FROM HERE October 13, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: failure, focus, future, movement, start, strategy, success
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I had a great Egyptian friend who I played much tennis with over the years. We would spend many hours practicing and as you know, tennis is a repetitive action sport. Much of your practice time is repeating the same stroke over and over again. He had a unique characteristic. Every time we would begin to hit balls back and forth, when there was a miss and we had to start over, he would say “from here!” It was his way of allowing your concentration to focus not on the mistake but on the process and begin again. An error was not an end but a new chance to start over. We use to kid him about it, but in today’s world I was reflecting on it as a concept and found lots of relevance.
How often do you encounter a challenge today and reassess it as a new beginning? Do you spend too much time looking backward? It’s the age-old question: “If you knew you could not fail, what could you accomplish?” The “from here’ strategy is a brilliant one. How powerful could your organization become if every misstep was quickly reviewed and the charge would be “from here” Would you be more responsive? Would you take more chances? Can you see a better future with more emphasis on starting again versus starting over? What kind of progress could you create?
So often we feel we are in a slump, we feel down by a loss, we feel we cannot make progress and the deck is not in our favor. What to do? We can sulk, mope, complain, reassess, whine, cry, or… we can do it over. You see, much of what you encounter is not new or special or different. We experience in the business world many things that have been encountered under different circumstances.
Think about it: Recession? We’ve had some. Housing crisis? Yep, that too. Mortgage rates high? Been there. Employment contracting? Uh-huh. Inflation? Felt it. New home construction down? Got it. Unemployment rising? Seen it.
So what to do? I had a coach for a tennis team talking to me during a slump in my tennis career. Our teams were playing each other and I was slumping and moaning about my slump. I was considering moving to another school and struck up a conversation with him that stayed with me then and today. He asked about my past, how long I had been playing, how much I wanted to play, and asked me to guess how many times I had hit a ball. We came up with some astronomical number. He said, “take your mind out of it”. I didn’t get it. He said your body has repeated the same form over and over, probably more than a million times. Your muscles know what to do -let them do it and don’t complicate it with thinking about it too much. I went off and processed that thought. Son of gun if he wasn’t right.
You see, when you trust your hard work, have faith in the process, and just work on letting the execution happen, you can get through a slump without too much thought. And when you start to see a little success, you build on it and it grows. Your confidence grows, your execution improves and you build momentum. Pretty soon, you are driving on and it’s more like: “what slump?”.
I would argue, the challenges we see today are causing us too much reflection on the past or the hiccup. We know what needs to be done, we know how to do it, we know where to do it and we know we need to do it.
From here.
Washington Post and online operations to merge in 2010 September 18, 2009
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Thursday, September 17, 2009, 11:00am EDT | Modified: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 11:14am
Washington Business Journal – by Tucker Echols Staff Reporter
The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com have set a wedding date. The print and online operations of the newspaper will merge as of Jan. 1, 2010. Both are units of The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO). The Washington Business Journal obtained a copy of a memo detailing the change that Post publisher Katharine Weymouth sent out to employees Thursday morning. Weymouth said that it was important to create one organization for print and online operations that would mirror the perception of readers, users and advertisers. As such, Weymouth said that The Washington Post and the Washington Post Digital organization responsible for the operations of washingtonpost.com would join together, integrating newspaper and digital operations into The Washington Post as of Jan. 1, 2010. Weymouth said Washington Post Digital employees responsible for washingtonpost.com would become employees of The Washington Post at that time. Website leadership will remain in place. Weymouth said that current washingtonpost.com leader Goli Sheikholeslami, would become General Manager of Digital, and Vice President of Digital Product Development at The Washington Post. Digital Advertising and Digital Marketing Departments will also be created at the Post to allow online sales to keep their focus while at the same time coordinating with the print sales force. Weymouth said that The Post’s information technology department will become fully integrated under Roger Andelin as vice president of information technology, while the online unit’s accounting, human resources and legal functions will now come under Usha Chaudhary, vice president of finance and administration and CFO; Wayne Connell, vice president of human resources; and Eric Lieberman, vice president and counsel.
Eulogy for Our Friend, Craig McMullin September 6, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: AFCP, Craig McMullin, Eulogy, Executive Director, Golden Colorado, Lakewood, NANI, OB, PaperChain
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Good afternoon My name is Orestes Baez, Most of you know me as OB. I am CEO and President of the Pennysaver Group in Maryland. Today I am here for Craig Stephen McMullin as the proud President of the Association of Free Community Papers for which Craig served as Executive Director. I am here to celebrate his life on behalf of my wife Angela, who couldn’t be here with me and my children CJ and Alynah and all the past, present and future members of the free community paper association represented by AFCP.
Craig is my friend. He was born in Iowa and passed suddenly on August 6, 2009 doing something he loved. We should all be so lucky. His transition to a better life, to a calling only he could answer was abrupt for us but right on time for whatever God had in his plans. To Gene and Joanne, Craig’s parents, my heart goes out to you. The loss of a son is a deep and emotional event matched by few other life experiences. My words will do little justice to the thoughts and feelings in your heart but I hope today’s event will in a small way will help you see and appreciate the love so many have for your son. I believe we are a product of our experiences and you should be very proud of Craig, your experiences with him did a wonderful job creating the man. To you, his brothers and other family members, I hope you see Craig as a positive part of your life and I am truly sorry for your loss. Our hearts go out to you all.
