In the news: When, if ever, will publishers and their staffs return to the office?

This week, Sara Guaglione of Digiday.com discusses where things stand in the publishing world, and there seems to be a disconnect between publishers and their employees. “Publishers are now expecting to fully open their office doors to employees in the summer,” writes Guaglione. “But their staffers aren’t expecting it to happen until next year.” She cites publishers such as the New York Times, whose plans to bring back many more staffers this month have been postponed in response to the still raging pandemic. Several publishers have now pushed the goalpost to June or July, but it remains to be seen whether or not the pandemic will have died down enough by then, particularly with new strains circulating in the US.

In any event, telework is likely here to stay in some form. Remote work opens up larger talent pools for publishers with physical offices in major cities such as New York; conversely, it opens up wider job prospects for publishing professionals everywhere. One Reuters staffer points out other benefits to Guaglione: ‘A Reuters employee said media companies should use this situation as an opportunity to give up expensive office real estate and cut costs.” And at Buzzfeed, Guaglione reports, an internal survey revealed that most employees expect to work from home at least part-time after the pandemic is over.

Read more here.

Also Notable

Confronting Racism in the Newsroom, Past and Present

This week, the Columbia Journalism Review explores how news outlets should address historical and present-day newsroom racism. Many have apologized, but Alexandria Neason of CJR.org notes that this is not enough. She makes a case study of the North Carolina News & Observer’s historic attempts to suppress Black voters. Progress has been slow, she notes: “In 1978, the organization now known as the American Society of News Editors (asne) set a goal of building a journalism workforce that reflected the racial makeup of the US population by the year 2000.... In 2000, ASNE pushed its target date for diversity back five years, and d newspapers began to issue apologies for past wrongdoing.” She explores what various magazines and newspapers have done in recent years to atone for past mistakes and current systemic injustices. Ultimately, though, she says that “apologies are crucial to the ongoing work of accountability. It can be heartening to see news outlets engage in acts of penance. But they are not the same as reparations.” Read Neason’s piece in its entirety here.

HD Media Sues Google and Facebook

Many publishers in the newspaper business are worried about the revenue they’ve ceded to tech giants like Google and Facebook. HD Media, owner of several West Virginia newspapers, is now suing the two corporations for monopolistic practices that have sapped publishers of digital advertising revenue. Marc Tracy of the New York Times reports: “The suit is focused on the centrality of Google to the online advertising market, as well as an agreement between Google and Facebook that is the center of an antitrust lawsuit brought by 10 state attorneys general. It is estimated the two tech companies together accounted for more than half of all digital advertising spending in 2019.” The suit, HD Media says, is the first of its kind by a newspaper company. Read more here.

The Perks of Hiring Salespeople

In a January 29 IJNet.org piece, James Breiner emphasizes the importance of hiring a salesperson to a publishing team, and what’s at stake for publishers who don’t. He paints a stark picture by the numbers: “You might not realize that you probably are paying sales commissions of anywhere from 30% to 50% of the revenue from every ad you run on your website.... This is revenue you’re giving up.” He shares his tips for hiring, salary, and organizational structure. Read more here.

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Confronting the challenges of cold-calling strategy head-on.

By William Dunkerley

In ad sales departments cold calls often get the cold shoulder from the staff. Many sales people look at them with disdain.

It's easy to see why. If a salesperson calls a good customer, it can be a rewarding experience. There might be an already friendly relationship. An atmosphere of mutual acceptance prevails. There is a positive expectation of a good sales result. It's all good and nice.

Challenge 1: Sales Staff Reluctance

But with the dreaded cold call the story is different. The prospect may treat the caller with indifference. Many times it's worse. The cold contact initiative might be viewed as intrusive, unasked for, and unwanted. Some prospects can react with rudeness or hostility. And a positive sales result? The salesperson is likely starting from square one. There is no positive expectation.

That's just the start of the problematic experience with cold calls. There's more. The advertiser could already be spending ad dollars elsewhere, and be very satisfied with the results. The prospect may prefer other magazines to yours. And those other publications may have made a point of denigrating your magazine to bolster their own chances for sales success. As a salesperson, you just might be told point-blank that your magazine stinks!

So compare the experiences:

1. A warm and fuzzy call that clinches a deal.

Or,

2. A door slammed in your face with hostility.

It's easy to see why sales staffs gravitate toward servicing existing accounts as opposed to making cold calls. There's an aversion to cold calls that comes from experience. And if a salesperson's income is related to sales results, this increases the aversion.

So that's looking at it from the salesperson's point of view. What about your position as publisher?

