SALES INCENTIVE PROGRAM COLD CALL CAPERS
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
SALES INCENTIVE PROGRAM COLD CALL CAPERS Give’ em an offer they can’t refuse! For the final four weeks of the Spring 2012 semester, we wanted to come up with a new sales contest we had never done before. Having watched recent episodes of Boardwalk Empire, we were hit with an inspiration. Our gangster theme was designed to focus our sales staff on the final push for dollars before the semester ended. We targeted cold calls, upsells and key special sections. We decided to go all in on this theme, decorating the office from top to bottom. Cubicles, doors and windows were covered with speak easy related art. The entrance to our office was converted to a brick wall with a bullet ridden car on either side of the door. We kicked off the contest at a Friday sales meetings. Everyone got a gangster nickname assigned to them. The boys received Fedoras and the girls were given feather headdresses and beads. Everyone was given a bag of loot or “Caper Cash” to start their month off. Every rep started with $500. The sales board was filled with client leads who were not running with us, but running ads with competitor products. This was the “wanted” board. Each account executive was expected to take a minimum of 5 leads and start cold calling. They could also target existing clients to upsell. Sales representatives earned additional caper cash by landing new customers, upselling existing customers, meeting individual and/or team goals. They could also lose their “Caper Cash” if they missed meetings and for every procentage they fell below their goals. The top 5 finishers were awarded cash and prizes. To earn their “moolah” account executives had to turn their insertion orders with the upsell or new client highlighted into their advertising manager. The advertising managers kept a running tally of each representative and where they were in the contest. (But none of the advertising representatives were updated on leaders. It was all hush, hush Bugsy!) Once the orders were tallied the managers pinned them to the “pinched” board. The contest created a lot of energy in the office and helped us finish the year off strong. From a sales bottom line, we generated 35 new sales or upsells and $7,081 in new revenue. Our first place winner increased her territory revenue by 241%!
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
SALES INCENTIVE PROGRAM COLD CALL CAPERS
Front and Back of the Contest Guidelines for the Staff. CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
SALES INCENTIVE PROGRAM COLD CALL CAPERS The Cold Call Caper Board in the conference room at the beginning of the contest.
The entrance to the CM LIFE advertising offices was converted to a Flapper Lounge.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
SALES INCENTIVE PROGRAM COLD CALL CAPERS Top right: The “pinched” board half way through the month. Bottom right: Entrance to the advertising conference room was converted to a speak easy. Below: Samples of the “Caper Cash” and “Loot Bags” the staff received at the kick off to the contest.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Ka Leo Best Sales Incentive Program (Plinko Ball) This summer the marketing director and student ad manager wanted to created a more consistent way to incentivize our students to make regular sales. The idea way to create low cost incentives that is affordable our budget, yet give the students something else to work towards other than money. The student manager’s felt that our student staff were just not that motivated by money, as many other programs across the nation at seeming to find out. We have had general monthly sales incentives that equate out to best of goal, or most new contracts, and others that are monetarily rewarded, which were not creating any excitement in the office. So, we decided to create a game that gave students the opportunity every week to earn a prize, regardless of how others were performing. We created our own plinko board (The Price is Right) that allowed student to drop a ball in the top and fall into the incentives in the bottom of the board. There are 7 slots that have prizes inside of the slot that allow our students to win a free lunch, free beer, gift cards, manager making calls, 1% extra commission and cash. One ball is earned for every $1,000 dollars in sales that a student would sell the previous week. Students love the chance to toss a plinko ball and they are able to do so, based solely on their own performance. This incentive had given more students bonuses this year than ever before and they are extremely happy with something as small as a free coffee, which makes the incentive a bit of an oxy moron. The Ka Leo Plinko board has been a big hit with our students and it is all because of our student managers developing new ideas to motivate their peers to do the best they can.
Free 1% Gift Rob Free Makes Beer Lunch Extra Card 5 Calls Free 1% Gift Rob Free Makes Beer Lunch Extra Card 5 Calls
Free $5 Gift $15 Free Lunch Bonus Card Bonus Beer
Free $10 Gift Rob Free Makes Beer Coffee Bonus Card 5 Calls
Best Sales Incentive Program
Mustang Daily - California Polytechnic State University The Mustang Daily staff implemented a creative and successful program during the spring of 2012 that increased sales and promoted creativity and a positive attitude among the sales staff. The sales incentive, Sizzlin’ into Sales was designed to creative a sense of friendly competition among account executives and to get them excited about the three editions they were selling at the time. Sizzlin’ into Sales promoted increased revenue for the Mustang Daily’s SOAR (summer orientation) edition, Spring Graduation, and our firstever Puzzle Book. We used the main wall in our office to display a tracking system for the sales incentive. Each account executive had a set of three thermometers that represented the three special editions. Each account executive had an individual monetary goal they were working to achieve on each edition, and the thermometers were individually marked to reflect those goals. Beneath the thermometers was a chart displaying the different amounts of commission the account executives would receive based on what percent of the goal was reached. The structure started at 80 % of the goal and increased in increments of 10% all the way to 150% of their goal. The percent commission increased with every bracket of goal achieved. Account executives were motivated to achieve and surpass their goals by seeing exactly how much they had sold, and exactly how much commission they would receive at each level. When they sold an ad in one of the special editions they would go to the wall and color in their thermometer up to the level that they sold. Sizzlin’ Into Sales was a uniuque sales incentive because it emphasized organized selling by having the three editions and three goals at one time. Sizzlin’ Into Sales was an extremely successful sales incentive. Not only did our total revenue for the three editions increase by $10,308, account executives had fun selling these editions.
