Suppliers and engaging with newsagents

In between the newsagency management workshops I am involved with this week (off to Perth today), I have participated in several meetings with national suppliers to newsagents. I am fortunate to be able to do this often. In each meeting there has been mention of the challenges of engaging with newsagents. It usually starts with concerns about newsagent uptake of a promotion and that leads to a discussion about how the supplier engages.

Newsagents receive many communications from suppliers each day in the form of emails phone calls, letters and faxes. Way too many to be manageable an average size newsagency yet each sender expects the newsagent to read the communication and fully engage.  More than half the communications I see are inefficient and unclear in terms of the actions they expect from newsagents.  These are key factors in poor uptake.

I’d encourage suppliers who read this blog to look carefully at their communications with newsagents and consider:

• Is the communication genuinely important? If not then don’t sent it.
• Is there a commercial imperative for the newsagent? If not then reconsider sending the communication.
• What is the outcome you want from the communication? Is this clear? If not, make it clear.  Edit.
• Can the newsagent respond efficiently? Or are there forms to complete, details to other which will take time or other barriers to the action you wanted being taken?  Time you waste is time lost.

I see many communications from suppliers which are unclear in their goal and inefficient. Some judicious editing could help newsagent save time and improve outcomes for suppliers in terms of responses.

We are a time poor channel so suppliers please respect this, make communication more efficient and help us save time in working with you.