2009 august

V i s i t U s A t w w w . s A p A t o d A y . c o m

Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400 (931) 490-0488 fax 1

SAPATodayAdvancing the free paper industry by providing resources for success and venues for sharing ideas.

the monthly newsletter for the free pAper indUstry AUgUst 2009

Board of DirectorsThe leadership of SAPA is in good hands. The board of directors, director, and assistant are listed with contact information.Page 3

The Power of First ImpressionsJohn Foust discusses how first impressions can be managed and used to your benefit. Page 3

Conference ScheduleOur SAPA Slugger Con-ference will be this month in Louisville, KY on August 28 & 29, 2009. Call Douglas Fry to get in a the last minute.Page 8

Don’t Worship A False ProfitOur featured speaker in Louisville is Joe Bonura. In this article Joe talks about saving resources wisely.Page 5

Knowledge Is Accumulative Richard Clark teaches how knowledge about ourselves and human nature can be used to conquer any challenge. Page 7

Persuading The Postal ServiceDonna Hanberry with the Saturation Mailers Coalition shows how their survey information was used to persuade the USPSPage 9

By Landy Chase, M.B.A., C.S.P.

Nothing is more rewarding for any business than taking an account away from a competitor. Success-fully persuading a competitive user to leave their existing vendor for you takes an enormous amount of patience, skill, and strategy. Unfor-tunately, most business people don’t approach the strategic issue of com-petitive loyalty properly, and they pay for it with limited success in their take-away efforts.

To be successful in taking accounts

Selling To TheCompetitive User

away from your competitors, you have to begin by looking objectively at the situation from the viewpoint of your potential client. Consider for a moment the implications to your prospect. By asking them to move their business to you, you are essentially asking them to:

- Tell the current publication that they are fired;

- Go through the process of setting up an account with a new paper, in-cluding all of the tedious, time-con-suming paperwork;

- Get to know a whole new set of people to work with;

- Get to know a whole new set of different and unfamiliar procedures;

- Take the risk of making a bad busi-ness decision, and paying the conse-quences.

This collectively adds up to a sober-ing fact that you must accept and work with: Unless your prospective client is having a major problem with their existing paper, trying to persuade them to abandon that rela-tionship is an exercise in frustration and futility.

Does this mean that you should abandon your efforts to sell to the competitive user? Not at all. The key to success here is to abandon

Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association

continued on page 2



Selling To TheCompetitive Userthe notion that you can immediately replace the existing publication. In-stead, re-think your strategy for suc-cess. Look for ways to supplement the existing relationship without replacing it, by providing a product or service that meets a specific spe-cial need that the primary paper is either not capable of addressing, or has chosen not to.

This approach is much more pro-ductive, and gets you over the two major obstacles you face in selling to the competitive user:

(1) You find a way to get your foot in the door and prove yourself.

(2) You turn the prospect into a cus-tomer, opening the “pipeline” for ad-ditional opportunities if you deliver.

My biggest new client one year was a competitive user who told me ini-tially that they were happy with the resource that they were using, and weren’t open at that time to new al-ternatives. Accepting this, I was able to persuade a decision-maker within the account to allow me the oppor-tunity to supplement their existing relationship by delivering a special-ized service that the current supplier was not addressing.

This initial program soon led to more opportunities, and before long I had successfully acquired a full business relationship that has proven to be one of the best I have ever had. This strategy worked because I requested - and received - a small opportunity to prove myself, without threatening the existing vendor relationship.

Look for ways to supplement, not replace, the needs of the competitive user. By delivering value on a small scale now, you can position yourself to reap big rewards later.

Based in Charlotte, NC, Landy Chase,

MBA, CSP is an expert who special-izes in speaking to corporations and associations on professional selling and sales management skills. He can be reached by visiting his website at www.landychase.com or by calling (800) 370-8026. Speaker, trainer, and author of the Sales Manager as Team Builder and Value-Based Selling for Advertis-ing Solutions training systems, Landy Chase, M.B.A., C.S.P., specializes in providing effective resources for news-papers to attain revenue goals. For more information visit their website, www.newspapersalestrainingsystem.com.

