Selling Through a Slump - forecast of advertising companeis and how to manage business
Author: Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management

Key strategies for getting through a short-term downturn by building long-term strengths for your clients--and yourself.

When an advertising market slows, every ad sold is scrutinized. Advertisers become more demanding, competition gets keener, and rejection rates for sales people go up. Sounds grim, but it is possible to turn adversity into opportunity. A slowing market can benefit a sales organization that is prepared to make the adjustments required for success. The key is to realize that every recession eventually ends, and that the behavior of your sales organization during the recession will largely determine the level of success you enjoy for years afterward.

For ad sales managers there are two goals. The first is to maintain revenue to keep your organization going; the second is to make strategic moves and investments so that when the recession ends, your competition will not know what hit them. Recessions are times when great sales organizations move forward and weak ones fall behind.

it is also important to estimate how strong your competition might be. Recessions favor bigger organizations with more diverse streams of revenue. Recessions also favor established brands, since buyers are less likely to take a chance on something new when there are barely enough funds to cover the basics. In short, recessions favor the strong. If you work for a leading publication, it is time to leverage all you have to eliminate some marginal competitors. If you are a small fish, it is time to aggressively position yourself as an essential niche buy in a recession.