www.mustangdaily.net | 805.756.1143 | advertising@mustangdaily.net
Sizzilin’ to Sales: Contract Increases Mustang Daily - California Polytechnic State University
SOAR Resigned Clients
New Clients
Dolphin Bay Career Services Student Affairs Student Ombuds Services College of Science and Math Courtyard by Marriott UPD Commuter Services Kennedy Library Newman Catholic Center Campus Dining University Store University Housing Orfalea College of Business 106% Increase
20000
SOAR Sales Increase
15000
10000
5000
0
$ 16,882.50 $ 8,190
2011
2012
106% Increase
Dell University Mountainbrook Community Church Tap It Bewing Company Peach Tree Inn Sea Crest Native Trails Teaberry Cal Poly Health Center Sunset Honda Music Department Mustang Village Apartments Bon Temps Creole Café Bigger Markets Inc Tolosa Winery SLO Textbooks Boo Boo Records SLO Transit Alfano Motors The Tire Store Doc’s Cellar International Education and Programs Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort Hands Gallery Petit Soleil Holiday Inn Express & Suites Atascadero McDonald’s Vallarta’s SLO Safe Ride San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport Greek Life Embassy Suites Best Western Royal Oak Chase Bank Fatte’s Pizza Hampton Inn SLO
www.mustangdaily.net | 805.756.1143 | advertising@mustangdaily.net
Sizzilin’ to Sales: Contract Increases Mustang Daily - California Polytechnic State University
Puzzle Book New Clients Sylvester’s Burgers Cal Poly Continuing Education Crops Department San Joaquine College of Law Pismo Bowl Mustang Village Apartments Yogurt Creations Frank’s Famous Hot Dogs Boo Boo Records F. McClintock’s Saloon and Restaurant Fatte’s Pizza
Total Sales: Puzzle Book $1,850 Total Sales: Graduation $ 12,454.03 Total Sales: ALL THREE $31,186.53
Graduation Resigned Clients Orfalea College of Business Cal Poly Continuing Education Tahoe Joe’s Meathead Movers SLO Vitners Association Cuesta College Woodstock’s Pizza College of Liberal Arts College of Architecture and Environmental Design College of Science and Math SLO Textbooks Frank’s Famous Hot Dogs College of Agriculture
New Clients Tap It Brewing Company Alamo Self Storage SLO Police Department Student Affairs San Joaquine College of Law All That Glitters Public Affairs Central Coast Bewing Courtyard by Marriott Bon Temps Creole Cafe Alpha Phi
Student Affairs Cutco Cutlery Alfano Motors Splash Cafe Albertsons The Tire Store Pioneer Carpet Cleaners Patrick James Men’s Shop Vallarta’s Sycamore Mineral Spings Resort
www.mustangdaily.net | 805.756.1143 | advertising@mustangdaily.net
Best Sales Incentive Program
Mustang Daily - California Polytechnic State University
Display of all individual goals as well as overall team goals.
Team Goal progress
www.mustangdaily.net | 805.756.1143 | advertising@mustangdaily.net
Mission to MARS Sales Incentive Program MARS stands for our improved sales process: Market Account Research Sale. VISUAL CHART Our chart tracks individual account executives monthly sales goals and performance. Their journey begins from Earth and builds in increments until they reach $3000 where upon they land on Mars. Individual sales goals are marked with a large yellow star. New Clients that have been obtained are marked by a green martian on a different chart. MISSION CONTROL After our Friday meetings we noticed a lack in communication from the information presented and the action taken on Monday mornings. To counter this we took the pertinent info and reminders for the week and created a one page newsletter entitled, “Mission Control”. PAPERWORK Should our account executive encounter a problem during their mission, they can refer to the MARS Paperwork panel which highlights our process for success: MARKET = Have I identified the market? ACCOUNT = Have I added all of the account information to GoogleDocs? RESEARCH = Have I filled out the Needs Analysis form for the account? SALE = Have I closed the sale with the Insertion Order and Production Request?
Student Niner Media • UNC Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd. • Charlotte, NC 28223 • 704-687-7140
OBJECTIVES In order to continue to motivate the sales staff, we clearly outlined our objectives on poster and offered an extra monetary incentive to the account representative who best fulfilled their duties. That rep was selected as “Astronaut of the Week”, their picture was featured in the Mission Control Newsletter, and they received a bonus on their check.
RESULTS: Working with only two returning sales members from the previous year started off being a challenge and after each new account executive was trained they were launched head on into our Mission to Mars program. We experienced positive results as 100% of the new hires reached their sales goal within weeks of the launch and 60% of the returning staff reached the majority of their goal. We also presented our sales incentive program to several schools at the SUN Conference in Charlotte, NC to postive reviews and questions on how to being a similar program.
Student Niner Media • UNC Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd. • Charlotte, NC 28223 • 704-687-7140
Best Sales Incentive Program 4b “Best of the Reps” is a sales incentive program implemented to get our sales staff excited about selling our “Best of CSU” edition. This program required the sales representatives to draw names to create three teams to go head to head to see who is the best of the reps. We played off of the theme “Best of CSU” and decided we would create a special category for the best sales reps. Each sale and individual goal in our “Best of CSU” edition got the rep and their team points based on different criteria. This game motivated the reps to sell more because the larger the ad they sold the more points they got for their team. Also, selling an advertiser on color or selling a non-winner an ad also got the rep a point. The largest amount of points came from reaching the reps individual goal. There was a board created for the office that had each team and it’s members on it. Each team consisted of two reps and their cheerleader who was one of the managers on staff. The board created a lot of excitement around the game because reps and cheerleaders could write sticky notes and put them on the board either cheering on their team or talking smack to the other team. The staff got really competitive during the game and helped their teammates remain accountable for selling and getting points. As manager I kept the reps updated on points periodically throughout the contest. Since we have a completely new staff this year aside from one rep this game helped bring them together and get them motivated to sell an edition that many of them had never sold before. In the end our edition turned out great and revenues were the same as last year. It was huge that our staff was able to keep revenues the same because we had done the
“Best of CSU� edition in the spring as well, which was a huge obstacle and objection for them to overcome.
Best Reps of the
Its time again for Best of CSU and we want to know who’s the best of the reps!
Work together to prove that you are CSU’s BEST ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE TEAM!
Sales R’ Us Jamie Meghan Kim
RADvertising Tamara Mackensie Laura
Truly the Best of CSU Allison Karli Jake
The Rules: Each individual will be responsible for meeting his or her individual goal as well as earning points for the team. When working in teams, members will be encouraged by both their teammates and cheerleaders! The Winners: The team with the most points at the end of the contest will be declared “The Best of CSU Advertising Rep Team!” They will also recieve an awesome prize and bragging rights.
The Points: Reaching Individual Goal New Advertiser in “Best of” (not in last year) Ad from non-winner of any category Ads larger than 15” More than one ad per advertiser in edition Ad from 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place winners Color The word “Best” appearing in ad (by permission)
8 per rep 5 per advertiser 3 per ad 2 per ad 2 per advertiser 1 per ad 1 per ad .5 per ad
Nomination for Best Incentive Program “Win an I-Pad” Competition Mission: At The Breeze, our first mission in advertising is to graduate students with the best attributes possible to help them in the future. Producing income is also important, so a clear path to that goal is educating students to make professional sales presentations. Task: Our advertising sales students compete for giving the best major presentation. They each make a one-hour presentation and are judged by a panel selected from the staff, marketing experts and/or university faculty. Each student was assigned a major account that has a presence in our circulation area, and is tasked with creating a real-life presentation for that client. Presentations are judged, critiqued and edited so the competition presentation can then become a real presentation to the clients. This year, those clients included major retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Students were judged in the following categories: introduction, appearance, eye contact, content, stutters and stammers, proposal, market knowledge, visuals, flow, tone and inflection, closing, and ability to answer questions on the material from the judges. The Incentive/Award: Working with the Wal-Mart educational incentive program and the local Wal-Mart manager, The Breeze was able to receive an iPad, valued at $499, for use as the first-place prize in this presentation competition. This created a good deal of excitement and commitment to achieve the best presentation. Beyond the first-place incentive, we also offer the first-, second- and third-place presenters the first options of being the person to present their pitch to the company they researched. The payoff there is any commission gained in making a sale (and in past years, we have seen sales from these presentations). In the past, that has meant winners went to NSA in Chicago, Best Buy in Minneapolis and Martin’s grocery in Carlisle, Pa. Locations are still being arranged for this year at this writing. Clients have welcomed our staffs and have given our students valuable feedback and critiques of the presentations. In every case, they have told our staffs that they bring forth better material and presentations than most media that visit them from major newspapers. This provides a great boost to our students, and numerous graduates have credited this experience with landing them their post-graduation jobs. In addition to all these incentives, the top three winners receive first right to attend the CNBAM convention, funded by The Breeze. Result: The presentation skills contribute enormously to our sales staff’s ability to grow and maintain revenue both locally and nationally. This competitive edge gives our students the skills that will carry with them into their future careers. We attribute these skills to nearly all executives gaining jobs soon after graduation. Including these incentives this year has advanced The Breeze in this endeavor and created a spirit of hard work and prestige that leads to outstanding resumes and careers.
