Yellow Medya, Turkey’s Yellow Pages publisher, announced a new partnership agreement today with TomTom Places. The Yellow Pages publisher will serve as the business listing and content provider to the navigation products supplier. In addition, Yellow Medya will serve as the exclusive reseller of TomTom Places in Turkey. TomTom Places provides priority business listings, keyword and brand search capabilities on its devices and apps.

As a reseller, Yellow Medya will offer guaranteed placement on TomTom products including PNDs, in-car satellite navigation systems and mobile phone apps. During the past four years, Yellow Medya has invested in building its business listing database. Currently, it contains more than 750,000 businesses.

Earlier this year, Yellow Medya released SoLoMo, its location-based engagement platform. It also partnered with vSplash Tech Labs to fulfill online and mobile brand points of presence. The new partnership with TomTom Places is poised to complement Yellow Medya’s business developments in location based marketing, local search, and engagement solutions for SMBs and brand owners.

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Yellow Medya, formerly Turkey Yellow Pages, announced a partnership today with the world’s largest travel site, TripAdvisor, in Turkey. The Yellow Pages publisher will integrate TripAdvisor onto all its platforms, including online and mobile. As a result, it will have access to TripAdvisor reviews and opinions for accommodations, restaurants, attractions and all hospitality businesses currently listed on TripAdvisor websites.

In addition to content integration, Yellow Medya will also offer a TripAdvisor business listings program to encourage accommodation businesses in Turkey to adopt the new offering. Yellow Medya projects that its business listings will enable hotels to gain an increase in direct bookings and exposure to TripAdvisor’s 50 million unique monthly visitors.

In September Turkey Yellow Pages rebranded itself as Yellow Medya. The change reflected the company’s desire to evolve from a traditional directory business to a local search media agency for brands and small businesses.

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Yell announced today that it acquired Znode, an e-commere software development company in a deal valued at $19 million. Znode will be incorporated into Yell Group as part of its new consumer division, Yell Connect. Znode’s technology will serve as an e-commerce platform for the U.K.-based Yellow Pages publisher. In May, we summarized Yell Group’s fiscal results with its prediction that 75 percent of products will be digital by 2015. If so, this latest acquisition, which is scheduled to be complete later this month, is on target.

E-commerce is part of Yell’s new strategy to connect small businesses with consumers on a local level. A few of the digital services that Znode will provide include turnkey mobile apps that work across iPhone, iPad and Android based phones, single and multi-store e-commerce, and mobile technology that enables storefronts to be “pushed” to mobile phones and tablets in real time. In addition, the Znode e-commerce platform will help Yell automate its own transaction system with trackable performance to enhance efficiency and the customer experience.

Columbus, Ohio-based Znode is financed by North Coast Angel Fund. It is the first company under the fund’s umbrella to be sold. Last November, North Coast invested $200,000 into Znode in addition to the investments of several individual members of the fund.

In other recent news, Yell Group has named Richard Hanscott as the CEO of Yell UK. Hanscott comes to Yell with an IT and telecommunications background, with leadership stints at NEC, Orange and Hewlett-Packard.

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In an internal memorandum announcing the change, Condron said: “At the heart of this year’s business plan is the imperative to position ourselves correctly to accelerate away from this recession. We already have most of the ingredients in place: a great sales organization, a great and trusted brand, great customer solutions and leading edge technologies. But to exploit these advantages fully, we need to quick our decision taking and to ensure complete alignment within marketing and sales.”

Condron continued: “We have to apply our considerable resources wisely to maximize our ability to serve increasingly complex customer needs. I am therefore combining sales, UK market development and new media marketing into a single team under Mark Canon.”

Reporting to Canon under the new structure are Mitch Connolly, director of sales operations; Sarah Kiddell, sales director, development; and CMO Helen Stevenson and her team.

This move raises the obvious question whether the move is a signal that Canon is in line for a promotion to CEO when Condron does step down, or if this is merely a measure to ensure the company executes at a high level during the transition. Regardless, it does signal that Canon has made a mark at Yell and has earned Condron’s confidence.

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In an internal memorandum announcing the change, Condron said: “At the heart of this year’s business plan is the imperative to position ourselves correctly to accelerate away from this recession. We already have most of the ingredients in place: a great sales organization, a great and trusted brand, great customer solutions and leading edge technologies. But to exploit these advantages fully, we need to quick our decision taking and to ensure complete alignment within marketing and sales.”

Condron continued: “We have to apply our considerable resources wisely to maximize our ability to serve increasingly complex customer needs. I am therefore combining sales, UK market development and new media marketing into a single team under Mark Canon.”

Reporting to Canon under the new structure are Mitch Connolly, director of sales operations; Sarah Kiddell, sales director, development; and CMO Helen Stevenson and her team.

This move raises the obvious question whether the move is a signal that Canon is in line for a promotion to CEO when Condron does step down, or if this is merely a measure to ensure the company executes at a high level during the transition. Regardless, it does signal that Canon has made a mark at Yell and has earned Condron’s confidence.

