Challenge

I work in a pan-national company with all country marketing positions. As a part of the job I was  assigned a specific area with distributorships to be managed for sales and marketing of our  product(s). Instructions, data collection, information, support and feedback is required on regular  basis. Most of them were not comfortable with English or national Language, but only with regional  language (my limitation). One-to-one interaction was the most effective but least efficient. All other  tasks were delayed due to more time being dedicated to communicate with all distributors. It is an  old business and partners have become comfortable in the traditional way of doing business. So my  challenge was to communicate effectively with all channel partners.

Selection

All of the partners require internet connectivity, working email, computers and mobiles. My  assumption was that all of them checked their e-mails and messages regularly. I selected the  ‘Learning Launch Tool’. Because the learning and adaptation was from both sides, I chose this  method as it would help me understand the behaviour as well communicate with the partners.

Application

I started with communicating via mail and in English only. The second step was to get individual  feedback – if they were attentive to the communications and if yes what was their level of  understanding. Next step was to draft emails bilingual (English and national-Language) and again get  individual feedback.

In next step I started with mobile sms messages, followed by whatsapp messages and whatsapp  groups (territory wise). The initial phase was to communicate only to partners only. Next was to  include the managers employed by partners in all communications. Feedback was taken regularly at  different levels to understand the effectiveness of communications.

Insight

What I learned was that a bilingual communication was much more effective. The response rate wes  almost doubled when using bilingual communications. The level of understanding and clarity was  better in the bilingual communication.

Sms were checked and responded more quickly than emails. Mobile sms was efficient for quick and  short communications or even as a reminder of e-mail communications. E-mail being the official and  essential communication tool is irreplaceable, but other mediums enhanced the effectiveness of  communications.

Whatsapp group turned out to be an effective way of communication. Partners were able to ask any  queries directly or to others. Almost everyone was able to write in regional language on phone,  hence a more interactive platform with much higher response rate (4x than e-mails avg. over a  week). Media and relevant information shared on the platform proved to be really effective in  supplementing the official communications. Any new initiative taken by me was implemented by  about 10% of ‘champions’ who willingly supported. The champions’ stories and experience sharing  on a common platform inspired other to take initiative. Better safety standards and services were  offered to final customers as a result of healthy competition among partners (even in different  markets).

Involvement of managers improved the execution and implementation efficiency as the  communication was now directly to them as well. Partners were taken in confidence and a more  efficient flow of communication was adapted.

Approach

Since the individual success story and visual media sharing was very effective in engaging partners  for an interactive and productive dialog. I would use the story-telling and visualization tools. Apart  from regular business, the partners are also very interested in creating a success story of their own.  One’s success story is an inspiration for the other. A seminar or conference will be organized to  recognize the leaders and organizing sessions to share their stories and ideas with others. It will  provide a real time interactive platform, which might help in improving routine communications.

Some partners were having good ideas but were not able to express them properly. A session on  visualization with simple and basic exercises will be planned. Diverse group of partners can be  grouped together so that ideas can take a visual form which is more relatable to all. Both the events  can also be combined.

