Many times during my tenure managing advertising budgets for a Hollywood studio, the head of sales for some company or other would call and say “my CEO (or CMO or misc. VIP) is coming to town and I would love for them to meet you so that they really get your insight into the business.”
Out of kindness, or masochism, you agree – you know this scenario, right? In comes the account rep with one to two other people from the (fill-in-the-blank) field office, plus the CEO or whatever muckety-muck they are attempting to demonstrate client engagement with. In the meeting, the aforementioned senior exec either; (a) begins pontificating on why you should be serving their business with your budget (20% of the time), or worse, (b) sits like a lump on a log or acts rather put-upon (60% of the time). In either case, there is no listening going on… or maybe just a little bit while they wait impatiently to hold court.
Hello? When going on a sales call you-Mr. Senior Executive-have a golden opportunity to engage with the client and observe how your team is servicing the business. This is the time to peer into the fishbowl and see how your team manages day-to-day, and to make a real connection with the clients who are the lifeblood of your business.
You may have noticed that my percentages above only added up to 80%. That is because the other 20% of CEO’s are the ones that actually do get fully briefed before they step into the room and listen to what the client has to say after doing so. These are also the executives that, when they come into your office to kick off Q1 2009, will show some compassion for the state of the economy and your industry (whatever the industry) and offer a heart-felt thank you for your continued business. They understand that in a recession it may be a miracle just to keep your business, year-to-year growth be damned.
So, what’s the lesson here? I’m not advocating any immediate fire sales, nor do you need to hemorrhage by discounting inventory willy nilly. Step one in a turbulent economy is to get clued in. Get briefed and get out there. Listen to the market, listen to clients and listen to your sales staff. Be open to making adjustments. If your clients are having their budgets whacked, why in the world would you give sales team a higher annual target? That’s not a stretch goal, that’s just dumb-and a good way to lose talented sales people.
Step two is to make a difference. In the hundreds of meetings I’ve sat in with CEO’s of major companies and start-ups alike, I remember the one with the CEO of Klipmart (later purchased by DoubleClick, then merged with Google), who was kind enough to hand me his card, make eye contact, and say “If you ever need anything, contact me directly.”
His account rep was generally on-the-ball but, as it happens, I had an ad trafficking incident in the middle of an important campaign on New Year’s Eve and couldn’t find my rep’s number. So I called the CEO on his cell. He was extremely helpful and the issue was promptly taken care of. Thanking him, I asked his New Year’s Eve plans and learned that he was in South Africa, where it was some ungodly hour. He laughed it off- and we’ve been close friends ever since.
Call it old school. Getting a clue, making a difference. In difficult times, it can make you a hero to your clients and a rock star to your sales force.
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