Identifying Direct Marketing Talent --- The Production Manager

Written By Ted Grigg

Just as with the artist and the copywriter, the direct marketing production manager offers unique contributions to the success of a campaign. This is particularly the case if the company this person works for produces large volumes of direct mail and Direct Response TV (i.e. DRTV).

The typical production manager in an agency or on the client side possesses a good knowledge of printing, print production or broadcast advertising. But for the direct marketing discipline, this is just the beginning.

Budget and deadline control mark the expert production manager, but knowledge beyond printing and print production are required of the DM production manager. Listed below are some of those traits I look for in DM production people.

-A thorough understanding of database list hygiene processes
-Background in lettershop work such as inkjet and laser personalization, tracking codes, insertion restrictions and postal regulations
-Skilled in uncovering savings opportunities such as mail co-mingling
-Breadth and depth of direct mail formatting options that are available on the market
-Great production managers in the direct field assist the creative team in creating affordable, breakthrough concepts
-For DRTV, the production manager knows how to keep the budget well below the average and still achieve the brand requirements   

You may have noticed that many of the qualities that are required of each direct marketing role contain overlapping skill sets. This is intentional. Each team member walks comfortably from one role to the next fully appreciating the need to share the glory of beating controls as well as the discouragement of defeat when the sales goals are not achieved.

The bulk of the accountability for beating controls often lies with the head marketers and account managers. But everyone shares the responsibility for the results whether good or bad.

As unusual, this list of skills is incomplete. I hope you will have the opportunity and desire to comment filling in any blanks. What other skills do you look for in a production manager?

Ted Grigg
What Ted does best is increase response by beating controls, applying multiple channels to target markets, profiling customer databases and generally improving sales results using deep direct marketing principles. Regard Ted as your personal “think-tank” for your direct marketing planning and strategy development. After analyzing several hundred million dollars of direct response testing in all channels, he brings with him the knowledge accumulated from seeing what tends to work and what does not. Having worked on both the agency and client side of direct marketing, Ted understands the unique challenges faced by agencies and their clients. Agencies need to sell themselves and deliver sales results. And clients not only require results, but need ideas they can implement while focusing on tracking response using a relational database. If Ted brings nothing else to the table, by profiling customer databases and creating response propensity models, he quickly becomes the clients’ expert on their own customers. His formal training includes a BA from Abilene Christian University and two years of graduate work at Texas Tech University. For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, Ted developed a revolutionary direct mail format that beat most standing direct mail controls for this company. He also generated more profitable business for this firm by expanding compiled list circulation of less than 10% to more than 30% of total direct mail circulation within a year. (Insurance business generated by direct mail demonstrated higher persistency than customers coming from other media such as print and DRTV.) Ted’s plan and implementation of Medicare lead generation campaigns for over 60 regional and national HMO/PPO organizations combined multiple channels that surpassed some sales projections by as much as 60%. Additional industry experience over the last 30 years includes B2B or B2C for finance, securities, home security, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, government, technology, nonprofit, retail, transportation, communications, and multiple categories in the services industry. As the founder of Wyse Direct (a division for Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, OH), he successfully launched and branded a new technology product for Seiko-Mead by supporting a nationwide sales team with a predictable flow of qualified sales leads. While a VP of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, Ted acted as the direct marketing strategist who refocused the agency’s culture to attract new commercial and fundraising accounts. At the time, Grizzard was essentially a direct mail fund raising production operation. His leadership and team building effectiveness prepared Grizzard for the eventual Omnicom acquisition and Grizzard’s successful integration into Omnicom’s large group of advertising agencies. An independent DM consultant, Ted continues to write numerous articles and conduct webinars on direct marketing techniques. He also wrote The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan — A Step-by-Step Guide publishing it through Executive Enterprises in New York City. During his youth, Ted was raised in Lille, France with his missionary family attending French schools becoming fluent in reading and writing French. Away from the job, Ted is a computer geek, blogger and science fiction buff!
http://www.dmcgresults.com
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