Marilyn, dear Marilyn. Craig was your husband. While you were both off on to new chapters of your life, your past together is inescapable and cannot be erased. For the time you had together, you have many memories and smiles and heartache. Life and relationships are like that as we are here re-learning today. You and Craig created two wonderful children in Meagan and Matt. They will carry your legacy with them. Professionally, you helped build an association with Craig that is everything Craig hoped to accomplish- and from where I sat it appeared it was important to you as well. Thank you. I hope at times, in the quiet moments we are alone with our thoughts, you remember the joy and the smiles Craig the man gave you. Forgive his shortcomings, laugh at his foibles, smile at his stubbornness. Be there for Megan and Matt, be there for them from your place in life as a parent and with the spirit of Craig, I know he will watch over all of you. Marilyn, I am so sorry for your loss, too.
Meagan and Matt, Life happens and causes you to grow-up even more so in the last 30 days. In all the conversations we have had in the past month, it is clear you have so much love for your dad- yet it is so hard to grasp the whys and what ifs of the circumstances for which we are here today. Spend little time on that. Focus your energies on the good stuff.
Craig’s life was spent between CFO of a major newspaper to publisher and president of a newspaper chain, small-town publisher and major association executive. He became my friend through our time together on the BOD in AFCP. I cannot speak of him in the ways many of you can, but I will try.
10 years ago this chubby Midwestern guy pitched the BOD of AFCP a plan to help manage and grow our trade association out from where it was floundering to the great blue yonder- and boy did we ever soar, sometimes like eagles, sometimes like penguins. He was a publisher, bright, articulate and was all about the future. He was sort of an editor, a teacher and a writer and taught himself many new and exciting things only geeks could love. He wanted our association to move, to grow, to be more and more. He never let go of that-and he never let us forget we needed to remember it as well. During his tenure:
- he helped us create a conference that is the cornerstone of the industry and the gem which helps free papers shine bright even in the darkest days of today;
- He helped us build a teaching focus in The Learning Institute, TLI as we know it. A real world program to help sow the seeds of growth and future by teaching our employees how to be successful in our industry so our papers would stand long after we had passed the reigns to others. This programs is taught by folks in our industry, others who, like Craig, have a passion for our future;
- He helped increase the membership of AFCP to over 3000 banners;
- He helped found the PaperChain, a group of Executive Directors of State and Regional associations who want to provide a single source to media buyers and agencies so our papers can receive the financial benefits this credibility brings;
- He made sure we audited our circulation so no one could question our authenticity;
- He helped triple the participation in NANI, our national network of classified ads that provides funds for publishers and helps provide financial resources for the elements in our conferences;
- He helped focus us on a web and digital business strategy so we could compete with the big boys;
- He helped form a not-for-profit foundation, Our Kids Can Read, so businesses could help a child-oriented educational publication called Kidsville through grants and tax deductible donations, thereby supporting literacy while in turn supporting the print publication industry;
- He always wanted the business of free community papers to grow and progress and he also needed to develop a key set of skills as Executive Director- namely managing Presidents:
- The ability to manage Bill Welsh which even Ruby admits borders on impossible;
- To get Danny off the golf course long enough to get on a conference call;
- To let Bob Barrington suggest for the 37th time South Padre Island as a destination for a conference and still make Bob feel like his suggestion actually had a chance;
- The skill to limit board meetings to hotels without hot tubs so we would not have to fish Kendall out of one every morning;
- But there were other legendary moments:
- The bidding and review process where he won the job as ED- who knew it would be a cornerstone moment;
- The infamous San Diego meeting where a bottle of really good scotch later, we figured out how to keep AFCP & NANI alive and create a financial resource for the association;
- The post-Chicago meeting where we understood we needed to make the Phoenix conference a real event or we were done -and then the post-Phoenix elation of knowing we were on to something really good;
- The track at Daytona, the tables in Vegas, the long money putt at Doral, the parade in New Orleans, the post-9/11 board meeting in NY to give back to the city and it’s suffering and to let everybody know as a country we were not down or out, the windy house boat escapade, the coldest damn board meeting in the unlikely city of Key West, Florida, the fishing on Dick’s boat, the fires of Myrtle Beach, the lawn party in Palm Springs and on and on;
- How about his new found interest in learning to sail or the Craig concept of if you eat, you eat desert too;
- Or his taking dance lessons, though one has hard time not thinking of Craig dancing as the equivalent of Jerry Springer on Dancing with the Stars;
- Craig also help form and support the Black Sheep- a rag tag bunch of free paper folk who were biker wanna-bees, loved to ride and did so together on several legendary tours around the country. They forged great relationships, had wonderful experiences and took turns listening to Bill Bowman talk the leg off a hobby horse together. Boy, Craig loved to ride.
