This past week, our Board of Directors kicked off the New Year by approving LSA’s 2016 goals at the offices of ReachLocal in Plano, Texas (below). One of our goals is to continue the success we’ve had in growing our membership. But it’s not just about the numbers – our trip to ReachLocal reminded me of the difference our members are making in the marketplace.
During the meeting, ReachLocal CEO Sharon Rowlands gave us a tour of their cutting edge facility, an overview of the functions performed and a chance to see their expert team at this location at work. She showed us how operations were organized under their new sales and service model that was implemented about a year ago.
The new approach shifts from a hunter-farmer model, where sales and service were distinctly separate roles, to an account team approach that focuses on building a consultative relationship with the customer. And the change appears to be paying dividends.
In 2015, ReachLocal won a total of 7 prestigious awards including two of Google’s Premier SMB Partner Awards for North America and Latin America just last month. The awards recognized ReachLocal as Quality Score Champions achieving the highest average overall AdWords Quality Score in running and managing keyword driven ad campaigns.
ReachLocal also won LSA’s 2015 Ad to Action Award in the attribution and analytics category for its ReachEdge solution. In addition, the company won awards from the American Business Awards and People’s Choice Stevie Award among others for its business products and customer service. 2015 has clearly been a successful year for ReachLocal and its clients.
It’ll be interesting to see how ReachLocal’s new model continues to impact sales, retention and customer satisfaction. The industry as a whole has experimented with a number of sales and service models for digital media over the years with mixed success.
At LSA16 in San Francisco March 7-9, we’ll be exploring local media sales and churn issues, in addition to a variety of other industry challenges. Click here to learn more.
