The Yellow Pages brand is both blessing and curse for those trying to morph legacy directory businesses into digital solutions providers for SMBs. Yellow Media CEO Julien Billot conceded as much in his keynote presentation at BIA/Kelsey’s recent SMB Digital Marketing conference in San Francisco. However Billot believes the smarter play is to invest in transforming the “Yellow” brand vs. trying to build a new brand from scratch.

Under his leadership, Yellow Media has increased its branding investment from C$6 million in 2013 to roughly C$25 million this year, with the aim of convincing Canadian consumers and businesses that Yellow Media is much more than a print publisher. The end game is more organic traffic to generate higher margin digital sales.

Billot is also driving change in the sales approach and business model, moving to a continuous contact sales model and a product approach based more on selling performance than selling media. The following video shows my Q&A with Billot following his presentation on Day 1 of the conference. Here are a few snippets of what he had to say:

On the Yellow Pages Brand

“Basically when you talk to customers and users, they say ‘Yellow Pages’ is the major reason why customers open the door today, and it is the major reason why they don’t sign with us. So it is a difficult choice…Letting go of the Yellow Pages brand means you lose your main argument to talk to small companies…But if you leave the brand in the situation it is today, it is a handicap and no more an asset.”

On Sales Transformation

“Today our best sales representatives meet with customers six to 10 times per year and spent two hours in each of these meetings. In the past, we would ask, ‘Do you want to be in print?’ and ‘Please sign.’ and it would be over for the year…The time when a sales reps owns the relationship by himself is finished. Now we are into multi-touchpoint relationships. Sales by somebody and upsell by somebody else, on the phone or physically or via self serve. We want to be sure we are having an ongoing conversation with our customers.”

On the Business Model

“We are switching from a placement based product to a leads based product. This is why investing in our media is so important. Because today we sell a leads-based product — SEM from Google. It is good. Customers want it. But it is bad in terms of margin. Longer term we will still sell Google. But we want to repackage into this bundle some of our own traffic to be able to generate more margin.”

The post Conference Video: Q&A with Yellow Media’s Julien Billot appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The Yellow Pages brand is both blessing and curse for those trying to morph legacy directory businesses into digital solutions providers for SMBs. Yellow Media CEO Julien Billot conceded as much in his keynote presentation at BIA/Kelsey’s recent SMB Digital Marketing conference in San Francisco. However Billot believes the smarter play is to invest in transforming the “Yellow” brand vs. trying to build a new brand from scratch.

Under his leadership, Yellow Media has increased its branding investment from C$6 million in 2013 to roughly C$25 million this year, with the aim of convincing Canadian consumers and businesses that Yellow Media is much more than a print publisher. The end game is more organic traffic to generate higher margin digital sales.

Billot is also driving change in the sales approach and business model, moving to a continuous contact sales model and a product approach based more on selling performance than selling media. The following video shows my Q&A with Billot following his presentation on Day 1 of the conference. Here are a few snippets of what he had to say:

On the Yellow Pages Brand

“Basically when you talk to customers and users, they say ‘Yellow Pages’ is the major reason why customers open the door today, and it is the major reason why they don’t sign with us. So it is a difficult choice…Letting go of the Yellow Pages brand means you lose your main argument to talk to small companies…But if you leave the brand in the situation it is today, it is a handicap and no more an asset.”

On Sales Transformation

“Today our best sales representatives meet with customers six to 10 times per year and spent two hours in each of these meetings. In the past, we would ask, ‘Do you want to be in print?’ and ‘Please sign.’ and it would be over for the year…The time when a sales reps owns the relationship by himself is finished. Now we are into multi-touchpoint relationships. Sales by somebody and upsell by somebody else, on the phone or physically or via self serve. We want to be sure we are having an ongoing conversation with our customers.”

On the Business Model

“We are switching from a placement based product to a leads based product. This is why investing in our media is so important. Because today we sell a leads-based product — SEM from Google. It is good. Customers want it. But it is bad in terms of margin. Longer term we will still sell Google. But we want to repackage into this bundle some of our own traffic to be able to generate more margin.”

The post Conference Video: Q&A with Yellow Media's Julien Billot appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In true disruptive technology style, YPG is separating digital sales from print sales to allow the company to grow overall even as print continues to decline, noted YPG CEO Julien Billot, during a keynote at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing in New Orleans Sept. 22.

Billot noted that YPG has been leaking revenues, with revenues now 3X lower than in 2008. Growth will not come from existing customers, but must come from new customers. “Ninety percent of its customers still have print products. Meanwhile, “50 percent of non-advertisers do not believe YP is a credible digital brand nor feel that their customers use YP platforms,” said Billot.

To turn things around, Billot is plotting three phases of “resetting,” which he says is different from “transformation.” Between now and 2018, there will be a “return to growth” focused on stand alone digital. The final phase will be dedicated to accelerating growth, with a sustainable digital business — one that is focused as much on media as on sales.

“We are much more in the media business today,” he noted. Much of the resetting will be oriented towards new branding to change the way that people think about YP, he added, noting that he will budget Can $25 Million for the next four years to achieve this goal.

The post At Leading in Local: YPG CEO Julien Billot appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.