- How about the goofy grin with glassy eyes and top lip sticking out when we were done for the night but still enjoying one more for the road;
- And the smile…. The ever present smile;
- About 6 months into my term as President of AFCP, I had a conversation with Craig because I felt I was not doing the job justice -I was not adding any value to the association as the sitting President. Unbeknownst to anyone, I was considering resigning, not wanting to sit in the chair only because it was my turn. I wanted to help, to shape the future, to be of service- I had no ego attached to the title. I had spent my life growing up in the free paper industry and did not want to cruise through my tenure. Apparently in the “careful what you wish for category”, little did I know Craig had REALLY big plans for me. Craig and I talked about what I could do several times. He eventually suggested I focus my efforts on making sure everyone follow through on their committee assignments and conference calls. It seemed so trivial, so small a task. Little did I know he had given me the hardest job- comparable to herding cats and stacking jello. He was one crafty smart cookie- he knew the challenge would keep me engaged;
- How about the wonderful job the AFCP office performed under his leadership. Bonnie, Ana, Evelyn, Brianne and all the folks who have helped. Craig nurtured and helped and coached and supported. He built a great team, a great process, a great future. They probably knew him as well as anybody. I just want to say to Bonnie, Ana and Evelyn that AFCP is deeply appreciative of the job you have performed during this most difficult of times. There is nothing you could have done better and Craig is smiling down on you and watching over you;
…AFCP will continue to exist and prosper under the umbrella Craig helped create. I asked the BOD for a unanimous decision to donate to OKCR, the Board agreed and we have donated $2,500 for Craig’s cause. In September, when the Board meets to begin the process of appointing a new ED, I will also ask that our Distinguished Service Award, an annual recognition of an individual who through their work and volunteerism has contributed magically and wonderfully to the Free Paper Industry be renamed the Craig S. McMullin Distinguished Service Award. At AFCP, we will replace the Executive Director’s position, but we will never replace the man.
I have two things to share before I go and they are specially crafted for Matt and Megan. In the days after Craig’s passing, I was chartered with visiting the AFCP office and helping all of us keep going. I could barely bring myself to be in Craig’s office, but in one of Craig’s drawers I found a note Matt had written to Craig and Craig had saved. It’s message is meaningful to all, so with Matt’s permission I will share it with you today:
Dad, I won’t get to see for awhile so I thought I’d write you a note. By the time you read this I’ll be sleeping and you’ll be about ready to hit the road. First, I will miss you very much while you’re gone. This house is much different when you are gone. A week is a long time, I wish I could come with you. I hope I’ll get to talk to you over the phone a lot and I hope the time goes quickly. I wanted to tell you this for awhile and I tried a couple of times tonight but the right words just didn’t come out. All I ever got out was “I’m going to miss you” which wasn’t in much detail at all. I think you thought that I’d miss you because I wouldn’t have anyone to ask money from- that wasn’t why I was going to miss you a lot. As a matter of fact, I’ll stop asking for money completely if you want me to- and I mean that. The reason why I say that is you give things that are much more important than money. You give me stuff that money cannot buy and that’s a luxury that many Boys (and girls) my age don’t have. You are always happy to see me when you get home, I know I can tell you anything when I have a problem, you like to do stuff with me (which not many people like to do at all), and when I come to you to talk you are never too busy like some Dads are. You always make time even if you are really busy, also you have a good answer or good advice to give me every time! See money can’t buy any of that stuff and those things are the most important to me. You truly are the most important person to me, you also are the best Dad in the world. I’m convinced about that. I guess, well, I want to tell you thanks for everything you’ve done for me all my life. There is just one more thing I want to say…when I’m a Dad I want to be just like you. I love you, Matt.
Megan, I lost my dad many years ago to cancer and a very dear father of a friend of mine took the time to write something for me to help ease my pain and give me perspective- now I gift it to you…it goes like this:
My Beloved Megan:
Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used to. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is no absolute and unbroken continuity. What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well, all is well.
I love you, Dad.
In the bible, it is said death of the flesh is not the end of life, but the beginning of eternal life. As Jesus said in [John 12:24] , when a seed of the wheat plant falls off and dies, it is only then that it as a seed can be watered and be caused to sprout with a new life. This flesh must likewise die before we can live anew in our eternal spiritual body, in the eternity of Heaven. So be it for Craig.
Craig, we love you, we miss you- check in on us from time to time and make sure we are on the right path. Rest in peace, my friend.
Happy 30th Anniversary Pennysaver August 27, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: Anniversary, Arnold, customers, green, pennysaver, Severna Park, United States Post Office, USPS
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Dear Fans of the Pennysaver,
On August 22, 2009, The Pennysaver in Maryland celebrated the 30thyear of continuous service to our local communities. We have focused on bringing buyers and sellers in this time through different products and channels. We are especially proud of the commitment our employees have made to make sure the Pennysaver is brought to you each and every week in an easy-to-read and engaging style.
Thirty years ago two brothers from New York saw opportunity and promise in creating this product and helping serve local communities with local advertising. In 1979, the Severna Park-Arnold edition provided 8,000 homes with the first Pennysaver product. The magazine-style format had advertisers from in and around the area promoting their business in a simple, familiar fashion. The readers enjoyed it, interacted with it, and the rest- as they say- is history.
