The Importance of Visibility in Selling Plans with Higher Margins

Get eyes on your data and maximize automation, speed, and profits

Unified visibility across publishing operations is a hallmark of the most successful sales and ad ops teams. From identifying key metrics for growth to discovering gaps and new opportunities, real-time, accessible data allows teams to skip the guesswork and get straight to their most impactful work. 

New technology can enable greater visibility. Under the umbrella of “digital transformation,” publishers are deploying new tools and platforms to give their teams the data and insights needed to succeed. More than 40% of publishers in the U.S. cited digital transformation as “an overwhelming top priority” for their companies; a different study found that unified visibility, and the clarity it provides, are the top focus areas within most transformation initiatives. 

The Benefits of Clarity 

Are you setting your sales and ad operations team up for success? Your ability to future-proof as a business may depend on your answer. 

Timely visibility into the right data drives improved results. Directly responsible for revenue generation, your operations and sales teams must have the right insights and data to turn up the dial on strategy and collaborate effectively. 

This requires breaking down data silos between teams, making way for dialogue across sales reps, rev ops, and ad ops specialists to drive repeat sales and up campaign performance. With accurate and well-understood data, teams can cooperatively problem-solve, strategize, and ultimately make the most informed decisions. 

Accessing clean, accurate data quickly also enables your team to get ahead of problems before they become crises. Clean data also facilitates forecasts with greater precision and accuracy–so no opportunities are lost. 

Nine Opportunities for Publishers

Dashboards are only as useful as the accuracy of the insights they provide. Many publishers fail to maximize profit margins because data is missing, incomplete, or laggy. To make the most of your data, it must be visualized and managed in a way that allows teams to set priorities and make adjustments in real time. 

Visibility helps media publishers of all sizes sell more at higher margins in nine key ways: 

1. Less over-sold inventory.  Avoid double-booking and overpromising by giving sellers an eye on what’s available in real time. ‍

2. Minimal gaps in inventory sales. It’s a simple fact—salespeople sell what they’re most familiar with. In an industry of exponential complexity, this is now more true than ever. Every seller, however, wants to sell more and skip the stress of end-of-quarter quota pressure. With greater visibility into the product mix and what’s available, sellers are empowered to sell more (and bundle, cross-sell, and upsell) to fill gaps–all while improving their commissions and solidifying their job security. ‍

3. Fewer under-priced sales. Unified visibility lets you evaluate seller performance on an apples-to-apples basis, assess product demand, and see average selling prices versus rate card. When all this information is synthesized in the same place, selling for maximum profits becomes easier. ‍

4. More cross-sells and upsells. The top 25th percentile of publishers for year-over-year growth have one thing in common—they can recapture 20-to-40% of lost upsell and cross-sell revenue opportunities. The impact of this is massive, leading to deal sizes that, on average, are at least 23% larger. With visibility into inventory gaps, more cross-selling and upselling happens in order to capture revenue. ‍

5. Fewer manual tasks, fewer errors, and happier employees. Greater visibility equals fewer spreadsheets, fewer human hands spending countless hours organizing numbers, and more automated, fast, and agile workflows. This means sellers are able to plan and sell at higher margins proactively. Empowered by technology and liberated from repetitive tasks, employees are happier, churn decreases, and the business is healthier overall. ‍

6. Faster RFP responses. With digital transformations designed with visibility in mind, automated workflows can enable optimized RFP responses in minutes instead of requiring hours of human labor. ‍

7. Higher sell-through rates. Getting a handle on the true potential of your inventory helps teams more consistently meet higher close rates and better sell-through. Live updates on actual sell-through rates versus forecasts both inspire better selling and identify areas of underperformance. (You can even see whether certain markets can bear higher rates based on historical data.) ‍

9. More robust reporting. Profitability and long-term success rely on informed leadership able to unlock the full potential of their employee base. Historically, revenue operations generated their own siloed reports, which didn’t always have buy-in from sales counterparts, leading to less confident delivery forecasts and pacing reports. With unified visibility, precision reporting on virtually anything is made possible. ‍

9. Tighter product strategy. As the industry leans into omnichannel offerings, refining product development can potentially differentiate top-performing publishers from the rest. Visibility into sales, delivery, and performance data across seasons, clients, and even geographies means companies can innovate and expand their offerings based on demand and profitability. 

Gain More Visibility Today

Boostr is the most comprehensive and accurate digital transformation technology for achieving unified visibility. Trusted by digital media leaders from Buzzfeed and DISH to Macy’s and Lowes, Boostr offers CRM, OMS, and automated RFP response technologies designed by media professionals to sell more plans at higher margins. See how companies like yours are boosting productivity and profits with Boostr. Read Success Stories!