Partner Management
Overview & Challenge(s):
Paid media can be overwhelming, especially for a small startup agency. Crux had entered into a partnership with Spectrum Reach due to resource constraints and a lack of skilled employees to manage the offers. About one month after joining the company, I was approached by an upset CMO lead about Spectrum issues and client complaints.
The Spectrum team had taken ownership of PPC for a client and in doing so, caused their average cost per lead to skyrocket from $100 to over $1000 within two days. The CMO was seeking a credit of over $6K, which Crux had granted and needed to collect from Spectrum. Without a clear owner defined for this partnership, I was asked to step in.
Goal(s): Recover expense from the partner, improve profitability, and re-launch the service offer.
Strategy & Approach:
Requested a meeting with the Crux CMO to understand the situation.
We documented the steps that had occurred during the transition from Crux to Spectrum.
I reached out to the Spectrum Account team to document their understanding of what had occurred.
After determining that both Crux and Spectrum had been at fault, I hosted a joint meeting between the two teams to find a resolution.
From late November through February, I paused selling the PPC service to our clients so I could establish a new, more profitable program to relaunch.
Established a regular cadence of weekly meetings with the Spectrum team to discuss hard topics in a direct but respectful way, thus creating a solid working relationship.
Results:
Spectrum agreed to credit Crux for 80% of what the client requested; Crux credited the remaining 20%.
Uncovered gaps in the handoff process and that the Account Teams had little knowledge of paid digital strategies.
Spectrum accommodated every request I had, which included:
Spectrum in-person training for the Account Teams.
Checklist of critical items to discuss with a client prior to finalizing a scope of work.
End-to-end process documentation and updated org chart.
Same-day responses to Account Team questions via shared Teams Channel.
Bi-monthly meetings with the Account Teams as requested.
Monthly, sponsored lunch-and-learns.
In early May, the program was re-launched, generating a 5x increase in profitability from paid media programs.