Effective sales strategies are absolutely vital to any publication's success. But not all publications employ strategies that really work.

The publisher of xyz magazine was displeased with her publication's sales results. She blamed the advertising sales person. He wasn't trying hard enough, she believed. The sales person, on the other hand, was putting in long days, and trying every trick he knew to pull in more ads. He blamed the existence of three competing publications for his publication's faltering fortunes. Which one was right? Neither. Indeed, the sales person was giving the job the old college try. It's true that the field in which they publish had become well populated as two new publications appeared in recent years. But the field was quite robust, with lots of advertising dollars to go around.

What then was the problem? The publication had no effective sales strategies. That was the problem.

They thought they had a strategy. Over the years, the publisher had developed a sense of what characteristics of the publication were outstanding. And that's what was pushed in the sales presentations. Trouble is, though, this was no strategy at all. The publisher's view of her operation had become somewhat parochial. She wasn't seeing the forest for the trees. And the "strategy" simply didn't include all the essential elements of an effective strategy. The publication was ill-suited to be competing in a crowded field.

Be sure that your advertising sales effort is based upon solid, effective strategies.