We must all wage an intense, lifelong battle against the constant down-ward pull. If we relax, the bugs and the weeds of negativity will move into the garden and take away ev-erything of value.

Jim Rohn

Your success in your career will be in direct proportion to what you do after you’ve done what you are expected to do.

Brian Tracy

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly dis-guised as impossible situations.

Chuck Swindoll

continued from page 1



Past PresidentMike WoodardTuscaloosa Sun &

ReporterNorthport, AL205-333-7525

PresidentRussell

QuattlebaumSoutheast SunEnterprise, AL 334-393-2969

Vice PresidentGreg Ledford

Shelby Shopper & Info

Shelby, NC 704-484-1047

TreasurerTony OnellionBargains PlusSlidell, LA

985-649-9515

Board MemberCaroline

QuattlebaumSoutheast SunEnterprise, AL 334-393-2969

SecretaryAlan Lingerfelt

The Piedmont Shopper

Danville, VA434-822-1800

Executive Director

Douglas FrySAPA Headquarters

Columbia, TN931-490-0400

Board MemberJW Owens

Savannah Pennysaver

Savannah, GA 912-238-2040

Past PresidentGary Benton

Peddler ADvantageParis, TN

731-644-9595

Administrative Assistant

Vickie BeldenSAPA Headquarters

Columbia, TN931-490-0400sA

pA

lead

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ip Happiness and high performance come to you when you choose to live your life consistent with your highest values and your deepest convictions.

Brian Tracy

By John Foust, Raleigh, NC

English literary and social critic William Hazlitt once wrote, “First impressions are often the truest.”

In the world of selling, a first impression can make the dif-ference between making a sale and losing a prospect for-ever. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:

Example 1: Karla is a real estate developer who has been on the receiving end of hundreds of advertising presentations. “I thought I’d seen it all,” she said, “until this one sales person walked into my office with a large, to-go coffee cup, and slurped it during the appointment.

“That didn’t surprise me too much,” she admitted, “because I’ve seen that kind of sloppy behavior before. The thing that put him in the Sales Person’s Hall of Shame was when he turned around and poured what was left of the coffee on a potted plant beside the conference table. He laughed and said, ‘Coffee is good for a plant, don’t you know?’

Karla was angry that someone could be so ill-mannered. “No, I didn’t know that coffee is good for a plant. And no, I never ran advertising in his paper. If he was that care-

The Power ofFirstImpressions

continued on page 4



less when he was supposedly trying to make a good impression, how would he act after making a sale? His behav-ior created a negative image for his employer.

“Of course, this is an extreme exam-ple,” Karla explained, “but I’ve told my employees this story to illustrate that we should be particularly mindful of our manners when we’re with our cus-tomers. There’s nothing complicated about it. When clients come to our of-fice, we should be gracious hosts. And when we go to their offices, we should be gracious guests.”

Example 2: My wife and I met with the representative of a roofing company to talk about replacing our roof. On the

day of our first appointment, our as-signed sales person walked in, took off his shoes, and said, “Since a lot of my work is outside, there may be some dirt on my shoes. I don’t want to track dirt on your clean floors.” Suellen and I instinctively glanced down, noticed that he was wearing clean socks (with-out holes!), and welcomed him into our home.

Obviously, the roof sales person had a different approach from Karla’s coffee slob. By showing genuine respect for our home, he created a positive first impression for himself and his compa-ny. That wasn’t the only reason Suellen and I chose them to do the work, but it did make a difference in our compari-sons. We felt confident that his roof

installers would show similar respect for our house and yard, and pay close attention to detail.

It has been said that first impressions are lasting impressions. In the case of the roof company, our first impression will last for 30-plus years – the length of time the roof is guaranteed to last.

In the case of the coffee-in-the-plant guy, the first impression resulted in a determination to never advertise in his paper.

(c) Copyright 2009 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad de-partments: [email protected]

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by Joe Bonura

The FAlSe ProFITIn today’s fickle economy, too many com-panies are worshipping a false profit when they worship the “bottom-line.” I have owned and operated two successful com-panies in my lifetime, and I earnestly be-lieve that I have learned that if you focus on the top-line (gross sales), the bottom-line will take care of itself.

