think if youlook at your business
initiative, and assume that youlose, you know, 25 to 40% in
that but that's youropportunity. So for me, that's
(06:48):
where that comes from, becauseit's pulling that kind of
efficiency. And then there'sboosters, because at the front
end, you're doing moresophisticated market sizing that
you talked about there Teresa,in terms of that work at the
top, that is just is so criticalto team everything else up. So
yeah, I think that those areprobably the two things for me.
What about you?
Teresa Allan (07:05):
Well, you know, there's loads of research out
there that shows that if you canalign all of these functions,
you're going to have betterresults. So who doesn't want
kind of twice as much revenue,like, literally, can can do that
or and who doesn't want profitthat can be increased by 2.4
times. I mean, it's no brainer.And I think, you know, that's,
(07:26):
that's the basis of kind of whywe've created this framework. Is
in the world where there'sconstant disruption and constant
transformation. And, you know,people coming in, left, right
and center, and customerschanging and control what you
can control internally and getthat working really well. And
actually you can have much moreof a predictable and better
(07:48):
performing performance,essentially.
Jonny Adams (07:50):
And I was going to look at it from a personal
perspective, right? And I thinkback at being on client side or
working a consultancy like Ihave done for the last five
years, the hardest part iscollaborating with other
departments. I think if that, ifthat comes together, actually, I
could probably do more of less.I could enjoy my time outside of
work. I can enjoy my time withmy family, with friends, you
(08:12):
too. But the important part isactually, for personally, I
think I could get more done withwhat the time I've got.
Teresa Allan (08:17):
But you'll also enjoy work more too, because
there'll be less tension, morefun.
Matt Best (08:22):
More fun. Bring the fun back to CSC, fantastic. I
think that's a really greatplace to finish, as we think
about the outcomes, right? Andwe think from the from the
audience's perspective, listen.And thank you, as always, to
everybody who's dialed in ortuned in to listen today. But if
you're not thinking in this wayin your business, clearly you
need to, and I think that soonfeels like the message and and
(08:43):
thinking about joining all ofthose areas together and how
that can really impact your yourperformance. So Teresa, it's
been fantastic to see you again,and thank you so much for
joining us on the growthworkshop podcast today. On
behalf of Jonny and I, we reallyenjoyed it.
Jonny Adams (08:56):
Yeah.
Teresa Allan (08:57):
Thank you.
Jonny Adams (08:57):
Thank you, Teresa.
Welcome back, and we're here to continue our
(00:01):
conversation with Teresa Allenon the Growth Workshop Podcast.
Jonny?
Jonny Adams (00:06):
Working in a B to C firm for 10 years as a sales
director, I think, and this isno thought of the organization
minister, in case they'relistening. But I don't think I
sat in a brand conversation. Andaren't we the brand in
businesses? Am I not steppingout after, after working,
someone goes, what do you do fora job? And you talk about that.
I'm curious about one thing. Iwas going to spin this up a
(00:27):
little bit. I'm going to askeach to answer with sort of one
response. We talked aboutalignment, which is, let's be
honest, we found it quite hard,right as a group, which is
interesting. I'm sure otherother businesses find that
clearly hard as well. But if wehad to summarize each of us.
What is that one problem of whythe functions don't align? What
would be the one thing that youwould come across as an I'll
(00:48):
start so I think logic andemotion kicks in quite a lot. So
logically, if we had apopulation of 100 people and
said, Look, would it be, wouldit be sensible to align these
functions and align the funneland the brand and all of that.
Yes, people are far moreweighted towards emotion, and
therefore, my opinion is theproblem stems from the people
function. That's that that'screating, or meant to be
(01:10):
creating, that alignment,because we're so emotionally
driven on our upper and personalgains. That's where, I think,
summary of the problem ofmisalignment in those functions.
Teresa Allan (01:18):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think it is. It does
come back to to people. I mean,it comes back to communication,
ultimately, and I think it alsocomes down to shared goals or
lack of you know, people areincentivized, especially sales,
to do what they need to do, andthey're compensated and
motivated in that way. Marketingdon't have that customer success
(01:38):
due to a certain extent, but themeasurements different. So until
that changes, people are goingto keep showing up for work and
doing what's going to pay thebills and get them to go on a
nice, swanky holiday.
Matt Best (01:49):
Sounds like a cop out, but that was I was going to
go with the with the holidaypiece. No, I was going to go
with the goals piece as well. Ithink quite often, even worse
than alignment. We've actuallygot misalignment. You know,
sales incentivized to win,perhaps wouldn't work at all
costs, not always right, butwouldn't work at all costs. CS
incentivized to retain. So we'retrying to retain a customer that
(02:10):
was mis sold. I think, like,that's a key thing, and I but
actually, I would maybe say tosort of help support that. And I
think one of the things is thisis the conflicting priorities as
you carry on up through thethread. I think if you're just
aligning at the CEO, it's gonetoo far. And I think, like,
that's probably the thing thatto sort of take that, I guess,
that metrics and that goals andobjectives thing just that one
(02:32):
step further. And if everyonefeels aligned to that customer
centric outcome, I think thatgoes a long way.
Jonny Adams (02:39):
I mean, the journey we've been on today's I mean,
I'm a massive advocate ofaligning this function. I've
seen it work really badly, andthe and the impact, I've seen it
work okay, and it's got better.And I'm and I'm a consultant now
with you two as well, and we'retrying, but it's still hard. We
know that there are aspirationsto align those functions. There
(02:59):
are issues, as we've justsummarized there and spoken
about. But if we were to put aframework together, what would
be the framework, Teresa, thatyou think would be valuable for
people who are listening, thatthey could start to maybe sketch
out and start to use anythingyou would use when trying to
align those functions?
