Facing the hard, cold facts about the newspaper industry; the good and the bad

I've never attended a roast, except the kind that involves a hot dog. And certainly I cannot imagine being the subject of a roast, having to sit there and listen to people say horrible things about me; even if it is good-natured ridicule.

Recently, I attended a training session that felt a little like a roast at times. Though some of the facts didn't feel very good-natured at the time. It was some hard cold facts about the newspaper business that I'd prefer to ignore if I could. But I can't, and shouldn't ignore them. Instead, as was the case at this training session those issues were turned into opportunities and ultimately a positive experience.

We asked a local advertising agency leader to come speak to our sales team as a part of an off-site training program. Before his arrival, we spoke about the basic expectations of our sales team from the number of sales calls, the use of spec ads and the importance of selling campaigns vs. ads. Audience, reach and frequency are the basics of any marketing campaign no matter the delivery mode.

Our advertising agency representative was brought in to talk about the various competition. He talked about the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor we face, along with all the changes that have taken place in all media. I think often times we in the newspaper business get all wrapped up in the fact that we've been going through seismic shifts in our industry, forgetting that the same is true with all of our competitors.

As expected, he started to talk about the negative changes in the newspaper business. Circulation has declined, both daily and Sunday. Our print audience, while getting smaller is also getting older creating long term concerns for the industry. Each fact stung as he said them, even though I'd heard every one of them countless times.

But....

Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, he turned to the next slide to discuss all the reasons he still believed in newspapers. Just like those celebrity roasts on TV, after the hurtful comments, they always came back and talked about the traits that endeared the person to them. And so it was with newspapers for him.

With all the circulation loss, there was still not a single local competitor that could deliver a bigger audience than our Sunday newspaper. Only Facebook can reach a bigger audience in our market. I would bet that is the case in nearly every newspaper market.

That single fact made me smile, and yet he wasn't done. The core newspaper reader, baby boomers are big spenders with high levels of disposable income and the segment is growing. As every media outlet tries to adjust to the new norm, the newspaper industry has large audiences in both the traditional and digital platform. Who else can tout that?

For me, the best comment he made was his last. In this world of fake news and a general distrust of things you see and read online, it is the local newspaper that remains the trusted source. "You have the largest staff of professional journalists and reporters of any medium in the market, translating to high quality, trustworthy content." While he was speaking about my market with that comment, that is the case in nearly every market across the state and around the country.  Providing a safe, trustworthy platform for content - in print and online - is a valuable asset to offer the communities and advertisers we serve.

Choose your words carefully to improve the confidence your customers have in you and your products

In my local market, one of the radio stations is playing regularly a public service announcement against drunk driving. As is often the case, the PSA is very well written and certainly has got me thinking.

The obvious intent of the message is to get my thinking about the dangers of drunk driving. Point taken. But for me, the story the thirty second spot has universal application beyond that initial intent. The basis of the commercial is the narrator talking about the word "probably," calling it the least convincing word in the English language.

Probably is certainly not a power word, or one that evolks confidence. And that has got me thinking about the selection of words that move people to action, or a lack of action in some cases.

At the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, Robert E. Lee famously told a general to "take that hill, if practical." That general evidently didn't think it was practical and didn't take the hill. As a result, the next two days the Union army had the high ground and won the battle, stopping the rebel army advance through the northern states.

Word selection is critical in every facet of our lives. The battles won or lost might not be as pivotal as Pickett's Charge during the Civil War, but in the day to day of business, your sales team the choices made are still critical.

I would encourage you to spend a few minutes listening to your sales reps and see for yourself. When they role play - they are role playing as a part of training, right? - are they talking with confidence, using words to suggest they know something instead of think they know? In the case of a staff that is not doing role playing, listen to them on the phone. Are they talking with their customer, mentioning the benefits of the product and the results you (the customer) will receive, or are they focusing on themselves?

Simply things like what is the distribution of your product. For example, many sales reps will tell the customer the distribution is "about 10,000." The interjection of the "about" into that phrase makes it less exact, and can have a negative impact on the perception of the customer. If the distribution is 10,000 then the salesperson should say "it is 10,000."

