The University Daily Kansan Best Sales Incentive Program As the Summer of 2013 began the staff of The Kansan faced several challenges but none bigger than what was ahead of us for our annual Back to School edition. For this issue we were facing more than $7,000 in churn from three clients alone. One of these clients (KU Student Senate) needed to fulfill a shortfall in its contract by the Back to School issue in summer 2012 leading to a spike in revenue for the 2012 Back to School issue as well as for our July 2012 numbers. While one of the other clients (Jayhawk Bookstore) who was once represented by a national advertising agency recently went through restructuring and was acquired by a competitor college’s former book supplier who preferred to do the majority of their marketing through social media despite our best efforts. Thus the Kansan was faced with a minimum of $7,000.00 in churn from these clients. Let alone churn from some of the smaller businesses who ran in the 2012 issue. This revenue would therefore need to be made up by our Summer 2013 account executives through prospecting new businesses early and retaining them through successful campaigns. The previous spring had also left the Kansan with an immense amount of churn in terms of our actual staff members working at The Kansan as well that would need to be made up. Except for one returning seller, the entire Summer 2013 account executive force was comprised of first-time sellers, while they were talented and eager they were also raw and inexperienced. After much deliberation and planning, the management team decided on a specific incentive program with the overarching focus of improving new business sales across three of the Kansan’s specific products. These products were the annual state-wide distributed Jayhawker magazine, our website Kansan.com, and the Back to School special section which is sold during the summer and distributed before classes begin for the fall. The incentive was designed to come into effect July 1 and to end July 24 on the last deadline for the summer semester. The management team decided on an overarching Harry Potter theme, beginning with the sorting hat selection at the weekly staff meeting. The staff was divided into the four houses as seen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: the Marketing team was Hufflepuff, the Management team was Ravenclaw, the Creative team was Gryffindor, and the selling force was Slytherin. The Marketing and Creative teams had their own specific incentives as designed by the Marketing and Creative managers respectively, and all members of the staff competed in the House Cup challenge so as to not exclude other positions on staff, and to keep the selling incentive to earning points specifically for sales and revenue boosts. The sales incentive, also known as the Quidditch Cup Challenge, was displayed on the main bulletin board of the Kansan office, allowing for each account executive to examine their status daily, and weekly after the points were tallied. The board was decorated as a Quidditch field, with each account executive’s face on a Quidditch player’s body on one side of the field, all racing to the other end of the board toward the grand prize of $500.00, or in this case the golden
snitch. Each player had their number of points displayed near their Quidditch player, and at deadline each week, the players were moved across the field, with the account executive in the lead being the closest to the golden snitch. The score sheet was arranged with a total of 11 possible tasks to complete on a scale of one to five points per each task. Each task ranged in level of difficulty, with the areas of focus being awarded the most points and those that were not the focus, but still important aspects of boosting sales, on the lower side of the scale; for instance, selling a client for at least two months on Kansan.com for the fall semester was awarded five points per client, while an ROP sale into our weekly Kansan was awarded two points per client. Other points could only be counted once, such as winning the Addie Oscar at weekly staff meetings for three points per account executive, and breaking semester goals for print and digital advertising for five points per account executive. The overall prize was $500.00 awarded to the account executive in first place only, increasing the competitive nature of the incentive, as well as encouraging all sellers to dig deep and push themselves in order to win. At deadline each week, all account executives were to have their score sheets filled out with specific information listed to be looked over by the Sales Manager and tallied for each account executive’s position to be moved across the board toward the golden snitch. A double point week was created, during the week of July 8-12 to give even more incentive for sellers returning from July 4 festivities, and to allow for those who had began the incentive early to be rewarded with double points. All in all, the incentive proved extremely successful as first of all as we were able to exceed last July’s numbers despite nearly 10% of last year’s numbers bring churned alone again by Student Senate as last July they had also been pushing to fulfill their contract. Increases in digital sales is what allowed for the Kansan to beat last July’s numbers, with Kansan.com revenue more than doubling July 2012’s sales. Ultimately, the winner of the incentive was Shauna Hoover, who ended July by breaking her print quota by 138%, her digital by 402%, and her Jayhawker quota by 114%, all focuses of the incentive. Further, account executives exceeded not only the set goal of $50,000.00 for the Back to School special section but also were able to top the previous year’s sales on the issue. All of this made possible through our staff’s competitive spirit and focus on new business through this incentive.
1) The bulletin board after the first week’s results. Account executives with the most points for the week were the closest to the golden snitch.
2) The bulletin board as the incentive progressed. Members of the creative team even joined in on the fun, awarding one team member five billion points and positioning himself closest to the snitch.
3) The bulletin board was drawn just like a classic Quidditch field, complete with rings at the end of the field and an “audience� watching the game progress.
4) July revenue chart for weekly summer Kansan revenue, as compared to July 2012.
July ROP Revenue $7,000.00 $6,000.00 $5,000.00 $4,000.00 July 2012 $3,000.00
July 2013
$2,000.00 $1,000.00 $0.00 Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight
5) July revenue chart for Kansan.com digital sales, as compared to July 2012.
July Kansan.com Revenue $3,000.00 $2,500.00 $2,000.00 $1,500.00
Digital Sales
$1,000.00 $500.00 $0.00 July 2012
July 2013
6) A copy of the score sheet given to account executives each week for the incentive.
Quidditch Cup Challenge Incentive Score Sheet Week of: July _________ Name: ______________________ Note which tasks were completed, and detail which client, who accompanied you on a call, etc. 1 point • Getting a client to have presence on Rock Chalk Living, LarryvilleKU or participate in Readership Rewards: ___________________________________________________ • Going on a 4-legged call with another AE, marketing specialist or manager: ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 2 points • Any type of ROP sale: ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ • Breaking weekly goals in July (2 points for everyone in the zone if the zone breaks for the week): ___________________________________________________ 3 points • Any type of Jayhawker or Back-to-School sale: ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ • Any type of Kansan.com sale: ___________________________________________________ • Winning the Addie Oscar: _______________________________ 4 points • Having a business participate in the BTS Blitz: ___________________________________________________ • Breaking your semester goal for print advertising: _________% 5 points • Selling a client for at least 2 months in fall 2013 semester on Kansan.com: _____________________________________________ • Breaking your semester goal for print and digital: ________%