For all the problems that dominate the industry’s headlines, there is a muffler that jeopardizes innovation and return for marketers big and small. It is buyer misbehavior that pollutes the relationships with sellers, which are a key part of the engine of the media business.
You vendors bring in-house experience and knowledge to create ideas and activations that agencies cannot manifest on their own. From category surveys and custom comparisons of a client’s best consumers to industry averages, integrated branding programs that go far beyond points and spaces, to record-level print reviews and drive-to-store studies. , sellers can make a difference.
They need to be engaged and motivated to do so, so they extend their energy to buyers who treat them with respect. Yet every day, many of these savvy people are emotionally and mentally taken advantage of by young planners and buyers who haven’t been taught to collaborate productively with partners. This problem has greatly worsened over the past three years as many agencies have abandoned their training in a remote environment where sales relationships are already more transactional.
How is buyer misbehavior?
The common denominator of buyer misbehavior is disrespect: not returning emails, arriving 18 minutes late to a 30-minute meeting, emailing salespeople at midnight demanding next-day proposals, and playing with their phones while someone gives their career perspective at a meeting the salesperson worked three months to secure.
Buyer misbehavior costs clients the essential leverage they seek from agencies: knowledge and relationships to gain media power they cannot generate internally. Publishers cannot provide the points essentials where sellers are not inclined to reach out with tailored ideas, opportunities and measures.
How is good buyer behavior?
Good buyer behavior benefits the client, the agency and the publisher alike. It should be common sense, but this is very uncommon these days. So, the agencies need to institute some fundamental practices that are currently lacking, starting with good manners:
Train managers and media teams
At the beginning of each year, media directors must train their media teams on how to represent the agency and its clients in the marketplace. Teach people to show up three minutes before start time, put away their phones, and ask questions that show interest.
Set a gift policy and enforce it
Make sure the gifts are worth no more than $100. There’s no reason a 24-year-old media buyer should have the chance to “pick apples” when they can walk into an Apple store and buy electronics and equipment. . Anything over $100 and you have to wonder if something beyond audience logic is driving your media buying.
Apply the three-way alignment principle
An expensive ticket to a show you just bought from “Publisher X” is probably not appropriate. However, if you go to that show with the salesperson and the customer, that’s a win-win. You have created a three-way value exchange.
Curiosity of the media coach
Sellers are ready with surveys, data, alphas, betas, unique relationships, and hundreds of other assets. A polite question can often unlock tons of added value for customers. Ask a martech partner to better understand what’s behind the bidding algorithm. Ask a news editor how to avoid being adjacent to negative news. Ask a larger partner like Google how other advertisers are solving drive-to-store tracking. Your problems are not unique; salespeople see them constantly and will tell you if you ask.
Require media preparedness
To do their best, salespeople need some fundamental information that is often missing. Require people to come up with a brief, a budget, specific media and business goals, anticipated points of friction, specific needs or requests, and things that can’t be done for the customer. When salespeople know these things, buying becomes a much more creative and productive conversation.
Marketer innovation hinges on a mutual value triangle for agency, client, and media. Increasingly, gaining a media advantage means unlocking opportunities beyond the algorithm. This boils down to the discretionary efforts of salespeople, who represent one of the biggest assets under an agency’s command. Respect them professionally and honor their role by asking them to do what they do best, and they will dissolve obstacles to generating great gains for customers. Agencies that do this will differentiate themselves this year.
Text translated from AdAge, written by Jared Belsky.
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