2009 June

V i s i t U s A t w w w . s A p A t o d A y . c o m

Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association (931) 490-0400 (931) 490-0488 fax 1

SAPATodayAdvancing the free paper industry by providing resources for success and venues for sharing ideas.

the monthly newsletter for the free pAper indUstry JUne 2009

Board of DirectorsThe leadership of SAPA is in good hands. The board of directors, director, and assistant are listed with contact information.Page 3

Salespeople need to be “Other” orientedWe need to focus on our customers instead of our-selves to earn their trust and business. Page 3

Conference ScheduleHave you made your plans for Louisville, KY on August 28 & 29, 2009? If not, read about the upcoming conferences in our industry.Page 7

The Good Kind of TiredOur featured speaker in Louisville is Joe Bonura. Being tired is an indica-tion of how hard you’ve worked today.Page 5

Sell To YourselfRichard Clark teaches how we need to be sold on our own products before we try to sell someone else. Page 6

USPS UpdateThe United States Postal Service may try a sale! Your publication may be eligible for up to 30% in rebates on future postage.Page 8

by Doug Dickerson

If you think your family has problems, consider the marriage mayhem created when 76-year-old Bill Baker of London wed Edna Harvey. She happened to be his granddaughter’s husband’s mother. That’s where the confusion began, ac-cording to Baker’s granddaughter, Lynn.

“My mother-in-law is now my step- grandmother. My grandfather is now my step-father-in-law. My mom is my sister-in-law and brother is my nephew. But even crazier is that I’m now mar-ried to my uncle and my children are my cousins.” From this experience, Lynn should gain profound insight into

Relationships: the key to Success

the theory of relativity.

That humorous story is a way to illus-trate something that in leadership is ac-tually not too funny at all. In order to be an effective leader on any level, you have to develop people skills and good personal relationships.

Leadership expert John Maxwell says, “One of the greatest mistakes leaders make is spending too much time in their offices and not enough time out among the people. Leaders are agenda driven, task focused, and action orient-ed because they like to get things done. They hole up in their offices, rush to meetings, and ignore everyone they

pass along the way. What a mistake! First and foremost, leadership is people business.”

Allow me to share with you three im-portant reminders about the impor-tance of relationship building.

First, people are your priority. When it comes to your leadership and influence in your organization, you can’t accom-plish anything without your people. How you treat them is a clear indica-tion of the value you place in them. Don’t be like the group of friends who went out hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunt-ers returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck.

“Where’s Harry?” he was asked. “Harry had a stroke of some kind. He’s a cou-ple of miles back up the trail.” “You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer

Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association

continued on page 2



Relationships: the Key to Successful Leadershipback?” “Well,” said the hunter, “I fig-ured no one was going to steal Harry.”

Sadly, many in leadership make the mistake of treating their people like poor Harry and are more concerned about the product. They fail to remem-ber that they would have no product were it not for their people. If you are locked in your office, isolated away from everyone, it sends a clear signal that you don’t value them. When you do this, you are leading from the posi-tion of a title – nothing more.

In leadership, people are your number one priority. And when you treat them that way, they won’t let you down.

Second, relationships are your future. Longevity in your organization is tied to how well you nurture relationships today. Nurturing relationships involves a deliberate plan of action on the part of the leader.

This action begins within your organi-zation by how you value relationships. If people in your organization are treat-ed with respect and a conscious effort is made to build a team atmosphere, the possibilities of your organization are limitless.

In his book, Bringing out the best in Peo-ple, Alan Loy McGinnis says, “In the simplest terms, the people who like people and who believe that those they lead have the best intentions will get the best from them. On the other hand, the

police-type leader, who is constantly on the watch for everyone’s worst side, will find that people get defensive and self-protective and that the doors to their inner possibilities quickly close.”

The best thing you can do as a leader is to understand that the future of your organization and your career is tied to successful relationship building. It be-gins inside your organization and flows out.

Finally, if people are your priority, and relationships are your future, then friendship is the pathway. Samuel John-son once said, “If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friend-ships in constant repair.”

Friendship is the recipe that transcends the boundary of business and stands the test of time. I’m reminded of the story of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball.

