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Volume 6, Issue 2 Ad
Sales Strategies
Josh Gordon is president of Gordon Communication Strategies, an independent publishers’ rep firm based in Brooklyn, New York, and sells ad space for a living. His “Selling Through a Slump” seminars have become a staple for magazine space salespeople. Gordon is also on the board of directors of the National Association of Publishers' Representatives and the Publishers' Committee of American Business Media. Learn more about Josh Gordon at www.JoshGordon.net. United Litho: Josh, what should a publisher be doing right now to succeed in the ad recession?
After many discussions, I did keep him as an advertiser but I had to re-rationalize his media buying based on goals that related to the recession. Asking this one question was the key: “When the recession is over, how do you want your customers to think of you?” This is a great question because it focuses your conversation on the benefits of marketing aggressively during a recession—with a big payoff when it ends. When you start with this question, it may lead to important information about how your client is coping with the recession. Is he eliminating products that are marginally profitable? Coming out with cost-effective versions of existing products? Trying to offer larger packages to consolidated buyers? Introducing new or different products? Offering more cost-effective support over the Internet? Whatever his strategy is, if you can get him talking about it and then show how you can communicate these moves in a positive way to his customers, you're on your way to selling ad space. On the other hand, if you ignore the recession and just go about selling ad space like nothing is different, you're missing big opportunities. But how do you get an advertiser experiencing cutbacks to even acknowledge that there will be an end to the recession? Over the past half-century, there have been nine recessions, with an average length of 11 months each. This recession will end, just as all the others did. (Download a chart depicting the duration of post-war recessions here.) If the people you're calling on have been with their company for more than 10 years, ask them how the company made it through the last recession in the early 1990s. Selling a future benefit is fine, but what should salespeople do right now? The first thing is to prioritize the time you spend with companies that are using the recession in strategic ways. These “slump stars” realize the recession is a time to refocus their business and aggressively maintain communication with their customer base. When the recession is over, they'll be larger and stronger—and they'll be bigger advertising accounts. While other companies “maintain a steady course” and focus on controlling costs, Slump Star companies will seek change. They'll be the ones who present new ways for their customers to economize, use new products, etc. By spending more time on these companies, you'll create bonds with those who will be far more important in your industry or sector when the recession winds down. Do customers get tougher during a recession? The recession brings on more aggressive negotiation from buyers. The word gets out that magazines in your market are discounting. Even though your publication may not be, it puts pressure on media buyers to take action. In extremely hard-hit markets, an expectation may develop that every significant sale comes with a concession. Media buyers who don’t ask for these concessions aren’t doing their jobs. My number-one rule for responding to a request for a concession is to ask for something in return. If you’re asked for a rate reduction, an extra mailing list or an extra service of any kind, say something like, “Yes, we'll grant that concession, but only if you agree to run an extra three pages with us.” This response immediately neutralizes the buyer for whom “it doesn’t hurt to ask” and brings the more serious buyers to the negotiation table. They might say, “Well, we can’t add three extra pages, but how about two?” Never grant a concession just because it’s asked for; instead, use the opportunity to pull more business your way. They get a break, you get more ad space, and everyone is happy. But sometimes it’s not that easy. What about the client who gets really difficult? Ask yourself a simple question: “Why is he acting this way?” Typically, problematic customer behavior is caused by buyer insecurity. The buyer needs a concession to prove his worth to his boss, to justify a raise or even to keep his job. If your buyer is making crazy demands, try asking some open-ended questions to find out what he really needs to relieve these pressures. For example: “What other things can we do for your company that would be of value?” Often, a concession with specific meaning for a particular customer will cost you less than a straight price concession. Any