1. Selling panels internally
“How to get your key internal
stakeholders to buy into and
share the vision”
Paul Fanthorpe
Head of Insights
Australia Post
June 2012
2. Agenda – some background on why we’re launching the
Australia Post Business Forum
Explaining the context of the Australia Post transformation
landscape & impacts on the Insights group
Why Small Medium Businesses (SMBs) are the future of
Australia Post
How to approach stakeholders with the idea
The “what’s in it for me” that encourages participation
During the development stages – keep the eye on the end goal
4. Australia Post is two years into the largest change programme
in our 200 year history
1 2 3
Restore our Grow our Parcels Grow our position as
Letters business to business especially one of Australia’s most
profitability: with online retailers: trusted service
providers:
• Reduce costs • Increase marketshare • Develop new services
• Restore pricing • Drive volume • Adapt our store
• Develop new product • Align our businesses formats
• Build a digital
channel
4
5. As a result of the transformation programme the role of the
Insights group has shifted dramatically
Where we’ve come from Where we are moving to
Government culture Commercial culture & ROI
Monopoly We welcome competition
Very little change Everything is up for change
Decentralised Insights
Centrally controlled Insights
function
Tell (us focus) Ask (Customer focus)
The requirements for Insights has changed dramatically necessitating
a dramatic rethink of the way we work
5
6. Australia Post has a relatively small account base, most of
whom are unmanaged & about whom we know very little...
Number of Customer
Accounts
Enterprise
95
Large
Account 1,069
Mid Market
Face to Face
3,755
SMB
Mid Market - Telephone
Account Managed 6,618
SMB unmanaged
86,639
6
7. ...in addition there are a much larger group of customers who
we know nothing about.
Non - Account Account
Enterprise
95
SMB / SOHO
530,000 Large Account 1,069
1 – 4 employees
SMB
228,000
5 – 19 employees
? SMB 97,000
Our future “best” customers are today’s
unknown customers!
7
8. How the transformation of Australia Post has changed our
Insights philosophy
Moved us from mainly “bespoke” projects to “on-going” programs
of work
Need to create an “infrastructure” of solutions to cover our
various segments – Consumer, Enterprise & SMB
Recognition that different initiatives require different levels of
Insights – not all projects warrant more than a simple “sniff” test
8
9. To creating a higher level engagement with our customers we
started with the “easy”
Difficulty
On-going focus groups weekly with a representative
Consumer
Low
coverage of all Australians
Quarterly quantitative measurement Usage & Attitudes
Lowest
of a representative coverage of all Australians
Enterpr
On-going Enterprise engagement program
Business
High
ise
SMB
Australia Post Business Forum Medium
9
10. How to “prepare” to approach stakeholders
Create a culture of value for money. This
will add credibility to the proposal.
Don’t call it a “panel”. You might lose
some of your stakeholders.
Find stakeholders that “get it”.
They’ll act as advocates and help
take detractors over the line.
10
12. During the “development” stages – keep your eye on the end
goal
Get your launch projects lined up with
the more junior stakeholders. Then
cascade out to the more senior ones.
Get the Brand team involved early –
they’ll help with the positioning and
create the “touchy-feeling” stuff.
But ultimately, draw a line in the sand on
ownership – especially with Marketing.
This is an enterprise wide initiative.
12
