Yes, the jury is still out on my skills as a businessman. I have only been working as country manager for Ringier, a Swiss publishing house, in Vietnam since July 2009. But after six months, I can’t tell you how often I refer back to core journalism techniques (in an attempt) to be a better businessperson. Could it be that going to journalism school made me a better businessperson? My case:

• Pitching (1): If you can’t summarize your business plan or reason to cooperate/partner in one short sentence, then you might as well put your money into a pile on the floor and burn it. The plan, the people, the time line… The end of your “story” had better be crystal clear before you get started.
• Pitching (2): If you’re not passionate about your plan to make money, then why should I be passionate? You’re selling ideas; and instead of editors, you’re convincing investors, partners, staff, etc. Put on your sales hat and be sure to use words that will sell an “editor” like ‘amazing’, ‘limited time’ and ‘exclusive.’
• Don’t bury the nut. If you haven’t got on slide 2, after your fancy .pptx or Keynote intro slide, the reason WHY we are sitting in this room during our busy schedules, then you’ve already wasted everyone’s time. Chances are, if you have more than 10 slides, you’re in trouble. Same goes for a press release. Don’t make me think and show me why I should pay attention right away.
• Show don’t tell. Okay, you’re passionate. You’re convincing. I like you. But I’m running a business. My staff or I won’t eat if I make a bad decision here. Show me in a clear cut business plan how we’re going to make money. Let me see the numbers, the reasoning and/or the evidence that backs up what you’re so convincingly pitching me.
• There is nothing different from a “beat note” and “market research report.” Who are you talking to about this business plan? How diverse is your source list? How do you know that the people you are talking to know what they are talking about? When things change, how do you know about them first? Is your beat note up-to-date?
• Verify your sources. In business, there is a lot of pressure to minimize weakness and maximize advantage(s). Often what is “told” is very different from what is “real.” It’s your job – your bottom line – to check the difference. The easiest way to do this is to talk to people/businesses around this person/business. Same thing in journalism. He said X. Ask Y and Z if true.
• Fact check everything. Again. .5 and .05 are very different numbers. Does the labor contract with the new sales director say, “gross” or “net” under salary? BIG difference.
• What’s new? What’s news? To state the obvious: if someone is already doing it or it’s already been done, then it’s less likely you’ll be successful or noticed if you do it too. If it’s not news, then it’s not worth pitching. Readers want news, not the obvious or apparent. Same for business. Got a new idea to convert a blanket into a jacket, call it a Snuggie and make bank. Shave a decimal place off a kilowatt, call up the CEO or your congressman. If you’re not solving problems or giving kinetic value to an end user, then don’t bother. You’re wasting time. And time is money. Right freelancer?
• Do more with less. A reasonably intelligent and motivated individual can perform multiple tasks at the same time. Got a hot music single from a sexy musician? Don’t sell the album. Sell the single, the album, the merchandise, the branding, the concert ticket, the soundtrack rights, etc. Got a story? No, you have a Twitter newsflash, a Web crawl headline, an above-the-fold photo, a breaking blog article, a newspaper article, a video clip, 24-hour pundit babble, a syndicate wire story, a magazine feature, PR for your news org and a lot more. The person that broke the story… Give them credit. Give them training. They should be able to do everything. Maximize their value. Maximize the story. Take a service or product and split it up and sell it more. Keep costs down by empowering/training fewer people to do more.

Maybe the great irony of the media is dying, is that in the year when business went bad, old-school journalism techniques could save it. I don’t know. Jury is still out.

I’m here to help build up Ringier’s portfolio of online and print properties. What staff I already have is loyal, entrenched and talented in unique ways. I’m responsible for hiring the rest. Like any new company, we’re faced with tight budgets, strong competition and huge mandates i.e. “be no. 1 market leader in magazines.” Given how much growth is predicted in media and entertainment for Vietnam, I have little excuses to succeed.

Like most out there doing too much with too little, I’ve been busy. Here’s what we’ve started my first month:

1. Creating monthly marketing reports i.e. what’s the market share, important ad sectors and how we’re faring.
2. Web site development for current and future print projects.
3. Marketing campaigns.
4. Short and long term sales packages. Latest one: “End of Summer Special!”
5. Meeting with Vietnamese publishing license partners. Foreign companies are not legally permitted to publish in Vietnam.
6. Recruitment. Recruitment. Recruitment.

Speaking of recruitment, we’re about to launch a redesigned family cooking magazine, Beb Gia Dinh. And we’ll need a sales director to help us monetize the publication. Finding people with media sales and advertising experience is tough in Vietnam. But you can find people who are smart, hard working and have sales/leadership experience. Recently, I interviewed several candidates. After meeting with them I sent a follow up email asking each candidate to put together a sales proposal for an imaginary client. I thought it was a good exercise.

The client and the magazine description is below. Depending on the feedback, I’ll post a few of their responses (anonymously) afterwards.

Dear X,

Good to see you again today. Ringier is interested in you for the cooking magazine position, however, because you have little media advertising experience, we need to think carefully about how to proceed.

For instance, I’d like to know more about how you would construct a sales proposal. You don’t need to be detailed, but what would be the basic information for making a sales proposal to this imaginary client below?

Potential Client

• Company name: Rice Cooker.
• Client contact name: John Smith
• Product target: housewives and newly married young women
• Advertising budget for 3 months: 50,000,000 VND.
• Goal: Want to sell more of their new rice cookers with steam heating in HCMC.

• More information: John Smith thinks that a good return on investment would be about 2%. He is interested to know what the CPM of the cooking magazine advertisement package. He is also interested in online opportunities. Their competition advertises a different rice cooker in Tien Tep Vao Dep. Mr. Smith’s friends tell him that Vao Dep is the most popular cooking magazine in Vietnam. Why should he advertise in Bep Gia Dinh?

Bep Gia Dinh information

• Created in 2003.
• Circulation of 45,000
• Frequency: every two weeks
• Readership is 180,000 people.
• Circulation is 70% in HCMC. 25% HN. 5% middle Vietnam.
• Cost of full page ad: 20,000,000 VND.
• Discount ads up to 50% (Bep Gia Dinh is relaunching, so gives a good discount the first 4 months after launch).
• Editorial content: Vietnamese and Western recipes, family cooking, children recipes, celebrity chefs, kitchen products, popular restaurants in HCMC and HN. Each section includes a space for “soft-advertising” or PR.
• Advertising positions: Standard with creative options for discussion. No cover advertising.
• GOAL: Get the Rice Cooker company to buy as much advertising as possible for as long as possible.

• More information: Recently, BGD was bought by Ringier, a Swiss publishing company. Ringier has many cooking magazines in the world. Ringier gave BGD a redesign. The new design and content is fresh and modern. Ringier doubled the number of pages of BGD from 24 to 44. In October, BGD will launch a new Website. In September, Ringier will launch a marketing campaign in HCMC and HN to promote the new magazine.

Some questions to think about:

1. How would you prepare a sales proposal for the Rice Cooker company?
2. How can you satisfy the client and BGD’s goal? Have fun and be creative.
3. What ads would you sell? How often?
4. How do you explain Bep Gia Dinh’s “unique selling points”?
5. How do you prevent the client to advertise in competitor magazine?
6. Where would the ads go?
7. How can you encourage the client to advertise for more than 4 months?
8. What special benefits can you give the client?

There are no right or wrong answers. Just be creative and do some media advertising research. We want to see how you can apply your sales experience to media advertising.

How well would you do? I dunno myself.