One of the methods that startup publishers can attain their advertising revenue objectives is by employing the services of a different magazine sales representative. Magazine sales agents can literally jump-start a brand new title and set it on the fast track to success. But, there are a whole lot of pros and disadvantages to using their services.
Therefore, you’re probably wondering, what exactly do magazine sales agents do anyhow? I will discuss their duties and responsibilities in more detail a bit later on. However, it is worth mentioning that using an independent magazine sales rep to your novel can be both a blessing and a curse. When successful, your magazine sales rep may be a fantastic vehicle for getting fresh ad accounts.
The converse is that your rep may possibly be a source of revenue drain-since you the publisher will be responsible for all ancillary costs related to your sales rep’s ability to execute his/her duties with little or no return on investment to show for all your hard-earned dollars spent. So what can magazine sales reps do for you? The bottom line is this; the key reason that magazine publishers decide to utilize an independent magazine sales rep is to guarantee a continuous ad revenue base.
Quite simply, you can usually hire representatives and get them out to the marketplace with no upfront cash (or hardly any ), office space, computer equipment, vehicle or health insurance. All you have to supply your sales rep is only a proportion of the new business he or she brings to your book. With a start-up, just like any new business enterprise, minimizing upfront expenses is a must.
In the last evaluation, in addition to getting an informative well put together media kit; business relationships can play an essential part in getting an advertiser to place an If you are a new publisher seeking to break into an existing category, you’re definitely at a disadvantage no matter how good your idea. A magazine sales rep company can create a buzz around your title rather fast.
A sales rep can also act as a sounding board to your magazine thought. If your concept is marketable, odds are the sales rep may want to work with you. If, on the other hand, it is not, most magazine sales reps won’t waste their time. Thus, if sales reps are not returning your phone calls or look otherwise disinterested in your book, it may be a great idea to reevaluate your concept, mission statement, Of course, there may be numerous reasons why sales reps may reject your business; it may only be that they have a lot of different customers, conflicts of interest, However, in large, magazine sales reps can act as a great barometer for the viability of your concept.
It’s very important to startup magazine publishers to bear in mind that magazine sales reps won’t completely share the excitement or be tied to a magazine such as the publishers. The simple fact of the matter is that there is not much of an incentive for sales reps to market new launches. Most sales reps will need to work twice as hard, or even five times tougher, to buy fresh startups.
Statistically speaking, magazine sales reps understand that hardly any startups make it past their first year, let alone become commercially viable. Additionally, it is typical for new titles to start off with a tiny circulation. Since circulation and ad prices are interdependent-the larger the flow, the greater the ad rates-the monetary incentive can be extremely low. Therefore, for many sales reps, the time and effort needed to make it to profitability just are not worth it.
This doesn’t imply that new magazine publishers will not have the ability to retain the services of a magazine sales Simply put, new publishers should know about the challenges that sales reps face and as a result, be ready to offer generous incentives to be able to lure sales reps to take care of their publication. Additionally, and equally as important, you’ll have to offer the appropriate selling tools so that your magazine sales rep may be capable of advertising procurement.
Independent sales reps need adequate materials to market a name, just as employees salespeople do. So, at a bare minimum, this means using a professional media kit with market research and concise and clear demographic information to back up the pitch. This point can not be overemphasized because it’s your media kit, rather than your magazine per se, which will seal the deal for the huge majority of advertisers!
