How maximising intermediary relationships can help drive your business forward.

1. Cutting in the Middle Man
How maximising intermediary relationships can
help drive your business forward
Francesca Brosan, Chairman,
Omobono Limited.
April 2010
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

2. Companies have historically been highly aware of the
important role intermediaries can have in driving their
business forward
Companies have historically To misquote Mark Twain,
70 per cent of business in
been highly aware of the ‘rumours of the demise of the
financial services, and up to 40
important role intermediaries intermediary are grossly
per cent of business in other
can have in driving their exaggerated’.
sectors, comes through
business forward, with 70 per
intermediaries. In these uncertain times there
cent of business in financial
are two reasons in particular
services, and up to 40 per cent
why it is more important than
of business in other sectors,
ever to continue to build strong
coming through these channels.
relationships with the
But in this the internet and social intermediary audience.
media age, the predominance of
The first is a simple rule of
search and online aggregation
business: relationships are the
sites throws up a question about
currency of business; those
the continuing value of the
companies who put time into
intermediary in more than one
effort building those
marketplace. Do you need an
relationships will gain
intermediary if you can simply
commercial advantage.
search for what you want and
Products and services are
then buy it direct online?
extremely similar, and can be
The answer is that purchase copied overnight. When all
choice is not that simple. Whilst other things are equal it is your
we may be happy to buy relationship with a company, or
straightforward products online, with a brand, which makes the
more complex purchases tend difference between who you
to be ones for which we’ll seek chose to work with.
advice, from friends and
colleagues and from
professionals in the sector.
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

3. Insurance aggregation sites are So if we believe that the
a case in point. Between two intermediary channel is
companies listed equally high on important, and we believe it
the table, you are more likely to needs to be worked on what
buy from the company you are should we be doing and where
more familiar with, rather the should we be spending our
one at the top you’ve never tightening budgets to best
heard of. It is relationships, effect?
established over time, that keep
The famous ‘Man in the Chair’
customers choosing you over
advertisement from McGraw Hill
the competition.
argued strongly in favour of the
The second reason is a power of advertising to create
common feature of the current the type of familiarity we have
economic climate. There are no been talking about. But
new customers. And those that intermediary communications
are in the market are highly risk are at the other end of the
averse. They are looking for spectrum from this. Most of the
reassurance in their buying people you are talking to know
decisions, not going out on a who you are. They also know
limb to do something they’ve who your competition is (and are
never done before. likely to be working with them as
well).
This is where the intermediary
relationships feature with
strength. New business is more
likely to be driven from the
customers you are already
doing business with. If their
relationship is with an
intermediary and you stop
talking to the intermediary,
guess whose products or
services will be recommended?
Not yours.
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

4. Your brand is being
‘experienced’ every day in lots
of different ways. What’s in the
tin is a complex range of
products and services and it’s
experienced by a wide range of
people at the customer end (not
just the cat).
Administrators, sales staff,
advisors, principals. They are
all interacting with the provider.
And every day their experience
of that provider influences their
One argument is that you don’t propensity to recommend you to
need to communicate with their customers. All of which
intermediaries when budgets puts communications in a very
are tight because your existing different light to something you
brand equity will carry you switch on and off to generate
through. But sadly not every sales.
brand has the equity of
Whiskas. This is because doing As the diagram (Fig.1) shows
business in financial services is the decision making process for
simply not the same as buying an IFA or broker when
cat food. Apart from the obvious considering purchase decisions.
reasons (no cats involved), Products and services are table
product and service delivery is stakes.
very different in B2B. It’s vital to get them right but the
If you buy cat food the product is things that will make a
likely to be the same week in difference to their selection of
week out. It delivers you rather than someone else
consistently to you (or at least on panel will be more complex
your cat). In financial services it than this.
doesn’t quite work like this.
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

