Technology is evolving, changing and creating new demands for both buyers and sellers of digital media. For sellers, showing your clients that you’re on the cutting edge, and keeping your sales teams immersed in an engaged culture of learning and best practices — these verifications are critical to success in this always developing ecosystem. The most important validation a salesperson can receive is the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Digital Media Sales Certification.
But Certification isn’t the end of the process. A little over two years in, the first wave of the IAB’s Digital Media Sales Certification holders are now coming up for recertification.
It’s a key moment for these teams. Recertification ensures that everything your sales force has learned and embraced, so far, continues to work for you. It’s what allows your teams to build upon the knowledge they’ve already gathered, while assuring your clients of your ongoing growth and familiarity with the industry’s cutting edge.
“The digital media business just keeps getting more and more complex,” said Brian Quinn, Chief of Revenue and Innovation at Triad Retail Media. “While you don’t want salespeople who are, so to speak, research managers with a personality, they really do need to understand how everything fits together.”
Triad has recently entered its first round of recertifying early adopters who earned the IAB’s Digital Media Sales Certification approximately two years ago. Some 25 of the company’s 50 IAB certified salespeople are now undergoing that process.
“Whether you’re a plumber, an engineer, or a doctor, certification is an ongoing thing, it doesn’t stop,” Quinn said. “Our business is changing so quickly, it’s just a given that we’re investing in it.”
But how do you recertify, and what’s next for Triad?
Let’s look at both questions, considering ways that the learning culture that comes with certification (and recertification) benefits businesses, and how business leaders are becoming even more sophisticated about how they keep that process going.
How to Recertify: An Easy Process, A Dynamic Reward
Growth is an ongoing commitment. Its value lies not only in its educational benefit, but also in the positive message it sends to clients and colleagues, industry-wide — and this is the case in almost any profession. This is certainly true when it comes to digital media sales.
Under the IAB’s Digital Media Sales Certification, once a salesperson has held their credentials for two years, it’s time to recertify. As long as he or she has been working in digital media sales for 12 out of those 24 months, the process is straightforward.
- Show an earned continuing-education credit total of more than 24 units for industry-relevant learning.
- Take the Digital Media Sales Certification exam again (schedule it up to three months in advance of the two-year mark).
Credits can come from the kind of engagement and learning in which you’re likely already participating, such as attending digital media sales conferences; getting published in accredited journals, magazines, and blogs; and taking classes at colleges or universities.
One way to think about recertification is that it validates the subject matter expertise and value you bring to your clients. It doesn’t add more work to your schedule; rather it recognizes the work you’re already doing. Bottom line? Recertification is an easy way to account for the industry leadership you want to embody.
A full list of approved credit sources, and more details about how to submit yours for recertification, can be found online at the IAB’s recertification guidelines page.
However you go about recertifying, the underlying idea remains the same: you want to continue to be immersed in the dynamic conversation that has emerged around digital-media sales.
As it was with certifying in the first place, the goal is a sales-mindset that’s honed on the newest, the best, and the most valuable practices. It’s a powerful way to be relevant and rewarded as leaders in the digital-ad space.
It’s also a process that can change the very culture inside a company’s sales force.
For example, Quinn is further adopting the educational practices that he has seen work so well in the certification process, particularly when it comes to programmatic-media teams. Triad has created its own five-week testing regimen: it’s building on its people’s expertise in the field, adding to their knowledge base in the same way that the IAB certification that’s already in place helps ensure.
Whatever the future of Certification holds, teams like Quinn’s will be on the cusp of it. Recertifying guarantees that his professionals will hold their place along that edge.
Learn more at iab.com/topics/certification/