While playing one day in his home sta-dium in Brooklyn, he committed an er-ror. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robin-son and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.

A wise leader understands the value of friendship, of coming alongside a co-worker and putting an arm around a shoulder. A wise leader values, nur-tures, and fosters friendships.

A strong leader is a relationship builder.

© 2009 By Doug Dickerson. Doug Dick-erson is an award winning writer and PR director in Charleston, SC. He is available for leadership seminars and workshops. You can reach him at [email protected] and read more of his column on his blog at www.dougsmanage-mentmoment.blogspot.com.

Be civil to all; sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one; enemy to none.

Benjamin Franklin

There is no better test of an ad-vertisement than whether or not it actually sells the product! In fact, it is the only true way of determining if your advertisement works.

John Caples

If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall be-come a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

David Ogilvy

continued from page 1



Past PresidentMike Woodard

Tuscaloosa Shopper & Reporter

Northport, AL205-333-7525

PresidentRussell

QuattlebaumSoutheast SunEnterprise, AL 334-393-2969

Vice PresidentGreg Ledford

Shelby Shopper & Info

Shelby, NC 704-484-1047

TreasurerTony OnellionBargains PlusSlidell, LA

985-649-9515

Board MemberCaroline

QuattlebaumSoutheast SunEnterprise, AL 334-393-2969

SecretaryAlan Lingerfelt

The Piedmont Shopper

Danville, VA434-822-1800

Executive Director

Douglas FrySAPA Headquarters

Columbia, TN931-490-0400

Board MemberJW Owens

Savannah Pennysaver

Savannah, GA 912-238-2040

Past PresidentGary Benton

Peddler ADvantageParis, TN

731-644-9595

Administrative Assistant

Vickie BeldenSAPA Headquarters

Columbia, TN931-490-0400sA

pA

lead

ersh

ip Ambition, fueled by compassion, wisdom and integrity, is a powerful force for good that will turn the wheels of industry and open the doors of opportunity for you and countless others.

Zig Ziglar

By John Foust, Raleigh, NC

Dwight Eisenhower once reflected on the days when he worked with Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines. “You know,” he said, “MacArthur has an ‘eye’ problem.” When asked if MacArthur was afflicted with blurred vision or near-sightedness, Ike explained, “He has a fatal attraction to the perpendicular pronoun ‘I.’”

Eisenhower’s choice of words is particularly interesting, be-cause one definition of “perpendicular” is “extremely steep.” Ike recognized that, in our dealings with other people, we create steep obstacles when we keep the focus on ourselves.

His comment reminds me of an advertising creativity training program I conducted a few years ago. When it was time to select a business to use as an example, the group chose a bak-ery shop. “Before we discuss ad strategies,” I said, “we need to determine what this particular bakery sells.”

Answers flew around the room: bread, cookies, cinnamon rolls, wedding cakes. But when somebody mentioned dough-nuts, a woman sitting close to the front threw down her pen, leaned back, and crossed her arms – clear signals of disap-proval. “I don’t like doughnuts,” she said in a loud voice. Ob-

SalespeopleAre “Other” Centered

continued on page 4



viously, she didn’t intend to participate in any discussion involving doughnuts. (I could understand that kind of reac-tion if liver and onions had been men-tioned, but that’s another story.)

For her sake, I hope she was just trying to be funny. But if she wasn’t joking, her behavior indicated that she has a serious “I problem.” If she has that attitude on the job, her favorite customers get the lion’s share of her attention. Everybody else – the doughnut stores and other businesses she doesn’t like – gets a half-hearted effort. Or no effort at all.

Of course, there is an important distinc-tion between personal preferences and moral issues. Under no circumstances should a sales person be forced to work with clients who market products which

they believe are morally wrong. In this case, I don’t think doughnuts were a moral issue; she just didn’t like them.

Self-interest is one of the most power-ful forces in the world. It’s impossible to have any degree of success in advertis-ing sales without understanding the role that self-interest plays in the salesper-son-advertiser-audience relationship. The salesperson is naturally concerned about making quotas. The advertiser wants to move inventory. And the typi-cal reader wants the answer to the uni-versal question, “What’s in it for me?”

