Written by Steve Harrison | FCPNY President

Genesee Valley Publications

Days before our Publishers Conference at the beautiful Woodcliff Hotel & Spa in Rochester, I received my “gentle reminder” from our esteemed marketing director, Erika Perez, that my article was due—hoping to get this “published” before our meeting, but also realizing that you’ll be reading this weeks after. To that end, I hope you attended the conference! Dan, Erika, Deedee and Cheryl do a great deal of behind-the-scenes work for us so that we can network, learn and, for sure, have a great time. As a Community Papers Advertising Network (CPAN) member, you could not stay home for what this weekend’s accommodations cost—another member benefit. If you do happen to be one of the unfortunate non-attendees, it’s time you shift your paradigm for future conferences and networking opportunities. Kevin Slimp was our presenter and moderator, and while you may think him a digital geek (which he is), he also had an excellent story for us publishers. I’m thrilled that Dan was able to obtain his services.

Shari Rapone, our circulation supervisor here at Genesee Valley Penny Saver, and I participated in a Saturation Mailers Coalition teleconference with David Williams, United States Postal Service (USPS) vice president of operations, and the members of our coalition. The Postal Service, as you know, is facing some extraordinarily challenging times, and this was an opportunity to hear and understand their response to them. After hearing David speak, their cost-cutting measures make sense in terms of personnel and processing. In order to survive, at the very least, USPS must radically change. The following is an excerpt from Donna Hanbery:

• Volumes are down and will go down further for First-Class Mail

• The Postal Service has more processing facilities than it needs. The requirement to move First-Class Mail overnight from one post office to another has driven some of this network creation, and leads to a lot of excess capacity and costs for transportation.

• If the Postal Service wants to hold down costs and “survive,” it could reduce its network and infrastructure of processing facilities by having fewer facilities, having facilities work a longer schedule and asking for permission to change the current service standard that says First-Class Mail will be moved in one to three days.

A lot of these plans do not directly impact saturation program mailers (that would be us) that bring their mail deep into the system (the Destination Delivery Unit and Sectional Center Facility). This plan is at the concept and “study phase.” Some cost cutting and reduction of facilities will move forward.

CPAN sales seem to be evening out. However, there’s an ‘ole showbiz saying: “You’re only as good as your last performance.” Please keep CPAN in your “sales conversations” at your paper. Our sales incentives are rich and hopefully enticing all sellers to consider who might be perfect for statewide circulation. Our cost per home is less than a penny, and the response has been consistent for our regular advertisers. Also, a new incentive program has been released, so if you haven’t yet sold a CPAN ad, now’s the time to sell “Just One.”

I mentioned in our last newsletter article that we had employed the services of Diane Ciotta from Training Classics to help give our veteran ad consultants some valuable techniques in reaching out to new customers. Diane just completed the follow-up to her first session last week with a review and then the much-dreaded word “role-play.” Her role-play was much different and effective, so I thought I would share. The scary thing about the concept of “role-play” is that you’ll have to get up in front of everyone and perform. Diane’s method was quite different in that she had groups of three: the ad consultant, advertiser and observer (the roles were switched twice more). They were given a scenario and were encouraged to use the techniques that were previously learned to uncover the needs. Many books have been written on the technique of “needs analysis,” but in Diane’s world, it’s really about asking the right questions and tactfully engaging your soon-to-be advertiser in a meaningful discussion. And admittedly, these questions can be uncomfortable to answer for the customer, but as I mentioned in the last article, it reveals an emphatic side of our personalities that proves effective. Some of our best ad consultants have a real gift of empathy that their customers appreciate. After the role-playing was concluded, Diane would ask for feedback, and each group gave lots and was fully engaged. Diane likes to call these “Small Group Application Exercises,” but we’re going to continue “role-playing” here and hopefully develop our inquiring sales minds.

Have a beautiful autumn!!