Building Trust Between Separate Sales Teams

Why can't we get along?

More local media companies with established media businesses are hiring  digital first or digital only sales teams to penetrate new markets while still leveraging the legacy sales force. This approach is championed by companies like Deseret Media and Draper Media.  

However, creating teams that sell together in the same market means clear rules - or hours of management time and sales representatives mental energy being diverted into conflicts over accounts, and a perception of unfairness which results in even more pernicious long term issues. (Some companies, such as the Odessa American avoid the issue entirely) 

Enter Draper Media's WBOC.  Two features of their new online only selling team are a) Hiring the top sales person from the established media, proving that people who can sell and manage digital won't be held back from advancement by their established lists and accounts with legacy media and b) Clear rules of engagment between the two teams. 

Central to these rules are hard and fast boundaries. Digital reps cannot call on legacy account (ie have run in six months or are seasonal) without permission. And they cannot sell television without legacy rep assistance, or call on an agency.

Here's the actual rules for the reps used by the WBOC teams, which are on track to double digital sales in 2011: 

Sales Rules of Engagement for WBOC and WBOC Interactive Teams

Interactive May Call On:

1. Any accounts in the database that are without an AE; in other words are “open”

2. Any accounts that have not been called on in six months and which are not “Seasonal” will be deemed “open”.

3. Any accounts with a Legacy AE on a four-legged cal

4. Any accounts with a Legacy AE with Legacy Permission or with Legacy Sales Management Permission



Interactive Team May Not:

1. Pre-emptively call on an assigned Legacy Account

2. Sell TV. In the case where a mixed product, like Delmarva Experts is included in a proposal, the Legacy Team Sales management will assign an AE to handle the TV portion. Credit will get allocated accordingly.

3. Call on account who is represented by, or formally associated with, an Advertising Agency.

Additionally, Interactive Team may get asked to call on an account at the request of Legacy Sales Management.

Pricing needs to be unified across all points – Gross and Net. Any changes to pricing, as for an agency must be pre-approved by both management teams.

For Delmarvalist.com sales, [note: this is the interactive directory, also sold by telemarketers]  all clients in database are fair game with the exception of those on the DO NOT CALL LIST to be provided.

Many thanks to Brooke Warner, General Manager of Interactive for WBOC for sharing her policies. Her division is rapidly evolving into Draper Digital Media, which will be charged with expanding all the sites and developing new ones. 

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