CUT, CUT, CUT, CUT, CUTIn a slow economy, publicly-held compa-nies cut budgets so that they can please their stockholders and show an immedi-ate profit on the bottom-line. Most of the budget cutters look like heroes after the first few months of the change because initially they put a profit on the bottom-line. They do it by slashing people, train-ing, and advertising (PTA), usually the first three casualties.

looKIng gooD VerSUS Do-Ing gooD

They look so good that other companies begin courting the “cost-cutters” to work for them. Leaving a temporary bottom-line profit, the “cost-cutter” departs to go with the new company. A few months after his departure, the former company experi-ences serious problems, and the blame is placed on having lost the “cost-cutter.” In reality, the negative results are caused by the cuts he made that are just now coming home to roost, all this while he is making

his new company look good, and the cycle contin-ues.

ShorT Term SUICIDe

The problem is that cutting is a short-term fix to a long-term problem. I have never seen a com-pany cut themselves into a successful mar-keting position. Sorry, but the real name of the game is the top-line that can only be made to grow with investments in people, training, and advertising (PTA). Lee Ia-cocca proved it many years ago when he led Chrysler out of bankruptcy. He did it by coming up with exciting new products and increasing sales by investing in people, training, and advertising.

omeleT, Anyone?In 1978 my ad agency lost 70% of our busi-ness because of the loss of one major ac-count. I put all my eggs in one basket and watched the basket turn over, making one ugly omelet. I was understandably devas-tated because I had not focused on grow-ing my business. I had focused on growing one client’s business. After this rude awak-ening, I developed a new philosophy: fo-cus on growth and improving gross sales (the top-line) and everything else would take care of itself. The strategy proved suc-cessful; the bottom-line blossomed; and we became the second largest advertising agency in our area.

mAKe yoUr oWn reCeSSIonWhat makes anyone think that getting rid

of people and cutting back on training and advertising will cause a company to come out of a recession? Does it seem logical to you? We can get out of any enterprise that which we put in, not what we take out. When a company cuts back on necessary resources, it begins a cycle of decline.

PeoPle, PeoPle, PeoPleLet’s talk about people first. In most busi-nesses, it takes people to make the prod-uct, sell the product, deliver the product, and service the product. So, how can cut-ting key people help you better service your customers? If you cut back on staff, the customer would have to be on another planet not to see a difference in your level of service.

TArgeTeD, FoCUSeD, SKIllFUlIn tough times, if you decide to keep a full staff, maximize their potential. In good times or bad, it is important to constantly establish new and innovative ways to do things. Train employees in new skills that they can use to help your company grow. Sales people must make more targeted, focused and skillful calls, and always ap-proach the market from a different per-spective than the competition. This can only be accomplished by teaching them new skills, training them to perform ef-fectively to fit the new marketing environ-ment.

The CUSTomer IS WAITIngI have consulted with companies that con-fided that sales were down, and there was nothing they could do about it. I would then go in the field with their sales people, and we closed on eight out of ten calls. My ultimate goal is to teach their sales people

Don’t Worship AFalse Profit

continued on page 6



Don’t Worship AFalse Profit

continued from page 5

to get similar results. They immediately see a big difference in their top-line. Re-cently, I trained a media rep, and he sold a $250,000 contract with an advertiser. In that one sale, the training paid for itself many times over.

oUT on A lImBSales and customer service training is the smart way of getting more out of a slow economy. It is the rope that someone throws to you after you have fallen from a cliff, and you are hanging on a limb. It is the rescue that gives you something to hold on to while you recover.

CUT The AD BUDgeTWhen I was in the advertising business

and there was a slow economy, many clients opt-ed to scrap the ad budget. Now I ask you, does it make any sense to eliminate your life preserver when you have fallen into the sea? Advertising is more necessary when times are bad, than when times are good, because advertising is a way of letting customers know that you are still in business.

mAxImIze yoUr InVeSTmenTYou may have to take a more creative ap-proach to your advertising investment. Your goal is to maximize every dollar you invest in your advertising program.

InVeST or PerIShIf people, training, and advertising were important to your business before the economy ran into a crisis, does it not stand to reason that they are even more impor-tant to you when times are bad? If you are not going to invest, you might as well di-vest yourself of your company before it is not worth selling.

