Sales Automation Success
by L. Carol Christopher
The sales force at The News-Times, Ottaway Newspapers Inc.'s 36,600-circulation daily in Danbury, Conn., has to compete with some pretty heavy hitters in the New York-area media market. To make matters worse, many large national retailers employ "cookie cutter" media-buying plans using only readership and basic demographic data--great for saving time, but likely to keep smaller newspapers like The News-Times from being serious contenders.
But with a lot of chutzpah and a little help from some new salesforce-automation software, New Business Development Director Paul Evans refined the media-buying plans of a national electronics retailer.
When The News-Times installed imMEDIAte Ad Director software in September, the retailer had already placed a modest insertion order. But in October, Evans headed to the retailer's Virginia headquarters armed with a sophisticated Ad Director presentation showing the high numbers of technologically savvy folks in the Danbury area. The result? A revised order for an additional $7,000 per month.
The sales-automation system paid for itself by year's end. While the contract with the electronics retailer was the most striking, Evans reports other successes. As Ottaway standardizes systems across its newspapers, Evans anticipates providing its sales reps--probably by the beginning of next year--with laptops and imMEDIAte Sales Assistant software, allowing them to place ad-insertion orders from the field.
The News-Times has a dedicated stand-up workstation and licenses for four other stations, including laptops used by Evans, the major account rep and the assistant ad manager.
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A page from The News-Times' successful sales presentation |
The paper's sales reps are required to use the imMEDIAte system to make at least three, roughly 10-page sales presentations per month. Data for the presentations is created by imMEDIAte software using the paper's annual marketing survey, which resides on the workstation.
Several other Ottaway newspapers had already installed the system, and Evans was impressed with its point-and-click accessibility and "newspaper friendliness."
The product, which operates on both the Macintosh and Windows 95 platforms, was built and designed by four former Harte-Hanks Communications employees who started Boulder, Colo.-based Media Marketing Inc. in January 1988.
"It's designed to talk our language," says Evans. "It's not just a glorified contact manager--it'll even kick out an advertising schedule and a thank-you letter when you're done with the presentation."
L. Carol Christopher is president of Christopher Communications in Berkeley, Calif. E-mail, cchristo@weber.ucsd.edu; phone, (510) 444-7841.