Would you like to take your group to the next level of effectiveness and success? Do you want to position yourself for an executive position? Then you need to focus on strategy, to move from the operational level of “let’s get it-done” to the strategic level of “how do we work better?”. Here’s how.

1. Rule #1: Make time for strategic thinking
There’s a lot of firefighting in support jobs. Even under dire conditions, discipline yourself to spend time on strategy. Pick the least crazy day of the week, close your door, and think!

You don’t need to be strategic every day. A good schedule for strategic discussions is once a quarter to once every six months. It’s hard to remain focused and productive at the strategic level for more than a day or two so stick to reasonably short sessions.

2. Rule #2: Educate yourself about business
Many support managers find it difficult to think strategically because they grew up in support and they have never been exposed to other aspects of the business world. If you’re serious about strategic management, expand your horizons.

One area you want to learn about is finance. Get comfortable with budgeting, profit and loss concepts and ROI calculations. If you’ve never liked math, don’t worry: the most complex concept you will have to grapple with is division, you can handle that.

Then you should learn about sales, at least if you support external customers. Understanding what makes customers buy, what the sales cycle look like, and what the pipeline looks like is key to planning for support. If you already have good relationships with the sales team, simply hang out with them, listen, and ask questions. Read a few sales books to understand the mechanics of selling.

Finally, learn to deliver a good presentation. Don’t let good presenters with mediocre ideas overshadow your good strategic ideas. Learn to create inspiring messages to convey strategic ideas, and to communicate often to your team and outside of it.

3. Rule #3: Never forget that success lies in the implementation
In support, execution is key. Good ideas are worthless if they cannot be implemented properly. Be practical: translate each strategic goal into a set of objectives, and quantify each objective. For instance, if you decide to increase your profit margin by 5%, you can create a new marketing program to increase the supported customer base by 20%, or you can increase prices by x%, or you can cut costs by increasing self-service transactions by a certain amount.

4. Rule #4: Stay current on support trends
There are many good ideas out there. Strategic thinking is not so much about imagining new ways to do things, but rather, adapting appropriate ideas to your environment. Subscribe to a few industry magazines and newsletters; attend support conferences; read support-related books. SSPAnews is a great place to start!

5. Rule #5: Hang out with colleagues outside support
Most of your peers outside the support group have no support experience. Educate them on what it’s really like (they may think it’s all about reading the same script over and over again to perfectly well-trained, well-behaved customers…)

Seek to understand their world and their challenges, and lend a hand whenever possible. Harmonious relationships are worth a small investment now and then.

6. Rule #6: Use a structured methodology
Strategic thinking covers a lot of ground. Make optimum use of your time by following a structured blueprint. Good topics to cover for support are: goals, support marketing, processes, staffing, tools, facilities, and metrics. Whether you choose to talk about all strategic topics or to focus on a few, follow a checklist to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.

Go ahead, be strategic: it will do you and your operation a lot of good.

About the author
Francoise Tourniaire is the founder and principal of FT Works, a consulting firm that helps technology companies create and grow their support operations. She is the author of “Managing Support Strategically”, a practical guide and checklist for support managers and executives who want to take their operation to the next level of effectiveness. For more information, visit www.ftworks.com or call 650 559 9826.