4b. The Daily Collegian “The Account Executive Games” Inspired by the widespread success and popularity of the Hunger Games franchise this past year, The Daily Collegian Sales Division implemented the “Account Executive Games” incentive program. In the Hunger Games, two tributes are selected from the 12 districts and are placed in an arena where they fight against each other for survival. There is a cornucopia of key survival items that they may acquire to aid themselves throughout the competition. In addition, there are gifts that may be sent to the tributes by friends and supporters to help them survive. Similarly, in the Account Executive games we had 13 categories that acted as “gifts” or survival items to aid each of our “tributes”. Each category had its own point value assigned to it. This “cornucopia” of categories assisted each Account Executive in building their point total. The person with the highest point total every week received a small gift such as candy, a free pass on Friday office hours, gifts cards, etc. and the person with the highest number of points at the end of every month received a $100 check for being the survivor of the games. The program was restarted at the beginning of every month so that everyone would begin on a level playing field. By implementing both weekly and monthly incentives, we were able to garner a consistent work ethic throughout every week of the semester. Our budget for this incentive program was $300 for the fall semester. As a supplement to this incentive program, we also printed the winning Account Executive’s name and picture in our daily newspaper and on our website on a weekly basis. Goals 1. To specifically incentivize cold calling to meet our larger goal of finding new sources of revenue. 2. To instill a competitive spirit among our Account Executives and motivate them in a fun and innovative way. 3.
To act as a reminder for all the expectations we have of our Account Executives.
Strategy We put a great deal of thought into the categories for the incentive program since we had to make sure it gave each and every Account Executive an equal opportunity to win. At the same time, the incentive program sought to help us reach our goals as a department and a Business Division. Our point categories were as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Cold call + Ad insertion = 75 pts Most inches sold for the week = 50 pts Selling an Annual Contract = 50 pts Selling a Stadium Contract = 50 pts Cold call + Business Card = 40 pts
6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Selling a Front Page ad =25 pts Selling a color ad = 25 pts Taking a Creative Rep on a Sales Call = 25 pts Every consecutive week an AE is up in inches= 20 pts Selling a Web ad = 20 pts Selling an ad in the a Guide/Mag = 15 pts Selling an ad in the Weekly/Venues = 10 pts Extra Office Hours = 5 pts per hour Miscellaneous* = Points decided on a monthly basis for special promotions
We had a large poster laminated and posted in our sales office that was updated every week so that each Account Executive could monitor their performance and see where they stood and where they were lacking. Outcome The incentive program generated excitement among the Account Executives for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the Hunger Games theme immediately sparked interest and enthusiasm because our Account Executives were very familiar with the Hunger Games franchise. Our incentive program also became more than just a way for us to incentivize participation, but also provided something fun and rewarding. Account Executives were constantly coming into our office to monitor their performance and trying to accomplish things that would garner more points. One major area in which we saw improvement, when compared to previous years, was cold calls (which was our goal from the onset of the program). Because cold calling rewarded them with the highest point values, our management team saw an unprecedented amount of Account Executives seeking out new clients to increase their chances of winning the incentive program that week/month. The program included a miscellaneous category that we customized according to what we wanted to emphasize each month. For example, during our first month we decided to strongly push our mentoring program that pairs every staff member with Collegian alumni that is in the career path that the staff member is inclined to pursue. After we announced that this was assigned a point total of 50 points on the Account Executive games, almost all Account Executives completed the survey and participated in the mentoring program. This was a drastic improvement over previous years. Similarly when we launched our brand new iPhone and Android app, attaching a point value to selling advertising for the app motivated our Account Executives significantly.
THE AE GAMES FREE FRIDAY HOUR Applicable any Friday. A maximum of 3 AEs per Friday so be sure to reserve your spot ASAP!
THE AE GAMES FREE FRIDAY HOUR Applicable any Friday. A maximum of 3 AEs per Friday so be sure to reserve your spot ASAP!
THE AE GAMES FREE FRIDAY HOUR Applicable any Friday. A maximum of 3 AEs per Friday so be sure to reserve your spot ASAP!
Sales Incentive Program Our annual Living Expo event has neared the sell‐out point, however sales were down in 2011. So we crafted a plan to specifically focus on increasing revenue for the 2012 event. We felt that we needed to have a strong foundation and base of clients going into the 2013 event, as it will be the 10th annual celebration. Our sales strategy was two‐fold: 1. Increase client participation 2. Upsell clients to the next sponsorship level To further incentivize the sales team, we offered 20% commission to any single salesperson who sold five or more clients into the event. Normal commission for this sale is 14%. We also put some group incentives in place for them to work towards. The three group incentives were: A Pizza Party for the whole office A Free Friday to take off work A Pizza Party AND a Free Friday off We had sheets up on the wall with historical client participant information to ensure all past clients were contacted to purchase a sponsorship. Every week in our sales meeting, we would publicly go through the list to ask progress on each client, ensuring the sales reps kept this offer top of mind in their sales calls, knowing every week they would be asked in front of their peers if they hade made contact, presented, made a sale, or been sold a “no” by the client. That kind of pressure kept everyone moving, and even making daily wagers with each other, like: Who would make the most Living Expo calls that day Who set the most face to face presentation for Living Expo Who would get the first Living Expo sale of the day We had two sales reps end up earning the additional commission percentage for their sales. The team effort fell short of achievement, however our strategy to upsell clients to the next level made the entire difference in our beating overall sales from 2011, even though we had one less client!
Sales Incentive Program – Living Expo Target List to call In addition to the historical clients we targeted, this “Hit List” was created based on categories of clients who could benefit by participating in our event. We divided this list up to ensure every potential client was called.