Setting up training for your team on word choice is a good investment. Jonha Richman wrote for Salesforce.com a guide for the most powerful words to use in sales and marketing. Richman charts five examples that should become a guide for your team on the right frame of mind for all communication with customers. And while I've focused on the verbal form of communication, these same rules would apply to email communication as well by your sales team.

https://www.salesforce.com/ca/blog/2016/06/powerful-sales-and-marketing-words.html

Spend a few minutes shopping on Amazon.com and you'll see one of Richman's examples of great word choices. Amazon will try to sell you new products to increase their revenue and thus profits. It is how they do it that is noteworthy, and something your sales team could learn. Rather than saying, "Here are some products to considering buying," Amazon let's you know "We have some new recommendations for you." Simple word choices puts the focus on the buyer in a consultative approach.

Picking powerful words is likely training you've never considered doing in the past, and that could be because you didn't need to. For years, your sales staff like mine was experienced and had already developed a proven sales method with a quality vocabulary. But the job market has changed, and the new candidates you are getting likely have significantly less experience than those previously.

In the pursuit of happiness

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2018/02/25/In-the-pursuit-of-happiness

One of the most frequent questions I ask my wife and son is “Are you happy?” It is a basic component of life, and if I get an affirmative answer then I feel like I’m doing something right. Creating a happy environment is a driving factor for me, at home and work.

At home, the phrase “Happy wife – happy life” pretty well sums it up. In my case, it helps if my son is happy as well. At work, I always strive to have a productive organization. Having people happy at their job tends to raise the level of productivity.

I simply cannot over emphasize the importance of happiness. Even our founding fathers here in the United States recognized this. The pursuit of happiness was considered an “unalienable right” in the Declaration of Independence, meaning that it had been given to all human beings by our Creator, and that governments were created to protect. Some 240+ years later, this hasn’t changed, though I think some believe that happiness should be created by the government for them, rather than the government helping to protect the individual’s opportunity to find happiness on their own.

I recently heard an interview on the radio with someone with the Secret Society of Happy People. Yes, there is a society, or at least a website. They discussed the keys to happiness, and it got me to thinking about my own personal happiness, and what I was doing to positively impact it.

Stress is a natural component of work and opponent of happiness. I would live in a fantasy world if I thought my job and my life could be stress free. Frankly, how boring would that be? So clearly happiness and stress have to peacefully co-exist in my life.

I certainly don’t want to be overwhelmed with stress, but a healthy dose of it keeps me sharp. And it keeps me motivated to find better solutions, and happiness. I find myself in a period like that currently. There is definitely some stress in my life, but I’m trying to use it as a motivator. Problems I face just prove that I need to be better at what I’m doing; coping with that stress and finding happiness.

The people at the Secret Society of Happy People (https://soph.com) believes that there are at least 31 types of happiness. Happiness is all around us, and it is up to us as individuals to recognize. That is all well and good, but I’ve experienced some situations lately where the individuals involved are struggling to find anything that they can consider even close to happiness. The stress in their life is so strong, so overwhelming that it clouds their life. It has sucked me in a few times as well, I must admit.

I stumbled on a book written by Sheryl Sandburg and Adam Grant titled “Option B:  Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy” and jumped in and started reading. Because I figure I could use some help with new ways of dealing with adversity, being stronger and more resilient, and enjoying the joyful moments of life more. It didn’t take long to realize how insignificant my issues were compared with Sandberg, as the book is an account of how she dealt with the death of her her husband and raising her children as a single mother.

The book gave me perspective, which I greatly needed. I’m only a third of the way through the book and it has yielded some great advice. Sandberg and Grant write:

               

“We plant the seeds of resilience in the ways we process negative events. After spending decades studying how people deal with setbacks, psychologist Martin Seligman found that the three P’s can stunt recovery: (1) personalization – the belief that we are at fault; (2) pervasiveness – the belief that an event will affect all areas of our life; and (3) permanence – the belief that the aftershocks of the event will last forever.”

I have shared that with three different people just in the past few days. Different people all dealing with different stresses in their life, but yet that stress has common elements in all of us that we can combat. When facing a stressful situation and problem, many times we find ourselves shouldering the blame when in fact most of the time we are not. The darkness of stress and the problems we face casts a dark shadow on all aspects of our life, even if the problem is only a work problem. There might be 31 different types of happiness, but if you’re dealing with a lot of stress it might be nearly impossible to see anything except the problems. And it truly feels like it will last forever. And ever.

