Steven Golus of Steven Golus Consulting: The Ad Automation and Programmatic Confidantes

Your Name Steven GolusYour Company Steven Golus ConsultingSEARS What do you read to keep up with politics art and cultureGOLUS Iamp8217m a heavy RSS useramp160 I use feedly to aggregate around 100 blogssites covering everything from news to gadgets to science and health to music and movies I read The New York Times Online top articles once a day amp160Also fivethirtyeight is a favoriteSEARS What do you read to keep up with friendsGOLUS I typically do a daily scan of Facebook and InstagramSEARS What do you read to keep up with the advertising technology industryGOLUS Other than a morning scan of AdExchanger headlines I try not to spend too much time reading on the ad tech industry amp160Frankly most of the news is recycled Outside of some of the newer issues around fraud and ad blocking most of the key topics are the same ideas weamp8217ve been discussing for yearsSEARS Whatamp8217s your favorite commercial of all timeGOLUS The ATampampT You Will campaign from the early 90amp8217s is my favorite While most of the concepts felt like science fiction they also felt within reach Looking back the campaign was incredibly accurate although most of the activities presented can now be done from the palm of your handSEARS With regards to advertising automation what are the three biggest trends you expect to impact companies in 2016 GOLUSAd blockingHeader biddingFraudSEARS With regards to advertising automation what are the three most overblown topics that you wish would just go away GOLUSAd blockingHeader biddingFraudI think we are in a very interesting point in the history of our industry If you take a look at my answers above you can see that we are in a time where most of what we are discussing is doom and gloom This is a big 180 from a few years ago Ironically on the margin this sentiment benefits Google and Facebook more than the average ad tech companySEARS Describe your firm and then tell us the three most common issues you help clients on with respect to advertising automation and programmatic trading GOLUS I run a consulting practice focused on helping companies scale their Sales Strategy and Operations This means helping sales organizations with their Go to Market Strategy Market Segmentation and Focus Sales Structure Hiring Process Onboarding and Training Sales Compensation CRM KPI tracking and Process There are about 10 best practices across these areas which in my opinion will separate the winners from the losers in this spaceSEARS What are the most common issues you help clients with regarding automationGOLUS amp160This is really about how to build a GotoMarket Strategy around selling automationDetermining Strategy Youamp8217d be surprised how many companies get this incorrect When I start my work with a client most are focused on solving the wrong problem in the market Most have an incredibly high cost of sale with no rate of return so we need to address their product set the product market fit and where they can get the best ROIHiring and Onboarding Sales Talentamp160 Another area where most companies in this space struggle Iamp8217ve walked into about a dozen ad tech companies that have hired the wrong people given where they need to focus their efforts Most have not performed any level of sales training and enablement and are setting themselves and their employees up for failure My adviceamp160 Take a month to properly train sellers After the month you will be able to determine if they are a long term fit for the company If they are not you should part ways Itamp8217s best for all partiesTeaching resourcefulnessamp160 Garden variety sales teams who do the basic blocking and tackling will not be successful Sellers need to be or taught to be resourceful and to be creative problem solversSEARS The majority of ad technology companies have struggled relatively small unprofitable or both Of the poor performers what are the commonalities between them that have contributed to this weaknessGOLUS Most companies in this space have incredibly high expectations and lofty sales goals operating in a highly commoditized market Many have convinced themselves they have built something unique Fact is that they have not but they still expect sales to grow at a rapid clip High sales expectations in a highly competitive sales talent market typically means hiring a subpar sales team with subpar training and operations Ultimately these sales reps get let go or leave at the 12 to 18month mark for a host of reasons Then these sellers go to another ad tech company and it becomes a vicious cycle making the weaker companies even weakeramp160Tip Analyze your sales team look at the commonalities of the successful sellers athletic high IQs Coachable and develop a hiring process to find more sellers like them Itamp8217s like lookalike modeling for talentSEARS A smaller handful of ad technology companies has achieved scale and performed better than the rest What are the commonalities between them that have contributed to this relative strength GOLUS It really comes down to timing If you launched your ad tech business between 200609 and were able to achieve scale 150 employees 75MM in spend before 201112 chances are you are a market leader AppNexus Rubicon MediaMath or have been acquired for a nice multiple LiveRail BlueKai Admeld There is an incredible reward given to those who were smart enough and risky enough we were in a major economic downturn in 2008 to launch their business back thenSEARS Do we live in a amp8220tale of two citiesamp8221 where Google and Facebook win almost everything advertisers are dictated to and other media companies fight for the scraps GOLUS I believe so It comes down to access to capital and proprietary data at this point That said I think Netflix and Amazon are two companies that with business model tweaks and focus can take billions of dollars in ad budget over the next few years amp160SEARS Please answer the following statements yes or noGOLUSamp160SEARS If you could go to the airport right now with friends or family and fly anywhere in the world for vacation who would you take and where would you go GOLUS Assuming safe travel and safe return North Korea To me it would be the closest I can get to traveling in time or to an alternate universe I think it would be an incredibly eye opening experience for my family and meSEARS If you could create an endowment to fund any existing nonprofit you designated what lucky nonprofit organization would that be GOLUS I am passionate about health and wellness Specifically I believe the present value of the investment in health and wellness awareness during an individual39s early years will pay dividends to future generations I would most likely start my own nonprofit rather than endow it to anotherSEARS What is your favorite restaurant in the worldGOLUS Right now itamp8217s John Brown Smokehouse in Long Island CitySEARS Thanks StevenDo you know a leading ad automation consultant in the ad automation and programmatic area advising advertisers and media companies that Sears should consider interviewing Tell himThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160

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Steven Golus of Steven Golus Consulting: The Ad Automation and Programmatic Confidantes

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Steven Golus of Steven Golus Consulting: The Ad Automation and Programmatic Confidantes

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