Viable strategies for success

Newspaper Next produces excellent foundation for action

When the American Press Institute undertook Newspaper Next to research and test new business models for our industry, the overall goal was to find ways for newspapers to survive the “strategic inflection point”—the recent period of disruptive changes including declining circulation, rising costs and downward revenue trends. This well conceived, thorough initiative has produced excellent strategies for leadership and transformation within the newspaper industry. Now it is time for us to execute those strategies in the most effective and sustainable way.

Driving deep
One of the key components of Newspaper Next is to think of “jobs to be done” versus products. This is akin to the story of the drill bit salesman who sells the value of quarter-inch holes instead of quarter-inch bits. This kind of thinking must occur from top to bottom in today's newspaper organizations and marketplace. So how do we get there?

To follow the lead and direction established by Newspaper Next and other positive initiatives, newspaper organizations must empower themselves to do what they are capable of doing and, in fact, must do to survive. Specifically, every newspaper organization should develop a leadership program that drives deep, one that will take publishers and their direct reports out of their offices and into the company and community to drive top-line performance.

Let’s look at some actions to take through such a leadership program based on the ten competencies outlined in Newspaper Next.

1. Vision – Prepare publishers and their direct reports to leave their offices twice per week for a leadership walk. Over about one hour per walk, they should have one-on-one conversations with employees to address concerns and share vision for strategic goals, innovation, creativity, learning and accomplishment.

2. Customer Focus – Enable publishers and their direct reports to call on advertisers who have not advertised within the last six months. Imagine how impressed a car dealer will be to look up and see your publisher in the dealership working to understand and address its advertising needs. Additionally, publishers and their direct reports should listen to an hour of customer service calls each week. In all cases, they should be focused on opportunities to fulfill the wants, interests and needs of existing customers and new ones.

3. Championing Change – People will not change unless they are encouraged to do so. The newspaper’s leadership team must develop and commit to using new skills with their people. Emphasis should include the need for positive attitudes, embracing change and taking personal responsibility. As leaders use their new skills and adapt to the new paradigm, they will master those skills—and it will make a tremendous difference.

4. Driving Results – We must focus on top-line business. For example, each newspaper call center needs, in plain view of everyone, a scoreboard with target results. When leaders update the scoreboard, they should do so with fanfare and positive reinforcement for top achievers. Using these kinds of tactics will set high expectations, measurable goals and accountability in an atmosphere of persistence, positive thinking and recognition.

5. Interpersonal Communications – Publishers and their direct reports should receive coaching to improve their ability to communicate in a compelling way with their people. Ideally, a class or seminar should be organized that uses public speaking as the vehicle for driving change. Set goals to ensure that any representative of the newspaper can establish good rapport and communicate effectively inside and out.

6. Relationship Management – Obviously human relations skills are critical in meeting goals, working collaboratively and understanding the needs of internal and external customers. One suggestion is to establish a program that gets publishers and their direct reports to pick one human relations skill per week that needs improving, and then work on it during that week.

7. Coaching and developing – As a top priority, leaders must master the skills they need to coach and develop their direct reports on work-related competencies and career growth in a highly effective, sustainable way. It’s hard work and likely requires outside help to implement, but just think of the positive impact this will have on top-line revenue!

8. Integrity – It is my belief that a leader either has integrity or does not, and adults cannot be taught integrity. However, leadership must make it clear that integrity is an absolute within the organization. It is critical to reinforce the value of working with integrity on every level and at every step.

9. Business acumen – Every leader has certain strengths. It is critical to assess and tap the talent of leaders and their teams. Do so under the premise that everyone must first understand general business and financial concepts, and then be able to coordinate and put to work specific competencies for maximum positive impact on the organization’s business.

10. Learning agility – For an organization to have learning agility, its leaders must look constantly for ways for its team members can improve. This is essential in adapting continuously to the newspaper marketplace and maximizing individual and organizational performance.

Meeting the challenges
Without a doubt, Newspaper Next has been a highly valuable and essential initiative for the industry. It has put the ball in play and in our court, and newspaper organizations must react by retooling themselves so they can maximize the Newspaper Next competencies—a comprehensive ten-point framework that will help us meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

More contacts, more ad sales

By focusing on dials and quality conversations, reps reach more prospects and sell more newspaper ads

Newspapers earn between $25 and $85 per contact on outbound calls to classified advertising prospects. The problem is, newspapers are not talking to enough prospects.

Not the only game in town anymore
The world is changing fast for the newspaper industry, and nowhere is this change more apparent than in the classified advertising department. Competition is virtually everywhere—particularly in the form of publications that offer free advertising for homes, autos and private party items. The Internet is a strong player in employment and auto sales advertising, and it is becoming an increasingly important vehicle for real estate advertising. As a result, long gone are the days when we can sit back and wait for the phone to ring. We are no longer the only game in town. We can’t meet our goals by merely serving the calls that come in to us.

In the past, auto dealerships absolutely had to be in the Saturday newspaper. With so many different ways to advertise today, dealers don’t see the value of the newspaper in the same light as they once did. It’s time to refocus their attention on the strong value they receive from newspaper advertising.

Seeking them out
In newspaper advertising sales, we have to seek out prospects now more than ever. And when they do come to us, we must give them a compelling reason to advertise with us. We have to sell value.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that advertising clients demand—and deserve—a high level of excellence from newspaper. They expect newspaper advertising reps to understand their needs and show them products and services that will help them achieve their goals.

It’s not a stretch to say that newspapers remain one of the best values in America for readers and advertisers. We simply have to have quality conversations with every prospect, and we have to reach as many prospects as possible, to get the value story out there more effectively.

Dialing without distractions
A sales office observed recently had two sales people. One sold three times as much as the other. Interestingly, the sales person who was selling less actually sounded better when talking to the customers. So why was this person lagging behind? The answer came in watching them work. The top-performing sales person made a dial, and then immediately made another dial. She consistently made five times as many dials as the other rep.

The person who sounded better on the phone—who gave a better sales presentation when speaking to a customer—made a dial, and then took some notes. He’d look through some papers and take a drink of water, and then make another dial. The result was far fewer dials.

No matter how good a rep is on the phone, being a top sales performer still means talking to a large number of prospects. Staying focused on making dials requires the rep cut out distractions.

The value of block time
Cutting out distractions can be hard when reps have other duties. But in our work with newspaper classified advertising sales departments, we have seen remarkable success when reps have a certain time of each workday blocked out for prospecting. In doing so, reps have achieve 30 prospecting dials per one-hour of block time, and then 30 prospecting dials total during other parts of the day for a total of 60 dials per day. The result? Three times as many sales.

Bear in mind that another factor in this success has been the quality conversation itself. Reps need training, coaching and continual development on a proven, robust sales model and call flow to achieve and sustain high sales performance. The point is that a comprehensive approach to prospecting and quality conversations with prospects sells value and nets a dramatic increase in newspaper advertising sales.