FEATURE
“ I am a fi rm believer that the best sales people harness their own personality rather than strive to learn uncomfortable sales techniques”
How is the‘ art of the deal’ changing in 2017, and how should managers go about building sustainable partnerships that work for both sides? Trump hasn’ t got a lot right of late, but if I can transport you back to 1987 for a moment, to a time when deploying a pompadour to mask pattern baldness was more acceptable, you can begin to appreciate the points that Trump( or his ghost writer) puts forward in The Art of the Deal. The book covers a top 11( he’ s never been conventional) key points, which range from‘ thinking big’ and‘ protecting the downside and the upside will take care of itself’ to‘ knowing your market’ and quite simply‘ having fun’, which is often lost in the heat of negotiation.
These values hold true in 2017. Sustainable relationships are built on trust and good faith and it’ s incumbent on the affiliate manager to have all of their ducks in a row by ensuring they have internal stakeholder support through a long-term strategy to construct deals that benefit their company and the affiliate for as long as possible. The course guides attendees through the steps required to obtain and maintain this internal support.
While valuable to the operator, managing relationships with affiliates can be time-consuming. How should they prioritise and divide their time here? Affiliates and affiliate managers choosing to attend the Affiliate Management Academy will leave fully versed in the art of effective segmentation and tiering. These are two practices we put in place to ensure systematic and well-conceived targeting of affiliates, as well as some method to communicate with affiliates on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to ensure that affiliate managers are focused on delivering results with affiliates best placed to provide them- and indeed vice versa.
Which main factors should a manager consider when weighing up whether to renegotiate or end a deal? Quite simply, financial return on investment will always be the first port of call when assessing the effectiveness of an affiliate deal from both an operator and an affiliate perspective.
That being said, there are other considerations to factor in when assessing a deal, notably ROI over time, and whether or not a deal carried any B2C or B2B brand power.
From a financial perspective, has the business supported the deal appropriately in terms of resource? Has the affiliate manager been able to optimise the deal effectively during the test period to maximise conversion and initial player activation and retention? If the answer is yes, can the business do anything to change the terms of the deal, either the rate( whether it be a CPA deal or a fixed fee) or the baseline trigger( increasing a minimum deposit to trigger a CPA payment)? Or can the affiliate be convinced( legally or morally) to carry on promoting your brand until sufficient traffic has been garnered if the terms were on a fixed-fee basis?
For affiliate managers, making the most of all networking, meetings and conference opportunities is key. Using the iGaming Super Show as a case study(!) how should they go about this? The networking opportunities to be found at conferences like the iGaming Super Show are so important. In a global industry that will see most face-to-face encounters restricted to three or four weeks per year, setting your agenda and delivering effective meetings at conferences is a vital part of the job.
Underpinning this planning is knowing your numbers – put simply, how your brand converts and what lifetime value players joining it accrue. The course delves into this in more detail, but that’ s the crux of it, and it amazes me how many affiliate managers can’ t roll this off the tip of their tongues when I meet them at shows.
There may be another reason for this, of course, and that is the trappings of free bars! The Affiliate Management Academy actually covers off how to successfully navigate latenight networking events and imbibing to an effective-yet hangover-limiting degree.
The Affiliate Management Academy will take place on 19-20 October, 2017 in Malta, with a discounted rate offered for 3 + bookings from the same company. For more information and to book please visit www. totallygamingacademy. com / affiliate-management-academy
iGB Affiliate Issue 64 AUG / SEP 2017
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