Six essential elements for success
Finding inspiration in a set of guiding principles that drive accountability and create excitement
For over 20 years, at Sappington, we’ve been in the business of helping our customers—the brightest marketers at the greatest technology companies—win the hearts, minds, and market share of their customers.
To be successful for you, our valued customer—and accountable to ourselves—it became clear a few years ago that we needed to create, shape, and codify a set of guiding principles. Defining cultural attributes is important on many levels, from recruiting and retention, to being intentional and clear about how we behave, to creating consistency, and beyond.
We call these our “Sappington Essentials.” The Essentials are deeply embedded in our firm’s DNA and drive everything we do. They comprise six cultural attributes with corresponding behaviors that help us stay true to them.
It occurred to us that we’ve never published our Essentials to our customers and community. Because they’re extremely important to the success of our firm—and how we show up for you—we’ve decided to share them now to provide insight into how we work, and, hopefully, inspiration for you and your organization.
This cultural grounding can lead to blind spots or biases in the way technology is developed. The way to combat this, Sachar believes, is to openly create awareness of these biases and discuss them, making sure the right feedback loops are used to keep questioning and learning. If technology is to be inclusive, it needs to be shaped by the perspectives and experiences of many different types of people—something that can’t get sidelined amid business pressures to move faster and faster.
“Defining cultural attributes is important on many levels, from recruiting and retention to being intentional and clear about how we behave, to creating consistency, and beyond.”
The Sappington Essentials
1. Earned courage
Today’s technology marketers need bold, outside-the-box, collaborative thinking that leads to fresh, creative ways of doing things and positive market disruption. That takes courage, but courage, like trust, has to be earned among our clients and our team by working together over a period of time and on multiple successful projects. Earned courage allows us to ask hard questions to get to the truth. It inspires us to do the research that informs exceptional results. Earned courage often surfaces alternative approaches or opportunities to gracefully push back to deliver the best possible outcome.
2. Creative confidence
Marketing done well is critical in today’s tech environment, and it takes considerable investments and creative talent to make it possible. Our expertise in content, design, project management, and QA feeds our curiosity, enabling us to pursue new levels of refreshing creativity to make your materials really sing. We strive to develop, present, and deliver bold and beautiful creative concepts with excitement, knowing that we've done the hard work to help you succeed.
3. Exceptional craftmanship
When you engage a marketing firm, you want on-brand materials that have gone through multiple rigorous quality assurance reviews, and the confidence that results when these assets perform as promised. Craftsmanship and quality are fundamentals in our firm, and we infuse QA into everything we do—end to end, not added on. With extreme and intentional attention to detail and our passion for bringing the best we have to every engagement, our goal is to consistently exceed your expectations. We foster a knowledge-hungry creative atmosphere that allows us to stay ahead of the trends for our clients, and we make it a point to be up to date on the most recent design tools and forward-looking industry thought leadership.
4. Clear accountabilitity
We’re all operating in a hectic world, abounding with packed calendars and many moving parts. Crystal clear accountability cuts through the chaos and is vital for success. To deliver clarity and build client trust, we hold each other accountable to deliver what’s committed—on time, on budget, and in an extraordinary way. To avoid confusion and lost time, we endeavor to be clear on next steps, when assets are due, and who is responsible—both internally and with you and your stakeholders. We also make it a point to show up prepared and ready to deliver because we know that your meeting with us is not the only one on your schedule. We’ve invested in the best creative project managers and made comprehensive project management a core discipline at Sappington. To drive our culture of accountability, our PM team publishes a weekly report on your project to ensure everyone knows what’s happening, for what purpose, and who’s responsible to take it to the next level.
5. Seamless experience
You’ve come to us for a reason, and part of what you’re hiring us for is peace of mind. When you engage us, we take care of all the details, so you don’t have to. We take the lead to create a consistent experience for you every time—no matter who participates, whether it’s other of our team members, partners, or vendors. It’s easy to work with us because we work hard behind the scenes to prepare for meetings and all our interactions with you. We articulate roles and responsibilities and prepare a dependable virtual environment for our meetings. We take the time to provide valuable and clear communication and always follow through on our next steps and commitments.
6. Gracious approach
One thing you probably don’t need is another meeting or email. But these are often necessary, so when we get the opportunity to interact with you in an otherwise hectic, usually virtual world, we strive to be human, warm, and efficient. We’re happiest when we can greet participants in a meeting, be introduced to your stakeholders, and have meaningful conversations before moving on to the work at hand. We truly value our clients—and our colleagues. We treat your time and contributions with respect. At the end of the day, we want to create award-winning marketing materials for you through a thoughtfully structured discovery process, by finding and nurturing human connection, and by appealing to you—and your customers—in the most authentic and relatable way.
A harmonious path to success
Our Essentials work in harmony to guide everything we do and help to ensure the success of your tech marketing initiatives. They differentiate us from other technology marketing firms. These attributes also keep us accountable, and laser-focused on delivering big wins for you—our valued client—at every stage of an engagement.
Finally, we make our Essentials real and actionable by dedicating time to reviewing and practicing them every day, and we deliberately recognize and celebrate our team members when they embody them.
FURTHER READING