Time has passed and much has changed since our beginning, but the mission and the product has stayed true to its’ origin. We strive to provide a product that is of use to an advertiser by showing a return for their investments as well as a product that has the right content for the time investment our readers give the Pennysaver. We commit to ourselves to provide a level of service others are either unwilling or unable to provide. We involve ourselves in our communities and we support all the green efforts we can to make sure our future world is better. We will never stray from this focus.
We thank all the companies, individuals, businesses, vendors and especially our partner at the United States Postal Service for giving of themselves to support our success over the past thirty years. We hope we have provided you the appropriate satisfaction in return.
We also want to thank all the past and present employees of the Pennysaver Group, many of which have been with us for more than 10 years. We are, at the end of the day, a people-centered business that depends on you. Thank you for being part of our success together.
Looking forward to another thirty years of success,
Orestes Baez
CEO and President
The Recession is Over – What did you learn? August 5, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: 2009, business, economy, expectations, internet, lessons, marketing, pennysaver, recession, web
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The Recession is Over
This headline strikes me as really entertaining. If, you, like me, storm through news readers, websites, twitter feeds and facebook updates looking for upbeat news, you are anxiously awaiting the day these words are trumpeted all over the news. They are coming, but are you really ready for them?
Now, bits and pieces of the business world will come back and you could see benefits to this long before the general economy rebounds. However, I bank on consumer confidence to make my world improve and this is a very difficult and stressful event. Consumers need to “feel” they can go back to spending before they actually do. And they need to see it, read it, experience it and live it before they believe it.
If you go to restaurants and see lines and have to wait where last month you didn’t- you begin to see it. If you go to your local stores and items you buy are in short supply, you begin to experience it. If you open your favorite webpage or local newspapers and the headlines are touting the positive perspective you need, you begin to read it. And if you talk to your friends and share all this WOM (word-of-mouth) experience and they tell their tales of positivism, you begin to believe it. And that’s when the world turns for the better.
So let’s assume that happens in the next 6-12months. What can you do to be ready? How can you help your business process? What has this tough economy taught us that we can carry forward? I realize these are very “tall” questions with very long answers we can spend lots of time on. However, I will share some short thoughts in hopes it will get you to think and be provoked into some preparation for the coming rebound:
- Be nimble, be quick: This economy happened in part because many facets of the business world were in denial about the future. Unsustainable business models crumpled a bunch of industries- were you able to adjust quickly enough? Clearly, many of us scaled our operations down in response. Did we do it fast enough? Could we have reacted quicker if we had interpreted the signs correctly? Were we looking at the right data points? I closed a new expansion five months into 2008 when it was clear it was a money drain. But I knew in the fall of 2007 it was money loser without looking at reports. I just looked at the book. It lacked the content to be sustainable. We put it in CPR-mode but it did not survive. I could have saved many of the costs had I acted quicker.
Now that we have streamlined our operations, can we live with it this way going forward- even when our businesses improve? Your ability to adjust is based on being nimble and quick. Don’t let an improving economy bog you down again;
- Be an operator AGAIN: Were you as close to your business model as you needed to be? Did you really have line-item understanding of where the money was spent? If you did, now take it a step up and become an ETP -evangelical thrifty person (my definition of people who help you not spend money) as the economy rebounds. Become a zealot about not spending money, being cost conscious and saving money. Also be an operator again when it comes to revenue performance (you can’t “save” your way to prosperity). We spent time in my company, back in 2007, talking about the month’s revenue performance and how we would do and what we would sell. For a weekly publication that’s too long a period for sales to focus their efforts. There was insufficient intensity if the first two weeks of the month were weak -we always thought we could make it up by the end of the month. In today’s world, not so true. We gradually changed the focus to weekly and I believe helped ourselves to adapt to a changing revenue climate quicker.
If you were not dialed in and the business got away from you in tough times, remember the lesson. If you were forced back to being an operator in bad times or have always managed to stay close to the business then stay there. Don’t ever let the good economy fool you again.
- New accounts: This one is my favorite of late. I have lost count of how many conversations I have had about the value of a new customer. I will simplify it here: the day a customer starts advertising the customer will either stay an existing customer because they are consistently buying or they will become an inactive customer because they stopped advertising. Seeing as no one advertises forever, all businesses will become inactive at some point. Now given today’s economy, the failure rate of new businesses, the fact advertisers probably spend less today when they buy than before, and advertisers buy less frequently than before, the ex-customer pool has less value than ever before. You push your sales people for revenue in tough times. So where do sales folks spend most of their time- ex-customers. Why? Because it’s the shortest selling cycle they have- they don’t have to go through a presentation on where and why to advertise, they just have to solve the “why aren’t you advertising now?” If they can solve that, they have an ad. Simple enough.
Denial is not a river in Egypt. Because the options are different today and for all the reasons above, we need more new customers for those exact reasons- they spend less and buy less frequently. So if we want to grow revenue and customers in our products, if we want to be engaging to readers because we have great content, if we want to be the product that works because readers bring results to our advertisers, if we want to prosper in tough times we need an aggressive customer acquisition strategy. In my organization, we report on new customers (as defined as never have run with us ever- some folks call them “new new”) by salesperson every week and we give feedback. We aren’t as good at it as we should be and need to get better, but at least we know the score and see what we are measuring. I know we will win the day with more new customers.
