A deeper dive into the role of a Commercial Director

In my article entitled ‘Cash is King – the role of a Commercial Director’, I described the seamless journey relationship between marketing, business development, sales and client relationship management. In this article, I dive a little deeper into those aspects of the role. Of course, there are features and attributes of every business that can challenge these definitions somewhat. Nonetheless, I hope they provide a moment of clarification and sobriety – particularly for the role of Commercial Director in a Marketing Communications Agency or service sector business.

Marketing – posturing and positioning.

In its purest form, marketing is a series of cohesive activities that consistently communicate offerings that have value for others (customers). The function in a business is to take your values to customers and prospects whom you seek to satisfy, and retain. The tools are many and varied. They are usually described as ‘Above’, ‘Through’ and ‘Below’ the line advertising/marketing/promotion and delivered through the following media:

• TV

• Radio

• Print advertising

• Outdoor advertising

• Direct mail

• Sponsorship

• Brand activation

• In-store marketing

• 360° marketing

• Digital marketing

For a more detailed description of these types and how to use them, I’ve created a blog that, I hope, will help.

Marketing has been integral to my career. It is something I’ve used for myself or the organisations I’ve represented and worked for. In many instances, it has been the service I have ‘sold’ (for want of a phrase). Indeed, my ‘sales’ career started in wines and spirits where I had the idea of own-label sparkling wines for the automotive franchises. Less expensive and perishable than the traditional bunch of flowers to thank customers for their purchase of a vehicle, it was also easier to stock and store – a marketing fulfilment tool. After setting something up with Marius Harte at Rover HQ for all Rover franchises in the UK, a franchisee who also had a Vauxhall franchise asked me to do it for them too. One phone call and one meeting later, I was suddenly a Vauxhall consultant at the world leading brand consultancy, Wolff Olins. Over the next few years, I was fortunate to work above and below the line in dozens of sectors – both domestically and internationally – thanks to this grounding!

Business Development – it’s not a sales role!

I often see the role of ‘Business Development Manager’ or similar advertised. But when reading the job description, it is clearly a sales role. This is because the tasks undertaken in ‘business development’ are often absorbed into marketing and sales roles and not given the proper attention that they require.

Business development is the research and strategy that provides you with the insight to distinguish your product/service offering in the space you occupy – and, in particular, how you differentiate from your customers. It requires a methodology to continually assess, compare and improve the marketing strategy. It is acquired by closely working with marketing, sales and client liaison to help identify expansion in markets, new user acquisition, awareness etc.

Here’s an example. I worked with a very successful agency a few years ago. It was very strong in one discipline and one sector. So much so, I identified that it was a huge risk to the business if one or both of these strengths were compromised in any way.

After getting to know the skill sets and expertise of the team, it was evident that we had the potential to be a more rounded agency – working in other profitable disciplines and sectors. A business development programme was researched; a strategy was created; tactical delivery commenced. Over the following years, we maintained our strengths in those particular disciplines and sectors – but the dependency on that single client and sector waned as we acquired new clients in new sectors and new disciplines. The company grew four-fold in revenue and profitability in five years. The client roster expanded to cover TV, radio, print and outdoor advertising, brand activation and in-store marketing for telecommunications, FMCG publishing, pharmaceuticals and high street retail fashion to name but a few.

It is, however, important to note that this was achieved through a dedicated business development programme that was delivered whilst maintaining and sustaining the incumbent business.

Sales – it's not complicated.

Let's simplify things. A sale is the exchange of money for goods and/or services – when customers ' buy’. In that process, people ‘buy’ based on three simple premises – price, service and quality. If the prospect has all three in the right quantities, they will ‘buy’ and become a customer. If it is too expensive (or cheap); not good enough (or better than they need); doesn’t do what they want it to do (or is too elaborate), they will not buy. It is as simple as that. Try it out when you next go to buy something – chewing gum, petrol, a car – if you don’t have all three in the right amounts, it just won’t sit easy with you and you won’t part with your hard earned cash.

The challenging part for any ‘salesman’ is, therefore, learning how to understand the right quantities of each that the prospect is looking for and to build loyalty and trust that the ‘promise’ will be delivered. I’ve used the adage “you have two ears and one mouth – use them in that ratio” i.e. ask the right questions and listen twice as hard to the answer. The sale will visualise in front of your very eyes!

Client Relationship Management – more than delivering the project(s).

This is delivered by the team of individuals who work to build, maintain and strengthen a company's relationship with a client that is the key to long term success of a business. The Account Directors, Managers, Executives and client facing production team. They all need to be on the same page on how to manage the client and their team. After all, the last thing you want to do is lose clients as fast as you gain them and be on that treadmill of constantly trying to find ‘new business’.

Of course, these people manage accounts and ensure they're meeting clients' needs – but they also need to have the soft skills to develop personal relationships with clients. After all, they will be working with them for a very long time. It’s not just the clients project that your team are working on that they have a common interest in. There are other non-work related common interests that need to be understood to build a lasting relationship.

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To wrap it up, the role of the Commercial Director makes the marketing, business development, sales and client liaison journey as smooth and as seamless as possible – for both the client and members of the team. However, this only serves to ‘maintain’ the business and doesn’t address the growth.

After working with an agency recently to create the long-term vision for the business (where it wants to be in five years); deriving a strategic plan to deliver the vision; analysing the incumbent business and the trajectory of its clients – sectors, disciplines etc. I was able to establish the shortfall required to hit the long-term goals. With this insight, I was able to brief a lead generation agency on some very specific needs – namely:

1. The number of roster places that we needed to fill

2. The budgets those clients need to have to spend

3. The timeframe of when we need to acquire them by

4. The sectors where the quick wins will be achieved

5. The personas and profiles of the individuals we are looking to work for in those sectors

This makes their job so much easier and, as a result, a delight to work with. More of an extension of the team than a third-party at arm's length chasing leads.

In addition to this, there is a marketing programme to support this activity. This will compliment the plan and generate the right type of inbound business leads.

All of this was achieved by an analysis of the business that can be identified; the journey needed to take it to billing; understanding the shortfall and how to address it.

In articles in the near future, I'll talk about how this achieved in more detail!