Jeff Bergin on Innovations in Advertising Leadership

Jeff Bergin, director of advertising at Gannett, spoke to API about new strategies for the advertising department. He will be leading the session "Sales Force Productivity: Building a High-Performance Team" at API's Advertising Leadership seminar, July 23-28 2006.

API: What has changed for the advertising department in the past 10 years?

Jeff Bergin: The biggest change in the last 10 years has been the significant number of new products that we're selling. Ten or 12 or 15 years ago, we were only selling two or three products, but our sales forces are now selling over 100. The competition has increased as well. Not only do we compete with traditional media companies, we also compete with new media companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, which are changing the dynamics of advertising. We're not used to reacting at the speed at which we now have to react.

API: What are some solutions to these challenges?

JB: We have to look at what we need to ask our sales people to do. We have to become more efficient in how we meet customer needs. We have to be more innovative in our pricing strategies. At Gannett, we've made some changes to our structure and how we go about acquiring new customers through our channels. We've done a lot of pricing programs to package like products together.

API: What type of people should managers look to hire?

JB: In order for us to be successful, we have really got to do a better job up front identifying what exactly the job is we have to have done. In the past, we expected our sales people to do all of the jobs so we ended up hiring people who don't truly excel in any of them but could do moderately well in all of them. Now, if we need someone to go out and acquire customers for us, we need someone who can identify high value prospects and bring them back to the newspaper. But that's a different skill set from someone who can service and grow those customers. We might need a different person to acquire business than the one who grows that business.

API: How should the advertising team for a small newspaper operate differently from a large one?

JB: Frankly, I don't see them operating differently at all. The only difference is the amount of resources put into large accounts. Large newspapers tend to have larger accounts that spend a lot of money but they also have people who are handling small territories. How you approach the different segments of your business is exactly the same regardless of the size of your newspaper. The bicycle shop in a small town in Iowa is the same as a bicycle shop in California. The only difference is that the small-town newspaper in Iowa has a better chance of recognizing the value of the customer than the L.A. Times might.