- Stop fighting the obvious: I realize this could go in many directions but here is my pitch for the web component. Whether you believe it or not, things are happening to your customers and readers without your participation. Get over it. Its call the web or social networking or mobile or iPhone apps. It’s technology and it’s here to stay. It’s real. It has/wants your content. It wants your readers. You will adapt, restructure your content, defend your readers and join the technology parade. Get really engaged in this world- it is your/our future.
Let’s assume you have a technology presence- here are three reasons to keep evolving:
- According to a 2009 study by the iab- Internet Advertising Bureau -mobile phone penetration is upwards of 4 of 5 people in the US and more people now have a mobile phone than have PC-based Internet access. This especially true for older adults and lower-income people (1). Figure out how to link your ads with a mobile channel;
- Social networking correlates to better financial performance. A 2009 study prepared by wetpaint ™/Altimeter Group took the top 100 brands in the world and scored them on 40 attributes related to social media engagement. There study correlates not just social presence (“I have a twitter page!”) but engagement where you interact with others, instigate conversation, and respond during conversations(2). Get your team engaged with facebook and twitter. They understand it, you don’t have to;
- In a LinkedIn/Harris Interactive Poll in July 2009, 49% of advertisers said they are using print advertising less often and 74% said they are using internet advertising more often (3). Give them some electronic choices- quickly.
These four points cover a broad range of things I have learned and re-learned. There are many more. To be ready we must move forward and really participate in the future with the things we have learned. I want to end this month’s column with a few words on perspective and moving forward.
A wise man once orchestrated a change in my perspective by painting a very solemn and very definitive picture. He said that the world was teaching us to be and think differently and to survive we needed to move forward. He cautioned me that ignoring this evolution had really dire consequences. He took mentally took me to a bridge and walked me out part of the way. He virtually pointed to the far side as the future. He then virtually pointed to the side we had stepped away from and said that is the past, where you are standing is today. He then told me to face towards the future and start moving. You see the bridge between me and the bank I just stepped away from was on fire. I could never go back that way. And I couldn’t stand still either as I would be consumed by the approaching flames.
Albeit somewhat melodramatic, it does paint a real picture. The recession will be over soon. Our lessons will give us direction -grab on to them and keep looking to the future. Embrace your experience; pat yourself on the back for getting your team, your company, your readers and your customers through the worse economy since the depression and keep moving forward, it will never be the same or how it was or how it used to be- the bridge is on fire behind us.
All the best, Orestes
(1) iab 2009, Mobile Buyer’s Guide;
(2) wetpaint ™/Altimeter Group, “Engagement db”, 2009;
(3) LinkedIn/Harris Interactive Poll, 7/21/2009.
Changes at the Pennysaver June 3, 2009
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As you probably are aware, Paul McArthur, our Executive Vice President of Sales and President of our Digital Business Unit at the Pennysaver in Maryland, has been commuting from New York since September of 2008. What you may not know is in his previous job, he was commuting for two years as well- that’s about three years of being away from his family. His house has been for sale with no takers and he is home in New York only on weekends. As a father of six children, all under the age of 24, with his in-laws also living with him and a six-acre property to maintain, he has put the family behind his job. Given a personal crisis he is currently undertaking, he cannot reason to be away from home and the help he needs to give his family any longer.
Effective July 1, 2009, Paul will step back from his role as leader in the sales area and become our Internet leader. This way, Paul gets to take care of his family and the Pennysaver gets to keep Paul in our family and leverage his expertise. The development of our Internet strategy is one of the most important goals we must accomplish and we are thrilled to have Paul as a resource. Our sales structure will not change as a result of this event. Chris Shertzer will handle Auto and Territory, Gina Curcio will handle Tele-Sales and I will handle Major Accounts. Chris and Gina will be asked to join Senior Staff meetings and give regular revenue and team updates.
Given the state of the economy, we will redeploy the money for Paul in three ways:
• We will use it to fund Paul as the Internet leader;
• We will use it to create two major account positions (instead of one);
• We will use it to invest in more outside sales executives for Towson- a critical piece of our success.
Paul helped bring about some key changes in the organization and allowed many of us to focus on the restructuring of the company. Without him, this would have been a virtually unattainable. Plus, Paul focused everyone on the right behaviors and the right focus. Personally, I believe the strategies and disciplines we have in place for our sales teams are the right ones and we will serve Paul’s efforts appropriately by continuing these initiatives. Please join me in thanking Paul for his dedication and efforts. He is a good man, a good father and a good friend. I wish him and his family all the best.
As you know, Christine Parker has left the Major Account team and I am happy to announce, Jill Criscuolo will become one of two new Major Account Executives and a member of the sales management team. Jill is a seventeen year veteran of the Pennysaver and is currently involved in Auto and is part of the Southern Maryland territory team. She is a no-nonsense veteran of the Pennysaver business and understands the agency relationships and the customer interaction needed to be successful. She is married to Michael, her husband of 14 years and is the mother of one daughter and an avid scuba diver. We are glad to have her and will be working intensely with her to make sure we maintain the momentum Christine created. The second position is yet to be determined. I want to thank all the individuals who interviewed for the Major Account position and I will follow-up with each of you independently.