5. It will depend on a dual As Figure 2 shows, corporate
assessment of what’s good for relationships are complex.
the customer and what’s good Doing it better means looking at
for their business. What begins every aspect of the
as a rational analysis becomes communication with customers.
highly influenced by the
This, in turn, means that the role
emotional factors which drive
of marketing becomes that of an
perceived differentiation.
enabler, linking parts of your
Communications with channel organisation to parts of the
audiences are often handled by customer’s organisation.
a specialist team, maybe even
Communications become not a
one person, a key account
sales tool but a value adding
manager. But because of the
function to build the relationship.
complexity of the customer
experience of your brand, Finally, don’t forget that the
leaving one team or individual to intermediary experience of your
manage it means that you are company is heavily influenced
potentially missing vital by a broader ‘ecosphere’ where
opportunities to strengthen the the opinion of the regulator, of
relationship. other advisers or the public will
have an impact on their
propensity to do business with
Fig. 1 you.
Source: Research conducted for Legal &
General, February 2007
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

6. Mapping these connections, and relationship), 80 to 100 per cent
identifying where the of your communications hit the
relationships can be bin. If you are a preferred
strengthened, in particular via supplier, only between 20 and
improving digital engagement is 60 per cent of your
a valuable exercise. communications hit the bin.
Fig. 2
This means that between 40
and 80 per cent don’t. Some
retention email campaigns,
which are supported by client
centric micro sites for example,
are getting 70 to 100 per cent
conversion rates.
Building better intermediary
relationships
Intermediary relationships are
Source: Omobono Limited, April 2009
multilevel. You are reaching not
Enterprise Relationship one but a whole layer of
Management, the process used personnel within the company.
by Omobono to map the And, as we have seen, they are
audiences and identify the interacting with a range of
relationship management task personnel within your company.
reveals opportunities which are
Administrators may be more
not apparent from a linear
likely to interact with your IT
perspective.
systems than your people, sales
The more value you add to the people and advisors want
relationship, the more it pays insight which they can use in
back. their conversations with
customers. Principals will want
3
According to Marketwatch if
input which helps them run a
you are a non-preferred supplier
better business.
(i.e. you don’t have a
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

7. Digital communications has a
significant role to play in
building intermediary
relationships. CONCLUSION
All intermediaries are not the Once the task has been
same. Like any other audience, clarified, the process of
segmentation by size, by identifying the contribution that
customer type and by product digital communications can
spread will reveal useful insights make to improve the
which will enable you to build relationship.
the relationship further.
After all, the hardwiring is
As the diagram (Fig. 3) shows, already in place. The extranets,
there is a straightforward the intranets, the customer log
approach to developing in sites are already there. Now
intermediary relationships. it is simply a question of working
out how to use them better.
Fig.3
Source: Omobono Limited, April 2010
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk

8. Sources:
Relationships drive
We drive your relationships.
1. Research conducted for Legal your business.
& General - February 2007
2. Omobono Limited - April 2009
3. MarketWatch,
http://www.marketwatch.com ERM® helps world class
4. Omobono Limited - April 2010 For further information on how
organisations drive
Omobono helps its clients create
value from their business
value from intermediary
relationships by examining the
relationships please contact Fran
ways they interact with their direct
Brosan (fran@omobono.co.uk) or
and intermediary customers,
Ben Dansie (ben@omobono.co.uk)
partners and staff; and how that is
on 01223 307000. For Omobono’s
measured to help achieve
Enterprise Relationship Map, see
organisational goals, deliver to
www.omobono.co.uk
customers and create mutual value.
We look largely at the contribution
online technologies can play, and About the Author:
how companies can Francesca Brosan is Chairman
maximise value from the and Founder of Omobono Limited,
infrastructure put in place over the the digital communications services
past 5 – 10 years. By exploring company. A former Board Director
alternative approaches to improving of WCRS, her career has spanned
B2B marketing effectiveness, ERM consumer advertising, PR, live
enables us to think about marketing events and digital. She now
differently, to put it back to its focuses on B2B strategy for the
original place; where marketing has agency’s corporate and public
a meaning and purpose beyond sector clients. Francesca is the
communication and becomes a author of 3 IPA Advertising
business essential, not a business Effectiveness Awards and is a
expense. regular speaker and contributor
to marketing forums.
uk.linkedin.com/in/francescabrosan
OMOBONO LTD, THE WAREHOUSE, 33 BRIDGE STREET, CAMBRIDGE CB2 1UW, UK
T +44 (0)1223 307000 | F +44 (0)1223 365167
info@omobono.co.uk | www.omobono.co.uk