Integrated Selling and the Changing Role of the Publisher
Industry thought leaders champion solution selling and idea generation over simply ‘moving pages’. Digital gets props. ROI trumps golf.
from AICPA Custom Media Solutions

(October 23-25, 2006 New York) If we learned anything after three days of intensive ‘knowledge absorption’ at the recent 2006 Folio Conference in New York City it is this. Publishing professionals have to work harder than ever to earn business from their advertisers and sponsors. But, they also have more tools at their disposal than they used to and they’re having a great time learning how to utilize them for their clients’ benefit. Folio is the premiere annual conference for magazine and publishing professionals and we’ll share insights that we gleaned from the experts at roundtables, breakout sessions and one-on-one conversations.

Tony Silber: Editor, Folio Magazine
“In the old days the publisher’s job was to just sell ad pages. Today, you’ve got to be smarter. You’ve got to sell integrated packages across all media platforms. But more importantly, you’ve got to be a solution provider for your advertisers, instead of just convincing them to buy a certain amount of what you happen to be selling. Most of all, you have to be an idea generator.” To be a true idea generator and “strategic thinker, you have to be much more sophisticated about the management of your team.”

Geoff Dodge, SVP Business Week
“It used to be you had to be a great golfer to be publisher. That’s no longer the case. Don’t get me wrong, relationships are still very important, but it’s all about having a deep understanding of the customer and what they need. You’ve got to think like a marketer and business consultant, too. You’ve got to be creating solutions.”

“I’m a big believer in hiring strong business people, rather than sales people per se. I want strong business people who understand what makes people tick. At Business Week we’ve recruited a lot of non-media types who have proven strong business backgrounds. It makes the whole sales process easier. It’s easier to teach good business people ad sales, than it is to teach good business practices to sales people."

Neil Perlman, Publisher, Entrepreneur Magazine
“You’ve got to be an entrepreneur who can think on your feet. You’ve got to come up with new ways to help your clients and create innovative programs.”

Bill Flatley, Chief Advertising Officer, Forbes
I’m 100 percent convinced that “integrated selling is the future although not everyone gets it. Right now it’s a bell curve with one-third of the people still skeptical, one-third of the people curious, but not really doing it and one-third of the people actively doing it and evangelizing about it. You want to reach that group in the middle. It depends on what industry you’re on. You see much higher adoption rates in areas like technology, financial services. Not so much in say, jewelry.”

It’s not integration for the sake of integrating your various media channels. The client wants to know how integration helps more people get back to the products and services they want to sell.

“The main thing today is getting away from the same old way of just selling your audience…same old cost-per-thousand pricing. You need to focus on new metrics that show value and you need to bring something new to the table.”

We try to go in with case studies. How it’s worked for our other clients.
The time to go in is way before the RFP. Once the money’s committed, it’s too late.

“We’ve found that marketers can’t always clarify what they want. The want to know if others are already doing it, especially their competitors…if Macy’s already doing it, then Gimbels will want to do it.”

Drivers of Integration: The 3 C’s

Wasn’t just own a player. We said: you join our fantasy sports league, you get $500M to own a team — ties in to our annual reports on sports team valuations.

Brian Kenney, VP, Integrated Sales, Billboard Information Group
“I’m from the Bronx, I’ve always done it on street smarts. Here are five of my favorite adages.”

Sean Flanagan, Associate Publisher, Readers Digest
We go by the “4 D’s of Integrated Selling”

Most of the change in selling today is happening at the Design/Deliver stage.

We’re moving from Persuaders to GMs
We’re moving from Integration to Alignment

Today, about 30 percent of our business comes from integrated programs. It will be closer to 70 percent in three to five years.

John Whelan, VP Group Publisher, Wicks Business Information
We’ve seen a big increase in demand from advertisers and agencies to put together programs across all our platforms: print, e-newsletters, Web sites, custom publishing, live events, database lead gen. Show dailies have also been a greatly under-leveraged asset (can be done not only in print, but in podcast, microsite and video form).

The key to selling multi-platforms: you must really define the product before you start selling it. Salespeople really need to know what they’re selling before you start. Too many publishers rush new programs to market before nailing down the value proposition to customers.

“Integrated is a product.”
“Leverage all your assets and your talent.”
“Be strategic.”
“Think long-term.”

We also learned that trade association publishers are no longer though of as cute little siblings trying to keep up with their older brothers and sisters in consumer and trade publishing. They’re now a well-respected, often-envied, special breed of media professionals who are now teaching the media old guard a thing or two about audience trust, in-depth research, leveraging assets and building community.