Tribune Conf Call - and sales

I've just spent some time listening to the investor conference call by Tribune. Since they're no longer public much of it is focused on success stories. The most amazing thing they have talked about is the pilot testing of sales changes. They noted how the sales staff is mostly compensated by salary, with a minor bonus component based upon performance.

It still amazes me that this will be met with shock throughout the industry. This is actually a dramatic shift, even if it seems like common sense that a seller will work harder if they share more in the upside.

The reason they noted was that publishers in the past implemented these systems as a method of cost control. When all they had to do was take orders, the "Sales" staff could have gotten expensive, so too much upside was a bad thing. Now that demand is down, the more important thing is to make sure that there is the proper incentive to push more products. If a sales person makes a lot of money, so what. The paper still makes more.

They want to align the sales with the customer more, to make sure they are delivering the value due to them. They have tried to compile a list of success stories that can be used for further sales.

I love it, with one notable exception. I think a retention incentive is very important. If sales is really going to align with the customer, they need to make sure they have as much incentive to serve the account as to sell it.

Before I started this blog, I would be one of the first that questioned the Zell purchase, not because of zell, but because of the leveraged nature of the transaction. What I forgot about was common sense is anything but common. Zell seems to be moving the team in the right direction, by running the company like an efficient business focused on the customer.