Cold calling is actually very important for any advertising-driven publication. Generating a steady influx of new advertisers is certainly a good idea. Some attrition among existing accounts is inevitable. You need new accounts to replace them. New accounts are also vital for revenue growth. Sure, you might be able to achieve some growth by upselling the advertisers you have. But if you end up selling them more advertising than is productive, you might injure your relationship with the advertiser.

How to motivate your sales team to make more cold calls is the question. Making the task more palatable for them is the answer.

Here's how I analyze the matter:

There are three ingredients for a cold call. First, you've got to identify prospects to call on. Second, you've got to qualify each prospect: Would the company benefit from advertising in your magazine and does it have the ability to pay? Third, you've got to make the ice-breaking sales call.

Challenge 2: Identifying Prospects

Often, a publisher will expect an ad salesperson to do all three, and often to do them in one fell swoop: identify a prospect, call to qualify him, and then make a sales pitch.

My suggestion is to try separating the first two ingredients from the third. Continual compiling of a prospect list is an administrative function that involves monitoring who is advertising in competing publications and searching online for companies that produce products or services that would interest your readers. A salesperson does not have to do that. Relieving salespeople of that task can start to take the sting out of cold calling.

Challenge 3: Qualifying Prospects

Qualifying the prospect is another task that can be broken off from the cold call. In the pre-smartphone era it might have been expeditious to combine this function with the sales overture. It required getting in contact with the prospect, most often by phone. That usually necessitated "penetrating the screen," which meant getting past a secretary or assistant whose job was to screen you out! But there were good techniques for doing that.

Now, however, you are more likely to encounter the prospect's voicemail, or a live person telling you to send an email. What do you do then?

I've found that conducting a survey can be a successful form of approach. This should not be done as a ruse or a trick. I'm talking about a legitimate survey that could serve a dual purpose: producing valuable content and qualifying a prospect. It would be conducted by someone other than a salesperson, either on your staff or an outside provider.

Here's a hypothetical example:

You publish a magazine for professionals who conduct virtual meetings. Readers range from organization executives who produce virtual conferences for members, to schoolteachers and administrators, to C-level executives keeping in touch with their boards.

Advertisers are software vendors, service providers, consultants, equipment manufacturers and retailers, presentation coaches, and anyone else selling products or services in this market.

Advertisers and prospective advertisers alike are inclined to share an interest in how this industry is doing. What are emerging trends? What are people in the industry thinking? It's industry intelligence.

This is how a survey might go (either as a live phone call, voice mail message, or email):

Hello, I'm Quinn Quinloe, now preparing an exclusive report on industry trends in the virtual meetings field. I'm with VMVM (Virtual Meetings Virtual Magazine). In return for answering a few questions, I'll send you a free copy of the report when it's complete. First of all, as of now, how do you see the overall market: growing, static, declining? What segment of the market is your company in? In other words, what are your products or services? Will you stay focused there, or will you branch into related segments? What looks most promising for you? In acquiring customers, does advertising work for you? What form works best? Is there anything you'd like to add about how you see the market now and in the future? I'd be glad to treat your answers with anonymity if you wish.

There, that will give you most of what you need to qualify the prospect. What's left is to estimate the company's ability to pay. Internet research should help you with that.

Keep in mind that you've actually got to follow through and create and distribute the research report. Otherwise your credibility will come into question. This shouldn't be a one-shot survey. The research can be ongoing. Your report can be published annually, quarterly, or monthly, depending upon the volume of new data you collect.

The information that the data collection will provide to your sales team, however, will qualify a prospect in advance of a cold sales call. It will also give them a strategic glimpse into the prospect's company that will help in formulating the best sales approach.

Challenge 4: Filling the Compensation Gap

So now we've taken even more sting out of the cold call for the salespeople. There's one last issue. It concerns compensation. If your salespeople are compensated to any extent based on their sales volume, the cold call still presents a problem. Literally, the individual's time is money. If the time is spent calling on existing accounts, it's going to pay off. Time spent on cold calls will fall short. As publisher you've got to find a way to fill that gap. A fixed bonus for each cold call made to a qualified prospect might do the trick.

Next time we'll take a broader look at the matter of compensation for ad salespeople as we move toward formulating OKRs (objectives and key results) for them.

William Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.

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During this time of crisis, we stand ready to answer privately any specific questions our readers may have, time permitting. You can contact us at:

crisis-help@stratnewsletter.com

When the national health crisis subsides, publishers unfortunately should not expect to easily resume business as usual. Economists are predicting tough times ahead. In addition, the impact of the crisis may well result in different expectations of us on the part of our audiences. STRAT will provide a series of articles to help you all through the period of recovery and readjustment.