Ad rep fails; sports writer likely punished

Yup ... that's piss-poor leadership. Say you didn't work those hours. Would there have been enough hours left in the department to put the section there? I would think not.

Would management have b_tched because something didn't get done? Of course.

You did your job. The responsibility of this SNAFU lies with the people above. The publisher should have shrunk the section to keep you from working massive OT and controlling newsprint costs. The ad director should have let the publisher know what was going on - maybe he/she did and publisher ignored the problem until it was too late, or perhaps said ad director wasn't smart enough to keep a line of communication open with the publisher and the sports desk.

In summary, there was a massive communication breakdown. Never heard of that at a paper, eh? :

 

Go and do likewise, gents. The money's out there, you pick it up, it's yours. You don't--I have no sympathy for you. You wanna go out on those sits tonight and close, close, it's yours. If not you're going to be shining my shoes. Bunch of losers sitting around in a bar. "Oh yeah, I used to be a salesman, it's a tough racket."

 

PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! Coffee is for closers

 

One of the reasons my old shop has gone into the shitter was the failure to capitalize on booming retail business in two key towns in our area, among the fastest-growing in the state in the '90s. The problem was, we had two veteran sales reps there who were quite content to keep selling ads to the people they'd dealt with for 15-20 years and didn't move a muscle in the direction of the new retail going on there. Even if they couldn't get the national big boxes, there was some local action going on there too, which our competition was only too happy to snap up without a fight.
There was no stabilty, no leadership in the sales department, But then again, we're talking a JRC product.

 

We heard this argument for years in our place about how our ad reps couldn't sell our football tab, one of the most requested and most well-read sections we put out, year in and year out. But our ad reps were always focused on the big sale, the big single advertiser whose ad would pay for the whole section (and pay a big commission).

Finally, one of the editors in charge of the section suggested to the head of the special sections advertising that they try offering smaller ads, like boosters you'd see in a football program, in the section to smaller businesses in the communities of the football teams. Five years later, those booster ads are going strong and supporting the section in ways no one believed possible.

Was it/is it more work for advertising? Without a doubt. But the argument that the football tab doesn't sell has gone away. Of course, they try to argue that with other sports-related sections -- and with specialty feature sections -- but it all comes back to our advertising folks being primarily focused on the big sale and the big commission.

Try making that suggestion, though. If nothing else, as a way to save your football tab for next year. And if they blame you for working the OT -- when they authorized it in the first place -- you need to get the hell out of there as fast as you can. That management mindset can only lead down a darker path ...

 

Not ripping on ad reps in general, but anyone who can't sell a high school football tab, can't sell.

 

A couple years ago our football tab was done away with. We cover 30-plus HSs and three DIII football teams, yet apparently we couldn't sell enough ads to make it worthwhile.
I don't know if that's fair or not. Just what we were told.

So now we run a football preview series with a different story and capsules each day: one for each conference in the outlying area, then one each for the city and DIII teams. Surprisingly, we never did hear too many complaints. The only one, not surprisingly, was that the info is no longer in one big pub, in the same place, it's now spread out. But even those gripes were few and far between.

 

Being sentenced to sell in tiny bites will make the OT necessary.

And, as noted, if Management wants it both ways, they know where they can stick it.

 

JR -- While I completely agree with your general sentiment about selling anything being harder than it looks, in every place I've been, the football tab is a definite exception.

As my father the salesman would say, that's not selling, that's taking orders.

 

Zeke, I agree. And after having read some more of the posts, selling this ad space should be like shooting fish in a barrel.

The problem with Boy Scout's situation is simple: he apparently works for a shitty organization with no leadership in any department

Your dad would probably agree with one thing: for a lot of sales people fear is a great motivator.

 

I've brought that up when we have our annual trash the buying a car experience thread on here.

I agree that buying a car is, most times, a horrid experience. I agree, those salesmen are trying to drive the price as high as they possibly can. But damn, they work for straight rip. They don't sell, and sell above book, they don't eat. Fear is the motivator.

That's some shit that's hard for people to understand.