Preparing for my keynote at Thursday's PubMatic AdRevenue4 conference, it occurred to me that far too many publishers don't have a revenue strategy: most have two. And that's something that's just got to stop.
Most revenue people -- CROs, EVPs and SVPs of Sales -- are probably right-brain dominant. They and their teams get out of bed ready to tell creative, persuasive stories about value....to leverage that which is special and scarce....to integrate marketers into their environments, and earn a premium for doing all this. Once all the creative, right-brain stuff is over, that which remains unsold and uncommitted moves over into the left-brain world; a world filled with algorithms and decisions about supply, demand, price and yield....a world where we manage staggering abundance.
The Drift is proudly underwritten this week by PubMatic, which empowers publishers with one holistic platform to sell advertising more intelligently.
Many publishers have created dual strategies to serve these environments. The CRO and sales team drive the right-brain direct sale effort. The left-brain effort is largely outsourced to a huge cast of players (it takes a village) who manage what is collectively called "the remnant strategy" or "secondary market."
But as I've been reading in Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age," there are no pure right brain or left brain activities: the two sides of the brain are constantly working with and informing one another. And so it must also be with revenue strategy.
The next stage in the evolution of strategic sales leadership will focus on the synthesis of primary and secondary sales channels. The sales leader will break down the walls segregating direct sellers and indirect channels. Those channel partners who would serve the publisher will no longer act like a back-channel, but will instead become ever more curious and participatory in the publisher's total revenue strategy. Insights from the secondary channel will inform the actions and choices of primary sellers; and the value driven by the primary seller will set meaningful parameters and goals for the secondary channel. Left brain speaks to right brain; and vice-versa.
As I'll say in my opening remarks Thursday, every publisher talks about wanting more control. But what many do not yet realize is that control is not about power, but rather about balance. And seeking balance through a unified revenue strategy is an active choice you can make today.