Working within the parameters of the three P’s helps me deal with acute stress. It provides me a process that I can follow, and achieve favorable results. Finding happiness, especially at work, generally comes back to good communication and rewarding teamwork as you work towards a common goal. Notice I didn’t say success. Success is an added bonus, but happiness at work should occur even if you’ve not quite achieved success if you’ve developed the right culture.

Finding that peace of mind of happiness and satisfaction is proving to be a bigger struggle for people. New examples present themselves seemingly daily. It is somewhat comforting, knowing that people I view as super strong as just as vulnerable, struggling with the same demons.

A colleague / friend of mine turned in her notice at work recently.Her notice spelled out why she was leaving. It wasn’t money, though she’d like to make more. It wasn’t her boss. It wasn’t that she didn’t see value in her work. She needed a better work – life balance. She needed less stress, and more happiness.

I took her to lunch to celebrate her new beginning, and we discussed things. Passionately, she talked about the desire to find “that one thing” that we’ve all been put on this earth to do. Ultimately, it might not be just one big thing, but in fact a series of smaller things which add up to that big thing. I think that knowing what that one thing we’re here on earth for would be very powerful. Reality is, we’re likely to never know that. But the simple realization that you are here for one thing, or likely a series of things is just as powerful. It brings clarity to your life, and purpose.

She talked about a Ted Talk she recently watched which brought things into focus for her on this subject. It seemed to fit in with this rambling post I’ve been working on for the past three weeks. It is worth the view. http://t.ted.com/cYf1Cf3

We all need clarity of purpose to help us manage our life. I’ve read more than once that at work, you need a work best friend to help you cope there too. My work best friend doesn’t work at the same location as me, but in the same industry. The issues I face are similar to what she faces. We offer each other moral support and therapy nearly every morning on our way into our respective offices two hours away from each other.

My work buddy has been bestowing on me the teachings of Pope Francis. She’s not trying to convert me to become a Catholic, though I think a strong religious faith in an important part of finding happiness and less stress in your life. For the Lent season this year, Pope Francis sent out a list of suggestions. 

Having a good friend at work automatically reduces stress, as you can work together on problems and share the burden of tough situations. But having a friend that brings solid teachings and advice like this is even better.

I graduated high school 33 years ago this June. I went to college right after high school, and then finished my degree a few years ago. But school has never really ended. My father was a life-long learner, and he most definitely passed that along to me. So I’m working on finding that work-life balance, taking the words from the Pope seriously, trying to reduce my stress and continue my pursuit of happiness.

There is a song out right now that reminds me of this quest every time I hear it. It reminds me that I’m not perfect, but I continue to work on being a better me.

https://youtu.be/2zX8GwMKP_k

Circulars inserted into newspapers still drive sales for retailers

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2018/01/31/Circulars-inserted-into-newspapers-still-drive-sales-for-retailers

The first two months of the year in the marketing and advertising world has certain milestones that seem to come up every year. There is all the excitement and buzz of the Super Bowl ads each year, featuring the latest and greatest creations and a new catch phrase or two as a result. And then there is the annual list of store closings and contract reductions from big box national advertisers.

I prefer the anticipated laughter at the latest Budweiser commercial much more than the pain of the retraction of major advertisers trying to find traction in an ever changing retail world. Each year the impact of Amazon.com and other retailers seems to increase, and that has certainly been the case at the start of 2018.

If you are fortunate enough to not be feeling the sting of store closing, then you are no doubt facing the relentless requests to reduce preprint rates, provide added value or both. The latest store results and the latest research tells me that it is time again for newspapers to be aggressive.

Nationwide Sears / K-Mart made the strategic decision to cut their spending significantly. This included the surprising decision to not have an insert on Thanksgiving. The headline on Fortune.com's story summed up their woes, calling their performance a "Holiday Season Bloodbath". According to the story by Phil Wahba for Fortune.com, Sears performance was between -16% and -17% below prior year. Overall holiday sales were up +4.9% this past year. I'm not suggesting that all of Sears' problems are centered around their lack of newspaper ads in November and December. But their decision to turn their backs on their core customers who look to their inserts to make their purchasing decisions exaggerated the impact.

