ROI is History
I watched yesterday a video interview Paul Bridle made with me in Torino recently, and I wasn't sure if I should have said that "ROI is a bit over-hyped". If the hype is what everybody is talking about, I want the ROI Methodology to be the hype of the day, thank you very much. But as the economy started bleeding and everyone I talk to reports event cuts and cancellations, I have had to re-think my pitch for ROI training and consultancy services, which is how I try to eek a living.
ROI is history in the sense that it is something you may measure after the event has happened. It will not secure the budget. But the ROI Methodology might well do that, it is not the same thing, the ROI and the ROI Methodology, please make a note of that.
When meeting owners reduce event budgets or cancel the whole thing, they are making sound business decisions. I would do the same if someone asked me for money in a recession without a plausible explanation for how exactly the expenditure was going to affect the bottom line. It is not enough to say that we need more than ever to strengthen customer loyalty and inspire our workforce through meetings and events. This is just talk. Tell me rather precisely what you have figured out that our customers or employees should be doing differently from what they do today and exactly how the different items in the proposed programme and budget are designed to make them change behaviour.
This is the ROI Methodology in action as a planning tool. You must first to set Business Impact objectives, explaining how the event is directly connected to the bottom line. Then you have to set Application objectives, defining the behaviour by participants after the event which will create value to stakeholders. Then you have to look at every application objective for every category of participants at your event and ask yourself; “How do I make him do that?”. “Why is she not doing it already?” Maybe he or she needs some practical information, or a change of attitude, or maybe some improved personal realtionships.
This story about the inter-connected objectives between what you need participants to do afterwards and the way in which you plan to achieve that, is your best chance for getting the budget for the event you know needs to happen.
You may read a longer article on this subject on www.eventroi.org/roiishistory.pdf
This blogpost was first published on www.cimunity.com
ROI is history in the sense that it is something you may measure after the event has happened. It will not secure the budget. But the ROI Methodology might well do that, it is not the same thing, the ROI and the ROI Methodology, please make a note of that.
When meeting owners reduce event budgets or cancel the whole thing, they are making sound business decisions. I would do the same if someone asked me for money in a recession without a plausible explanation for how exactly the expenditure was going to affect the bottom line. It is not enough to say that we need more than ever to strengthen customer loyalty and inspire our workforce through meetings and events. This is just talk. Tell me rather precisely what you have figured out that our customers or employees should be doing differently from what they do today and exactly how the different items in the proposed programme and budget are designed to make them change behaviour.
This is the ROI Methodology in action as a planning tool. You must first to set Business Impact objectives, explaining how the event is directly connected to the bottom line. Then you have to set Application objectives, defining the behaviour by participants after the event which will create value to stakeholders. Then you have to look at every application objective for every category of participants at your event and ask yourself; “How do I make him do that?”. “Why is she not doing it already?” Maybe he or she needs some practical information, or a change of attitude, or maybe some improved personal realtionships.
This story about the inter-connected objectives between what you need participants to do afterwards and the way in which you plan to achieve that, is your best chance for getting the budget for the event you know needs to happen.
You may read a longer article on this subject on www.eventroi.org/roiishistory.pdf
This blogpost was first published on www.cimunity.com
posted by Elling Hamso at
Sunday, April 05, 2009
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home