Another Nickel & Dime Scheme

[TomT]

This flared up a while back, then died down. Now it's back.

Electronic billing.  Somebody sells the suits at the agency on their software (probably giving it away).  So the Agency calls and demands we convert to this wonderful system.

The catch is the software costs us $40--per station--per month. Hardly worth it when the account only generates around $9K a year gross.

We went through a while back with another account.  At least that one wanted to use a service run by Harris Corp., which was billed per use (minor amount).  The joke was three months after we started using it, that agency rep. wanted paper copies of everything we sent her electronically.

[Silkie]

You need a person, and only that person who deals with marketing and advertising matters, a common sense person who knows all the questions to ask, and who has already been through this.  Such a person knows how to tell them that when it seems too good to be true it usually is; that it takes time away from income generating clients; that clients take priority; that their taking time away from your clients is not good for their business, thank you, goodbye.

Since these people are not your clients, but are seeking your company's money, you have no need to coddle them or suck up or think for any reason that you have to bring them on board (no pun intended) to clutter your life up with more crap that has to be dealt with.

I just dealt with one the other day.  When a legitimate, income generating client came in and I told the guy on the phone that I had the information with which to have a meeting, and that I had to speak with a client, he told me that he just needed to provide me with other features of the program.  I told him that a client needed attention, and he still rambled on, so I said, "Ya know...you are trying to sell us something, but you don't want the client who pays the bills to get the attention he so deserves.  This does not bode well for your pitch; good day, sir.".  And then I hung up.  He never sent the e-mail I requested, and, of course, he could not be reached.  Screw 'em, TomT.

[TomT]

You miss the point. Somebody sold the suits AT The Agency on this software.  The agency wants us to buy the software so the two programs can talk to each other. 

1. We already have traffic & billing software, but it generates paper invoices (which most folks want). There are undoubtedly gold-plated traffic systems out there that will generate electronic invoices as part of their overall system, but most cost big bucks & would require extensive downtime for retraining & data transfer. Our program is a buy-out, it works, and our people know how to run it.
2.  All this software would do is talk to our billing software, & regenerate an electronic invoice in a form that the same software at the agency can understand.
3. This software is not a buy-out but a "lease"--$40 per month, per station, or around a grand for our two stations.  For an account that generates under $10K annually--gross.
4. The software is incompatible with any other electronic billing software, (and, of course, all the others are mostly incompatible with each other).

As I mentioned, we went through this before with another agency--within three months we were faxing invoices to them because the folks who actually did the work couldn't understand the electronic system someone bought for them.

[Salty Dog]

So the Agency calls and demands we convert to this wonderful system.

The catch is the software costs us $40--per station--per month. Hardly worth it when the account only generates around $9K a year gross.

So your company is going to pass up the approximately 7,500 dollars (net) to save the one thousand dollars in software cost?

[TomT]

on-going costs, with no guarantee of continued return.

The big cluster in our market also said "no," to this agency, they will paper bill only.  The problem is that there is not just one of these systems--and it does not appear that any of these systems are compatible with the other systems.

Plus it is one more pressure on rate....agencies have been increasingly aggressive demanding added value--free remotes, extra spots weekends and evenings. We can accommodate to a certain degree but after a while we end up giving away inventory that can be more profitably sold to local direct.

There's no margin in chasing the rate escalator in the "down" direction.  Especially for agency business which has traditionally been unreliable in our 200+ market.  We have enough problems in our market with both small (one station) operators and big (one of the "c's") operators having dollar a holler rates, or giving away the store just to control someone's budget.