With the departure of Jill Criscuolo and Bob Haney from Auto, we will look to fill both positions. The right individual must want to succeed in spite of the economic climate and be incredibly resilient to rejection. These positions require a 50-60 hour work week, lots of field time and great customer service skills. If you are interested, please see me as soon as possible as we are actively in search mode.
Thank you to again to Paul and Christine, and join me in helping Jill and the whomever fills the auto positions be successful.
Orestes Baez, CEO/President
Pennysaver Group, Inc.
Toughest Sale on Earth May 27, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: 2009, clean, economy, pitch, sales, salesperson, selling, street, washington
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I was in Washington, D.C. recently, getting a new passport. I had some time to kill and decided to go to a sandwich shop grab some lunch and sit outside. I watched a young man who easily has the toughest job in the world. You see, he was a street beggar. We will call him “George”. Not your normal dirty, sun-burned, “I-live-on-the-street” kind of beggar, but a clean, my-clothes-have-no-wear-spots-or-holes-and-my-shoes-are-modern kind of beggar. I think he could have been let go from a job recently or had not spent much time on the street. Maybe he had a menial job and wanted more- I had no way of truly knowing. His appearance was clean, his clothes were not worn, his shoes were clean and business like, he was clean shaven and he had neat hair. Either way, he had the toughest sale on earth. He wanted you to give him money, shoes, or clothing for nothing in return. I was maybe 20 ft from him and heard him change his pitch several times, from ” can you spare some change?” to “want to trade shoes?” to “how about buying me some lunch?”. He noticed you before you noticed him and he had a line for anybody that showed any eye contact or opportunity. But he didn’t ask everyone. He clearly had a strategy to notice if you were going to let him into your brief public moment together. Now granted, he had zero succes while I watched, but I am sure his persistence paid off. He did not come off as offensive or crazy or dirty or antagonistic, he was just asking everyone he could for help. He was on a corner without any other competition around. It was just him and you.
This made me reflect on our sales executives and their focus and design:
- Do you have the conviction to sell when all is bleak? Can you really keep asking for the order when you rarely get a “yes” ? “George”, my street person certainly cared little if he got a “no”, he was playing for a “yes”. How thick is your skin in tough times ? To succeed in tough times in sales you need to be hard-headed and stubborn and love pain, believe you are doing the right thing and continue on the right path regardless of the chances to deviate. Ignore the failures, seek the successes- that’s how you win.
- Can you see where best to spend the effort? ”George” watched you closely and determined if you were a candidate for a pitch. He never asked a woman if he could trade shoes, he asked men with shoe sizes approximating his. He never asked a person who was distracted doing something else. Talking on the phone? George never bothered you. How can you be selective in the selling process and still be effective in atempting enough contacts? Do you know how to qualify a prospect? Can you visibly notice what level of engagement your prospect will provide? Can you change your pitch, your close, your process to better your chances of a “Yes”?
- Are you smart enough to know where to go, how to look, and what to say?It seemed to me “George” had staked out this corner planter because of the foot traffic he saw while there and little competition from other street folks. He had on a modern shirt, clean jacket, modern pants and shoes, so he obviously planned to not look like a down-and-out street person. He clearly had enough pitches in his back pocket to satisfy different kinds of potential customers. His preparation was fantastic. It makes me wonder how preapred our people are for the challenge of selling. Are we paying enough attention to the details? Are we correcting the elements that need changing or accepting them because their strength lies elsewhere? Are we coaching and training enough to allow our folks to have a constant selection of different approaches available for different customers? Once again we are reminded how preparation cannot be taken for granted.
I didn’t see “George” several hours later when I emerged with my passport, but I am sure he was on the hunt for a new, more fertile ground of hope for himself. I think of him often and wonder how he’d do selling my product?
Thoughts and comments appreciated.