Sales Incentive Program – Living Expo Sales Thermometer/Progress Chart
Sales Incentive Program – Living Expo 2011 vs. 2012
20 20 19.5 19
19
2011 2012
18.5 Clients
$18,500
$18,045
$18,000 $17,500 $17,000
2011 $16,400
$16,500 $16,000 $15,500 Dollars
2012
Best Sales Incentive Program The Daily Texan Points Program: In order to combat the inevitable turnover rate derived from student employment, increase job satisfaction and stimulate sales revenue for the 2012 semesters, management implemented a points system for rewards and reprimands. Previously, the sales team could be docked for missing sales meetings, but with the new system many variables were added to constitute responsibility in more areas. The breakdown of the system will be in more detail in an addendum. Basically the money from the docks was transferred to a separate account to be used for an end-ofmonth bonus for the top two account executives in points. Points were designated to keep track of the account executives’ phone calls, meetings, attendance at special events, etc. The person with the most points at the end of the month would receive the first 60 percent of the prize money from docks. Second place in points would get the remaining 40 percent of the prize money. Additionally, points are awarded at the discretion of the student managers. Points will be awarded and updated weekly. The points program is subject to change. All points are awarded only if the account executive is present to accept the points at the Monday, Wednesday, Friday sales meetings. A 3 Strike Policy for meetings prohibits any account executive with three or more absences from meetings to win the prize money. An account executive arriving before 10 minutes after the start of meeting will not acquire a strike, but will acquire the point deduction. A phone call is only counted when the directed client speaks directly with the account executive, no voicemails. Account executives must be in the top 5-point recipients in order to qualify for bonuses, such as Most New Business for the month or Sales Superstar of the month. The assistant student manager will deal with all point discrepancies. Most New Business of the month bonus is an extra $150 for the account executive who signed the most new client for that given month. Sales Superstar is the award for top sales numbers in revenue overall for an account executive. This bonus was also $150 per month.
Points +1 per call
Action Call Sheet
Qualification AE will receive one point per call made and
documented on the call sheet.
+5 points
+10 points
Prospecting
AE will receive points for
every cold call they go on. Business card required.
Meetings
AE will receive points for every sales meeting they
attend. Business card or proof is required.
Pod Leader MVP will
+10 points
Pod Leader Gift
receive points each week based on sales and management.
Each Pod Leader will
+15 points
Pod Leader's MVP
choose one AE in his/her pod to receive points for
overall performance each week.
+20 points
Monthly Entity Winner
AE that sells the most into each entity will
receive points. Must be in excess of $500.
AE will receive points for
+20 points
+30 points
Event MVP
Call Sheet Monthly Winner
assisting at events. AE with most calls on call
sheet each week will receive points
+30 points
Meeting Monthly Winner
AE with most meetings each week will receive points
+50 points
-5 points
-20 points
-20 points
-25 points
Monthly MVP
Trash/Mess
Unfilled Call Sheet
Unfilled Meeting Sheet
Events
AE with overall best sales, management, and office
morale will receive points AEs must take out trash (Fridays) and clean up after themselves.
AEs without a full call
sheet will be docked points. AEs without a full
meeting sheet will be docked points.
AEs not present at events will be docked points.
AEs not present or on
-25 points
+ 5 points
Meeting
Quiz Winner
time for meeting will be docked points.
AE with highest score in
Meeting Quiz will receive points
Any AE with perfect
+30 points
+20 points
Perfect Attendance
New Advertisers
meeting attendance will receive points
Any AE will receive
points for new business acquired
Incentive Program The incentive program in which the new management team has set in place has successfully instilled rewards that vary in size but have always remained constantly pleasing to the staff. While some incentives involved simple recognition amongst coworkers, other incentives involve cash prizes, awards, and publicized recognition within our paper. We have made the office a warm, enjoyable yet also a competitive environment with this series of incentives.
ADVOCATE
Should it be illegal for employers to ask for personal passwords? There are plenty of other ways to judge a candidate without prying
Employee of the Week
No matter what the week held for us, celebrating the success and the improvements of the team was vital to keeping spirits high. We instated an employee of the week nomination system during every Friday morning meeting to give the staff a chance to express their accomplishments for the week as well as hearing the coworker’s accomplishments. After hearing out everyone’s accomplishments, we anonymously write down who we believe has had the most success. After management collects the nominations, the winner is decided by number of votes and announced after the meeting. Applause and congratulations are spread to the recipient with an award, signed by the director.
Semester
This award was not decided by the staff but rather by the Adviser, the Director of Advertising and the Assistant Advertising Director. They look at criteria such as positive attitude, strength in sales, dramatic improvements in sales or work ethic, etc. The award is given at our end-of-the-semester banquet with the presence of both the advertising and editorial staff where they are awarded $100.00 for their excellence.
Similarly, prospective employers and universities don’t need to look to Facebook or Twitter to decide if a person is a good fit for their establishment. Good old fashion resumes and college applications have always been an indication of potential, so why reinvent the wheel? Many would be quick to point out that social networking is a confusing phenomenon. As it integrates itself into society more than ever, it’s often hard to determine where boundaries start. When Facebook provides the opportunity for someone to share where they work or went to college, it becomes difficult to separate one’s personal life from their professional one. Though it’s true that social networking is growing and changing, that doesn’t give employers or schools the right to usurp a person’s profile for their own benefit. It should be up to the individual to determine what personal information they would like to share with others, and what information they would not. Yes, sites like Facebook and Twitter are constantly evolving. In a way, that’s the reality of the 21st century; the line of what’s appropriate to do with social networking will always be blurred as the medium continually changes. As a result, people will often be taking the wrong approach toward dealing with something they don’t fully understand. That’s why this legislation is so important. Hopefully these two signed bills will be the first of many to keep people’s privacy protected.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare, Livejournal, and Google+. Sometimes it seems like the possibilities really are endless, and a new network is always around the corner. Myspace is even making a comeback these days. As the world becomes more plugged in and the Internet becomes an increasing aspect of daily life, people are using social media in more private and personal ways. On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill prohibiting university officials and employers from requesting that students and job applicants give up their passwords to social media sites. Cue the teenage and young adult rounds of applause. But let’s hold the applause for a just second. In today’s world, social media sites are used as virtual maps of life, where people list everything from their sexual orientation and religion, to their exact location moment by moment, to what they had for breakfast. In a world where we claim that privacy is paramount, people actually share a lot of personal information on public forums. Let’s think about this as well: These sites have so-called privacy settings, but they are not secure forums. Information could easily be gathered by someone who knows their way around a computer. The information posted is not always innocent, either. Social media sites (Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter especially, it seems) often turn into a sort of online journal. The problem is that, unlike a physical journal with a lock and key, the Internet is first and foremost a public entity. Once something is online, there really is no erasing it for good. We’ve all seen our share of provocative pictures depicting drinking, drug use, sex, and the like.
“University of employers ma even need—to is going on.”
