The boys club of digital media sales

When it comes to selling should I join the frat club?

I was talking to a senior executive about the challenges of selling digital products in today’s market. They made an comment “the Toronto digital sales ecosystem successfully operates like a frat or members only club”. Yep I remember…(when I ran an agency, it was very transparent...reps met me for breakfast, but my VP digital, who was in the frat, went to Jacobs for d) I dismissed it because I didn’t care about the extracurricular events and activities. I have always aired on the side of a “challenger” (solving problems by understanding customer needs and issues) versus a “relationship builder” (work on developing strong powerful relationships and advocates). It is not that I oppose doing both, its just that “challenger” plays to my strengths. But the reality is that in digital sales “the frat code dominates -- it relationships drive transactions and commerce; and in some cases, inspite of better strategic alternatives. Decisions that impact business should be based on value and ideas. Bit naïve as I recognize these deep seeded relationships are valuable. So, do I join the frat? I don’t really fit in….

In the startup world, this behaviour that is part of many networking events and can be juvenile and uncomfortable....commercial value should be based on ideas, potential and real value....going to several events next week. Will update you.