The PTAMaybe it is time for your company to have a PTA meeting and talk about people, training and advertising.

Do noT FAll oFF The SToolThere are less important areas that you can cut when times are bad, but do not cut the good areas, those that support your busi-ness. It is like cutting one or more legs off of the three-legged stool to mess with the PTA.© 2008-2009 Joe Bonura & Associates, Inc.

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lesson 9: Knowledge Is Accumulative (a) The Best Knowledge Is Knowledge About Yourself. Your chief concern should be about yourself. Your best work-ing tools are to be found within yourself. Your inherent powers are capable of the highest development. Indeed, seventy-seven years is a short period in which to discover all the potential possibilities in man. We can never finish with our quest for knowledge about ourselves. All our knowledge about ourselves consists of conclusions in consciousness. We arrive at points where we know that we know.

(b) You Must Have A Knowledge Of Human Nature. You must know others as well as yourself. When you set out to sell good advertising to others, you must know how to interpret their actions and their decisions. You must be able to fathom their motives and their purposes as far as possible. Of course, you have to make your judgments from outward

appearances. But when you become the close student that you should, you intui-tively know how human nature thinks and acts.

(c) Get A Full Knowledge Of Your Ad-vertising Proposition. Become an inter-ested member of your paper’s organiza-tion. Find out wherein lie your paper’s greatest power and effectiveness. Seek to find out how to help to increase these. Learn about circulation and distribution. Understand the extent of the readers’ good will. Inform yourself about your paper’s policies and its service-giving in-tentions. Be interested in display results as well as classified results to advertisers. Learn all you can about classified in all its workings. Be a student of your proposi-tion. Specialize in your application and become an expert in salesmanship.

(d) Keep On Adding To Your Fund of Knowledge About Yourself, Your Fellows,

And Your Proposition. Your application in this line is the basis for judging your interest in the work. In fact, the measure of your productiveness rests upon your thorough preparation for handling your work.

(e) Your Complete Equipment For Reaching Your Absolute Success Is The Accumulation Of Knowledge. You can never fail, when you have thoroughly pre-pared yourself. Be well prepared, and you need have no fear about your ability to batter down all opposition. You can con-quer with your might of knowledge.

The original cores of these lessons were first espoused by Basil Smith in 1912. Current version © Copyright 2007 by Richard Clark -- Classified Development.

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Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association



SAPA Conference 2009: In 2009 we’ll be in Louisville, Kentucky at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The hotel is located across the street from 4th Street Live so there will be plenty to do. Speakers will give you and your people the tools you need to be more productive and successful in challenging times. Mark your calendars now for August 28 & 29, 2009 in Louisville.

Conference SchedulesPlease give us a call at 1-800-334-0649 or email: [email protected] if you would like more information.

IFPA Annual Conference 2009: After you attend the SAPA Conference in Louisville, consider attending the multi-association IFPA-sponsored conference in Chicago at the Westin O’Hare on September 24 - 26, 2009.

Contact Joe Duval at 1.888.450.IFPA or check the web at www.freepaperconference.com for more information.

Joint Conference 2010: We’re looking ahead to great times in 2010 by joining with IFPA to have a first-ever joint conference. The conference will be held in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. You can plan now for a great conference in a great city with great speakers and information. We don’t have a ton of information yet, but we’re working on it.

We’ve Got What You Need.



Since its formation in 1997, one of the missions of the Saturation Mailers Coalition (SMC) is to persuade the Postal Service to be more customer-focused and responsive to the needs of saturation mailers, including free paper publishers. Our ability to persuade is enhanced when we can produce facts and figures to support our positions.

Our ability to dazzle with data was greatly enhanced by the decades of audit work and reporting of the Circulation Verification Council (CVC) for the free paper industry. This spring, SMC was asked to show the Postal Service the opportunities for expanded postal distribution and volumes if the Postal Service could be responsive to the needs of free paper publishers. SMC wants to thank Tim Bingaman and CVC for giving the number crunchers at the Postal Service more than a few things to think about.