There have been incidents o ployers in their Facebook sta In that case, it may be a or employers to take a look settings. For instance, student lead a higher standard, and those dents need to be sure that th standard on a public level a same may be true in the job Social media sites are alre forum by being on the Inter Let’s take the age-old ada If it’s something you would mother to see, it probably sh ternet. To put it another way, if it want your employer to see, be posted up on Facebook? Probably not. There is also the case o media sites as an outlet fo ous thoughts, either to them versity officials and employ need—to see what is going o In special cases, it may r an employer or school offici on in the world of social m portant, not only for the sc to the person themselves or t
Is LA ready for some football?
A new football stadium could bring in some extra revenue, despite concerns LILIANA MOTA For the Daily Titan
It’s time to bring football back to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council approved the building of a proposed NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles on Friday that will cost approximately $1.2 billion. It’s a huge attempt to bring back football to the city after 17 years, and will provide some extra entertainment money as a bonus. Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) now has the opportunity to begin seeking a team and continue planning the 72,000-seat stadium that will be located on the southwest edge of downtown. This will undoubtedly bring much-needed business and revenue to the city and help its businesses to thrive. Unfortunately many hurdles remain, not least of which is that AEG still needs to make a deal with the NFL, which has been known to reject past bids for a team made by top Los Angeles businesses. Further complicating things, on September 18, the owner of AEG, multi-millionaire Philip Anschutz, announced plans to sell his liveentertainment company, which only complicated the two-year approval effort to build the NFL stadium, according to the Los Angeles Times. But despite all this, football will still be coming to Los Angeles. “This is an agreement between two institutions, just as there will be several mayors, city council
Month
Using the same technique as employee of the week, this nomination is based on the total number of votes acquired in the total month. After counting up all the votes, the employee of the month is sent out with another coworker to pick up lunch for the team, neither of them knowing who the winner is. When they arrive with the lunch, they are surprised by our team who has decorated the winning AE’s cubicle with streamers, balloons, a crown for them to wear and of course a camera is present to capture this moment. The winner’s picture is taken with their crown, award, $20 gift card, and decorated desk and placed in the following day’s newspaper.
“This legislation was not only necessary, it was well-overdue.”
The Daily Titan welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must include the sender’s first and last name. Students must include their majors and other writers must include their affiliation to the university, if applicable. Letters must refer to an article published within the last week. Once a letter is submitted it becomes property of the Daily Titan. Publication of letters is based on the validity of content and may be edited for length, grammar and spelling. Letters may be sent to dteditorinchief@gmail.com.
If you don’t want people to see it, don’t post it CON: DOMINIQUE ROCKER
PRO: ALEX GROVES As of Jan. 1, 2013, new legislation will go into place that will prevent employers and colleges from requesting social media and email passwords from their employees and students respectively. Two bills—AB 1884 and SB 1349—were proposed by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose), respectively. AB 1884 prevents employers from requiring that a current or prospective employee provide usernames or passwords to any social media account. SB 1349 prevents public and private post-secondary schools from requesting the same kind of content. “California pioneered the social media revolution. These laws protect Californians from unwarranted invasions of their social media accounts,” said Gov. Jerry Brown on his Facebook page last Thursday. This legislation was not only necessary, it was well-overdue. Social networking is not just a tool for communication, but also a form of expression. Many people share their “likes,” as well as personal details about themselves. Employers and universities could use information on these websites to form biased opinions about the people they want to keep tabs on. The best way to determine a person’s character is to look at their performance while on the job. It shouldn’t matter what they like to do on their free time, and it most certainly shouldn’t matter what their sexual orientation or religious views are. These things don’t make a person less of a hard worker. In fact, a potential employer cannot even legally ask about many of these things. And if employers are worried about alcohol or drug abuse outside of work, they can screen for those things in a drug test rather than sorting through a slew of inconclusive photographs.
Photo illustration by ROBERT
Starting next year, employers and schools will no longe workers or students for their social media website and
CONTACT US AT DTOPINION@GMAIL.COM
The proposed football stadium in Los Angeles would be located near the Sta Lakers. Los Angeles officials say an NFL team would create new revenue and en
presidents and city councils during this contract, it was always contemplated there could be new ownership at AEG,” said Miguel A. Santana, the city’s chief administrative officer, at a meeting where the contract of the stadium was being discussed, according to the LA Times. There are over 1,000 pages of protection in the event of the company ever being sold. This safeguard shows just how serious the city and its people are about this endeavor, and is proof that this is no whim. As would the amount of money being thrown behind the project; the council voted, 12-0, approved various documents that paved the way for the stadium as well as a $315 million upgrade for the city’s convention center. Of course one cannot leave the real heart of the matter out of
this—that of competitive sports. The NFL has never been an easy league to thrive in, but Los Angeles has a winning tradition. Given that teams such as the Lakers, the Kings and the Sparks have all won titles only comes to show that teams in Los Angeles can thrive. Other critics are attacking council members, arguing that they are showing little to no interest in conducting a thorough analysis the project will have on traffic, parking, air quality and noise; though they seem to forget the number of teams already operating out of the city right now. Not to mention the seasonal nature of sports ensuring not every stadium will be in operation at the same time. Opening up a new stadium in downtown Los Angeles would be a great idea. Football in Los Angeles, what more could sports fans
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Total Sales Tracker To let the whole office know where we are at with our sales for special section sales, the ad director tracks the progress we have made on the sales and the whole office watches as their sales and their coworker’s sales help our team get to our special sections goals. This tracker shows the amount of sales we made last semester, where we are at now, and where we would like to by the end of the current semester. As everyone walks into the office every day, eyes naturally shift to the sales tracker board and from there; the motivation to sell more is awakened. A hard copy of the tracker is placed in everyone’s cubicle every week so they can monitor our success in plain sight from wherever they sit.
elephant trunk Being that our university’s mascot is “Tuffy the Titan” we wanted to bring a hint of school spirit into the office by tracking the sales each person makes on what we call, the “Tuffy Trunk Tracker”. Pinned along the walls of each cubicle, you will find a raised elephant trunk hanging. Over the course of the semester, this trunk will hopefully be filled as sales come in. Seeing this tracker on the wall of each cubicle is a silent motivator to the AE’s that promotes selling on a daily basis. It is the small tactic that surprisingly becomes a central motivator to keep selling.
Titan Teams Recognition Since bringing in new clients is of huge importance, we want to award the AE who can get new businesses interested in our paper. That is why we created “Titan Teams” where the office is spilt up into teams of two people and alternated every week. The team that can bring in the highest revenue in new client contracts is awarded 7% commission on their sale as well as recognition at the Friday morning meeting. Even if the competing teams don’t bring as much as the winner, they are still rewarded with a 3% for their new client sales. The compellation to be the winner of Titan Teams is always high in our office. Since we are in the heart of LA and OC county, the abundance of new businesses is the perfect motivation to seek out new business for our staff. Not only does this motivate the individual AE but it also creates a sense of teamwork between them and their partner.