last thoughts, Josh? Just this: All recessions end; this one will, too. And plenty of ad space has been sold during far worse economies. Whenever I get down, I like to refer to a magazine article that ran in a trade magazine in the insurance industry during the Great Depression. The headline read, “Millions are out of work and cannot buy insurance; millions more are not.” While many media buyers will buy less ad space, some will buy more if you approach them with solid reasons and develop specific ideas for their unique situations. If you spend more of your time on the companies that are actively using the recession to make strategic changes, you'll pull ahead of your competition when the recession winds down and these companies gain in importance. What does it take to thrive, despite one of the toughest advertising recessions in years? Executive Publishing’s Mike Reier, one of three advertising sales representatives responsible for the National Glass Association’s three titles, says the secret is communication. “Nicole Harris [NGA’s publisher] will frequently ask us, ‘What are the advertisers saying?’—and she really takes our answers to heart,” Reier says. The staff at NGA is very responsive, very much in tune with the needs of the industry, he says, and that’s reflected in the magazines’ best first quarter ever—which ended with ad sales significantly above projected goals. The Belair, Maryland, firm—whose client base consists almost entirely of association publications—has worked hand in hand with NGA for nearly 10 years. Executive Publishing President Mike Gribbin says that “NGA has been extremely lucky ... it’s escaped the advertising recession relatively unscathed.” Indeed, NGA’s ad revenues increased in 2001, held fairly steady through 2002 and have been enjoying a surge so far this year. There’s certainly more to it than luck, however. Both Gribbin and Reier note a huge emphasis on developing and sustaining relationships with advertisers. For example, Reier says, “we really discourage one-time ads. Instead, we’ll ask, ‘Why do you want to spend such a big portion of your ad budget on a splashy ad for a single issue?’ We’ll encourage someone to run more, smaller ads in a more aggressive schedule to get their message out. ... Lots of our business is with small or mid-sized companies who can really use some marketing advice—and we gladly give it to them. We’ll even go so far as to develop a complete marketing program: designing the ads, giving placement advice and so on.” While advertisers are always looking for “little extras,” Reier says, “we don’t give away ads ... once you start, it’s very hard to hold the line ever again.” Instead, he says, they look for creative ways to add value. Among the tools at the reps’ disposal are NGA’s Merchandising Allowance, in which a portion of the advertiser’s net contract can be used to “purchase” value-added services, and the forthcoming Partnership Program, designed to make advertising agency-type services (including ad design and research studies) available to advertisers with limited resources. NGA Production Manager Beth Moorman says such services help to distinguish the association’s titles from their competitors. “We try to hold our prices and really emphasize the value-add stuff,” she says, adding, “Our reps are wonderful! They really understand what we’re trying to accomplish—and they’re great at building relationships.” We’ve been seeing more and more advertisers who want to submit their ads to publishers as PDF files. This can be a good thing—if they’re made correctly—and a disaster if they’re not. So, how can you make sure the files you receive will work? There are a number of options. 1. Use FlightCheck ($370) to preflight the PDFs. Many people know that FlightCheck 4.5 can scan Quark and PageMaker files, but don’t realize it also scans PDFs. Just be sure to get the latest updates and patches from Markzware. If you’re looking to purchase, make sure you get FlightCheck Classic rather than Collect, since Collect has greatly reduced preflighting ability. 2. Use Enfocus’ PitStop Professional ($500). PitStop is a program that adds valuable commands and features to Adobe Acrobat, allowing you to view and click on objects in the PDF to determine their attributes. The ability to see the objects on the screen gives PitStop a substantial advantage over FlightCheck. There is also a very nice preflight function, but of course it only works on PDFs. When inspecting a graphic, PitStop will report the resolution, color mode (LAB/RGB/CMYK) and the type of compression used to save it, as shown above. This can really come in handy when a PDF ad suddenly shows up in your inbox. If you are currently using PitStop and click on a graphic only to find the message “1 Form Selected,” you’ll have to remove the embedded OPI information before you’ll see the information you want. You can do this by going to the Prepress-OPI tab; as soon as you click on the Remove button, you’ll be able to go back to the Image tab to see the resolution. 