November/December 2005
integrated sales
Selling marketing solutions instead of media products can increase your revenue, deepen your relationship with exhibitors, and help your customers reach their marketing and sales goals. So why aren’t more media organizations doing it?
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor



Media companies that sell across the boundaries of print, online and face-to-face do more business. Take note:
• CMP Media’s Software Development Media Group is dialoging with 20–30 percent more companies.
• Red 7 Media is generating three times more revenue from a major account.
• Diversified Business Communications is selling 75 percent more auxiliary items for one show.
• Cygnus Expositions is wielding more clout in a fast-growing market.
• Advanstar Communications is reporting double-digit earnings growth.

By offering discounted product packages to help customers meet their marketing goals, media companies cultivate relationships that yield higher sales volumes and more net revenue in the long term. Whether you work for a media company or an association, all it takes is a trusted brand, a loyal audience, a customer base and multiple channels to connect sellers to buyers throughout the purchasing cycle.

“We’ve found benefits from servicing customers better by fully representing the buying process in the market,” says Will Wise, Associate Publisher of Dr. Dobb’s Journal and C/C++ Users Journal, part of CMP’s Software Development Media Group (www.cmp.com), which produces two events, SD WEST and SD BEST PRACTICES. “We don’t lead with the media type. Instead, we lead with the audience opportunity and the goals of the client, then match them with a plan.”

Integration defined
To an event producer, integrated selling may mean selling pre-show, on-site and post-show opportunities. To a publisher, it may mean selling across geographic territories or product categories. Media companies define it as selling across media to deliver marketing solutions.

“Doing integrated selling provides your clients with marketing synergy,” says sales guru Helen Berman, President of Helen Berman Corp. (www.helenberman.com), Pacific Palisades, CA, and author of the forthcoming book, Beyond the Page, Beyond the Banner: Selling Integrated Media. “When you create programs with elements that have intrinsic value and also affect the other tools you’re using, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.”

This kind of selling is client-centric, not product-centric.

“They may begin with the Web site, magazine, show or special event, but once I get them to see they can do something with us that works, then I can make proposals that are programs, not just one-shots,” Berman says. “I’m acting as a full marketing partner now.”

The business case
Measures of success for an integrated sales program range from making market inroads to net revenue gains. CMP has been building momentum in integrated sales since the second half of 2004, when it restructured its sales force. Wise counts success in the number of new accounts.

“Integrated selling has enabled us, in the short term, to have a dialog with 20–30 percent more companies than we would if we did things in the same old way,” he says. “Once you have a dialog and start a program, you have nothing but upside beyond that.”

At Norwalk, CT-based Red 7 Media (www.red7media.com), whose properties include Folio: magazine and The Folio Show Conference and Expo, integrated selling has diversified the company’s revenue stream, so 45–50 percent comes from advertising, 30 percent comes from exhibits and sponsorships, and 20 percent from other products including custom events, white papers and online.

And at Cygnus Business Media (www.cygnusb2b.com), shows serving the aviation and fire and safety markets are the fastest growing because they work well with their counterparts in publishing, interactive and custom marketing.

“The two groups that collaborate the best are the groups that have the most significant size, clout and margins,” says Cygnus Expositions President Jeff Price. “By whatever metric you measure, they’re the strongest.”

Sales team structures
Sales integration can be structural or cultural. Structural integration divides sales by market and sells media products that serve those markets. Sales reps are assigned client accounts by territory, volume or other segment.

This is the way CMP and Advanstar (www.advanstar.com) are structured. In Wise’s group, San Francisco-area brand reps can roll out a portfolio of solutions that include five magazines, seven Web sites and two events. None have dedicated sales reps, though specialists manage the small-dollar, high-volume transactions that typify online advertising. At Advanstar, individual reps specialize in selling events or print, and sales leadership represents the suite of products to key accounts.

Cultural integration divides sales by media and dedicates sales teams to each, but sales reps can recommend multi-media programs and refer clients to appropriate specialists to assist with planning and implementation. This is the way Cygnus and Diversified (www.divcom.com) are structured.

“We feel it’s imperative that the individual have a singular focus,” says Price. “If you want a sales person to provide a high level of customer service, they have to understand every nuance of the product. It’s almost impossible for them to know all the nuances of all three media.” By referring clients, he says, “we’re not taking expo dollars and putting them in print, we’re working for the best needs of the customer and taking money from the competition.”