Newspapers need to stand firm on their ability to move the sales needle for their regular advertisers. The research backs that up, showing once again that newspaper readers have money to spend, our product and advertisements are wanted by our customer base and newspapers provide an inviting environment for a marketing message to be positively received by a consumer. Even in the Amazon.com world we're living in, preprints still sell products.

The Hoosier State Press Association readership study released last fall backs those statements up. It is one thing for me to say it, but better when American Opinion Research provides unbiased information with the same statements. All of your sales reps should have this information, and I would say just as important that your customers also need this information.

Regarding preprint advertising and the early year fight with advertisers, make sure they realize that 68% of people in Indiana believe newspaper circulars are an important part of their purchase making decisions, and that number is even stronger with females who control the majority of spending. 54% of consumers use newspaper inserts weekly, and that translates to 48% of people making purchases monthly as a result of newspaper advertising. That is over three times more than radio or cable, and more than double that of local TV.

Creating an environment that breeds success

With the new year ahead of us, many people take time to reflect on the happenings of the past year, both personally and professionally. It is time to taken an inventory if you will, on the assets and liabilities on your ledger. And it is a time to make plans to improve the performance of that ledger by this time next year.

I don't make resolutions. They have not motivated me, which is not to say they aren't a good thing. My focus is on improvement, but day over day improvement has been a better motivator for me. But as I make plans for 2018, there are some definite roadblocks I'd like to avoid, and a recent episode of CNBC's The Profit once again illustrated them very well. 

My hope is one day Marcus Lemonis will buy a media company and will do an hour long show on ways to improve its people, process and product. Until then, I extract nuggets of great ideas from other industries. That includes a recent episode with a struggling denim jean company in Detroit.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/05/the-creativity-killers-that-can-prevent-your-business-from-growing.html

Lemonis boiled it down to three things that Eric was doing wrong with his business. It is a list that many organizations share, and the solution isn't as difficult as you might think.

1) Forgetting to have fun. I've said many times that I believe I could be successful running any type of business, but I choose to run a media company because it is fun. The opportunity to engage with communities, businesses and readers is unlike most any other business. It brings me joy, though I will admit that I sometimes forget that. Innovation and creativity, the process of building a better mousetrap if you will, is fun. 

2) Reluctance to adjust a business strategy. Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results pretty well sums up media companies. Former Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki's quote, "If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more" rings in my head daily as I work. Change must be a part of our daily lives. Refusing to change, or burying your head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the shifts in the marketplace rarely has a positive outcome. Change can be messy, and is no guarantee of success. But the more chances you take, the successes you find every time. 

3) Giving orders instead of collaborating. The best managers I've ever worked for excelled at building a collaborative environment. As a manager, once you realize you don't have to solve every problem on your own you instantly become a better manager. The best managers create the environment for innovation and problem solving. Back in the 1980's Ronald Reagan put together a team of advisers that were the best of the best on the topics that our country and the Reagan presidency were facing. Reagan boasted that he didn't have to be the smartest guy in the room. He just needed to be the leader for the group, keep them focused on the goal and helping them to communicate the best way of handling those tough issues. That concept still works today.

Having a management style that kills creativity will kill a business, or at the very least stunt its possible growth. Your business, or any business cannot survive without adaptation and change. The best way to adapt and change is to be the leader that sets sup the environment that allows the best and brightest to shine. Managers, start listening; especially to new ideas.

Creating a buzz within your sales organization

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2017/12/01/Creating-a-buzz-within-your-sales-organization

Meeting a sales manager for the first time, I always like to learn about their background. It is always good to figure out how they got to where they are. Generally, it tells you about the type of manager they are with their staff.

In one case, Mary had run a daycare center and somehow ended up leading an advertising sales department. Many times as managers we joke about needing to be babysitters as a part of our required background for job success, but in this case it really was.

Every sales department in different, but generally speaking the high performing departments have high energy and a buzz in them. In Mary's case, it was a quiet department. I asked her why it was so quiet. With a dower look on her face, she told me this was the expectation. I asked her what she did the motivate her team and to make sales fun. Her response was "This isn't suppose to be fun. This is work."

A sales department should not be a circus, but keeping a sales force motivated and productive requires creating a productive and fun environment. This means making some noise.