Effective sales people are big enough to leave personal tastes out of their cli-ent relationships. They know it doesn’t make any difference whether or not they like doughnuts or any other product. As

long as doughnuts are important to the corner bakery, they will do anything in their power to help their client sell as many doughnuts as possible.

The advertising industry demands peo-ple who are other-centered instead of self-centered. We need people who will give 100 percent effort, whether they like a particular merchant’s products or not.

Want to make a difference? Want to be an advertising superstar? Start by be-coming other-centered.

(c) Copyright 2009 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: [email protected]

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Good Tired

IPC CHARLIE HENCYE

800-243-7659 [email protected] FAX: 941-484-0828

140 Triple Diamond Blvd * Suite C * N. Venice, FL 34275www.ipcpoly.com

PRESIDENT

International Poly&

Promotions

Plastic BagsPromotional Items

Advertising Specialties

by Joe Bonura

MOvinG AnD GROOvinG YOUR WAY TO SUCCeSS

Get up and get going. Stop waiting for someone else to make life happen for you. This morning, I read something that I would like to share with you in this month’s E-Zine. The article was about apa-thy, and it reminded me of a word that I have not used in a long time.

FROM APAThY TO ineRTiAOne of the biggest causes for failure in sales is “inertia.” The dictionary defines in-ertia as “the property of a body by which it remains at rest.”

A LeSSOn FROM SiR neWTOnSir Isaac Newton said that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and Sir Fig Newton says that an object sitting on a couch tends to stay on the couch.

COFFee CUP BLUeSI was having a cup of coffee in Starbucks, and there was a gentleman sitting by the window. He needed a shave, his eyes were drooping, and he had a sad look on his face. Because he looked lost with nowhere to go, I wondered what the rest of his day would be like. He was waiting for life to happen to him.

PUT On SOMe neW ShOeSIt occurred to me that the one thing sepa-rating me from being in his shoes was the number of sales calls I make each day. Think about it: if you were to completely stop making sales calls tomorrow, how long would it take before you would have

nowhere to go? I shot a few ar-row prayers his way for a positive change in his day.

ACTiOn BeGeTS eneRGY

Remember that mood follows action, rarely does action follow mood. Action begets energy, and energy begets more ac-tion, which in turn, begets more energy. It is like jumping off a moving train: you will continue to roll because of the momen-tum of the train’s speed.

BAD TiReD iS nOT GOODHave you ever had a day when you go home from work in a mood that I call “bad tired?” If you look back over that day, you will find that you acted sluggardly. It was a day of procrastination and laziness, where you simply went through the motions without enthusiasm.

GOOD TiReD iS nOT BADHave you ever gone home feeling “good tired?” Yes, you are tired, but you feel re-ally good about the day and your accom-plishments. If you look back over that day, you probably worked harder than usual, but instead of feeling bad about the day, you feel a sense of accomplishment. You will discover the day included doing many things that you did not feel like doing, but you did them anyway. My good friend, Bill Mann, one of the most energetic sales pro-ducers I know, reminded me of the expres-sion, “If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.”

TiMe TO ACT nOWIt’s January! What a great month to make a commitment to do things differently in order to create a change for the better. I am not referring to a New Year’s resolution, but I challenge you to a lifetime commit-ment to excellence.

PiCK UP The PhOne nOWStart now. Decide to pick up the phone and make some sales calls. You don’t know who to call? Go to your file cabinet or your CRM (customer resource management) program and make ten dials. After you make your ten dials to people you already know, go to the yellow pages and select five new businesses to call. Pick up the phone, and do it now.

FeeLinG BeTTeR ALReADYIf you start doing and stop stewing, you will experience an immediate feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment. You will be working your way to feeling good tired, and rising to the top of the sales success ladder. Most people would rather make ex-cuses than sales calls. It is easy to succeed in life because you will be doing what the sluggards fail to do.

RUB The LAnTeRnFor some reason, we think success in sales is something that only the select few can enjoy. The truth is that the sales genie can be called out of the lantern by anyone will-ing to take action and rub the lantern. Re-member that nothing happens until you do something as simple as picking up the phone and making your first call.© 2007-2009 Joe Bonura & Associates, Inc.

