After reading about the turn-out that Mel Taylor is having at his Tribune based small business seminars, I began to wonder- Is it time to call in the Marines?

As you can tell by reading earlier posts I am not a big fan of the business seminar as a closing tool. As an educational tool they have some merit. So, how do we help the traditional media company target the overwhelmed and sometimes timid, non-traditional advertiser? Well, that’s where the Marines come in. I’m using Marines as the example because of all those old war movies my father made me watch as I was growing up. There was one common thing in all of those movies- The Marines landed first and cleared the way so the Army’s traditional ground troops could do their job better.

My question is very simple- Can an outside source come into your market and help you develop a new revenue stream, train your staff, and smoothly transition the relationship? I’m not talking about the sales blitz model that leads to quick revenue and total reliance on the consultant. That model only benefits the consultant and may provide short term budget help but it does not provide sustained results and it does not make your sales staff any better than they were before the blitz.

The cut and run sales model works for the BIG YELLOW BOOK I throw away once a year (when it gets delivered) but for a media company that publishes a new product every day having a relationship with the customer is much more important than quick revenue.