About a year or so ago, my buddy Jim Buckley convinced me that I needed to start paying attention to the larger universe of social media (meaning stuff other than Facebook). This discussion got me into Twitter. One of the people I follow on Twitter is Ted Rubin. Not everyone who reads this blog does so for business purposes, so, for those of you who may not know about him, you should Google him. To quote Ron Burgundy..."he's kind of a big deal" (at least in the business that I'm in).
Anyway, I picked up a string of text in a recent tweet from him that said something to the effect of "the new ROI is measured in Return on Relationships (#RonR)". This is an insanely interesting concept that could apply in multiple contexts. For purposes of this discussion, I'm going to keep it centered on those of us who sell advertising services.
For nearly as long as I can remember, the most important acronym in the advertising field has been ROI. Return on Investment is the Holy Grail. The ROI of a campaign can make or break an advertising rep. It can be the difference between being successful in this field or not. There are so many ways to measure ROI now, it's hard to keep them all straight. Cost per lead...cost per sale...ad to sales ratio...cost per click...etc...etc...etc.
One of the most important skills in any needs analysis situation is to determine how a potential customer will measure the ROI of your campaign. It sets the expectations for the whole campaign, and often determines how an advertising rep will recommend for their client to go to market.
That's the numbers part...how do you balance the numbers with the time honored tradition of "building rapport"? In my own humble opinion, trying to "build rapport" is still vitally important, but doing so in today's market place is a tricky path. The convergence of so many different generational groups in one place makes it hard to do it the old fashioned way. The baby boomers still may want to do "lunch and learns", but the millennials want you to text them the bullet points, and if they like them, they might meet you for a Starbucks (okay...I'm generalizing here, but you get the point).
This is where I'm starting to think that every needs analysis should start with the following question:
"How do you measure your Return on Relationships?"
The answer to this will tell you so much more than just what the ROI is. Think about it this way...most advertisers want to either attain new customers, engage in competitive blunting, build loyalty with current customers, launch a new product, or all of the above. Most of us can build campaigns around these things with our eyes closed.
Its a gutsy move to open with that question, but imagine the payoff. You meet someone for the first time and you have no idea what their buying style is. Are they a thinker, actor, friend, or partner? Are they a visual person or do numbers tell them the story they need to hear? Do they need to see you face to face every time, or do they prefer a webex every now and then. These are the questions that will unlock the answer to how Return on Relationships (#RonR) is measured. When you add the intrinsic benefit of knowing how to calculate #RonR and ROI together, you have a pretty powerful story, and one that can drive profitable relationships for a very long time. Reps pride themselves on being consultative...this seems to be the new (or maybe old) way to get there!
I'm going to make this suggestion to my reps. I want them to open up needs analyses with this question. Not all of them will, but I know one or two who'll do it. I'll be very interested to see how it pans out for them. Stay tuned!
Namaste
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