Sales And Creative Teams Alignment

I know we spoke quickly on emailand you asked me to remind youon the call, you have toremember who that company wasthat needed to.Make the sales team understandthe value of the creative teamas opposed to givingaway the creative.And where do youremember hearing this,because I don't rememberhalf the things Isay that's being generous.It was episode 70.I was about presenting live.Tina had a bunch of questionsabout it and you were talkingabout stories and the storiesthat you were talking aboutwas a company asked you tohelp onboard new sales teamand you found you told her.Well, the firstthing you're doingis you're givingaway your creative.The sales team needs tobe made aware of the valuethat creative bringsto stop giving it away.And you were talkingabout a movie,how people like thedirector and the EPand a bunch of differentpeople that make a movie.And I was curious to know whothat company was because I'mlooking to speak to companiesthat did that and madea switch to value theircreative and not give it awayand how they went aboutdoing that because I'mhaving that issue rightnow and a lot of pushback.Perfect let's talk about that.You guys understandwhat JD was asking.I have no recollectionof ever saying that part.So you guys have to forgive me.People are like, I can'tbelieve you said that.I'm like, I don't rememberwhat I said yesterday, man,I just don't.I'm here.I'm now.What do you want to talk about?So Katie's question ishe's having some issuesbecause salespeople tendto want to just do whateverthey can to close the sale.That's pretty much what they do.They make promises onbehalf of the teams thathave to make the work,and it creates a frictionbetween sales and production.This is not somestory that I haveto talk about in the abstract.This is something I have hadto deal with most of my career.OK, my executive producers, nomatter who was in the hot seat,always wanted toclose New business,and they werewilling to compromiseon just about anythingbecause all they cared aboutwas the number.So if they had to cut thebid, they would do that.If that a promise,extra revisions.They would do that.So that was a problembecause it was creatinga fissure between us and thenit created a kind of two partysystem within our own company.OK, so we neededto change things.We needed to changethe protocol and wehad to sit down togetherand work through thisover the course of severalweeks to sit down and talk abouthow do we makedecisions, what isin the best interests ofthe company moving forward.We need to do work.That's creative.We need to do thingsthat are sustainable,meaning people will payus in a timeline that'scompatible with the team.Here's what we're notwilling to budge on.We're not willing tobudge on x, y and z.We had these meetings.It was difficult for theperson to understand thisbecause all theycan see was a no.They just wanted to closemore business regardlessif that piece of businesswas going to cost the companymoney because there was 0accountability for them there.It could not understand that.So in this instance,we needed to empowerthe creatives tomake decisions whichmade the executiveproducers not very happy.But for the survival of thecompany for the lifebloodof the company.We needed to do that, andI told one of my producersthat one time I remember becauseI was very upset that they saidcertain things during the call.Here's the thing if youwant to make those promises,you run this job.But I will not be running yet.You figure out how to do it forthat amount of money or you,you do the extra revision.Don't promise 5 ideaswhen I told you,I'm going to do three.Now I have to generatetwo extra ideasfor what reasonbecause you were soenthusiastic about overselling.So one of the key ideashere is to under-promiseand overdeliver becauseI can overdeliver it whenyou don't promise too much.We also need to understandthat creative ideas should notbe given away forfree, that you'regoing to have to onboardnew clients without havingus to do free work.Once you understandthe parameters,I think they have a bettertime trying to figure it out.If you read Blair's BlairN's book pricing creativity,he said, generallyspeaking, you do notlet the person who does thesales in on any of the moneyconversations becausewhat they'll dois they'll the price.That's the first thingthat they'd resort to.One of the key things you saidthere was onboard new clients.So you continuedoing what you weredoing for your existing clientsasset more specifically.So you said when youonboard new clients,let them know upfront thatyou're not giving awaycreative.But how do youhandle the clientsthat you have existing who areexpecting that free creative?OK that's a very good question.If you work in commercialadvertising, whichwe sort of still do,there is a protocolof people pitchingideas for free, unpaidand it's highly speculative.We hate that industry,but those are the rules.Everybody thatparticipates in industrydoes the exact same thing, samething with main title designand sometimes also for TV shows.That's why we want toget out of that business.OK, so you have aclient that is usedto seeing this kind of stuff.You have to have a conversationwith your internal team.Are we OK walkingaway from this clientif they're not willing towork the way we want to work?Hopefully, the answer is Yes.Just because you've beenabused and you're used to,it doesn't mean youhave to take it anymore.OK, so you can havethat conversation.You can say to them,look, here's the thing.For many years, we'vedone it this way.We find that this tobe counterproductivefor both you and for us.And here's the reasons why.So moving forward, whenever youask us to look at a project,we're going to behappy to talk to you,but we're not going to bepitching on these projectsanymore.We understand you need options.You need to do what's rightfor you and do due diligence.And if it doesn'tmake sense for youto continue to work with us.Appreciate the business.Thank you for all theyears of work together.