Executive Perspectives: From the President

Bharat Rupani

Building a Collaborative Culture

Given that Daymon is a global organization, with a presence in dozens of countries around the world—not to mention the myriad of service offerings for retailers and manufacturers—it can be difficult for everyone to know all of the ways our organization can help our partners succeed. Throughout my career with Daymon, I have had the good fortune to work with many parts of the business—from Private Brands to International, and now with Interactions and SAS. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know these teams intimately, and to see how the pieces of the puzzle can fit together to make just the right picture for our clients.

That scenario isn’t always possible for all of our associates, and that’s why establishing a collaborative culture at Daymon is at the core of our success. We empower our teams with knowledge on all of our capabilities, not just their focus area, and we find this is a real value-add that our teams can bring to the retailers and brands they work with.

One of my good friends and long-time Daymon colleague Dale Whitehill sets the standard for collaboration. His approach, both with the retailer he works with and with all of the divisions within Daymon, is a how-to manual for any of our accounts. With Dale’s permission, I am sharing his best tips for putting a collaborative culture into action.

#1. Don’t wait for an RFP to start building a relationship with a client. When you are working with a retailer, you represent our entire organization. You are setting the stage for the expansion of your business as well as the addition of other Daymon businesses. Don’t ever think it’s just you out there. You are one of many.

#2. Listen. Keep your eyes and ears open around the retailer. Onsite teams know the retailer the best and can suggest solutions others haven’t even thought of. Use your physical proximity to our clients to everyone’s advantage.

#3. Over deliver on every piece of business. Regardless of the size or scope—every event, every new item introduction is another way to build trust.

#4. Relationship mapping is something that every account should be doing to better understand the economic buyer and other key players. There might be field managers who we should be partnering with, or other representatives who need to know we exist in order to support our program.

#5. Be strategic in top-to-top meetings. Talk about other areas of Daymon; think about industry trends and what’s important to your clients. These discussions are the catalysts that take us into meaningful, impactful strategies.

#6. Sometimes we are the back-up, and that’s okay. For a long time at one of our key accounts we were the back-up solution when the incumbent demo provider was unable to execute events. We were always there, and over time the retailer knew they could trust us, no matter what. That was ultimately one of the main reasons this particular retailer expanded their business with us.

#7. Members of the on-site team can (and should) open the door for opportunities. Once there’s an interest on the client side, it’s critical to engage the appropriate subject matter experts from the appropriate business unit (i.e. Interactions or SAS) as they know their business best and what differentiates their services and brings value-add to the client.

#8. When there is an RFP, it’s critical to have a cross-functional team. Communicate. Use resources around the organization and think about it from the retailer or brand’s perspective. Are we bringing all that represents Daymon to the table?

#9. Keep positive and keep your relationships fresh. The sales process can be a long one, and can take many interactions with a client before a program is in place. It’s important to know who the key players are at all times.

#10. Deliver results. We make a lot of statements about why Daymon is better and why we deserve the program, but it all comes down to execution. Once the hand-off to operations takes place, that’s where we can really shine—and deliver the results retailers are looking for.

All my best,