Teresa Allan (03:15):
So we created, along with yourselves, a seven
P's framework that helps workthrough this and bring unity
across all the three functions.So starting with priorities,
which essentially looks at thepotential externally in the
market opportunities. So isthere a market there, where's
the drive coming from? Who elseis playing there? Do we have a
(03:37):
right to play which ultimatelykind of sets us up for success,
or makes us realize that we'reprobably in the wrong pace and
need to go somewhere else. Funnyenough, gets looked over quite a
lot, and everyone just keepsrunning. And secondly, it's then
bringing that plan together. Soonce we've got an understanding
of the customer, the need, thecompetitors, how do we bring our
go to market plan together andthen comes from that
(03:59):
positioning? So do we have theright message to the right
audience to deliver at the righttime, and are we consistent
across that journey that wetalked about earlier to make
sure that we're all showing upand giving the prospect to a
customer the a consistentexperience? Once we've got that
in place, we then moveinternally to have a look at the
(04:19):
people. So do we have the rightpeople with the right
capabilities in the right roles,and what do they need to be
upskilled? Do we get need tooutsource or get new talent in
to enable our go to marketstrategy to happen? Then we look
at processes. So what's theinterconnection between all of
the three different functions?What's the handoff? What's the
(04:40):
role? Just simply defining theroles, and then the process
between it. And how do we createthose feedback loops that we can
ultimately optimize on theinsights that we're learning
from each one of those along thejourney to feed it back to the
top and make sure that the planis still correct, right? And
then we move to. Platforms, dowe have the right tech in place?
(05:03):
And is the tech connected up? Imean, often we see, we know the
CRM, it's not utilized properly.People aren't putting things in
the right time, in the rightway. We can't pull out the right
reports. Marketing is as has ahas a different CRM to sales,
it's not connected up. So thatthat's a huge challenge. It's a
whole project in itself, andthen underpinning all of that is
performance, which ultimately iswhat we're all aspiring to get
(05:26):
right, right. So are have we setthose unified KPIs? Are we able
to measure them correctly, andhow is then that feeding back
into that continuous loop tomake sure all of those pieces
are working well together?
Jonny Adams (05:38):
So the priorities, planning, which is really
important as we talk aboutproposition. And then we've got
the people, process andplatforms, platform enablement,
performance being the seventh Pputting together, that's the
alignment buckets. And then whatat the output is, is the
performance tracking throughinputs and outputs, and then
that holistic element of pullingtogether the teams, and as we
spoke about before, puttingtogether, that people function
(06:00):
to deliver against it?
Teresa Allan (06:01):
Yeah, absolutely. But that has to be done all
together. It can't be done theseparate rooms and then come
together and they will. We'vegot a plan. We've got a plan.
It's, it's a singular plan witheverybody really kind of getting
behind it and having clarity oftheir role within it.
Jonny Adams (06:15):
What are the expected outcomes of a biz for a
business and individuals, ifthey were to sort of nail the
alignment. Like, what? What arethe outcomes for people in the
business? Like, if we were toget those six, seven P's nailed,
what would be it?
Matt Best (06:27):
For me, it's imagining the opposite, where
it's not aligned, and everybodypulling the amount of wasted
effort and the amount of wastedenergy and the amount of dropped
balls and dropped customers,yeah, that is a result of not
having that. And I think if youlook at your business
initiative, and assume that youlose, you know, 25 to 40% in
that but that's youropportunity. So for me, that's
(06:48):
where that comes from, becauseit's pulling that kind of
efficiency. And then there'sboosters, because at the front
end, you're doing moresophisticated market sizing that
you talked about there Teresa,in terms of that work at the
top, that is just is so criticalto team everything else up. So
yeah, I think that those areprobably the two things for me.
What about you?
Teresa Allan (07:05):
Well, you know, there's loads of research out
there that shows that if you canalign all of these functions,
you're going to have betterresults. So who doesn't want
kind of twice as much revenue,like, literally, can can do that
or and who doesn't want profitthat can be increased by 2.4
times. I mean, it's no brainer.And I think, you know, that's,
(07:26):
that's the basis of kind of whywe've created this framework. Is
in the world where there'sconstant disruption and constant
transformation. And, you know,people coming in, left, right
and center, and customerschanging and control what you
can control internally and getthat working really well. And
actually you can have much moreof a predictable and better
(07:48):
performing performance,essentially.
Jonny Adams (07:50):
And I was going to look at it from a personal
perspective, right? And I thinkback at being on client side or
working a consultancy like Ihave done for the last five
years, the hardest part iscollaborating with other
departments. I think if that, ifthat comes together, actually, I
could probably do more of less.I could enjoy my time outside of
work. I can enjoy my time withmy family, with friends, you
(08:12):
too. But the important part isactually, for personally, I
think I could get more done withwhat the time I've got.
Teresa Allan (08:17):
But you'll also enjoy work more too, because
there'll be less tension, morefun.
Matt Best (08:22):
More fun. Bring the fun back to CSC, fantastic. I
think that's a really greatplace to finish, as we think
about the outcomes, right? Andwe think from the from the
audience's perspective, listen.And thank you, as always, to
everybody who's dialed in ortuned in to listen today. But if
you're not thinking in this wayin your business, clearly you
need to, and I think that soonfeels like the message and and
(08:43):
thinking about joining all ofthose areas together and how
that can really impact your yourperformance. So Teresa, it's
been fantastic to see you again,and thank you so much for
joining us on the growthworkshop podcast today. On
behalf of Jonny and I, we reallyenjoyed it.
Jonny Adams (08:56):
Yeah.
Teresa Allan (08:57):
Thank you.
Jonny Adams (08:57):
Thank you, Teresa.
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