3. Request that your advertisers send PDF/X1-a files. A PDF/X1-a is a PDF that has been checked against a list of pre-set criteria, vastly improving the chances that the PDF can be RIP’ed and reproduced (all fonts embedded, no artificial font styles used, no graphics in RGB mode, etc.). It will not, however, check the resolution of placed images. Software will be released later this year that will make this option more widely available. Many of the larger publishers are starting to accept this file type (click here for an example). If someone ever asks whether you can accept a PDF/X-1a, your answer should be yes! 4. Use United Litho’s fileWORKS® service. In case you missed our announcement last issue, you can send your original advertisers’ files to us and we’ll create a working, high-resolution PDF and send it back to you. Now you don’t have to have a Mac and a PC, as well as all of the software. If you’re creating PDFs that will come to ULI, remember that we like to receive one PDF file for each page of your magazine. However, if you’re preparing PDFs for posting on a web site, you might want to combine multiple PDFs into a single file. There’s a great, free utility for Acrobat 4.0 available for download here. Another helpful utility worth noting is Apago’s PDFShrink, which will automatically transform the high-res PDFs you make for print into smaller ones for the web. In the last issue, I mentioned an indispensable, free Quark XTension called the Creo Color TIFF XT, which allows you to tint TIFFs so that they work in PDFs. Wouldn’t you know—they changed the download location on us as soon as we went to press. You now can find it here. Close on the heels of the paper industry's December 2002 increase in paper prices, the International Paper Company (IP) informed its customers February 10, 2003, of a proposed increase of $3 per hundred-weight for its Advocate brand, a No. 5 coated groundwood. Bowater and other leading paper manufacturers immediately matched IP's increase, which amounts to a hike of nearly 10 percent. ULI customers can expect paper prices to increase by as much as $3/cwt effective May 1. This increase comes as North American paper mill inventories have diminished over the past few months. Pulp prices (the precursor to paper prices) have also taken a substantial jump upward on short supplies—$40 a tonne, or about 8 percent. ULI Sales and Marketing Vice President Wayne Peterson notes, “In addition to the paper price hike we're seeing now, we can expect that supplies will continue to tighten and pricing will continue to rise. The mills have consolidated, and they’re anxious to pay down debt and generate a better return.” Indeed, BMO just increased the ranking for MeadWestvaco from “underperform” to “perform,” and for International Paper from “perform” to “outperform.” “That's a clear sign that others are expecting the same thing,” Peterson says, “and for some period of time. Paper pricing typically spikes almost immediately after a recession, and this time around looks like no exception.” Tom Naquin: Improving the Process Having spent nearly 30 years at United Litho—15 of them as lead pressman—ULI Operations Manager Tom Naquin is well versed in what it takes to do the job. He joined the company as a truck driver in October 1973 at the urging of his brothers-in-law—Jimmy and Paul Cangemi—who today have close to 65 years at ULI between them. At the time, he says, “I had no idea what I wanted to do, much less that it would be my career.” Thirty years later, he still finds both challenges and satisfaction in his work. “Every day is different,” Naquin says. “I like that—I never get bored. We never print the same thing twice, so each day is filled with the challenges of a new and different product. My satisfaction comes when an issue I’ve worked on gets worked out—when a job that used to take 30 minutes now takes only five minutes because we were able to fix the troublesome area.” Citing Naquin’s focus, as well as his strong problem-solving and interpersonal skills, Operations VP Chris Azbill notes, “Tom is the one who actually runs the plant. His is the classic case of a guy who has worked his way up from an entry-level position to a key leadership role through his dedication to observing, learning and growing over time. He’s made a huge contribution to ULI’s improved performance in recent years.” Azbill adds that he really values Naquin’s ability to stay one step ahead of him. “Usually when I go to Tom to get something done, he’s already done it.” “I like to call myself the process improvement guy,” Naquin explains. “Whenever anything gets slowed down or is troublesome in production, I look into how the process can be improved. Employees don’t like to see me coming, because I’m the one who asks 50 questions. I keep asking ‘Why?’ until