Surprise Email Treats Office emails are sent out regularly, often to take less time out of our busy schedules. In order to make sure that they are thoroughly read by the team, a message tucked within the body of the email (done at random) indicates that the first person to respond to the email will get a treat of either a Starbucks drink or a lunch treat, (courtesy of the Advertising Director)This is a small way we encourage the AE’s to be engaged in our office emails and activities while also delivering them a small and unexpected treat.
returning client recognition
end of the year commission
We also recognize the exceptional work of the Account Executives who made sales with returning clients since this is a sign that they client was happy with our service. Though these sales do not provide monetary awards, we make it a point to celebrate every sale that is made amongst the office. Once they have closed the deal, they get to write their name on the white board in the center of our office, along with how much money was made. The most exciting part is when they ring our sales bell (literally a bell) which alerts our whole office that a sale has been closed. This not only makes the AE responsible for the sale feel good about their accomplishment but the bell also serves literally as an alarm to other AE’s and pushes them to close their pending sales as well.
Tied along with the “Tuffy Trunk Tracker”, we emphasize the significance of making long-term goals by offering the incentive of a 2% additional commission for making and exceeding our goals. We wanted to ensure that even though each individual sale cannot be rewarded with commission, in the long run, the benefit of making your sales goal is worthwhile. Along with their last paycheck of the semester, the additional commission paycheck serves as a sweet surprise.
We came up with all these incentives with one central motive in the back of our minds: to make our semester goals! Whether our incentive came in the form of employee recognition, tracking sales, competing in teams, or thoroughly reading emails, all these aspects of our program helped raise the staff’s spirits and believe that their goals were not only attainable. The power of these incentives has reflected itself in our staff’s comradery, their trust and respect for management, and love for the jobs. While some incentives boasted the office morale, others built self-esteem and drive to succeed.
Best Sales Incentive This past summer 2012, the 6 Vidette sales staff members participated in a baseball-themed “Sell it Out of the Ballpark” competition, where one Vidette Marketing Consultant could win two tickets to a baseball game of their choice. Because Illinois State is located in Central Illinois, there were three different baseball teams at home plate: St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and the Chicago White Sox. “Sell it Out of the Ballpark” was a semester-long sales incentive between June 11th and July 27th. The purpose was to promote the sales staff to collectively obtain new accounts, resign contracts, and sign new contracts for the 2012-2013 academic year. Resigning a contract from the 2011-2012 academic year was worth 1 point, obtaining a new account was worth 2 points and signing a new contract was worth 3 points. The board was decorated similarly to a baseball diamond where the bases were labeled as the following: 1st base was worth 5 points, 2nd base was worth 10 points, 3rd base was worth 15 points and home plate was the Cardinals/Cubs/ White Sox tickets. The winner of the sales incentive was the person who had the most points at the end of the sales contest. Andrea Whitton had 38 points and Eric Skooglund came in 2nd place with 32 points. Looking at the previous year sales trends, my goals for the staff were to achieve the following: resign 30 contracts (24 were signed in the 2011 summer semester), obtain 20 new accounts, and sign at least 15 new contracts. The Marketing Consultants were given a contract spreadsheet that listed clients who signed contracts with us every academic year since 2009. This gave the sales staff a good list of existing clients to start with, as well as prospects. With feedback through email and weekly sales meetings, I updated the staff with the standings specifically stating which Marketing Consultant got x new accounts or x new contracts. These forms of positive verbal feedback motivated and encouraged the staff to prospect and sell the value of The Vidette. Overall, the staff renewed 17 contracts, obtained 19 new accounts, and signed 26 new contracts. Although we were under goal for the renewed contracts and new accounts, the team was able to exceed the new contract goal by 11 contracts. Two Marketing Consultants were neck to neck throughout the past two weeks, which created friendly competition between staff members. I believe this is one of the Vidette’s strongest sales contests because the staff looked forward to viewing the board updated daily. Creating different sales contests based around sports, seasons, and games are always an exciting opportunity for Vidette Marketing Consultants to showcase their competitiveness and sales skills.
Contract Spreadsheet The contract spreadsheet (previews clients A-F) is a sales tool I created to allow the Marketing Consultants to view what contracts their clients have signed in the past 3 years. I updated the spreadsheet weekly to depict where the staff was in obtaining contracts. If it was red, a contract has not been signed, if it was yellow, the contract is in discussion, and if it was green, the Marketing Consultant successfully obtained a contract.
Client
MC
707 Liquors AFNI Avanti's
Tyler Aaron Tyler
1,000’’
‘09-‘10
1,000''
750'', supplement (year)
750'', 10'' daily (summer semester), supplement
Barnes & Noble BloomingtonNormal Public Transit BlueLine Nightclub Bobzbay Bocata Gyros Brewe-Ha's Budget Liquor
Wes Tyler
750'' 300''
Castle Theatre Checker Cab
Tyler Tyler
Class Act Realty
Jenny
College Station
Andrea
Dr. Jones-CI Dental DUI Countermeasur es Express Mart Financial Aid Office First Site
Wes
Andrea Eric Tyler Wes Wes
Eric Andrea Wes Eric
‘10-‘11
‘11-‘12 500'' 300'' 750'', supplement (year)
‘12-‘13 Contract? 500'' 500'', supplement (year)
200'' 200'' 300’’ 2,000''
400'' 2,000'', 40'' daily (summer semester) 200''
300'' 10’’ daily (year) 4,000'', supplement (year) 2'' daily (year) 300'', supplement 300'' supplement (year) 5,000’’
20'' daily (year) 4,000''
500''
5,000''
750'' 2000''
1000''
300'', supplement (year) 30'' daily (year) 3,000''
200''
750'', supplement (spring)
750'', supplement (year)
spring supplement 7500''
30’’ daily (year) 40'' daily (summer semester) , supplement (year)
80'' daily (summer semester)
Sell it Out of the Ballpark Photographs This page displays photographs from the sales contest, Sell it Out of the Ballpark. During this past 2012 summer semester, the Marketing Consultants competed to win two tickets of their choice to a Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, or a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. Left: The contest board during the first week. Bottom left: The Marketing Consultants during the final stretch. Below: Winner Andrea Whitton with two tickets to a St. Louis Cardinals game.
Final Standings Sell it Out of the Ballpark 30 25 20 New Accounts (1 pt) 15
Renewed Contracts (2 pts) New Contracts (3 pts)
10 5 0 Tyler
Aaron
Eric
Andrea
Wes
Jenny
Total
MIN NES OTA DA ILY
BEST SALES INCENTIVE PROGRAM Entry 4b.
INTRODUCTION The Minnesota Daily produces four special issues during the month of September: Back to School, Fall Sports Preview, Bar and Beer Guide, and the Homecoming issue. After falling more than $20k short of the combined goal for Back to School, Fall Sports Preview, and the Bar and Beer Guide, office morale was low and motivation was lacking both for the Marketing Consultants and the Sales Managers. Everyone knew the importance of starting out the school year right with a strong September and everyone was disappointed with the sales numbers. With less than $200 to spend on a Homecoming incentive, creativity was needed to inspire and motivate 16 Marketing Consultants to sell for the Homecoming publication. Rather than award the top few sellers with a small cash prize, Sales Management felt it was necessary to bring the group together again, thus sales management decided on a group incentive.