Justin Gerena, President, Director of Salesp: 888.592.3212 x710e: [email protected]

JB Multimedia, Inc. P.O. Box 704 N. Bellmore, NY 11710 888.592.3212 phone/fax www.jbmultimedia.net

M a k i n g p u b l i c a t i o n s i n t e r a c t i v e.



p d

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PALIGODATACONSULTING

Ryan PaligoPresident

200 Kimberly DriveColumbia, TN 38401

931.334.1757

[email protected]

Lesson 8: Sell Yourself First, then the Customer(a) Successful Salesmanship Is Dem-onstrated By You Before Your Call Is Made. Every good salesperson must sell to himself first. Every argument must be made faultless. Every good point must be properly scheduled for correct presentation. A salesper-son must know what he wants to say and how he is going to say it. If you want to sell your advertising goods, you must have your answers ready to all objections that will be made, before you leave the office. Your thorough preparation in advance is what wins your battles for you.

(b) If You Sell Yourself Well, You Can Sell Your Customer Sure. When you have given self-confidence to yourself, you will be able to inspire confidence in the person with whom you talk. Knowing that you know, yourself, makes others believe in you.

(c) Sell To Yourself By Knowing All

About What You Have To Sell. Your love for your work is the incentive that makes you work. The more you love your work, the harder you will strive to increase the effectiveness of your labor. You cannot thoroughly sell to yourself until you get a thorough knowledge of the superiority of what you have to sell. You must specialize in the study of your advertising goods, until you become the most-knowledgeable per-son on your force. If you do not cur-rently lead the force in production, you must hunt for new ammunition and take better aim if you would stay on the firing line.

(d) Sell to Yourself By Knowing Your Customers’ Needs. Your customers are the most vital factors in your work. While the paper employer pays your salary, he expects you to work hard to make money for the advertising pa-trons of the paper. Pleased advertisers

are the good-will asset that compels continuous patronage to the paper. Get over on the customers’ side of the fence and study their needs. Then show how your paper can serve them well.

(e) Sell To Yourself By Convincing Yourself That You Can Sell. Until you do this, your work will bring negative results. You are never on safe ground until you have become positive. You will be positive when you know.

(f) Sell To Yourself By Determining That You Will Sell. When you decide to “stick” you are safe to send out for business. The quality of perseverance with the “never-give-up” spirit, a well settled principle of action, should char-acterize your character.

The original cores of these lessons were first espoused by Basil Smith in 1912. Current version © Copyright 2007 by Richard Clark -- Classified Development.

Richard Clark offers great low-cost on-line ad-taking solutions, as well as sales and management training that pay for themselves, guaranteed. Find out more and see the demo at www.classi-fieddevelopment.com



SAPA Conference 2009: In 2009 we’ll be in Louisville, Kentucky at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The hotel is located across the street from 4th Street Live so there will be plenty to do. Speakers will give you and your people the tools you need to be more productive and successful in challenging times. Mark your calendars now for August 28 & 29, 2009 in Louisville.

Conference Schedules

300 North DriveSuite 100

Melbourne, FL 32934

321.242.5000 x2214321.242.4074727.492.3562

phonefax

mobile

John Pourtlessdirector of sales - southeast

[email protected]

Please give us a call at 1-800-334-0649 or email: [email protected] if you would like more information.

IFPA Annual Conference 2009: After you attend the SAPA Conference in Louisville, consider attending the multi-association IFPA-sponsored conference in Chicago at the Westin O’Hare on September 24 - 26, 2009.

Contact Joe Duval at 1.888.450.IFPA or check the web at www.freepaperconference.com for more information.

Joint Conference 2010: We’re looking ahead to great times in 2010 by joining with IFPA to have a first-ever joint conference. The conference will be held in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. You can plan now for a great conference in a great city with great speakers and information. We don’t have a ton of information yet, but we’re working on it.

We’ve Got What You Need.



In an effort to explore it pricing freedoms under the new postal law, the Postal Service filed a proposal May 1, 2009, seeking approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to hold its first ever “summer sale.” This experiment would be limited in scope. Eligible mailers would be limited to approximately 3,500 mailers that mailed more than one million pieces of Standard mail in the six month period between October 2007 and March 2008. For free paper publishers, this means that publishers with mailed circulation of 40,000 pieces or more per week would qualify.