Why Retailing Will Never Be The Same Again (from Daily Clips) May 14, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: Abercombie, Aeropostale, Coach, discount, discounters, distinctive, ecommerce, economy, online, opportunities, reserach, retailing, Sears, transformation, verticals, Wal-Mart, web
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We’re all acutely aware that the Internet and the recession are ravaging the newspaper business and raising the possibility of its extinction. But meanwhile a much bigger industry, the $4 trillion U.S. retailing business, is also being radically reshaped by the Web and the economic downturn. It’s happening far more subtly, but the ultimate impact will be just as profound, both for retailers and for the manufacturers that sell through them. A major shakeout of retail chains is under way, as the bankruptcies of Circuit City, Linens ‘n Things, Mervyns and others make clear. What is less well understood is that an economic and technological tsunami has begun to force merchants into one of two camps: They must be either discounters that sell national product brands on the basis of price or stores that don’t need to discount because they offer uniquely compelling products and shopping experiences. This bifurcation is beginning to transform the retailing landscape, and it is also spurring some major suppliers that don’t like either scenario to open their own stores, as Apple and Coach already did in recent decades. The retail restructuring didn’t start with the current recession. It actually began, slowly, in the 1980s, when apparel retailers like the Gap noticed how quickly discount retailers could shrink their profit margins on the products they sold–in the Gap’s case, Levi’s jeans. In the 1990s, the Web emerged to give shoppers an unprecedented tool to instantly find the best bargains, online or at a store, and thus avoid merchants that charge more. Still, only 4% of goods in the U.S. are purchased over the Web, but its impact on the other 96% is substantial and growing. Every day 15% of Americans use the Internet to research products. Last holiday season, the majority of working Americans who had Internet access on the job–55%, or some 73 million people–did their shopping research, and some purchasing, online, according to Shop.org. In this way the Web has helped consumers flock to discounters for everything from jeans to high-definition TVs. Online retailers like Amazon, whose $19 billion in annual revenue continues to grow unabated, have thrived. But so have, even more, largely offline retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco and BJ’s. Wal-Mart alone has doubled its share of the U.S. market for general merchandise and groceries since 1995, from 9% to more than 20%. The result: Retailers that can’t compete on price or convenience have to find another way to differentiate themselves–with distinctive offerings, and with engaging customer experiences that drive home what’s compelling about those offerings. In the 1980s, the Gap gave up on competing at selling Levi’s to start designing its own clothes. Since then, retailers of all types, from apparel chains such as Abercrombie and Aeropostale to category killers such as PetSmart and Best Buy, and even grocery chains like Trader Joe’s, have begun designing some or all of the products they sell. They have become vertical retailers, with integrated product design and development. That means having much fuller capabilities in market research, product development, product testing and sourcing than most retailers have. However, given the high cost of owning manufacturing assets, most of these retailers have decided not to own the factories that produce their unique products. They would rather act vertical than be vertical. A number of them have stretched their concept of what a product is. It doesn’t have to be something they stock on a shelf. The offerings at PetSmart and Best Buy include highly profitable fee-generating services that make their products far more useful. Some 10% of PetSmart’s revenues today come from the likes of pet hotels, vet clinics, and pet grooming–services that discounters like Wal-Mart and Target can’t easily provide in their big boxes. Six percent of Best Buy’s $40 billion in sales comes from computer repair, TV installation and other services. And Apple’s $6 billion retail store business generates big revenue from fixing computers and training customers to use them. We’re still in the early days of this retail transformation. A small number of merchants have gotten it right, and they continue to shine in the recession. They include Aeropostale, a fast-growing $1.8 billion chain with same-store sales that continue to increase; PetSmart, which has had double-digit growth in revenue and profit over the last five years; Coach, with a 40-fold increase in annual profits over the last 10 years; Trader Joe’s, whose sales have more than tripled since 2003, to $6.5 billion, according to estimates; Walgreens, which has a heavy-private label business and has rushed into in-store health clinics; and Wawa, a highly successful $5 billion convenience store chain that is revered for its own brands of coffee and hoagies and immaculate stores. All of them have a growing number of proprietary products and services that make them unique, giving consumers a reason beyond price to shop with them. None of them is on the retail endangered list. What does this merchant metamorphosis mean for retailers that have been struggling? They must move swiftly to avoid becoming retail wreckage. Discounters must go deeper in certain categories than Wal-Mart or Target do, and find more convenient locations. Category killers must follow the lead of PetSmart and Best Buy and launch services that help customers use their products and generate big profits. Apparel retailers must tightly hone their target customer sets, produce truly compelling merchandise and provide superior environments for trying them on, as Aeropostale and Coach do. Department store chains have the biggest transformation to make. They can’t compete on price, and they largely sell other companies’ goods. They are neither here nor there. The largest department store chains, such as Sears, must use their clout with suppliers to dramatically increase their number of product exclusives. And they need to create stores within stores that adeptly merchandise the next great products and curb their most important suppliers’ desire to build their own shops. Had department stores merchandised Coach’s accessories better 10 years ago, Coach might not be selling 80% of its line through its own outlets today. Twenty years ago Coach was a struggling handbag manufacturer. Today it thrives, despite the recession, with $3 billion in annual revenue and 15% net profit margins in the latest quarter. And it no longer manufactures its products. The retail territory of the next 10 years is truly up for grabs. New retail concepts, and even manufacturers that want their own stores, have big opportunities to become the big retail success