Whether you are asked to facilitate the Objective, Ideas or Development step of the Creative Resources Process, as a trained facilitator, you know the step you will really facilitate first is Preparation. The outcome of preparation is to prepare to facilitate successfully, including preparing yourself, the agent, the client, your resource group and the environment.
More often than not, the facilitators I coach seem to view preparation as a solo application. Think of the Preparation Step as a facilitated step that includes the whole team - the agent, the members of the resource group and the client.
Here are a few ways to facilitate the Preparation Step as a team effort:
- Get the marketing facts quickly. Getting your hands on the Project Brief right away will help you illuminate gaps so you and the agent can work together to get the marketing facts you need.
- Involve sales leadership and specialists. Sit down with the agent and their Sales Manager, or other marketing specialists to facilitate fact-finding. They might know more about the client's marketing facts than what is contained in the Project Brief.
- Schedule a "meeting before the meeting" with the client. Whether the client will be in the session or not, consider scheduling a phone call with both the client and the agent to confirm the marketing objective and facts for the project.
- Involve the resource group. Ask the resource group to visit the client's website, social media sites or physical location in advance of the session. Supply a Project Brief for the resource group to read right before the session begins.
- Decorate the meeting space with marketing facts. Use the information in the Project Brief to post the client's key marketing facts around the room and to prepare your fact-based detours.
Contact Creative Resources for more preparation tips.