A sales team carries its rules in its head: the price below which we never go, the advertisers we do not take, the deals the head of sales wants to see. An agent cannot read heads. It follows what is written. Here is how to write it.
Start with prices
For each package, write two numbers:
- The anchor price, the one you open with.
- The floor, below which the agent never goes, whatever the volume.
Fanera, the selling agent from Oderra, negotiates between the two. It never proposes below a floor. If a buyer insists, the brief goes to a person.
Then negotiation limits
Floors say how low. Limits say how far, and how fast:
- the largest discount on a package, for example 15%;
- the largest discount on a whole plan, when several packages are bundled;
- what the agent may trade instead of price: extra volume, a longer flight, a different slot.
Then who may buy
- Buyer categories you never accept, such as gambling or political advertising.
- Advertisers you only sell to directly, through your own team.
- Markets you do not serve.
A brief outside these rules is declined, or sent to a person, never answered by the agent alone.
Then the thresholds for a person
This is the most important rule. Decide what always waits for a human:
- any plan above a certain amount;
- any new advertiser;
- any change to a floor or a rule;
- any make-good above a certain volume.
Below the thresholds, the agent proposes and confirms within your rules. Above them, it prepares everything and a person decides.
Write them so they can be checked
Good rules are numbers and lists, not adjectives. "Premium prices" cannot be followed. "Floor CPM 24.00 on streaming TV" can. Every rule should be one a colleague could check by reading a single line.
Review them every quarter
Prices move, packages change, new channels arrive. Put a date on your rules and look at them again each quarter, with the delivery record next to you: it shows where the agent held firm, and where a person had to step in.