stories of the next decade. Those that dazzle their customers with distinctive offerings and environments for purchasing them will thrive alongside the Wal-Mart’s and Amazons of the retail world. Mass Merchants Web Sales grew 20% in 2008, says Top 500 Guide data What a difference a year makes, especially one dominated by a deep economic recession. The fastest-growing market in 2008 was mass merchants, a retail category dominated by Amazon.com and low-price big box merchants such as Walmart.com, Target.com and Sears.com. Overall online sales by mass merchants grew by 20% from $29.7 billion in 2007 to $35.5 billion in 2008, according to the 2009 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. In contrast, web retailers in the 2008 editionís fastest growing category, jewelry, showed only 1% growth from $1.04 billion in 2007 to $1.06 billion in 2008 as luxury purchases crashed in a conservative spending climate. The fastest growing Top 500 mass merchant was Kohlís Corp. No. 50 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, which lifted its 2008 web sales by 58.9% to $356 million from $224 million in 2007, followed by Costco Wholesale Corp. (No. 14) and ShoppersChoice.com LLC (No. 375), which grew their annual e-commerce revenue by 41.7% and 31.7%, respectively. The 800-lb. gorilla in the category was Amazon (No. 1), as usual, with 2008 web sales of $19.17 billion, up by 29.5% from $14.8 billion in 2007. The category and Top 500 leader accounted for almost 54% of all Top 500 mass merchant sales last year. Excluding Amazon, the combined sales of all remaining mass merchants in the category still increased year over year by a healthy 11.2% to $13.66 billion from $12.28 billion. The most dramatic year-to-year change in any retail category was jewelry. In the 2008 edition of the Top 500 Guide, the combined sales of online jewelry retailers increased about 36% in 2007 from web sales of $772.4 million in 2006. The category leader in 2008 was TheWatchery.com (No. 278), with 57% growth from $19.4 million in 2007 to $30.5 million last year. Flowers/gifts, also a victim of consumer spending pull-backs, matched the lowest growth rate at 1%. The category leader was Top 500 newcomer GourmetGiftBaskets.com (No. 446), with 2008 web sales of $12 million, up by 173% from $4.4 million in 2007. After mass merchants, the next three fastest-growing of the 14 merchandising categories in the Top 500 were toys/hobbies, specialty/non-apparel and health/beauty. All exceeded the overall Top 500 retailersí 11.7% growth rate last year, which increased from $103.69 billion in 2007 to $115.85 billion in 2008. Toys/hobbies grew to $1.2 billion in 2008 web sales, up by about 19% from $1.0 billion in the prior year. Consumers stayed home in droves in 2008, reflecting high gasoline prices. Many might have kept busy with online video games, as evidenced by the category leader Big Fish Games Inc. (No. 147), which reported 2008 web sales of $83 million, up 73% from $48 million in 2007. Online retailers serving the specialty/non-apparel and health/beauty markets both recorded 14% growth in 2008, with combined sales of $3.8 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively. The specialty/non-apparel leader was VistaPrint Inc. (No. 44), which used aggressive new product development to grow web sales by 56.6% to $400.7 million in FY 2008 from $256 million in FY 2007. Vitacost.com Inc. (No. 114) topped health/beauty market web sales with a 46% increase from $86.8 million in 2007 to $126.5 million last year. All but four categories exceeded the overall e-commerce growth rate of 4.6%, according to the Top 500 Guide. In addition to jewelry and flowers/gifts, the two categories where e-retailers fell short were housewares/home furnishings and office supplies, both registering 2% overall growth.
Open Letter to Our Advertisers April 30, 2009
Posted by pennysaverwired in Uncategorized.Tags: 2009, advertisers, economy, focus, forecast, internet, Maryland, pennysaver, rates, time, year
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April 23, 2009
The last 18-months have been an economic roller-coaster from which many businesses have suffered. We, at the Pennysaver, have remained upbeat and positive in the long-term vision that this too shall pass. Along the way, we have held ourselves accountable for managing our own costs and infrastructures in response to softer advertising revenues. We have aggressively made changes to our organization, including very difficult decisions about people and our products. And frankly, this has not been about profits.
We could see and feel the world changing back in 2007. Housing was declining, the mortgage business was in trouble, the auto industry was beginning to suffer, and fuel prices were escalating. In October 2007 we instituted promotional pricing platforms for specific types of businesses to address these issues. Then as the world continued to decline in 2008 we responded with two new distribution products and in 2009 we added new color enhancements. We have upgraded the look of our newsprint, and in effect branded all these changes as our own economic advertising stimulus package.
This advertising stimulus package is designed to be a very aggressive rate structure. Classified and display advertisers customers are offered more homes for their advertising message to reach at a reduced rate. In essence, we rolled back prices to levels not seen in almost 10 years. These offers allowed you to buy more for less so you could build customers and traffic, even in a slow economy. And we are grateful for those who took advantage of these opportunities and used us to help their dreams come true as business owners and entrepreneurs.
While we will continue aggressive pricing promotions, we need to be very sensitive to changes in the costs of running our operation. In May of this year, the Post Office- our partner and delivery arm, will raise our rates. They too need to keep their business going and providing the level of service we all expect. This increase in our delivery costs and our need to manage our business, will lead to the Pennysaver making a slight adjustment to our stimulus package rate structure. These new rates will increase slightly from where they are today and will still be less than rates years ago. This small change will help us to provide more opportunity for business owners and entrepreneurs to succeed even in this economy. Our people can provide you the specifics at your convenience.
The road to recovery will be long for all of us, with bumps along the way. Today the news seems a bit brighter. Some companies are showing signs of “bottoming out” and not declining further. Other companies have found ways to thrive combining print and the internet. We see indicators that while the economy is still tremendously down, little patches are stabilizing and in some instances, showing a slight improvement. We hope your world is showing signs of recovery as well.
Respectfully,
Orestes Baez, Chief Executive Officer and President
Pennysaver Group, Inc., Hanover, Maryland
