It's Complicated

Hello all,
I am gearing up for the WCAA conference at the Red Rock in Las Vegas next week, I thought I'd check in on the blog. Our intern Kim Milfort recently graduated, so we hired a new intern on August 31 whose name is Kaye. Look for her take on sales in the next issue of Creative Selling. We're also in the process of hiring a new associate editor, who will make his or her debut in the November issue. On top of that, we moved offices from Suite 300 to Suites 200-208 at our Ferry Street location in Lafayette. Needless to say, the blog has been lost in the shuffle. I hope you'll forgive me and tune in next week for updates from WCAA.
All that being said, on to today's post - It's Complicated.
As I was talking to a friend of mine, I started explaining why I was excited about today's World Cup qualifying matches. This past weekend, dozens of games were played around the world for an opportunity to land a spot at the World Cup. Each continent's governing confederation has its own system of qualification for its member teams, making it sometimes difficult to explain. If you're in South America, everyone gets to play everyone else once at home and once away, and the top four teams win a spot at the World Cup. However, if you're the fifth place team in South America, you have to play the fourth place team in North America to see which of you gets to go play in South Africa in 2010 at the World Cup. Confused yet? It gets worse, but I won't continue as that's about as far as I need to go to make my point.
How many of you have infrastructures and rate cards that leave your customers with similar headaches as they try to wrap their heads around classified rates versus ROP versus retail versus packages with online components and why the cost for page four is different than the cost for the back cover by such a large margin? While I could explain to you the justification for all the nuances of qualifying for the World Cup, it doesn't make it any less of a headache for you to try to understand the first time, and it doesn't mean there might not be a simpler way. Similarly, while you could explain why the rate card and infrastructure stands the way it does, that doesn't mean there might not be an easier way for your customers.
How much time do your sales reps waste explaining the rate card? How many customers have gone away in confusion rather than sort through the binder of options available to them? As you start planning for 2010, remember the acronym KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid - and try to think of ways to create packages geared toward advertisers of the "good," "better" and "best" variety that allow your advertisers to meet their needs without removing focus from their business. Make it easy for them to drive traffic to their location using the power of the local newspaper's voice, and they will reward your efforts.