Secret Sales Tool
Written: Jan 02 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Short, topical articles that help address a variety of issues
Cons: Generic focus means not everything is relevant
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| Joubert's Full Review: Sales and Marketing Management Magazine |
Trade magazine publishers bombard businesspeople with free magazine subscription offers. Known as controlled circulation publications, they carry esoteric names such as Aardvark Quarterly or Traffic Light Month. Unfortunately, the adage about getting what you pay for frequently comes true, and while there is a place in each industry for such magazines, they shouldn’t be one of your primary information sources.
Sales and Marketing Management makes no such pretense. This magazine wants to be a primary information source, and rather than recycling old press releases, creates its own features. Individual monthly issues retail at newsstands for $4.95, while annual subscriptions sell for $48. Included with the subscription is an Annual Survey of Buying Power, listing every imaginable stat for metropolitan areas throughout the country. I usually toss mine at the nearest market research person, but it does seem chock full of stats that make them happy.
So for $50 A Year, What Do You Get?
Well, if you get one decent idea out of the more than thousand pages they publish each year, you’ve more than gotten your money’s worth, even with the opportunity cost of the time needed to read the articles.
The issues break down into three main sections: Features, Strategies & Trends and Best Practices. Like every other magazine, there are also recurring departments and features.
I find the articles to be fresh and very topical, while being written in what those who are in polite circles refer to as “executive summary”. The articles are substantive, but short enough to hold interest and not appear to be a white paper. Subjects covered in the most recent issue include email, new types of commission plans, CRM systems, picking domain names, and training.
For the first year of my subscription, I found myself becoming a one man clipping service, sending an avalanche of copied articles to colleagues. Then I switched tactics and began routing the magazine to several executives. Now, however, I simply toss my copy into the shared magazine stack in our lunchroom when I’m done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an issue stay longer than several hours.
It’s All Just Advice, Right?
Right. But it’s the best kind – advice that you determine how to apply to your specific situation. There are very few articles titled “10 Tips To…” or “Secret Ways You…”. Instead, the editorial staff uses a number of case studies and interviews.
I prefer this type of reading because learning is more powerful when the learners must perform the analysis themselves. Rote memorization of tactics or techniques frequently causes the learner to become too dependent upon his sources. That dependence weakens a manager. After all, what if the issue hasn’t been covered in an article yet? I have no intention of suggesting that Sales and Marketing Management improves critical thinking skills; indeed, the brevity of most articles can allow one to skim past important points. But the magazine certainly doesn’t dumb down its topics nor discourage critical thinking, and that’s always a plus in my book.
So Who Reads This Thing?
According to BPA International, a leading auditing firm that publishers use to “prove” circulation numbers, Sales and Marketing Management has slightly less than 50,000 paid subscribers. 35% of subscribers hold a President or Vice President title and only 31% have annual revenues exceeding more than $100 million.
That data shows that a significant portion of the readers are executives in smaller companies. They are the responsive, nimble marketers and salespeople I want to hear from, not someone at a Fortune 50 who has a promotions budget larger than my entire revenue line?
The magazine claims that it’s pass-along rate, that is, the number of people exposed to at least a portion of each issue is closer to 200,000. Given my own experience, that claim seems reasonable.
Some Trivial Facts
· The magazine has the coolest URL in the field – www.salesandmarketing.com
· You wouldn’t expect anything less, but each issue’s delivery preceded by a short email that arrives several days before the magazine. I subscribe to a number of magazines and this is the only title to accomplish this consistently well.
· Each issue ends with a feature called The Closer, a column detailing a hypothetical situation for readers to solve. The top solution as selected by the editorial staff wins a $50 American Express gift check. That’s certainly not the attraction for this crowd. Instead, a dozen or two solutions are printed in the next issue – allowing you to compare your ideas with those of management in other organizations.
· The chunky ad section prevalent in most magazines is gone. Advertising flows through most issues now – a much smarter design that consumer magazines quickly implemented, but most B-to-B titles are still slow in adopting.
· The web site is good for researching older material, but nothing beats the feel of holding a copy of the slick pages in your hands and being able to thumb to the article you want to find.
· Many organizations will pay for subscriptions for their sales managers or executives.
Recommended:
Yes
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