I read your article on Geopath and the comments from out of home companies.  I agree 100% with the midwest exec.  In fact, I had that very situation happen to me a couple months back.

I have spent years trying to get a proposal in front of the decision maker for a large national account.  Being a small fish in a big pond, I’d send proposals off and never hear a word or get a response.  Finally after years of trying, a referral from another operator got my foot in the door so I could provide my proposals.  I filled out the RFP form and submitted the inventory I was proposing.  My response was I needed to include our Geopath numbers, could I please resubmit for consideration.  When I told the rep we were not audited by Geopath, the conversation came to a screeching halt as they only buy based on the Geopath numbers.  When I checked into the cost for Geopath, I about fell out of my chair and in the end elected just to move on as the cost to join for the “possibility” of getting some business was just too high and too big of a swing to take, especially without knowing if they were going to buy all the locations I proposed, some of the locations, one of the locations or none of the locations.

Like the midwest exec pointed out, our clients are the local mom and pop businesses that don’t want pages of data.  They know their markets and the routes in and out and base their decisions on those factors.

It would be nice if there was a program for independents that was a little more cost friendly so we could participate in some of the bigger pieces of business that might come our way from time to time.  Hopefully that will be addressed at some point so the smaller mom and pop independents like us can join in on the experience of working with some of these bigger accounts too!

To receive a free morning newsletter with each day’s Billboard insider articles email info@billboardinsider.com with the word “Subscribe” in the title.  Our newsletter is free and we don’t sell our subscriber list.

Paid Advertisement