Thursday, July 2, 2015

We just started the second half of the year. So, how'd it go in the first half? Better? Sure, compared to last year but no where near the two or three years preceding, right?

Take a moment and do the following early this week:

• Take a good look at your new business from January to June. How many accounts? Average order size? Are most of them generated by one or two AEs?
• Examine your attrition. What went away and why? Classify the responses to get a better understanding. Is your attrition driven by two or three categories?
• Compare your categories of advertisers and track growth over prior year's Q1 and Q2. Any surprises? Is automotive up? Financial? Check on how Q1 was for Financial services, Automotive, Grocery, Health Care, TV and Cable, Communications … you get the idea.
• Is your NTR calendar laid out for the rest of the year? If not, do it. Now. It's a longer selling cycle and if you're not working on late Q3 and Q4 NTR programs now, they won't get sold.

Follow this path. Take a good hard look at the first half to shine a light on what you can do in the second half.