The Post Digital World talk

I was on the panel last week for Results International. It was called 'The Post Digital World: Tomorrow's ROI Models'.

Now you, like me, must be wondering where does a procurement person fit into that title (not literally of course). I listened very attentively to the three really good speakers before me talking about the holy trinity of DM, data and digital and then Social media:driving ROI and then Procurement!. Andy Collins from Results then did an up date on valuing your business and current market trends.

There were (luckily) a number of themes that I could pick up on and then talk about.

The first one was about a site called Net Haggler, where you could go on and suggest a price that you would like to pay for the item. I suggested to the audience (mainly agencies) that perhaps we could look at building one of these sites to buy agency services !. Sounds an interesting concept perhaps for low value tactical purchases.

Another point that one of the speaker mentioned was that he had never been asked to speak on ROI in the last 2 years. I was really surprised at that as for me this is one of the key areas that I think Client Procurement can lead on. Too often agencies complain that they see Procurement at the pitch and negotiation stage, and then they disappear after that. Diageo do Supplier Relationship Management really well and I saw in Supply Management that my old company, Orange, are rolling out a SRM program. Make ROI part of that program.

Andy spoke about how an agency can maximise its value if they want to sell. Areas such as being a specialist and not a generalist, developing and having key people that engage with clients and manage costs. All areas that we look at in agency selection. As client procurement we can help agencies be better focused on costs and put the processes and disciplines in place to support their growth plans.

So hopefully I held my own - the scores on the door have not been sent through yet.

I have also written an article for Results quarterly bulletin. It is called 'Why a Commercial Threesome can work'. I cover off some of the trends that we need to look at for 2010. If anyone would like a copy of the article then please do let me know.

Following on from the cartoon

Someone (thanks to Nick W) kindly pointed out this video link that was on one of the comments underneath the cartoon. It is called The Vendor Client Relationship - in real world situations. It is very good and sums up some form of negotiations that could happen in a restaurant, a record store and a hairdresser. Watch it and tell me that you don't think "oh sugar" at some of the things that they say.

Click HERE for the link to it and let me know if you think you recognise any behaviour in it !.

2010 - the future is measurable

I have been thinking about the key areas that the industry needs to focus on this year. One of the recurring themes is ROI / measurement and relationship management.

I am working on a potential project that is focused on the Press Cuttings part of the PR category. For me it is that the stakeholders should not be relying on this service as the key measure of the sole indicator of the success or otherwise of their investment in PR. It is essential that measurable public relations objectives are set. This will tell them where they are starting from and where the PR programme is heading.

At a basic level they need to look at six steps to set up these objectives up:
o Define the objectives
o Determine the criteria
o Select a benchmark (what does success look like ? to the stakeholders and procurement)
o Select a measurement tool
o Compare results with objectives
o Modify campaign

The other part of measurement is the 'it is good to talk'. It is important that all key supplier relationships are audited. At one of my companies, we invested in a third party relationship audit company to provide a 360 degree audit of us (you can also do it yourself as well) and then our three top agencies - Media, Advertising and Brand. The cost was then split 4 ways as it was important that everyone had an equal say in the process. The feedback and the agreed action planning worked really well. The 2 suppliers I would recommend in this area are Aprais and Relationship Audits and Management.

A lot of the time the results of the audit can then feed into a Bonus or Payment By Results structure. I know that some companies in the Telco and FMCG sectors are rolling these programs out globally to all their key agency relationships. Be interesting to see the data in a few years time of 'investment in the process' versus ' benefits gained in the long term'.