Keeping your ad pages sold

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov 1, 1992 by Spencer Longshore

In today's economy, it's not enough to close the sale. To keep the business, you have to keep on selling.

The average magazine in today's economy will lose approximately 20 percent of its running business year to year. This means that an ad salesperson who carries 100 pages from his or her territory can count on only 80 to renew, given traditional selling methods. That's not enough: In today's economy, it's more important than ever to keep what you've already sold. To help you do that, review these eight points and apply them to every advertiser in your territory.

* Develop a schedule for repeated, systematic contact with the account and agency after the sale. Two or three contacts a year aren't enough, and will cost you business. Even monthly contact is often insufficient. Schedule specific dates for phone calls, lette-rwriting campaigns, conference-room presentations, seminars, one-on-one presentations and lunches. Be seen where your accounts gather. Any opportunity to shake their hands and say something positive about your program is beneficial. Intensive contact doesn't happen by chance; it's the result of disciplined, scheduled sales management.

* Send out a program-evaluation 'report card' on a regular basis. Ask your art department to design a "report card" that lists all the positive results of a given insertion and/or schedule. Show inquiries generated, editorial mentions, research analysis, Starch and Readex scores, and whatever else is relevant to your client. Use your creativity to measure sales as a result of the ad campaign. Circulate this report card to everybody at the agency and account. Remember, "He who tooteth his own horn hath full control over the volume."

* Make sure your selling pattern looks like a circle, not a straight line. Straight-line selling is full-steam ahead, with little regard to reinforcing past buying decisions. Primary and secondary decision-makers, either at the agency or account, deal with so many media reps that it can be tough for them to remember the reasons they bought your magazine. Keep reminding them. If it was because of your magazine's reach in a specific demographic area, constantly reinforce that selling message during the course of the advertising schedule. In other words, sell in a circle. The selling process has no beginning and no end; it's continuous and intensive.

* Compliment, praise and say 'thank you' at every opportunity. Handwritten thank-you notes mean a great deal, and you should get out as many as possible. Encourage your publisher to write them--and let him or her know that a note to a product manager is like money in the bank. Plaques and awards are an inexpensive way of saying thank you to an account. Acknowledge their creative with a creative-achievement award. Put the cover of your magazine and one of their ads in a frame, and it may just find its way onto a decision-maker's wall. Be creative and find ways for the sales side of an account to express their satisfaction to the agency and ad manager for a successful insertion and/or campaign.

* Sell to the support staffs. Remember that the purpose of advertising is to sell products and services. Who actually sells the product and service? Is it retailers? If it's a two- or three-step distribution system, it could very easily be jobbers, wholesalers or distributors. These people can become a valuable second-tier selling effort for you, insisting that your magazine remain on the schedule in tough times. Advertisers are very impressed when you understand their distribution systems and find ways to leverage it in the ad-sales process. It lets them know that you're in the business of helping them sell their products--not merely hustling advertising pages.

* Use personnel changes to advantage. Many ad sales people perceive personnel changes as serious threats to their business. The new broom doesn't always sweep clean, however. You could very easily be the expert for a company when personnel changes are underway. During this period, increase your visibility, but avoid the "sell the next issue" syndrome. Prove to the new people that you're a marketing partner and not a peddler of ad space. Call on all your contacts on the selling side of an account to support you with the new management.

* Start selling next year's program before the current program begins. Incorporate into your proposal and selling technique references to year two, three, four and five. Make constant references to "making affinity and options available in next year's program." Make sure that everyone in the buying process understands that you think long-term, and that your motives are not just another ad in the next issue.

* Take a sincere interest in all your accounts' marketing activities. Offer your services at sales meetings, seminars, jobber meetings, etc. Concentrate on how you're going to help sell their products and services. Volunteer to work with their research departments to get a better understanding of their ad presence in your market. Offer your marketing expertise in the development of leveraged partnerships.