INCENTIVE
The Homecoming Feast The Homecoming Feast was developed on a $150 budget and proved to be very true to its name as most days there were plenty of leftovers.
FI V E D AYS , F I V E F E AS T S Monday
Doughnuts & Orange Juice
Tuesday
Bruegger’s Bagels & Cream Cheese
Wednesday
Domino’s Pizza
Thursday
All You Care to Eat Chips & Cookies (+Milk)
Friday
Taco Bell
GOALS The Homecoming Feast was created with several goals in mind. •
Generate $13,800 in display ad revenue
•
Generate additional revenue to compensate for poor performance on the Back to School, Fall Sports, and Bar and Beer publications
•
Unify the group of Marketing Consultants after a disappointing start to September
•
Increase office morale for Marketing Consultants and Sales Managers
•
Increase the frequency with which Marketing Consultants are in the office
•
Increase the amount of time Marketing Consultants spend in the office
•
Show appreciation for every Marketing Consultant’s effort, whether they are the top performer or a Marketing Consultant that struggled turning prospects into new revenue
EXECUTION OF GOALS The primary goal of the Homecoming Feast, as previously noted, was to generate $13,800 in revenue for the publication. To execute this goal, several steps were taken, primarily to raise excitement for The Homecoming Feast, but also to help the Marketing Consultants close the client on Homecoming.
To raise excitement for The Homecoming Feast, each Marketing Consultant was given a menu outlining the
details. Along with outlining the food to be served each day, the Menu also outlined the Homecoming publication goal, the deadline for the publication, and defined what qualified as revenue for the contest.
To help Marketing Consultants increase their sales, the Sales Managers employed a few different trainings,
activities, and trackers. A Sales Training Day was held in which the reps were asked to cold call one another for 1 hour with a goal of setting up a meeting to discuss the Homecoming publication. By cold calling their peers, they were able to perfect their over the phone pitch and also receive critical feedback from their peers. After the Sales Training Day, the Marketing Consultants were asked to participate in a “Phone Jam”. A “Phone Jam” is a two day activity in which the reps are all asked to be in the office during certain periods of time to call as many new businesses as they can to set up meetings and discuss the Homecoming publication and The Minnesota Daily as a brand and a way to reach students. Positive feedback was obtained from the Marketing Consultants regarding both the Sales Training Day and the “Phone Jam”. Many of the reps learned a lot about their pitch from their peers and noticed a difference in the number of meetings they were able to secure during the “Phone Jam”.
The progress of the group towards the Homecoming Goal was discussed each week during the sales staff
meeting. At each meeting, the revenue generated thus far was presented and sales reps were recognized for each of their new closed sales in front of the group. Also, periodically throughout the contest, emails were sent outlining the percent to goal and how much more revenue was needed to achieve goal.
OUTCOMES The Homecoming publication goal was $13,800 and the final revenue number was $19,948.97, or 144.6% to goal. The additional revenue generated aided the month of September; however, was not enough to surmount the large deficit. Ultimately the most important thing was restored in the department: the morale of the Marketing Consultants. The Homecoming Feast was very successful with respect to each and every goal. The Marketing Consultants responded very strongly to the Taco Bell portion of the feast, which generated unspeakable amounts of motivation and encouragement from MC to MC. Marketing Consultants motivated one another to sell regardless of how big the close, as they knew every little bit of revenue would get them that much closer to the Taco Bell. The week of the Homecoming Feast was a turning point for morale in the office. Sales Managers noticed an increase in the frequency and duration of Marketing Consultants presence in the office which continued throughout the Fall semester and helped aide The Minnesota Daily in meeting or exceeding sales goal for October, November, and December.
MIN N ESOTA DAILY 2221 University Ave. SE Suite 450 Minneapolis, MN 55455 www.mndaily.com
Best Sales Incentive Program – The State News The State News’ largest special section is called the Best of MSU; our house ads drive students to log-on to statenews.com/bestof to vote for their favorite businesses in East Lansing and the greater Lansing area; more broadly, our goal is to engage students in the area while driving traffic to our website and increase our own brand awareness. In January, Account Executives start selling advertising bundles to local businesses to encourage readers to vote for them, which adds revenue to our daily papers throughout February. The winners of the contest, that is our readers' favorites, are announced in the Best of MSU special, which publishes toward the end of the school year. This past year was our second year selling this promotion and our management team set up to make it more successful than its debut the previous year. We coupled the Best of MSU with an incentive strategy called the Best of TSN (The State News). While students voted for their favorite restaurants, bars, clothing stores, etc., our AEs competed to earn the title in sales related categories. AEs competed to be Best Traveling Sales Person, Best Sales, Best Overall AE and a few more categories. We picked these categories to help drive sales. We know sales have a higher success rate when we meet with clients in person; therefore, we created the Best Traveling Salesperson award, which was presented to the AE that made in- person calls/sales. We chose the Best Business Person award because it praised the professionalism of our staff and encouraged AEs to use professional sales development plans. AEs found the competition motivating and fun. We created a "leader board" in our office that showed which AE currently was winning in a specific category (see Leader Board in supporting materials). The Leader Board allowed AEs to know where they urgently stand in the competition. It also encouraged AEs to push themselves more in rider to become the leader in a specific category. At the end of the promotion, AEs received certificates that solidified their accomplishments. Today, over eight months later, AEs still have their certificates hanging by their desks. The Results We had two main goals when we created the Best of TSN: increase revenue and increase voting traffic. During the first year of Best of MSU in 2011, AEs sold $30,596 in advertising bundles. In 2012 we increased our revenue by 6%, although it wasn’t a huge increase we maintained advertisers from the previous year, made up for any advertisers lost and brought in a few new businesses. The Best of TSN helped increase our cold calls by 12% and motivated the AEs to pitch the advertising bundles to 18 more businesses than the previous year. Our biggest success was in driving traffic to our website. In 2011 we drove 1,200 students to vote for their favorite businesses and in 2012 we had over 2,000 individual voters. Additionally, the number of votes casts increased by 22%, totaling 36,000 votes in 2012.