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I recently attended a webinar hosted by SalesBlogcast that featured social media company BizBrag. My reason for attending was to learn how small and medium sized-businesses can take advantage of social media. Based on our Local Commerce Monitor research, 32 percent of SMBs said they plan to use a social site, while 31 percent indicated they plan to place links or ads on social media sites. What previous waves of LCM data have shown is a high desire for social media but lower actual spending, indicating a pent-up demand to spend in this category. My theory has always been that social media is often intimidating to those less familiar with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging and posting news features. All these activities take time and a certain level of technical expertise to manage them while also running a business.

Enter BizBrag. CEO Brian Smith made it his mission to try to develop a single platform where SMBs can manage all their social media activities including e-mail marketing. “With so many social media outlets, with varying ways of inputting data and broadcasting information, BizBrag’s goal was to create an easy to use all-in-one platform. The goal is to help small businesses create ways to draw activity to their Web sites by creating more ways to be found on search engines via blogs, news articles, and social media posts.” Small businesses create a BizFolio that shows all their activity and provides a simple description of the company. The dashboard feature allows the company to create news articles and posts about their company showing them where they can post their information. Enter a news story (Called a Braggit), check a few boxes on where it can be posted, upload an e-mail list, and then hit submit.

BizBrag is two months out of beta and now gaining speed with 1,000 advertisers signed on since going live. Leveraging its social media expertise, BizBrag has been active in working its social media network to get the word out to SMBs. Smith pointed out, “if the pace of inquiries and new advertisers signed on in the last two months is any indication, we seem to have hit the mark with small businesses trying to figure out an easy way to start and manage a social media campaign.”

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In addition to the visual enhancements, Yell.com has added “shortlists,” which enable the user to create favorite lists that they can share via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

Yell.com has also, separately, introduced a video channel. The channel allows SMBs to upload videos for free and is part of an overall effort to promote the use of video as a promotional vehicle. At this stage, the video channel primarily features SMBs in Central London.

The idea of an immersive Yellow Pages idea has been gaining traction, particularly among European directory publishers. European Directories has embraced the concept.

The French publisher PagesJaunes has long featured a highly visual online experience. Seat PG features 3-D images in its TuttoCitta.it mapping product. Boston-based EveryScape is an early innovator in bringing the immersive experience to local online media.

And then, of course, there is Google Street View.

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To kick off the panel, Laughlin presented some thoughts on what the new Yellow Pages organization is all about and spurred thinking about how transformation needs to occur from the core product to a multiproduct environment. Laughlin presented these points:

What is the YP organization all about?
— No longer legacy focused
— Lean and flexible cost structure
— More technological sophistication
— Leadership that spans media and technology
— Faster moving and more risk tolerant

Laughlin also presented some data from BIA/Kelsey’s latest User View study that show consumers are increasingly using more media sources to help them make a local shopping decision. Per our latest research, 7.9 local media sources. Pomeroy picked up on this data point in his comments and noted that to fulfill on “the notion of [the YP sales force] being an advisor we have to be knowledgeable and facile with the 7.9 resources.” Pomeroy continued, “There’s a lot of money being poured into local media right now whether it be from venture capitalists or entrepreneurs. We have something that everyone covets: Access. We are the historical beneficiaries of what we’ve always done. That reality is a coveted asset.”

One key topic during the panel was the transformation of the traditional directory sales force. Akhurst noted that the sales organization needs continual training, but believes that they’re quite adaptable. He believes in the constant investment in the sales force as well as continual training.

Pomeroy too said Berry has made a significant investment in training and that the change from a product mind-set to a service mind-set gives the sales force credibility.

Lewis said Mediatel/EDSA has taken a slightly different stance in that it has started with the marketing first. “Let’s make it as easy as possible. Every one of our packages has three components: print, online and mobile. Start from the marketing and product end and then train them.”

To wrap up the discussion, Laughlin asked the panelists to name one thing that the industry has to change to ensure a sustainable future.

Here are their varied responses:

Lewis: Speed
Pomeroy: Focus on service over products
Akhurst: Fear of failure
Stover: Relationships — meaning leveraging those in the directory space’s unique position in local media

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One of the recommendations we have been supporting and talking about over the past year is the need to look at the print directory differently. For the past 100-plus years, the directory has been viewed as a distribution media vehicle — “we deliver to every resident in a city.” In recent years, with distribution declining and local media fragmenting, people in our industry are still hung up on getting more books to more people rather than trying to view a directory as a series of verticals that reach different audiences, with different needs and varying levels of spending power.

Enter Larry Small, research director for the Yellow Pages Association, who supports one of our major views that demographics are an often ignored factor when considering the value of a print directory. While the industry has been concerned with the 18-25 crowd and how directories will adapt to attract and meet the needs of this group, Small points out that the real factor is not only age but disposable income.

