Ad Sales and CRM Optimization

by | Feb 11, 2021 | Ad Networks, Ad Sales, CRM, Digital Advertising, Digital Transformation, Retail, Retail Media

5 Reasons For Lack of Optimization in Ad Sales

As tenured consultants in the CRM media space, V2 is all too familiar with technology indifference at the executive level.

  1. Ad sales organizations have a history and culture of creative dominance where a more disciplined process and systems-based approach may not be as valued.
  2. Ad sales organizations have a predominance of “old school” sellers who have risen the ranks independently “without needing a CRM system” to succeed.
  3. Some ad sales executives fear forcing top sellers to leverage a CRM will prompt them to leave the company.
  4. The ad sales industry is frenetic and traditionally reactive. Whereas agencies constantly push the limits of rapid RFP turnaround times, leaving little time to slow down the process with CRM data entry requirements.
  5. Ad sales is trending toward more transactional buying behavior, given the growth of programmatic ad buying platforms. This leaves many wondering how and where CRM fits in.

Consultants have listened for years to well-intentioned explanations. It’s up to each media executive and organization to make a choice. The choice to continue down a path where ad sellers and management can choose whether to provide transparency and accountability consistently. Or decide to set a higher but reasonable bar in the interest of running a more productive and profitable company.
We believe that the future viability of organizations across any segment will largely favor organizations that have committed to resolving operational inefficiencies around people, processes, platforms, and data over a sustained period of time.

Running a highly successful advertising sales organization has its challenges. Chief revenue officers typically are not inclined to invest in activities that are perceived to slow down or hinder their sellers’ performance. CROs and other tenured sales executives will say that revenue is the lifeblood of a company. Often a CRO’s success has not been attributed historically to the adoption of systems or established processes. Instead, they have relied upon leveraging long-standing relationships with advertisers and agencies. Working in a crafty manner to get IOs in the door, and ensuring their top sellers are happy and remain.

Media operations executives will play a critical role in the long-term health of ad sales organizations. Combining a transformation framework spanning people, processes, platforms, and data with a commitment to leveraging a best-in-class CRM system such as Salesforce. Careful analysis of the prospect-to-cash flow, breaking it down into sub-flows, and determining how to optimize those flows best-using systems, is necessary to realize gains. Multiple systems spanning marketing automation, CRM, OMS, ad serving, print production, BI, and others are needed to tie together with a coherent Cloud architecture strategy. Data cleansing will be imminent as will new data governance policies. Refinement of roles and responsibilities, as it pertains to data entry and upkeep is necessary.

It’s a tall task. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve seen clients embark on this journey and realize measurable results within a reasonable time frame. Transformation does not happen overnight. It takes time, a commitment to resources, and a willingness to be confident when your organization is resistant to change.

 

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Jill Dignan

Jill Dignan

Author

Jill Dignan has over 13+ years of strategic technology consulting experience, working with enterprise and global companies in media and other industries. During her tenure at V2, she has developed a passion for working with business and technology leaders to outline pragmatic transformation roadmaps as well as helping bring consulting and technology solutions to market. . Jill has helped clients in and outside of media devise winning strategies around process improvement, architecture, design, data, analytics, and integration. She currently serves as CGO of V2.