7. Stay on the radar... respectfully
As an unproven media opportunity, an emerging platform is not going to be a top priority for planners and buyers. They will naturally gravitate toward spending and managing large proven programs. Now, you can tut-tut over this, thinking it demonstrates a lack of vision. Or you can recognize that the planner's job is not to help an emerging media company. Rather, it's the emerging company's job to meet their needs.
As the seller of an emerging platform, you have the onus to keep the dialogue going, to answer the buyer's questions and drive the adoption. They aren't going to close themselves.
That's not to say that you should be calling five times a day, every day, but rather that emerging media are likely to fall to the bottom of to-do lists. It's ultimately on you to cultivate and grow interest politely.
Once you've made the sale, it's doubly important for an emerging platform to meet and exceed its responsibilities. Many emerging companies, for example, wait to hire operations teams until they have a bunch of charter clients disgruntled by the service they aren't getting. When just beginning a relationship with a brand, it is even more critical to ensure smooth operations. In a new relationship, it's not about responding when the chips are down, but rather ensuring that the chips stay up.
Jim Nichols is senior partner at Catalyst: SF.
