Media Sales Imperatives: Operationalizing the Ramp Up

In response to the current economic conditions, Alexander Group recently held a virtual Media Advisory Council (MAC) session with media sales executives that focused on how to operationalize go-to-market strategies, create optimal performance conditions and lead through change.

With over 90 attendees, revenue leaders from NBCUniversal, Twitch, Twitter, DTX Company and Group Nine gave insights into how they are shifting their focus to growth imperatives.

Alexander Group facilitators provided findings from the recent Media Response Flash Survey, which highlighted media firms’ outlook on their plans for the second-half of 2020 including their confidence in their current sales models and how they plan to manage hiring and sales compensation.

The discussion verified that top concerns for media revenue leaders center on creating organizational agility and innovation, as well as managing the changes required to drive future success.

Additional key focus areas included:

• Innovation will be crucial to solving customer challenges
• It’s essential to pivot resources to enable the organizational agility that is required to address the volatile needs of the marketplace
• Virtual events need to transition from voyeuristic to interactive to be successful
• To protect and engage existing customers, implementing a customer success mindset will be critical
• Properly preparing the sales team to listen, educate themselves and move away from reactionary sales will be essential

The below findings from Alexander Group’s recent flash survey supported these takeaways:

• 97% of media revenue leaders are anticipating significant to moderate change to drive sustained future success.
• 78% of media organizations are only halfway or less with regards to making the difficult strategy changes required.
• The sales expense budget has shifted with pre-sales roles expanding from 13% to 30% while post-sales roles have gone from 21% to 30%. This has left only 40% of the traditional sales expense budget in core selling roles.

The participants agreed that the best plan of action includes the following four key actions:

1. ABCD – Always Be Creating Demand
2. Be proactive in finding solutions to customer issues. There is no excuse for sitting on the sidelines waiting for RFPs to come in.
3. Reinforce the strategy (repeat; repeat; repeat)
4. Focus the sales organization’s time on listening and learning

The current situation presents a constantly evolving and uncertain environment for media organizations. Revenue leaders are actively changing plans and strategies to reach a state of recovery and build growth as quickly as possible.

To help you prepare, Alexander Group has shifted our 2020 Operations Forum to a virtual event and is now free of change. Our Operations Forum is a powerful opportunity to learn and engage with Fortune 1000 leaders as you build or reboot your strategies for developing 24×7 customer experience. To view the agenda or to learn more, visit our Operations Forum page or contact an Alexander Group media sales practice lead.