Affiliate Marketing Blog by AMWSO: OPM Firms as a stabilizing force..

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

OPM Firms as a stabilizing force..

The thought of "Corporate Stability via OPM Firms" had never crossed my mind, but the other day one of the AMWSO team came to me and said: "My contact at the clients end is leaving for a new job, he introduced me to his replacement last night, 4th one in three years."

And that's when it struck me: I looked over all our corporate clients and sure enough, every one has had at least three changes in staff and management in the time we've worked with them! So that's three chances for:

Knowledge to be lost.
Down-time for training up new staff.
Lost continuity with affiliates.
Lost contacts and relationships.
And more I am sure.

I never really saw OPMs as a "stability" factor in large firms before, but looking at their high turn over rate of staff, it becomes obvious that many firms rely on their outsourced partners (of any kind really) for stability, just as much as they do for their professional skills. An OPM firm can provide continuity in the area of expertise, like for example, AMWSO does for the affiliate channel. It’s a very solid value-add factor which I hadn’t really thought about until now.

Labels: affiliate program management, amwso, OPM, Out sourcing

3 Comments:

At 9:36 AM, Anonymous said…

Great point, Chris! I've been in affiliate marketing for 8 years, and it's rare that any company I've worked with has had the same affiliate manager for more than a year or two. It's always frustrating when you have a good relationship with an affiliate manager and they leave and you get a replacement that doesn't have a clue.
At 6:53 AM, Anonymous said…

The problem is that affiliate managers in general have no upward mobility. If you do a good job with the affiliate program, they promote you to senior affiliate manager and give you more money. That's nice but that will never give you a shot at real money and the corner office. The other issue with affiliate managers is the way most companies treat their affiliate programs, i.e. an after thought. For many affiliate managers, it's their first job out of college and they get that job because they are more 'net savvy than their bosses. They are given little support and either figure it out or they don't. Those that figure it out hang for a bit and then take off for greener pastures like OPM firms or to be affiliates themselves. Those that don't are fired and blamed for the failure of the affiliate program. In either case, it creates a situation where no one really wins.
At 8:37 AM, amwso said…

Lee, that raises a good point about why it is still hard for firms to hire good AMs. Those that build up their skills soon fine they can make far more money in a dedicated setting than being the "AM" person in a firm.

Good AMs soon see that there is greater opportunity for profit and personal advancement outside a corporation which raises the issue that Michael has of the lack of consistency of contacts and the constant newbie AM factor that can cause a lot of chaos in a program.