New Programs Can Give Ad Revenue a Jolt

By: Jennifer Saba Publishers looking to give their advertising revenue a boost ? and honestly, who isn't these days? ? now have some extra help. ASA Sales Systems, based in Chicago, is offering an Internet-based service called M-Power. Ad directors can use it as a tool to help manage their staff, and in turn the staff can employ it to manage existing and potential clients.

Essentially, M-Power acts as a souped-up checklist of sorts, in which ad reps each day input their contacts and other pertinent information. The program helps with prospecting, snagging new accounts, and finding new opportunities with existing clients. Theoretically, at the end of each day, sales people fill out the appropriate fields ? for instance, whether or not they were to follow up with a meeting with a particular client. M-Power organizes that information and points out the areas in which sales reps need to concentrate more effort.

Jeffrie Story, president of Unleash Your Sales DNA in Scottsdale, Ariz., acts as a consultant and helps train businesses using M-Power. "There are a lot of paradigm shifts they get from using it," she says specifically about newspapers. "One, believe it or not, is that they have to keep prospecting."

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has been using M-Power since February. "It helps with setting up new calls, finding out where business is stalled, and coaching your sales staff," says Bob Brown, the paper's director of advertising. "It's invaluable."

The Review-Journal is using the program initially for local retail (and its niche publications), a category that tends to attract smaller accounts in the $20,000-to-$40,000 range. "What I've noticed," says Brown, "is not just an increase in sales but an increase in new business." While he declined to provide specifics, he says he was pleased enough to roll out the program to classified auto.

New Revenue Solutions in Atlanta recently branched out to newspapers with its AD!mpact program. The way it works: The company sends in a "SWAT team," explains Stephen Wright, vice president, print sales and operations at New Revenue Solutions, and works with a newspaper's ad department for 13 weeks in a four-step process.

First, the New Revenue Solutions team helps build a database of prospects. The program targets small, local businesses. The second step involves warming up the prospect to a level of interest. The newspaper then holds a series of presentations, bringing in the potential clients and then, hopefully, locks in the sale. It's not unlike pitches for time shares: The business has to act on the offer then and there, in order to get the deal.

Two newspapers that employed Ad!mpact were absolutely giddy when describing the results. It worked so well for the Kane County Chronicle, a 13,493 circulation paper in Geneva, Ill., that Retail Advertising Manager Gene Kotecki was reluctant to recount his success for fear of competitors catching on. After going through the process and three days of meetings, his paper brought in 112 accounts representing $690,000 in ad revenue for the year, he reports.

The Bristol (Va.) Herald-Courier volunteered to try out Ad!mpact for Media General. Renee Roaming Wind Hencey, the paper's regional advertising director, says what she really liked about Ad!mpact was that it took ideas that worked well for broadcast ? such as the concept of available inventory ? and applied them to newspapers. She explains they tailored packages to run in paper's lighter days.

"We are thrilled with the program," she says. "For anyone looking for immediate revenue solutions with long-term results, I highly recommend it." She won't reveal how much revenue they garnered from the program (reportedly about $650,000) but she does say they exceeded their goal by 263%.

Admittedly, the sales staff resisted the boot camp, but quickly warmed to the idea as it brought in money. "This is a top-notch group of very professional media folks who know what they are doing," adds Hencey. "I have rarely seen this level of commitment and customer service in a long time." What's more, Hencey says she is already getting calls from advertisers asking if they are going to run the program next year.