As day one of the 2012 WCAA Conference in Las Vegas comes to a close, attendees have already received lots of great ideas and information that will certainly be valuable to take back to the office. Current President Bill Cummings opened the first day of the conference with his keynote speech, “Leading Through Change: Leadership, Product Mix, Promotion, Pricing and Salespersons.” As we all know, the newspaper industry is changing, and Cummings’ speech emphasized that it’s time to make a commitment to adapting with it. 

The 2012 America East Conference was jam packed with helpful presentations and even more excited presenters, eager to talk with us about how to implement great ideas in local newspapers nationwide. One of these sessions, “60 Ideas in 60 Minutes,” presented by Jason Taylor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, managed to fit some really meaty concepts in a short 60-minute time frame. Taylor’s ideas ranged from how to make changes in your own departments to how to encourage advertisers to purchase special sections space. 

In the Brainworks-sponsored webinar, Training Classics founder and president Diane Ciotta emphasized the importance of recognizing the needs of an advertiser and steering the conversation, and sale, toward helping the advertiser attain that need as opposed to simply attempting to make the sale. She said the first step was to understand the wants of an advertiser, and how they differ from the need of the advertiser.

remember chatting with a chemist who works for a large international research company. He mentioned that he and his coworkers make numerous presentations at conferences. "It's always a pressure-packed situation," he said, "because our reputation is riding on the outcome, and a lot of research money is at stake."

He explained that a lot of audiences try to punch holes in their research. "Preparation is everything," he said. "If we're not ready with the right answers, a project can die right there on the spot."

Sounds like a sales presentation, doesn't it? Fumble a question, and lose a sale.

Janet DeGeorge concluded her Getting Back Your Recruitment Advertising webinar with training tips and sales techniques. She said in order to successfully sell your new recruitment packages, sales reps need to be fully trained on all aspects of the job. To ensure that, train your reps on the following: The various decision makers in the recruitment vertical, including HR managers, temp agencies and recruitment agencies; Advanced relationship building; Design and copy writing; Full online training basics; Understand local marketing stats; How to sell against competition; Overcome objections; How to prospect for new business.

Clearly the toughest challenge faced by most classified supervisors is setting priorities correctly. Most classified supervisors get little or no training in time management. They take the reins of the new position and are bombarded with “zillions” of things that must be done right away. Most of these issues involve human resources, computer system, accounting, production or other processes that have little or nothing to do with getting someone to purchase an ad.

The issues surrounding offering free ads for private-party items are far from settled at most newspapers.  In my consulting practice I get the same questions again and again, and quite often management doesn’t like my answers. Those are the managers that want to hang onto the days when we had little or no serious competition, and could profit from private-party classifieds. At most papers true private-party advertising hasn’t made a significant contribution to profits in a great many years.  By true private party, I mean one-time sales of personal property by individuals.  Any ongoing moneymaking activities, bulk items, or real estate would be excluded by this definition.  The various free online sites have served as a “category killer” for profits from this area.  This is similar to what happened to camera stores when discount stores started selling cameras at or below their costs.  They just could not compete, and many went out of business for lack of a new strategy.

Mike Blinder’s presentation on how to “Fix Your Sales Organization” at this fall’s SNA conference went over with a resounding success. In it, he detailed the steps to creating a successful sales team, the brunt of which resides with the sales manager.

Coaching your sales team provides them with the help, support and guidance they need to grow their skills and abilities to allow them to increase their sales revenue. Most managers and directors function with numbers. They set targets, check figures and wait for improvement. They usually don’t take the time to coach the individual team members. Big mistake!

In an e-mail conversation abut the state of classified revenues these days, a publisher recently asked me, “Do you have any magic potions, elixirs or voodoo that you can send our way?”  Well, now, I did marry into a Cajun family. So, while I could ask my Mother-in-law to throw some chicken bones for the industry or something, I feel a more practical approach is called for.