We are all suffering product paralysis.
We work day in and day out with not only our own diverse service offerings, but over 100+ vendors, technology and publishing partners each with an average of 10 products, and hundreds of sub-products each with their own detailed complexity.
It's an impossible task to comprehend over a thousand products, and then navigate a further two thousand attributes in the architecture of the product offering, such as bidding nuances or the vendors' viewability standards.
Our complexities are not our clients' problems.
Today's winning organisations need a union of strategic insight, vertical expertise, data, and technology. That is why we need to blend traditional consulting excellence with solutions: technology and specialised teams that deliver true business solutions and not product-led outcomes.
When a consultative solution is integrated, it compels multiple products by design.
An integrated solution will make an immediate impact on business performance because solutions are measurable and repeatable. They allow business leaders to make rigorous, data-driven decisions on the biggest challenges facing their organisation. Leadership begins when we stop asking "what do you want" and instead begin comprehending what it is an organisation needs to survive.
When you got 99 problems, but a pitch ain't one.
Solutions are not pitch tinsel. They have to actually leave the boardroom and become executed in full. The pitch process whilst a staple requirement in our industry needs a face-lift to ensure that all stakeholders on both sides of the table are fully engaged to actualise the strategic vision presented. That can mean combining IT, commerce and other critical departments into the fold. Marketing in its purest form no longer exists. It is a catch-all, inclusive of sales performance, technology, website performance alongside anything else the COO or CEO add into the mix. Therefore the pitch environment and its various stakeholders needs to reflect the new playing field.
Clients deserve solutions not salespeople.
The quicker the industry can move away from holding a predisposition to "the way it has always been done" the more exciting the years to come will be. Clients deserve consultation which extends beyond that of arbitration management between vendors. There is no longer a role for sales in the agency, rather there is a requirement for impartial strategic guidance. Of course, we are all businesses that need to make money but with a 1.9% CAGR for advertising, surely now is the time to stop stealing and eating one another's lunch? Now is the time to earn trust and build meaningful relationships for the long term as the CMO's remit extends way beyond that of marketing.
Determine the consumer's pain points, and the client's objectives when reaching them.
This sounds like marketing 101—however there is a necessity to move away from claimed data in surveys, and use probabilistic and deterministic data when engaging with consumers. Using real-time data in a defined methodology is like a self-fulfilling prophecy where the more data you add to the foundations of the model, the smarter the test becomes over time. You can create a vertical solution by ensuring the organisation has boundary-crossing competencies built into its culture. The best way to understand this notion is captured in the observation that we have a lot of I-shaped leaders but we need more T-shaped ones—people who combine deep expertise with broad cross-functional capability.
Continually establish value.
Value is ambiguous, but it's a conversation that lacks in many partnerships. Simply asking one another what value looks like to them will enhance a relationship and its outputs by 10X. Trust me.
On the flip side, don't be alarmed to hear that one individual's values may dangerously conflict with yours, and you may well have to pivot existing practices that suit you, to values which suit a mutually beneficial partnership. The advice I often give is that a true partnership is a bit like a game of Jenga. We should and can all take a fair number of pieces from the structure over a number of years, in turn building up the partnership as we add the learnings to the top. When everyone is communicating the tower gets stronger, but when stakeholders lose sight of the end goal or its ultimate value the tower will topple. Establish a method to continually evaluate value.
Seek absolute transformation.
I am a firm believer that if you aim for the moon you will end up among the stars. Go for gold and seek to transform the mundane day-to-day operations that some marketing functions have become. Transformation shouldn't be painful; rather it should simply add value to the entire business. Test, refine and roll out initiatives that propel the business towards a five-year vision for success. If you don't have a vision, create one and align business leadership within it. The methodology is to move beyond the day-to-day transactions of business, to a transformational model whereby a proactive, long-term and self-sustaining solution can be achieved with all parties involved and benefiting.
Often the role of determining the product solutions our client partners need is a complex balance of forecasting and future gazing to determine the pace at which we need to steer the ship. Often I feel a little like a fortune teller, navigating the cracks and wrinkles of our industry's hands. Just remember, that we won't always get it right—but there is a lot to be learnt in progressive failure.