The notion of seasonal rates to stimulate volume is not new. It is one of the popular, reoccurring ideas that have been suggested by mailers, and by Postal Service officials, as a way for the Postal Service to operate more like a real business and to better utilize its fixed assets and employee compliment in periods like the summer when volumes decline and the USPS has excess capacity. Like all things involving the USPS, however, the idea must be approved by the PRC. The USPS discussed its plan to move forward with the proposal in April at Mailers Technical Advisory

Committee (MTAC). The Postal Board of Governors approved the idea and the PRC filing was done May 1. The PRC has 45 days to issue a ruling. Specifics on the proposal are available in the PRC filing at:

http://www.prc.gov/docs/63/63005/Notice%20of%20Pr ice%20Adj.SummerSale.pdf.

For eligible mailers, the summer sale rewards growth in 2009 summer volumes with a 30% postal rate rebate in postage. The rebate will be credited to the mailer’s postal payment account in the form of a credit computed by the USPS a few months after the sale period is completed.

Qualifying mailers are determined by those standard mailers that mailed approximately one million pieces in the six months between October 2007 and March 2008. Qualifying mailers can include business or nonprofit mailers but the sale is limited to mail owners. Printers, letter shops, and consolidators are not eligible to participate. Mail owners that used a mail service provider could participate if they can provide proper documentation of owning the requisite mail volumes for this period.

The USPS has stated it intends to notify mailers of their eligibility for the sale.

The summer sale applies to increases in volume for mailings in July, August and September 2009, compared to the mailers’ actual volumes for the same period in 2008, as adjusted with a trend calculation to reflect the mailers’ volume trend. A trend percentage, either up or down, is calculated to determine the mailers’ threshold for mail that can earn a discount.

The mail threshold or trend is a calculation to determine how a mailer’s volume may have declined or increased between a six month period in the Postal Service’s fiscal year 2008 (October 2007 through March 2008) as compared to 2009 (October 2008 through March 2009). If, for example, a mailer’s volume had declined five percent between the two periods, the threshold volume for measuring the baseline over which a mailer could earn a discount could be adjusted downward by five percent.

If this mailer’s actual volumes for summer 2008 were 600,000, the threshold for base volumes would be adjusted downward five percent to 570,000 pieces. If the mailer was able to increase its 2009 summer volumes to 650,000, the 70,000 pieces of mail over the 570,000 threshold would receive a 30% discount.

The Postal Service has ACrazy Summer Sale!

continued on page 9



An additional “keep them honest” adjustment to the summer sale proposal is an October adjustment that will compare the mailer’s October 2009 volumes with volumes for October 2008. To prevent mailers from shifting normal, fall mailings to the summer sale period, the proposal subtracts from any mail eligible for the discount mail volumes that reflect a decline in October 2009 volume over October 2008 volume (as adjusted based on the trend percentage). If the mailer in our example had mailed 75,000 pieces of mail in October 2008 but only

mailed 65,000 in 2009, the decline in volumes would be greater than the five percent downward trend adjustment determined when looking at the mailer’s initial volumes comparisons between six months in 2008 and 2009. The excess decline over five percent would be presumed to be mail that might have been shifted from October 2009 mailings into the summer program. In this hypothetical, the mailer would see the number of pieces eligible for summer volumes reduced by the number of pieces of declined volume in October over five

percent.

The summer incentive sale is in addition to the discount saturation mailers can earn by signing up to participate in the saturation mail Volume Incentive Program. Mailers that are participating in the Volume Incentive Program can earn a discount for saturation flats of four cents a piece for all additional saturation mail volume added between May 2009 and May 2010 over the prior year. The summer sale credit for increases in mail volume between July and September 2009 is a separate credit, in addition to, the saturation Volume Incentive Program.

With the October adjustment, and the complexities of any new program, the Postal Service has announced that it may take months to determine and apply credits to mailers’ individual postal payment accounts. In briefings describing the proposed program, postal officials have stated they hope to compute and award mailers with credits to their postal payment account before the end of December 2009.

The way to get started is to quit talk-ing and begin doing.

Walt Disney

I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.

Philip Dussenberry

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Vince Lombardi

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2009 June

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