Just as advertisers have used CVC data to recognize the reach and response rates they can achieve by using free paper print products, the Postal Service can see in the CVC data base the vast potential for attracting distribution business that

is already recognized and received by circulation that exceeds the combined circulation of all dailies in the US. CVC generously agreed to let us share its reports with the Postal Service so that officials in Marketing, Mailing Services, and Pricing could see there are thousands of free papers working to reach American households each week.

In recent months, the Postal Service has shown a renewed interest in discussing SMC’s proposal for simplified but certified mail as an alternative way for addressing saturation flat mail, like free papers, for delivery to city routes. The Postal Service officials responsible for Marketing and Mailing Services are interested in growing new areas of Postal Service business. They are dialoging with the saturation mail industry, and other mailers, to explore new Postal Service products and ways of growing existing types of business with postal customers.

For years SMC has been telling the Postal Service that saturation mail programs, like free papers, could be a great growth opportunity for the Postal Service. Our message has been consistent. We have told the Postal Service that its rates are

too high and the addressing requirement is too burdensome to make many free paper publishers consider the mail.

This spring we have asked SMC members, and free papers that belong to associations that do reciprocal memberships with SMC, to answer the SMC survey about your business and priorities. This survey will be used by the SMC Steering Committee to set our own postal advocacy and action agenda for the year. Of equal importance, survey results and data will help us make our case to the Postal Service. As of the end of June 2009, SMC had received survey responses from 32 different companies representing more than five billion pieces a year of saturation program mail.

One of the most valuable aspects of the survey was the information we received from mailers that maintain their own do-not-mail/customer suppression requests. The data supplied by our members show that locally distributed program advertising packages, like free papers, are well received and welcome to consumers. One of the biggest arguments SMC has heard in response to our request for a simplified addressing option for city routes is the fear that consumers will not want the mail or the Postal Service will have too many different do-not-mail requests, or households to skip, on any given delivery day where a saturation piece is being distributed. The data we received in our SMC survey on do-not-mail numbers was very helpful.

Persuading The Postal Service

continued on page 10

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Of those survey respondents that reported having procedures in place to honor do-not-mail requests, the responses showed that our members’ products were welcome in most consumers’ home. The responses on customer do-not-mail requests of survey respondents with a do-not-mail procedure in place showed the following:

4 described their do-not-mail requests as “a handful,” “very little,” or “small;”

4 said it was less than 1% of total circulation;

1 said less than .5% of circulation;

1 said less than .05% of circulation.

The remainder provided do-not-mail circulation estimates that were all less than 1% ranging from .0001% to .2% of circulation.

SMC will be compiling the full survey data for purposes of a presentation between our members and Postal Service officials later this year. We are hoping that the hard numbers we have been able to give the Postal Service on our do-not-mail experience, combined with the depth of data and opportunity represented by the

CVC data base, will persuade the Postal Service to adopt SMC’s proposal for simplified but certified as an addressing option for saturation program mail, or to move forward to test the proposal, later this year.

TellIng IT lIKe IT IS To The USPS

The Postal Service needs more business and volume if it is to survive, support its existing infrastructure and growing number of delivery points. The people at the Postal Service responsible for Mailing Services and Marketing are making efforts to reach out to existing, and potential, customers to learn what the Postal Service could do to build its business.

Recently SMC took advantage of this willingness to learn to set up a meeting between representatives of the Postal Service Mailing Services department and Fran Smith, the Distribution Manager for the Reminder News. Great thanks and kudos go to Fran Smith for “telling it like it is” and showing the Postal Service why Reminder News will use the Postal Service on a starter basis, when it expands a market or opens a new addition, but will switch to its own adult private carrier force once consumers have come to recognize the Reminder News after 6-12 months of seeing it in their mailbox.

Smith explained his background in circulation and distribution. With 30 years of doing daily papers in the US and UK, and more than 10 years at the Reminder News, Fran knows what he’s talking about. Fran said, “I wish we could use the mail. There are lots of good things about it, but the biggest drawback is costs.” Fran described how he has worked with six other large weekly papers to help them convert from mail distribution to private carrier. The revenues for many papers are simply not high enough to support the

Because our data, based on the most stringent verification guidelines in the industry, delivers results. Results that protect the viability of all kinds of publications and put publishers ahead of the pack.

