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A Hundred Thousand Euros in revenue, Sold By the Newspaper Ad Reps at the Rheinische Post in Dusseldorf!

The Challenge
Media companies in Germany are all facing the same issue of declining advertising revenue. Currently the national unemployment rate is 12.5% while newspaper advertising revenues have been declining over 2 million Euros over the last four years. Magazines, free papers and radio seem to be holding on with little or no decline.

The Rheinische Post’s research showed that regional newspapers with a circulation of 200,000 lost 11.1% of advertising revenue since 2001. While local advertising ads rose a mere 1%, national ads declined -3.2%, Jobs ads -35.8%, Real Estate -9.2% and Cars -9.5%.

Another challenge the Rheinische Post is faced with is that the media usage per day for newspaper reader is 22 minutes while radio is 160 minutes. However the Internet usage is 49 minutes per day.

The Rheinische Post is the second largest regional daily newspaper in Germany with about 34% coverage in its circulation area. Additionally, the Rheinische Post has a circulation of over 400,000 with 1.2 million daily readers while 200 editors are working to print 29 local additions. The RPOnline.com is ranked third in Germany with 1.3 million daily readers reading over 22 million pages monthly. The Rheinische Post needed to find a solution to increase advertising revenue rather quickly.

When Herr Lutz Rensch, Controller, and the publisher heard Mike Blinder speak in Amsterdam they thought perhaps the Blinder program could be the solution. Mike Blinder met with various senior managers from both print and online to help develop a program that would meet this challenge. A new sales program called “Wie fur Sie” offered local advertisers, in three different regions to start; the opportunity to increase their advertising reach by advertising weekly print frequency bundled with online 24 hour frequency.

Program Overview
The program consisted of two components. The reps received the Blinder Street Fighter classroom training. Remember the Rheinische Post is in Germany so training was conducted in both German and English. After the classroom training was conducted the Barbara Wickman, the Blinder Group representative went on four legged sales calls with the Rheinische Post sales reps. The goal was to find new business therefore the target customer was either a new customer or a customer that advertised infrequently.

The “Wie fur Sie” advertising package included a weekly print ad to appear in a directory format, limited to 8 advertisers, weekly in the regional section of the Rheinische Post. Also the “Wie fur Sie” would appear on the RP Online site. The online “Wie fur Sie” is created with 8 text links to the advertiser print ad that would appear 300,000 per month ROS. Each region receives a guaranteed 100,000 impressions per month.

Each region had its own package pricing which is based on the demographics of the region. In Dusseldorf the package price is $171€ per week, Duisborg $47€ per week, and in Krefeld 80€ per week.

The types of advertisers that were called on are mostly local ranging from financial planner, medical services, home improvement businesses and other personal services such as fitness centers.

Sales people were urged and encouraged by management, to set up a large amount of appointments, with qualified “decision-makers” of area businesses, so the new sales program developed during the planning session, could be “taken to market” effectively. A customized appointment setting script, along with re-enforcing support information was given to the sales people in the form of the “Blinder Group Success Kit” to help them set up the pending calls.

Upon arrival to Dusseldorf, Barbara Wickman of the Blinder Group conducted a proven, highly effective initial training session with the traditional newspaper ad reps entitled “Street Fighting” The focus of this training session is two fold. Firstly, to bring back to the top of mind basic selling skills. Secondly, to assist in shifting the paradigm of conventional sales people to break down their fears of the internet and help them increase their understanding of the role interactive media can play as a viable marketing solution for their advertisers. This training is also designed to educate traditional sales people on how to easily and effectively sell multimedia products and services. These training sessions have proven to be an effective way to educate sales and sales support people in the value of online products in the local advertiser’s media mix.

The Blinder Group also crafted an easy to use “PowerPoint” sales support presentation for the traditional ad reps to use in explaining the program to advertisers. Too often, media companies do not understand the need for high impact, easy to present, sales support materials as a means for showing interactive marketing elements to potential advertisers. The Blinder Group believes that traditional ad reps can offer online products and services WITHOUT the need for computers, as long as they are “armed” with effective sales collaterals.

One of the key elements in ensuring sales success of this initiative was garnering advertiser approval of meeting attendance as well as the validity of the concept in general. Too often sales reps set up appointments with “non-decision makers,” without meeting with the person who can offer a final decision. Also, some advertisers are wary of trying new ideas. One of the most effective means of accomplishing attendance and acceptance is to introduce the advertiser to an industry respected “outside” consultant who has had success with similar programs, with similar businesses, in similar markets, all across North America. That is why many media companies contract with the Blinder Group to perform “4-legged” sales training/closing calls with traditional ad reps, to assist in the launch of programs like the one defined in this document. It also proven that as a direct result of these “4-legged” sales calls, where the sales rep witnesses the most effective way to present the product from an experienced trainer, the traditional ad rep adopts a more stronger belief in the concept.

Results
The Blinder Group visited the Dusseldorf region for nine full days of assisted sales training/ closing calls, on targeted advertisers, with the Rheinische Post sales reps. After each day of the training calls, the Blinder Group consultant issued newspaper senior managers a daily update on the progress of the program. This detailed daily report offers information about every meeting, the result of the call, along with useful information about each advertiser.

The result of the entire training program was close to 100,000 € of new advertising business generated in the 9 days, with an additional 40,000 € likely to close in the weeks to come. In many cases these new Euros came as a direct result of the advertiser reallocating their spending levels from competing media. Several advertisers believed until this program they could not afford to advertise frequently in the Rheinische Post. Some advertisers bought in multiple markets. It was not difficult for the advertiser to commit to one year because they understood the value of frequency.

Not only did the reps start to believe they could sell print and online but the managers also realized this new method of bundling print and online turned management and staff into believers.

Contact Information
For more information about the sales strategy and program deployment of this product, contact:

Herr Lutz Rehsch, Controller,
Rheinische Post
0211/5051451, Lutz.Rensch@Rheinisiche-Post.de

Lead consultant for The Blinder Group:
Barbara Wickman, Senior Associate San Diego
619.203.6166, Barbara@blindergroup.com

 

The Blinder Group
Tampa Offices: 6139 Fjord Way
New Port Richey, FL 34652 USA
(727) 847-2464 ~ (727) 847-5959 (fax)
profit@blindergroup.com

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