At the heart of EMAP’s business, said Tracey Davies, is its integrated marketing solutions offering. In 2007, it accounted for 25% of the advertising revenues for the company’s weekly brands; by 2013 that figure had risen to 75% plus. The good news is that the growth rate shows no sign of slackening (it was 20% last year); the challenging news is that delivering integrated solutions is a lot more complex than running traditional display advertising.
By ‘integrated’, we are not talking about simply placing ads on different platforms at the same time; we are talking about a multi-layered, tightly-scheduled and inter-dependent mix of activities (advertising, sponsorship, social media, editorial, white papers) in support of a range of client objectives (brand-awareness, thought leadership, networking, lead generation) across a range of platforms (print, web, mobile, events).
The demand for integrated marketing solutions initially came a few years’ ago, said Tracey, from IT companies who were wanting to reach EMAP’s audiences in increasingly different and more measurable ways. Since then, EMAP has fully embraced the concept.
Marketing solutions are client led; EMAP does not try to sell by platform, but constructs cross-platform campaigns to fit each client’s needs. Successful delivery of these complex integrated campaigns depends, in large part, on getting your internal structures right and resourcing them properly – the last thing you want is, for instance, your sales teams to be dragged into delivery issues. It’s a waste of their time, and they’re probably not very good at it.
So it means identifying the core functions and giving the teams the tools and support they need to deliver.
There are four different functions involved: Sales Support (who provide the sales teams with the analytics and marketing materials to support their pitches), Delivery Teams (whose responsibility it is to actually deliver the different elements of the campaign on time and to the client’s requirements), Commercial Editorial Units (journalists whose role it is to create the bespoke content to support the campaign) and, finally, the engine room of the business – the Sales teams themselves.
The sales operation is underpinned by a trading mentality (“good trading gives us the permission to focus on other things”) an emphasis on over-delivery and a strong sense of accountability. One of the senior management team will be on the sales floor every day, driving the trading. Sales managers are responsible for the performance of their teams; if teams don’t perform, the buck stops with them.
There is a clear distinction within the sales teams between sales managers and sales people (“sales people sell, managers manage and coach”).
The Seven Commandments
According to Tracey, EMAP sales leaders follow seven commandments:
1. Not to sit in isolation or in meetings all day (between 9-10.30 and 2-3.30, schedules will be free so that the focus is entirely on sales teams)
2. To listen to a call per person EVERY day
3. To review in detail at least one proposal per person EVERY week
4. To visit at least three customers EVERY week
5. To undertake an interview with a possible new recruit EVERY week
6. To review and update our sales plan EVERY week
7. To have a constant and accurate handle on our team’s performance today
And, as you’d expect in such a tightly controlled environment, sales people are not left to their own devices. They are set key performance goals, for instance how much time they should spend on the phone and in face-to-face meetings. One aspect of modern sales technique which Tracey has been trying to move away from is an over-reliance on email – this has been a particular challenge with the younger sales staff, but she is focused on instilling a back-to-basics approach. In terms of how much time each would be expected to spend on the phone each day, that would depend on the nature of the sale, but might typically be between 1.5 and 2.5 hours. She is trying to increase that to three.
Sales performance figures (both activity and revenue) are published; there is no hiding place. Don’t make the grade and, I’m sure, your time on the EMAP sales team will be short-lived. But, make the grade, and, all hail. The sales job is high status and those that achieve their individual targets are feted and well rewarded with the super sales people (those achieving 20% over target) joining an elite club, and showered with extra rewards, like the recent Silverstone jolly.
EMAP is a growing business and that must be in large part down to the target driven, results focused, micro-managed, transparent sales culture. An excellent talk, but as I left, I couldn’t help wondering if a session on ‘how to avoid sales team burn-out’ might a good idea for next year’s conference.
