In our fourth (and largest) survey of local ad-sales manager the digital divide is clear – 51% of digital media companies have at least one digital only AE on staff. Companies that employ digital-only sales reps — even one or two — tend to have far more digital revenue than those who don’t. There’s overwhelming evidence that a rep who sells two competing products always winds up favoring one. And that could be bad news in both directions: For a media company focusing its traditional-media reps too much on digital sales ... or vice-versa.
Having digital-only sales rep on staff lifts attitudes, increases understanding of digital products and increases digital revenues for traditional media companies. But competition is stiff to hire digital reps: Pureplay companies are offering 50% more base pay than traditional media companies. That’s the conclusion of our latest survey of 220 sales executives at radio, TV, newspaper, yellow pages and pureplay companies. Hiring of digital-only reps is back on the upswing, with 62% of media companies reporting that they have at least one on staff – up from 48% in 2011.
The rush is on to hire and train great AEs who can drive digital sales. But the big question is, how should they be paid, and how should multimedia sales staffs be organized? This 27-page report sheds light on what’s happening with the army of 81,000 local ad-sales reps in the U.S. as local media companies retool for the digital age. It includes 14 charts detailing the size of the various sales forces across traditional media and pureplay Internet companies, how many are “digital ready,” and their managers’ evaluations on their levels of effectiveness.