Coffee's For Closers

Summer’s over and Fall is in full swing so it is time to work our butts off again.   People laugh at me, but I always say the busiest time in the US service economy always seems to be from Labor Weekend to Thanksgiving and from January 2nd to Memorial Day Weekend.  It is really those 8 months out of the year that drive most of our productivity.   Well now that I am in the stretch run of busy mode again, I thought I would make my last post of this year.  It has to do with following up my Be A Closer Post.

As a corporate licensing professional, you can be the best closer in the world, but if you are not in the right place organizationally in your company, you have only a small chance of success.  If you have ever seen the movie Glengary Glen Ross, you will remember the infamous line from the all-time classic 5 minute cameo of Alec Baldwin: “Coffee’s for Closers Only.”   You can click on the link if you have not seen it; I warn you it has some very graphic language.  Why do I bring this harsh scene up, well Alec Baldwin waltzes into a realtor’s sales office and says he is from the “downtown office” and he is firing all the sales agents in one week, denying them access to the best leads and to even a cup of coffee until they start closing deals.  The sad reality of this movie is that this sales office is set up to fail because they are not aligned well with the downtown office.  And this is the parallel that I can draw to your Corporate Brand Licensing Function.  If you are a Director of Brand Licensing and setting up a new licensing function, you need to make sure your new organization is aligned in the best possible corporate department for success.

You need to take time to survey your company at the very start-up of your function and think about where your licensing organization will have the strongest support and air cover to succeed.  Without it, you are doomed to fail before you even have your first prospective licensee meeting.  Why do I say this, well because when you engage in brand licensing you are licensing your company’s most valuable asset.   And while Brand Licensing done well can be a great brand building tool; Licensing done poorly can damage your brand badly. (See post “Why Good Brand Licensors Sleep at Night”)  And people in your company will have a tendency to focus on the brand risks much more than the brand rewards, particularly if the rewards are not flowing back to them directly. 

So how do you figure out where the best organization is for Brand Licensing to report to?  Survey your company and pinpoint the organization that will be most threatened by your licensing function.  It could be the area where your licensing deals will have the most overlap in the marketplace, or the area where most of the brand equity has been created that you are trading off of.   Another possible landing spot could also be an organization that is already charged with managing your Brand companywide, trace back where that group reports to. Typically, you would want to align brand licensing with the senior most levels possible in your company so you have the air cover you will need. It is also at those levels where the decision authority will exist to actually sign a licensing deal for your company.

And THAT is really the hardest part of closing Corporate Brand Licensing deals: getting your Senior Management to “sign on the line which is dotted.” More on that next time…

Mike Slusar

Managing Director & Owner
Brandar Consulting, LLC
“Helping Brands Reach for The Stars”

email: mike@brandar.com

http://www.brandar.com/

copyright © 2011 Brandar Consulting, LLC  All Rights Reserved 

BE A CLOSER

I’ve just returned from a Summer Vacation and my batteries are again fully charged, so I thought I would return to my Blog for my 2nd posting of 2011. Just to pick up on my last theme of Internal Selling, I wanted to follow-up on the all important topic of closing corporate trademark licensing deals. Early on in my licensing career, I was lucky enough to meet a guy who became my mentor in the industry his name is Seth Siegel, co-founder of The Beanstalk Group Licensing Agency. To me, Seth is a legend in the industry. My relationship with Seth was not unlike the relationship that Jerry Maguire had with what he called his mentor, the late, great sports agent Dicky Fox. Dicky Fox is one of my all time favorite movie characters. His wisdom spread throughout the Jerry Maguire movie is one classic, but meaningful, cliché after another. Just to give you a few Dickyisms as I call them:


“The key to this business is personal relationships”

“If this [points to heart] is empty, then this [points to head] doesn't matter.”

“Roll with the punches, tomorrow is another day.”

“ Hey... I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.”