In other organizations, only two of the three components are integrated. Such is the case at Red 7 Media, where the 40-person company dedicates two salespeople to exhibit sales and five to print, online and marketing services.

“The key is to make sure that you are very close to the sales activity as a manager,” says President and CEO Kerry Smith. “I get a list of exhibit sales activity every Friday. I see how many aren’t advertising in the magazine, then have discussions with the print sales team.”

Compensation and incentives
Both structural and cultural change can cause angst among sales reps around issues of prized territories, existing relationships, unfamiliar products and multiple deadlines — from annual exhibits to monthly ads to daily Web banners. Fair compensation, advocacy from the top-down and communication at all levels alleviates this anxiety.

Sales contests and incentive programs can augment core compensation plans to motivate reps to sell more than one type of media. CMP rewards reps who sell programs with two or more elements. This also gains recognition among executive ranks for the people who are pioneering the integrated approach.

Red 7 Media rewards sales reps with profit sharing, commissions based on reaching revenue targets, and referral bonuses. If exhibit sales refers a client who then buys ads in the magazine, the exhibit sales rep gets 2 percent of the first year’s print spending.

“It’s a lucrative opportunity to generate incremental revenue, and it’s meaningful enough to encourage cross communication,” Kerry says.

Integrated selling also demands that salespeople get to a higher level decision maker. To put them on equal footing, CMP elevated sales titles from account executive or district sales manager to senior manager of media programs.

Product pricing and packaging
Innovative programs leverage the impact of each media channel to influence buyers at critical junctures in the decision-making process. But in their zeal to deliver solutions, sales reps can overlook production costs.

“Be sure you’re selling programs that are going to be financially rewarding,” Berman says. “You have to factor in labor and other costs.”

When sales reps proposed contextual advertising on a seafood show Web site, Diversified’s Seafood Expositions Vice President Mary Larkin coordinated with technology experts to make it possible. Such initiatives have contributed to the 75 percent growth in auxiliary sales for one event.

Some media companies develop a menu of packages with integrated offerings, so clients can see the value compared with buying products ala carte. Others prepare proposals case-by-case, putting together customized programs that combine the offerings as needed to achieve the client’s goals. In either case, discounts are proportionate to the scale of the purchase.

“There are pre-determined investment incentives based on volume spending,” COACH MEdia (www.coachmediapros.com) Founder and Media Sales Trainer/Coach Stephen Pia says. “Reps get zero leeway to cut deals. That holds as well for value-adds. If they do $1 million in business, they get A. If they do $2 million, they get B.”

Setting clear boundaries on what is and is not negotiable ensures over-zealous reps don’t cut deals that slice through the margins. When clients insist on haggling, management can step in to continue the dialog.

Support & follow-through
Collaboration doesn’t come naturally to lone go-getters who rack up big commissions. Training teaches sales reps to work as a team and share market knowledge. Diversified has retained COACH MEdia to work with sales teams on honing their consultative selling skills.

“We’ve had role-playing and one-on-one coaching on how to face a scenario with a client,” says Larkin. “It’s been baby steps, listening, and getting out of the old sales format.”

Advanstar’s customer relationship management (CRM) system enables salespeople in 17 offices to exchange information about communications with decision makers. “One barrier is communication and collaboration among sales staff,” says Corporate Marketing Director Georgiann Decenzo. “Our CRM has helped improve that.”

One of the biggest challenges is servicing the account after the sale. From developing the new product a rep just sold to billing and coding invoices, the workload and paperwork can be overwhelming. Putting processes in place to ensure no one drops the ball is critical.

“If a sales team sells something out-of-of-the-box, and the company fails to follow through, it hurts their relationship with the client,” Berman says. “The company has to have the infrastructure in place to do the work, whether it’s research or a big idea for a trade show.”

Red 7 Media assigns an account rep who’s not in sales to manage integrated programs. Designating one point person also makes it easier for the client to cope with details and deadlines.

Countering objections
Integrated selling requires a champion to overcome both internal objections from salespeople who loathe change and external objections from clients who segregate their media buying.

“You need a strong advocate,” say Diversified’s Larkin. “Identify the nay-sayers from the get-go. Flush out the views that may arise down the road. Eliminate the negatives, and make as many changes as possible at once so you can streamline it.”

Diversified picked a date for restructuring sales and changing compensation plans in November 2003 and stuck to it. “The team is much happier and more efficient,” Larkin says. “The salespeople make a lot more now than they used to.”