Sales trainers like to breathe in media sales at 40,000 feet and then pontificate on how digital salespeople need to be more compassionate, consultative sellers who don’t sell ads but rather
offer solutions to clients’ problems.
The reality is that sales calls happen on the ground with media buyers. They often sound like the following example, where the problem
clients want to solve with their online ad dollars is how to drive more exposure to the most expensive ad the client has ever built: its own Web site.
“Have the KPIs changed since
the last campaign?” asks the salesperson.
“Yes,” answers the media buyer. “The client invested in greater functionality on their site. So now
we’ll be measuring traffic back to their site and the depth of those visits.”
“So your client has enriched the content experience on their site because it increases
consumer engagement with their brand. We know something about that. Have you seen our site lately?”
“Nope.”
“May I update you?”
“Go for it.”
“In December, we had 9,217,000 uniques, according to comScore. They averaged 3.2 visits and turned 2.7 page views per visit session. Our visits per
unique have climbed 29% since we added dynamic updates on the best prices available for tech products.”
“Can we look at coregistration opportunties?”
“Absolutely. I also have a custom program mocked up for you to look at. I understand you need to drive traffic back to your client’s site and you want those visits to generate
more depth -- we can help with that. However, awareness of the benefits in upgrading to a 4K Ultra HD TV has to play a part in driving consumers to invest in one. The custom program
I’ve mocked up brings those benefits into focus for our audience. May I walk you through that idea?"
“Sure.”
“See this button in the upper right-hand corner of
the site? It reads ‘4K Me,’ and when a user clicks on it, he or she will see an enhanced version of our site that mimics the greater clarity and colors a 4K Ultra HD TV
delivers. Your client would have 100% SOV of this ‘enhanced site,’ and their logo will be underneath this button, which will appear on every page view of our site.”
“Pretty cool.”
“Anything else you need me to cover?”
“I have one final question. Is your inventory available on the exchanges?”
“Yes.”
When a media salesperson is forced to answer that final question about exchanges by admitting that “yes, you can buy our site’s audience with greater
targeting at a lower price,” he or she is directing buyers to solve their client’s problem without the salesperson’s help. Trying to then sell directly, tacking on a
“high-touch” solution to a more ambiguous problem, is like trying to sell a car to someone who walks into an Avis.
The problem media buyers face is that they can only reach a
certain portion of their target audience on low-quality sites through the exchanges. So they need to increase reach and improve the mix
of quality sites on their media plan, which is why salespeople at premium sites get meetings.
Programmatic (private and open) is a buying solution, not a publishing one, but the promise
of sales revenue without doing any selling has seduced an entire industry into marching off a cliff -- and media salespeople are the ones who will be pushed off first. AOL is laying off
sales people, and Tim used to be one. What do you think Marissa is going to do? The rest will follow despite the promise that both direct media sales and programmatic sales can
coexist.
The irony of getting rid of media salespeople is that it’s advertisers who will ultimately suffer. That’s because rates sold programmatically, while enjoying
misleading increases now, will consistently decline over time. As a result, content quality on premium sites will plummet. Consumers will scatter as even more ridiculously invasive ads
disrupt the user experience, and the premium sites advertisers need to extend their audience reach will eventually perish.
Online premium publishing is getting killed. The murder weapon is
programmatic, and this death will be ruled a suicide.