The Best of TSN – Rules and Guidelines This will be both a team competition and an individual competition. The board is comprised of a chart; each team and each team member have their name on the board. There are four columns: face2faces, took someone on a ride-a-long, sales plans presented, Best of MSU packages sold. There are 6 categories to win and 1 category for Prod: 1. Best Traveling Salesperson 2. Best Team Player 3. Best Businessperson 4. Best Sales 5. Best Team 6. Best AE 7. Best GA The competition is simple; on the board you will tally your face2faces, when you take someone on a ride-a-long, sales plans actually presented and the total number of best of packages you sold. The people who have the highest tallies in these four categories will win these awards. For the Best Team, Best AE and Best GA awards we will have the staff vote. Everyone will have his or her name placed on a ballot at the end of February. Your vote should go to the AE that you think has worked the hardest at selling the Best of MSU. Use the four categories as a starting point but think of the others things AEs do to be successful: • Put in extra hours • Prospect in spare time • Give out prospects when they have too many • Build team morale • Share pitching points at team meetings/staff meetings This is just a short list of things to consider when you decide who is the best AE. Focus on dedication, commitment and success. Think about whom you want to be recognized for their success. Your vote for the Best Team should go to the team that you feel worked the hardest as a group and supported each other throughout the competition. You vote for Best GA should go to the graphic artist that you think has produced the best ads during the Best of MSU. Colleen will work to put together a slide show of digital proofs so you can view the ads and know who designed that ad; this will help aid you in your decision. Voting will occur the first week of March. Winners will be announced after we return from spring break, along with the winners of Best of MSU.
Office Signage – The Leader Board The board showed which AE was currently leading a specific category and was updated 2 times a week.
The University Daily Kansan Category 4B: Best Sales Incentive Program
The summer of 2012 began with many potential challenges looming ahead for The University Daily Kansan. When we forecast revenue for the Summer beginning in mid-‐May we concluded that our annual Back to School which accounts for nearly 10% of our organization’s revenue was facing a tremendous amount of churn from a combination of churned national sales and local businesses. Three of these accounts alone represented nearly $10,000 in churn from the previous year’s BTS sales or 10% of the section’s total revenue. When added to the normal churn of the smaller accounts and a recovering local economy it was obvious to us that we would need to acquire a tremendous amount of new business if we were going to come even close to hitting goal on the Back to School section. Added to this was the fact that our Spring semester ended rather sluggishly due to a combination of a challenging market and unmotivated account executives. When we began the Summer session we focused on turning around both the momentum of our sales but also on educating/motivating an almost brand new staff. Of our eight person sales staff two of them had one semester of selling experience with us while the other six had no previous selling experience before coming to The Kansan. So getting our staff to make new business sales, which many would call the hardest of all sales was going to be an uphill climb. Taking all of this into account we needed to implement a summer incentive program that would allow us to conquer these challenges and leave our staff better trained and motivated going into the Fall. The incentive program was designed to place a consistent focus on calling on new business and activating said business. And given the youth of our staff would be fun, competitive, and most of all would generate results. After much brainstorming the management staff finally decided on an incentive program model at the core of which would be a new business draft modeled after the NFL draft held every April in New York. Our hope being that this incentive would focus our staff’s selling efforts, encourage them to make a number of new business calls and in the process help us overcome our obstacles of churn and enter the Fall semester with heavy momentum. The incentive was broken down into three main phases. The first phase began during training in late May for the new staff. We started with an hour of training on the best methods to prospect, talk with and close new/inactive businesses. We then followed that up with a surprise exercise that afternoon where after lunch as a staff we turned all of our new account executives loose on downtown Lawrence and challenged them to bring back as many business cards as possible from businesses they had never spoken with before. The goal of this exercise was to help them lose any fears they might have about approaching new/inactive businesses. The second phase was kept a secret from the Kansan’s selling staff. The marketing specialists were given the task of being a “scout” for the upcoming draft. Each marketing team member was to find as many new/ inactive businesses as possible in the Lawrence area not currently running with the Kansan. Each scouted business was then compiled into a central spreadsheet. The marketing specialist with the most prospective new businesses would be rewarded a cash prize. Each marketing specialist also had to provide a short commentary and assign a star rating on a scale of 1 to 4 for each business. The more stars the business was given, the more likely the marketing specialist believed that business would advertise with the Kansan if sold correctly. When all was said and done the marketing staff compiled a list of over 280 businesses that hadn’t advertised with The Kansan in over a year.
The third phase was the actual Kansan New Business Draft which took place at a special meeting with all staff members in attendance. To help get everyone into the spirit a special draft logo was made by our creative staff and the meeting room was dubbed “Radio City Music Hall” for the day, the annual location of the NFL Draft. Our account executives upon entering the meeting were assigned an NFL team name and handed a printed list of the 280 new/ inactive businesses complete with a star rating and short description of each one. The Account Executives were then given ten minutes to look over the new business list, highlight their targets, and consult with the marketing specialists for any further useful information about the businesses. The draft order was determined much like the actual NFL draft by who was most in need of the top pick. In this case one of our account executives Caleigh Williams who was struggling against an enormous amount of churn got the top pick while Colin Hayes who was finishing at nearly 200% to goal each month got the last pick in each round. The Kansan Business Manager played the role of commissioner and led the drafting process as each account executive was given up to a minute to make their pick over the course of ten rounds. In order to make the draft as realistic as possible our Sales and Marketing Adviser provided commentary after each pick speaking about the potential of the chosen business in relation to advertising with our paper. As the draft progressed, a constantly updated “Best Available” list was provided by our adviser as well to assist account executives in making their selections. At the end of the draft each Account Executive had 10 new businesses and was paired with a marketing specialist for each business to help them effectively prospect that business. The final part of the third phase was providing incentive as the account executives made their calls. We set up a point system similar tied into football. Getting a meeting with a new biz on their draft list was worth an extra point while selling any client (either on the draft list or on their assigned list) into both print and digital was worth a touchdown. To reward the marketing team for their work putting the draft list together we set them up on a point system as well where they would earn extra points and touchdowns as well as the reps either called on or made sales to the businesses that they had prospected. At the same time our team faced the danger of losing points/ being hit with penalties if they would do things like miss a staff meeting or not checking their ad proofs. The prize for winning was $500 for the account executive with the most points and $250 for the marketing rep with the most converted sales from the clients they prospected for the draft. We kept a tracker in the middle of the ad room and updated it daily so both our sales and marketing teams could see where they stood in comparison to each other as sales and appointments were made as well as frequent staff-‐ wide e-‐mails with the updates standings. At the end of the day the account executive with the most points was Rachel Ablan who also hit 167% to goal for the entire summer and was rewarded with the $500 in prize money while Taylor Genrich from our marketing team had the most points converted and was rewarded with $250 for her efforts as well. At the end of the day the draft incentive was a great success. After we put the incentive in place in late June we saw a 65% increase in our sales in July compared to June. And our team of account executives sold enough new business to overcome all of our churn obstacles for Back to School and increase the sales into it over the previous year. Our new team of account executives not only activated draft prospects, but also were given newfound confidence to find businesses off of their list. This accelerated training of our staff carried over to the Fall semester where our new staff members were instrumental in allowing us to surpass the previous year’s sales numbers for 4 out of the 5 months.
1) New Business Spreadsheet
2) New Business Draft logo
3) Account Executives with assigned teams
4) Commissioner Ross Newton
5.) Draft Pick form
6.) Draft Screen
7.) Draft Screen
8.) Draft results spreadsheet