successfully partnering with marketing technology sourcing by john hardy

Successfully  Partnering  with  Marke5ng  Technology  Sourcing  

John  Hardy  –  Director  Marke3ng  Sourcing  The  Walt  Disney  Company  

What  We’ll  Cover  

•  The  challenge  with  big  clients  

•  How  Sourcing  can  be  your  ally  

•  Dynamics  of  working  with  startups  

•  How  to  engage  &  structure  deals  that  work  

The  ‘Big  Client’  Challenge    

Big  companies  are  the  sum  total  of  a  lot  of  small  budgets,  with  numerous  decision  makers,  in  a  decentralized  organiza3on,  with  different  needs  and  priori3es  by  department.  

•  No  Enterprise-­‐Level  MarTech  Strategy  •  No  Centralized  Decision-­‐Making  Process  

PlaOorm  vs.  Point  Solu3ons  

Legal/IT/Data  Security  Requirements  

Sourcing  as  an  Ally  

Sourcing  should  be  viewed  as  an  ally,  not  an  adversary,  to  help  with  this  challenge!  

The  Sourcing  Troll  

Cut  the  price  or  you  can’t  get  by  me!!  @#%@$#@  

Naviga3ng  the  Company  Sourcing  is  typically  connected  to  many  teams  across  the  company,  that  have  similar  needs,  and  can  influence  their  decisions.  

Lower  Cost  of  Sale  Sourcing  can  help  organiza3ons  lower  their  cost-­‐of-­‐  sale,  by  ge[ng  you  to  the  right  people  faster,  and  reducing  itera3ons  to  a  deal.  

Enterprise  Deal  Sourcing  is  posi3oned  to  develop  enterprise-­‐level  deals,  and  serve  as  advocates  for  those  deals  across  the  company.  

Advocacy  Example  

What  I  Need  In  Return  

•  Favorable  Deal  Terms  •  Flexibility  •  Scalability  •  Free  Trial  

Working  with  StartUps  

‘Brands  Working  with  Startups’  Study  Key  Findings  

•  Companies  are  not  buying  technology,  they  are  buying  solu3ons.  

•  Companies  work  with  startups  to  leverage  up-­‐and-­‐coming  technology  to  stay  ahead  of  trends,  drive  innova3on,  and  gain  compe33ve  advantage  at  a  reasonable  cost.  

•  The  biggest  barrier  to  engagement  lies  in  a  startup’s  inability  to  ar3culate  what  it  is  offering  in  a  way  that  is  meaningful  and  relevant  to  the  marketer.  

•  Large  companies  will  not  change  to  accommodate  startups.  

•  Companies  measure  success  in  rela3on  to  business  outcomes.  

Source:    ANA/CTA  Study  –  “Brands  Working  With  Startups”  

Challenges  to  Working  w/Startup  

•  Linking  the  technology  to  a  relevant  use  case  •  Value  proposi3on  not  well  thought  out  

•  Budget  (no  innova3on  budget  set  aside)  

•  IT/Security  requirements  

•  Legal/Insurance  requirements  

•  Scalability/Risks  

What  Clients  Should  Do  to  Enable  

•  Design  an  Innova3on  Sourcing  Process,  to  enable  rapid  trial  &  decision-­‐making:  

–  Create  rela3onships  to  set  up  pipeline  –  Set  expecta3ons  internally  -­‐  adjust  risk  tolerance  –  Standard  T&C’s  that  are  less  stringent  than  normal  –  Accelerated  IT/Security  ve[ng  

–  Clearly  defined  use  cases  to  iden3fy  what  is  needed  –  Use  cases  that  are  contained,  to  minimize  risk/exposure  –  Leverage  user/usability  tes3ng  firm  to  run  pilot  

–  Decision  criteria  &  process  for  rapid  ‘Go/No-­‐Go’  –  Build  Orchestra3on  PlaOorm  Architecture  

What  Startups  Should  Do  •  Understand  the  client’s  use  cases  that  address  specific  business  needs,  and  

ar3culate  how  your  product  supports  that  use  case.  

•  Develop  a  process  to  incorporate  relevant  client  feedback  into  your  product  roadmap.  

•  Test  the  stability  &  scalability  of  your  technology  before  you  launch  with  any  client.  

•  Build  on  an  open  architecture  to  enable  flexibility.  

•  Be  flexible  in  how  you  engage,  listen  &  respond  to  the  client.  

•  Be  open  to  equity  discussions  if  the  client  is  interested.  

Tips  to  Engage  &  Contract  

Tighten  Up  Your  Message  

•  What  does  your  thing  do,  what’s  your  core  competency?  –  (in  2  minutes  or  less)  

•  What  business  problem(s)  are  you  solving?    What’s  the  primary  use  case?  

•  Who  are  your  compe3tors,  and  how  are  you  different  from  them?  

•  Where  do  you  fit  in  the  ecosystem?    How  should  I  think  about  you  rela3ve  to  other  solu3ons  that  are  similar?  

•  What  clients  and  partnerships  do  you  have?  

•  Who  are  you  talking  to/working  with  at  my  company  already?  

Be  willing  to  adjust  your  pricing  structure  to  fit  how  the  client  needs  to  buy  it,  which  can  be  driven  by:  

•  Budge3ng  process/ownership  

•  Company  structure  (brands/divisions/geo)  

•  How  solu3on  will  scale  at  the  client  

**  Create  incen5ves  to  scale  

•  Don’t  rely  on  volume  projec3ons,  create  a  flexible  model  with  a  3ered  structure  based  on  “if-­‐then”.  

•  An3cipate  success  &  growth,  and  structure  the  contract  accordingly.  

Don’t  try  to  force  ar3ficial  criteria,  such  as  #  of  brands  or  countries,  that  can  inflate  fees.    Just  base  pricing  on  what  drives  your  cost,  and  allows  you  to  earn  a  fair  profit.  

Offer  free  proof  of  concept  to  incen3vize  trial,  we  likely  won’t  buy  it  without  trying  it.  

Structure  deal  to  alleviate  administra3ve  burdens  whenever  you  add  or  delete  users,  make  it  simple  to  scale.  

Iden3fy  a  3pping  point  where  you  convert  to  an  enterprise  unlimited  deal,  and  then  only  charge  fees  to  scale  hos3ng  costs.  

Create  a  formal  process  to  solicit  client  input  into  your  product  roadmap,  and  show  them  how  you’re  integra3ng  their  ideas  into  your  solu3on.    Form  an  advisory  board  that  includes  clients.  

Be  prepared  to  give  your  client  some  benefit  for  customiza3on  ideas  that  they  come  up  with,  such  as  limited  exclusivity,  free  services,  or  something  else  of  value,  if  they  demand  it….  Have  a  model  prepared.  

•  Offer  SLA’s  that  are  meaningful  to  your  client’s  business.    Just  offer  them  up  instead  of  making  us  ask  for  them:  –  Availability  –  Transac3on  Speed  –  Recovery  Process  

Build  in  free  support,  service  3me  and  training  

Build  an  open  architecture  with  robust  API’s  that  can  talk  to  other  solu3ons.    This  strategy  has  longer  term  poten3al  than  the  closed  plaOorm,  unless  you  can  be  the  best  at  everything.  

Summary  

•  Big  clients  are  challenging  –  each  is  unique  

•  Sourcing  can  be  your  ally  –  or  a  troll  

•  Each  client  differs  in  how  well  they  deal  with  startups  

•  Structure  client-­‐friendly  deals  to  enable  growth  

Thank  You  John.a.hardy@disney.com