I get to the root of the problem.” He adds, “My goal is to make everything so easy that the operator should not have to think. Making processes simple, clear and concise makes ULI a better printer.” Naquin says that clarity comes from his long history at ULI. “The hands-on experiences in shipping and in the pressroom have been very important to how I do my job today. I know what it takes to do the job—which makes troubleshooting much easier.” Assistant Pressroom and Finishing Manager Tom Colville, who’s worked closely with Naquin for most of his 30 years at ULI, says Naquin’s background has paved other roads, as well. “Tom is very well respected on the plant floor,” Colville says. “You don’t just walk out on the floor and be respected. You have to earn that ... and Tom has.” Perhaps one of Naquin’s most lasting contributions to United Litho came during the company’s relocation from Falls Church to Ashburn in 1997. “Once construction started, I spent most of my days out here in Ashburn consulting with the contractors and getting the equipment moved, up and running,” Naquin explains. He was also responsible for many of the decisions made during the design phase. “I’m very proud of how well the work flows through the plant,” he says. ULI President Ken Garner, who’s known Naquin since they were “rookies” together in the mid-1970s, speaks enthusiastically of Naquin’s experience, knowledge and commitment. “He’s as good as they come!” Garner says. An Extraordinary Service Experience: MENC From her earliest conversations with Adriane Darvishian, director of production for MENC: The National Association for Music Education, ULI Account Executive April Sellers clearly understood that effective communication is a huge issue for Darvishian—and it’s been a constant theme ever since. Responsible for producing two magazines and three online-only journals, as well as specialty items and direct-mail pieces, Darvishian’s eight-person production department can’t afford to wonder whether its efforts will be successfully interpreted by the printer. “They want to know what’s going on, where things stand, whether there are any problems or what additional work might be required on something,” Sellers says. “They’re very organized and process-driven, and want that same level of organization on our end—clear, concise processes. I think Adriane appreciates that about ULI.” MENC’s partnership with United Litho began not quite two years ago, after six years during which quality-control issues with their previous printer loomed increasingly larger. Darvishian says she’d begun feeling like “a small fish in a big bowl,” and her dissatisfaction with the support she was getting led her to put the magazines out to bid. “United Litho really stood out above the rest,” Darvishian recalls. “The proximity was nice ... and they were competitive in cost, but they really shined in what they could offer in customer service.” In fact, MENC is taking full advantage of ULI’s service offerings, attending client education seminars, using Proteus and even breaking new ground with fileWORKS®. Given a long history of font troubles—duplicate fonts, missing fonts, text reflow—Production Manager Jodi VanMetre had prevailed upon their former printer to accept MENC’s ads early, create PDFs and return low-res files that MENC would then place for position. With the switch to ULI, VanMetre asked whether she could get the PDFs back and place the ads herself—and fileWORKS® began to take shape. “The first issue was a little rocky,” VanMetre says, “but now that we have the system set up, it’s working great! And it saves so much time. We know when we place a PDF ad, we won’t have any surprises later.” Darvishian is particularly pleased to have one of their biggest production issues resolved. “We’re very glad that ULI listened to our concerns and acted on them,” she says. The New Title Start-Up Meeting provided another opportunity to make themselves heard. “We really appreciated being told what the printer needs up front,” she says. “It also gave us a place to present our concerns, as well as the chance to work out a few things early on, before they became real problems.” Although cost was not Darvishian’s biggest concern in choosing a new printer, she appreciates Sellers’ suggestions for cost savings. “April’s advice on how to impose the magazine to minimize our costs has been very helpful. No one has ever given me that type of feedback before.”
Copyright 1997 - 2008, United Litho, Inc. All rights reserved. |
First,
you have to realize that the reasons companies advertise in a recession
are often very different than in good times. I had a core advertiser cancel
his ad schedule because few of his competitors were till active advertisers.
For years, his rationale for keeping an ad campaign in his marketing budget
was to be present where his competition was. When the competition cut
back, that logic went out the window.