I was reminded of all this after reading a blog post by Shawn Karol Sandy titled"Silence is deadly: 3 reasons why your sales floor is too quiet." She's given this issue an official diagnosis:  "Quiet Selling Syndrome."

Your sales force likely spending way too much time on nonproductive endeavors. The typical salesperson is engaged with customers and building relationships 15% of the time according to the article. Their day is filled with meetings, reports, email, social media, operational issues and hiding behind a computer instead of calling on customers.

Take a walk through your sales department any day at 10:30 am. Unfortunately, you're likely find many of your team in the office on their computer. Maybe they're being productive, but likely they are doing this because they are just filling up time doing other things rather than the most important part of their job; calling on customers and asking for sales. Sandy writes, "They're not getting face to face with prospective new customers, because they're not picking up the phone - which is where you make meetings happen."

So far, I've spent a lot of time about what the salesperson isn't doing. But a lot of the blame really falls on what the sales manager is not doing. The three symptoms of "Quiet Selling Syndrome" are issues with the sales process, a lack of leadership and the wrong players on the sales team.

It is easy to blame sales reps for not getting on the phone or in front of prospects. But I believe people want to be led, and often you will find that they are not being told what needs to get done. Sales managers need to provide specific goals and expectations, and then hold them accountable to achieving those standards.

Managers have plenty on their plate. As we've all reduced down organizations to run leaner, managers find themselves with more balls to juggle day in, day out. If you make a priority of having a focused and productive sales team, then juggling some of those other balls might be a little easier. Managers have to get out of their offices and on to the sales floor to provide strong leadership.

Once you've established expectations and have provided the leadership to make it happen, you might discover you don't have the right team. The old phrase, "Change the people or change the people" still rings true today. Establish training to teach your team what you expect. You'll quickly discover who wants to be better, and which ones that can be better vs. the ones that are not a part of your long range plans. Reluctance to get on the phone or in front of a customer cannot be tolerated going forward.

How to combat the marketing expert that proclaims "print is dead"

http://www.petevanbaalen.com/single-post/2017/11/01/How-to-combat-the-marketing-expert-that-proclaims-print-is-dead

A few weeks ago, someone dropped a bomb on LinkedIN. Within my circle of connections, the post by Jerry Miller created a lot of ripples. Thankfully, many people spoke up and denounced his proclamation that “Print advertising is dead.”

https://lnkd.in/dr8sJDD

Clearly I don’t agree with Mr. Miller, but I’m not here to badmouth his point of view either. I’m here to offer some facts, which he’s short on in his quick little LinkedIN video. But I’d also like to point out that there are a lot of Jerry Miller’s in your market right now saying the same thing. How are you responding?

There are ‘marketing experts’ parading around offering similar advice in your market!  Often times these experts are brought forward by your local chamber of commerce or other organizations. These organizations consider it an opportunity to provide education to their members, and of course the ‘marketing expert’ sees this as a chance to land new customers for their marketing company. Why do they do these free seminars? Because they work.

And because it works, it is time for you to step forward and offer a marketing class for your local chamber, downtown business association or whoever will give you the audience in your market. When you have the audience, give them the real perspective of how a marketing mix of traditional and digital platforms is the best approach for business success.

The principles of marketing and advertising have not changed. What has changed are the options available to convey those messages to potential customers. Increasingly, those new digital options offer never before seen tracking ability to help measure results. The video by Miller harps on the lack of trackability for print advertising.  Print can absolutely be tracked. Coupons, QR codes, special offers and specific phone numbers are just some of the options available to someone who is deeply concerned with the performance of a print campaign.

Also, the slide he stands in front of while making that point is titled “The Power of Social Media.” There is definitely value in social media marketing, both organic and paid social media options. But to suggest that money spent on print is thrown away and wasted a huge mistake. Broad, generalized statements like “print is dead” ignore basic marketing principles. The core audience of print products remain the audience with the most disposable income.

I hope you watch the video, and that it serves as a wakeup call. This is a message that is being presented throughout your area, and you and your advertising staff need to know how to combat it. A final suggestion for you; show this video to your sales team. Ask them to role play how they would respond to the statements of Jerry Miller. Only then will you be prepared to combat these views, and win back revenue that might be slipping away from your organization.