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Yellow Pages Industry News
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| Industry Commentary 02/01/2010 - Industry Giants Hit the Reset Button Tis the season to escape from bankruptcy, change your company name, add a new Board of Directors, and pick up some new operating cash. |
In this week's edition
By Robert Hawthorne, President/CEO - Hawthorne Executive SearchIf you looked strictly at the unemployment rate, you would think that this would be a terrible time to look for a job. While certain sectors, namely real estate, finance, manufacturing and a few others have been ravaged over the past year and a half, many other sectors are holding their own.
What do we think this year holds for professionals in local search, Yellow Pages and media in general? We are cautiously optimistic, but with some huge caveats. We are working with a number of publishers that are looking to hire sales reps, account managers, sales managers and a host of other positions. That is the good news.
If you spend any time monitoring the Internet for news relative to the Yellow Pages industry as I do, I'm sure you have seen comments like this one from a recent MediaPost blog by Rob Griffen that bemoans the continuing existence of print Yellow Pages:"…in relation to my question "When was the last time you picked up that giant yellow book you use as a door stop?" OK, so I provoked the responses. It seems many keep on using printed local directories, but total use is still declining. I'm more convinced of that than ever.I'm not surprised that the writer as well as many others in urban settings will encounter this situation.
I found myself thinking back to that topic because for the past two or three weeks every time I leave or enter my apartment building, I pass a mountain of unclaimed yellow books in my foyer. Out of all the residents in my building, one lone duck opened up the wrapping and actually took one. A single used book with the rest just sitting there getting dirty and taking up space. So in addition to being a daily eyesore, it's a stark reminder to me how much less we rely on the Yellow Pages and other printed directories…".
With the SuperBowl coming up this weekend it was inevitable that someone was going to use a football sports analogy when discussing sales performance. Hence, I was little surprised that the first one I have seen this week only appeared today.
Monster.com released this short but interesting article about how you should be keeping score in your sales results. In the article entitled "What Football Can Teach You About Sales" the author suggest that insales, "…the score is what you sold. But why you sold is just as important. Try to maintain your own box score by keeping track of 10 prospects as they go through your sales process…" (Click for full article)
The linkage between sports and sales in easy one - both are competitive situations that require preparation, practice, and ultimately performance to be successful, and "win". Add in the transcendental experience that can come from being on a winning sports team: those close relationships developed in the heat of battle, the camaraderie, the euphoric feeling of being winners, the emotional support, and so on and so on.