Most any time that a media negotiator takes over for you to buy at lower rates to achieve better reach and frequency and quality of sales leads, this event sets off a “FUD” panic (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) with many salespeople. Generally you will hear one or more of these things to try to discourage you from enlisting a media negotiator. Don’t be fooled.
- The media rep will call you immediately to say, “You don’t need a media negotiator; your rates will go up.” [The truth is that rep commission rates are lowered when a media negotiator gets involved. They lose commission dollars and control of you, which they hate to do.
- The media rep will tell you, “Your rates will be marked up to compensate for the fee that the media negotiator takes out of the media invoices.” [This is an absolute falsehood. Your rates will go down, and your reach and frequency will go up. Any time we find a media outlet trying to surcharge or otherwise “stick” it to one of our clients when we get involved, we get the sales manager on the phone, or delete that media vendor from all buys until they become honest.
- The rep will say, “You will lose access to all ‘special deals’ I’ve been giving you because pricing without a media negotiator is ALWAYS better than pricing WITH a negotiator, when you have me.” [Simply not true. This is another scare tactic. Your rates WILL go down, and your reach and frequency WILL go up, but again, the rep will make less money.]
There is are 5 reasons for what we call “Rep FUD”: a) fear of being found out about their heretofore pricing integrity, b) fear of being found out about where media is specifically placed to run, c) fear of your being told that you can get greater reach and frequency for the same dollars you are already spending than what was previously offered to you by them earlier before the media negotiator came aboard, d) fear of the rep losing income, and e) fear of the rep losing control of you.
The smarter reps understand that a good media negotiator can actually bring them more income with multiple advertising clients than they could ever get on their own from any one media buying company, even if at reduced commission rates. Anytime that someone is negative on a new initiative you are taking in media negotiation, it should be a warning sign that you’ve been over-paying or that there are some things that have been hidden from you.