• by Tom Hespos , March 5, 2002

“How are we doing?” asked the sales rep on the other end of the line. “Did we make the plan?”

“No, you didn’t,” I explained. “Your proposal was way off strategy.”

“But our site is #1 among your target,” protested the rep. “How can you put together a campaign without using us?”

“Quite easily,” said I. “Your competitors submitted proposals that were consistent with our idea for the campaign.”

“But we’re such a natural fit,” said the rep. “I’m baffled as to how we didn’t make the plan.”

I’ve been having way too many conversations like this lately. The fact that conversations like this take place at all is appalling to me, considering that over the years I’ve been a huge proponent of the consultative approach to working together with vendors. Yet, some vendors refuse to cooperate with the agency in any meaningful way in crafting a proposal. That strains relationships, wastes time and generally creates headaches on both sides of the negotiating table.

Clients have a number of reasons why they might advertise online these days. Online advertising does not have to support a large branding effort, or an effort to drive traffic to the client’s site. An online ad campaign might support a niche marketing effort, addressing a non-primary target. Or it might be geared toward retention of existing customers or toward any one of several sub-efforts the client is undertaking. That’s why it is important for vendors to work collaboratively with media planners to address a client’s online advertising goals.

It’s easy for some online ad reps to make the mistake of assuming that since Client X is running online ads and since their site is #1 in reaching Client X’s primary target, that their site should be carrying the client’s advertising. To make any online media plan, a sales rep has to be serious about working collaboratively with the client’s agency. The conversation that opened this column came about as the direct result of the sales rep’s failure to:

• Understand what the agency was hoping to accomplish with their online ad program. In this case, despite having a lengthy conversation with me about the program’s goals, the rep ignored almost everything I had to say and assumed that we wanted to drive traffic to the client’s site. Such was not the case.
• Understand the target audience. While my client’s primary target was a perfect fit with the rep’s site, he didn’t listen when I told him that we were trying to reach a secondary target with the campaign he submitted a proposal for.
• Recommend something consistent with the strategy. Despite my explaining the strategy to this rep, the agency’s strategic thinking was ignored. Accepting the rep’s proposal would have wasted money because it failed to support the overall strategic initiative.

If this sales rep could learn one thing from the experience of having his proposal rejected, I hope it would be to be more open to the idea of taking strategic direction from the agency. There is no reason for a vendor to assume that he knows what is best for the client without having been party to the conversations between agency and client about campaign strategy.

Most media planners are happy to have discussions with vendors about campaign strategy, how it came into being and what types of proposals would best support that strategy (and thus have the best shot at making the media plan). And if they don’t have time to have those discussions, usually the strategy is spelled out in an RFP. Vendors have to be open to the idea of understanding where an agency is coming from with its strategic thinking. If they’re not open to that idea, a proposal will amount to nothing but a shot in the dark.