Well I had a Dicky Fox moment one time when talking with Seth. Years after working with Seth and The Beanstalk Group, I asked him why he decided that AT&T would make a good licensing client for his agency and his response was something I will never forget. He said, “When I am evaluating whether I want to work with a client I look for closers.” My response was well what the heck does that mean? And Seth proceeded to tell me that he made sure that all his clients had at least one person on the Licensing team that he thought could get a deal closed internally at that company. He explained to me that my boss at the time was not a closer, but he had enough exposure to me to know that I was a closer and that sealed the deal for him. And to Seth a closer was a person who had the drive, enthusiasm and selling skills to get a negotiated licensing deal signed off on by senior management at their company. I thought that was a very shrewd observation because you see a Licensing Agent’s worst nightmare is to negotiate a major deal and get the licensee to sign off on it only to have his client, the licensor, fail to secure senior management sign-off. All the hard work is done to close the deal, but no one exists internally at the licensor to successfully sell the deal into senior management and get it closed. If you want to be a successful trademark licensor, BE A CLOSER. Be that person that is singularly and passionately focused on getting your deals signed off by your senior management. I was that person at AT&T and I was successful in getting signoff on 9-figure licensing deals as a result. So to create my own Dicky Fox line and to borrow from Seth:

“Remember people want to work with closers. So BE A CLOSER!”

Mike Slusar


Managing Director & Owner
Brandar Consulting, LLC
email: mike@brandar.com


“Helping Brands Reach for The Stars”

http://www.brandar.com/

copyright © 2011 Brandar Consulting, LLC  All Rights Reserved

Internal Selling, It Never Ends

Well I am again returning to my blog with my first post in 2011. Sorry for the long break. My preference is to only post very useful topics however infrequent and I think I found another useful discussion.


I often work with large Corporate Clients in my consulting practice at Brandar and the one thing that always surprises me is that many Corporate Brand Licensing Programs fail because of the inability of its managers to sell the merits of a licensing program internally. This often comes as a surprise because Licensing Director’s often focus on chasing and getting new lucrative deals and think that will enough to be successful long term. I have news for you, it won’t. Why you ask? Because brand licensing royalties usually pale in comparison to the core revenues of your company, your royalties are usually a drop in the proverbial corporate ocean.


Well how do you rise above this problem? The simple answer is understanding from the get-go that Brand Licensing cannot be a bottom-up initiative. In order to be successful a Corporate Brand Licensing Director, you must engage the strong support of your senior management. And this does not just include Senior Managers in your direct chain of command; it also includes garnering the support of any Senior Managers in your company that your licensing activities will touch in some way. Having top level cross-organizational support for your Licensing Program is the surest way to get new licensing deals approved despite the protests of lower level managers. News Flash: If your company is big enough, someone is always going to step forward to try to block a licensing deal. You need to be prepared to handle this and rise above the detractors with strong senior level support at your company.


The best way to attack this issue is to build an internal selling presentation that you can use to sell the merits of a proactive Brand Licensing Program to your senior management and your peers. Your story needs to focus on the merits of licensing way beyond royalty revenues. Once you have built this story, don’t treat it like a static document, but instead have it top of mind all the time, be on the look out for anything that builds the strength of your story and add it to your deck continually. If you need help building your story contact a Licensing Consultancy like Brandar to assist you. It is in this critical area that most Licensing Directors falter. Most Licensing Program Managers fail to recognize that the process of internally selling the merits of your licensing program NEVER ENDS.


The larger the company, the more personnel that change seats and the more organizational shifts that occur. Each time a change happens, the Licensing Director needs to be proactive and schedule time with the new players to walk them through the internal Licensing Selling Story and ASK FOR THEIR SUPPORT. It is a story that can never end and needs to build over time. It is also a story that must be revisited with the senior managers who are still in place, but need to hear your latest chapter to continue their support. You can’t afford to get complacent as a Licensing Director; constant internal selling needs to be part of your daily routine. If it is not, your ability to quickly close signed licensing deals internally at your company will be severely impaired. More on the topic of Closing Deals next time.

Mike Slusar


Managing Director & Owner
Brandar Consulting, LLC
email: mike@brandar.com


“Helping Brands Reach for The Stars”

http://www.brandar.com/

copyright © 2011 Brandar Consulting, LLC  All Rights Reserved