That’s why CVC is the most powerful name in the industry. And, why publishers of more than 4,900 editions in North America choose us for their circulation audits and readership studies.

With the data and credibility a CVC audit brings, you’ll get a true picture of your market. You’ll gain the knowledge needed to better position yourself against competitors for advertising revenue. And, you’ll arm media buyers and advertisers with the numbers they need to buy with confidence. Count on it.

Call or visit our website today for more information! 800.262.6392www.cvcaudit.com

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costs of postage. Smith has been asked to help these papers, and other papers, set up their own circulation department.

Smith made it clear that he has nothing against the mail. If the Postal Service could just get the prices right, many free papers would prefer to leave the distribution process to the Postal Service and not have the additional management responsibilities of operating a carrier network.

In an effort to get more efficiencies out of distribution, Smith described discussions that are taking place today among free paper publishers and other carriers, like the circulation departments of daily papers and even among competitors, to get lower costs for distribution.

Smith stated many papers would do business with the Postal Service and pay more then they are paying for their own carriers; but they would not pay a lot more. Smith went on to describe that papers in his area might pay 9-1/2 to 10 cents per paper for distribution. This is with no limit on weight. Companies that compete against the mail can always steal from the mail. The prices for private carrier are fixed by the piece for delivery. There is no penalty or additional charge for pieces that are “over weight.” It is easy for a paper that distributes by private delivery to compete against anyone in the mail. Heavier pieces, like Sears and Penney’s, can be picked out of the mail because of the high cost of the pound rate.

Smith told the Postal Service officials about private delivery throughout the country. In many areas, there is driveway delivery; in the northeast, it is mostly door-to-door. Smith said most publishers would like to be in the mailbox, but they won’t pay a big premium for the privilege. Most publishers would be willing to pay a little more than private carrier costs for mail distribution. But today’s prices, particularly with the pound rate penalty for papers that are heavier, is just too high.

Smith also described problems with the Postal Service addressing requirement. When the Reminder mailed in the past, it used a DAL. “The DAL was important to us. We had to use DALs or we would have to change press times. If we had to put an address on the piece, it would slow us down dramatically.”

Smith did a great job of describing the bewilderment of the free paper industry when they face the Postal Service addressing requirement. As the manager of a distribution network, Fran stated it was easy for his 400 plus carriers to handle do-not-delivers. Smith explained they might get one or two do-not-deliver requests on a route. “It is much easier for our carriers to look at a bundle slip that identifies the addresses to skip than it

is to manage individual papers with addresses.”

Smith also stressed that free papers do not have a lot of do-not-delivers because they are popular. “Even when we have a do-not-deliver request, because the paper got caught once in the snowblower, we find the consumer still goes down the block to get the paper at the corner store.” Free papers work for advertisers. They drive response. Smith gave an example of a potential advertiser who did not believe the draw of free papers. Smith told him to run a very small classified ad, with the doubter’s phone number. The ad said “Free Kittens.” After one day of exposure, the doubter called and said, “Stop running that ad! I can’t take any more calls!” Smith also explained how free papers compete against daily papers and TMC programs. When it comes to TMC competition, the privately-delivered paper has the upper hand. Everyone is going after the pre-print market for insert advertisers in a local area. Grocery stores are prime candidates. They want to cover everyone. “Grocers love us because we are saturation. Our private delivery rate is cheaper than the blended rate they can get in the paper.” One hundred percent mail cannot compete against the lower combined cost of a TMC program. Because a 100% privately-delivered paper can control its circulation costs, it can beat the insert rates offered by the newspapers, TMC and any paper that is 100% mail coverage.

Smith stressed the local nature of free papers. The daily newspapers are in trouble because they are losing the national ads. Locally delivered saturation programs, by mail or free paper, do not have the national ads to lose. As dailys are moving more to on-line circulation, the weekly community papers and free papers will take over more of the local print distribution business. Local retailers still want to advertise. If the Postal Service can do a better job to align its prices and addressing requirements to the needs of the free paper industry, it could grow this business.

SMC wants to thank Fran Smith for taking time to help us “make the case” to the Postal Service.

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