He goes on to say: “One other metric to keep in mind is disposable income. The Yellow Pages industry has positioned itself as the best source for generating qualified leads. By definition, a qualified lead is one where people are ready to make a purchase — in other words, they have the need AND the resources to complete the sale.”

Small also shares this chart from CNNMoney.com that shows median net worth of individuals by age group:

With higher usage rates in the 35-65 age groups, the print directory has the capacity to reach more affluent spenders who have high discretionary spending in categories that are meaningful to a directory because of the life stages these age groups are in. Users in these age groups are spending on home renovation, financial services, house wares, cleaning services — all key directory headings. According to BIA/Kelsey’s research and U.S. Census data, those in the 35-65 age groups control nearly 80 percent of spending power in the US.

CRM Trends, which tracks changes in demographic trends points out: “Compared with the big-spending Baby Boom generation, these new spenders (18-30) will be less attractive as fewer will have reached their big-spending life stages. They will not only have less buying power, they will also be more fragmented into niche interest markets and will demand more personalization and be harder to reach with conventional marketing.”

Because a directory is essentially made up of a series of verticals, directory publishers would be well advised to look at these categories to determine if they have the appropriate content, editorial support and navigation for the age demographic the category attracts. Taking this approach might signal the need to redevelop different sections of the book rather than the entire directory, integrating more print to mobile or online products like SMS codes or QR Codes, rethinking distribution, or adding more unique/relevant content not generally found elsewhere or found in one location.

Freeing up the minds of print product managers to think in new ways about the directory and its varying target markets may indeed create greater innovation and product reconfigurations rather than simply offering more cosmetic changes.

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Having been in the trenches for the past year talking about multiproduct selling and how a consultative or collaborative sales process is a key component for selling multiple media, I keep hearing over and over again “I’ve been training on consultative selling for years so why should we rely on it to take us into the next era of selling?” Having been involved in local media sales for more than 10 years, I’m going to take the unpopular stand and say that the current local media sales process is transactional product selling in consultative selling clothes. In short, many sales organizations have embraced aspects of consultative selling but in large it is being used as a sales tacticto get in the door and keep the advertiser talking in order to sell specific media options.

BNET recently featured Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati, who wrote a new book titled “Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business.” In his book, Gulati points out:

“In a marketplace like today, customers have more choices and more information, and services start to look like each other, in what we call a sea of sameness. If you don’t have an ability to transcend beyond the features and functionality of my product versus yours, then you have a problem.”

Gulati points out the fallacy of the notion that media companies are currently consultative and customer focused. Many media sales teams feel if they are asking a few questions about the business and their expected ROI from their marketing efforts that somehow this constitutes consultative selling. Put simply, salespeople are saying “I’ll talk about your needs so long as it leads to you only buying my portfolio of solutions.” Gulati’s point of view is “Most organizations believe they are customer centric when they are asking questions, but they’re communicating with customers through a product lens (with a pre-determined end in mind).” Instead, Gulati says “companies must ask deeper questions such as what problems they are dealing with and what issues are happening in the life of my customers regardless of the solutions the sales person is offering.” The goal in asking probing questions is to help the advertiser better articulate his or her needs so sales can get them met.

Consultative or collaborative selling is about transparency and building solutions that fit the customer’s needs and not necessarily the media company’s balance sheet. If a salesperson is aiming to sell a specific product set, and is willing to un-sell other potential solutions, then this version of consultative selling is merely disguised as the same transactional selling of old — all paths lead to a limited solution. Media consultants recognize there are many media options available to advertisers and that at times their portfolio of media offerings has to co-exist or complement other media and at other times they must fight to win budget from media that may not be as effective or is receiving too large of a share of an advertiser’s budget. Being able to counsel local advertisers on media strengths and weaknesses means salespeople must learn about all types of local media to be effective in selling their own portfolio of media options.

Local advertisers are much smarter about where they spend their marketing dollars because they have access to more information than ever before and have tighter ties to peers through social networks who can offer additional guidance. Salespeople used to be the source of information about what was happening in the local marketplace but now they are one of many sources available. If a salesperson cannot deliver value beyond what an advertiser can access on his or her own, then he or she has very little to offer. True media consultancy is the path where more peer-to-peer relationships are developed. Based on BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor study, 48 percent of SMBs want their media rep to help them understand their media options and make the best choice for their budget among the confusing array of new media choices.

While many media sales organizations are looking at incremental changes to their sales processes, those that are savvy and understand that local advertisers have changed and that the sales role must change are the ones that will thrive. The reality is the market has already changed and it is up to each media company to understand how to recraft its sales strategy and put together a consultative media sales team that understands local media and can be the media guide local advertisers are seeking. It’s time to stop making consultative selling a sales tactic for getting the advertiser to talk and use it as a means for building a relationship, creating value and developing media plans that work for the benefit of the advertiser and leverage their existing marketing activities. If consultative selling fantasy can be turned into reality, media outlets stand to make significant revenue gains and gain a larger, more loyal base of advertisers.

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