Interview with Peter Lamb, Sales Consultant within the Publishing Industry

The goal of Lamb Consulting is to help publishing companies, firstly, to identify what their competitive advantage is, and, secondly, how to leverage this advantage into new revenue streams. My role is to utilize the sophisticated marketing principles learned at Harvard Business School, combine it with 20 years experience in our industry, focus on a hands-on sales approach, and create new marketplaces for my clients. My motivation for founding LC, interesting question, was purely by default! After being a casualty of a corporate re-structuring, I conducted an exhaustive 6 month interview process in Miami, only to come up empty. It was time to take a shot on my own! I had developed a good working relationship with some of the publishers in the Florida Community Paper group, they opened the door for me and are still my client to this day.

My experience prior to advertising was 3 years in sales at IBM. After doing a summer and a spring break internship at The Flyer in Miami, I believed that these sales skills, combined with my MBA experience, should be able to be easily and successfully transferred to an industry, in my case, free weekly papers, known for its entrepreneurial bent.

I would categorize the changes over the last 5 years into four broad areas, which I have to admit, are still very much a work in progress:

1. A greater inordinate focus on what the customer wants, it is all about the user experience!
2. How to capitalize on the online and mobile trends, AND to convince our industry leaders that being print-centric is a recipe for disaster.
3. Tapping into the success of other industries, especially in the areas of pricing and customer segmentation.
4. Realizing that our reps are on the front line, the crucial first point of customer contact, and ensuring that we have incentive schemes in place for them and sales managers to drive superior performance.

I actually came to the US on a tennis scholarship in the fall of 1976. Given the political and racial situation in South Africa at the time, and the fact that I had achieved some success playing tennis, my parents decided that, in order to realize my full potential, the best place for me to be was the land of opportunity, here in the US!!!

As a pro on the tour, I was always chasing the dream, different week, different city, sometimes a different country, even a different surface. How many rounds could I win this week? Will I make it into the main draw? Will I cover my expenses? Why am I completing such a small percentage of my first serves?

This is a very good analogy. In sales, we always emphasize having the right attitude to handle the constant rejection, especially on cold calls. "I did not even make it past the developing rapport segment of the sales process" is a common sentiment. This is no different from the weekly grind of the pro tour, losing in the early rounds, sometimes even in the qualifying, and developing the right frame of mind to do it all over again next week. The other striking similarity is that in Sales we are always practicing and honing our skills via role plays. No different in tennis: developing the discipline of practicing parts of your game and asking for help, a la a field ride or an accompaniment with your sales manager

Most of what I do is to highlight to my clients the competitive advantage and ability to think outside the box that I bring to the table, and how I would translate this into revenue for them. Hence, I read constantly to stay abreast of the state of the art thinking and Best Practices, and to tap into what leaders in other industries are doing to stay ahead. I am also a firm believer in and user of Dale Carnegie's Conversational Generosity, this allows me to uncover where the real revenue opportunities for my clients are.

Firstly, I would say that the potential in our industry is unlimited, especially given the onslaught of mobile and online, get to know this space and what today's and tomorrow's customers want! Secondly, inhale 'How to win friends and influence people', by Dale Carnegie, it is still one of the best sales "manuals" around. Thirdly, find a mentor; one that will not tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to hear, like my tennis coach! Last, but not least, as Steve Jobs told the Stanford graduating class: "Stay hungry, stay foolish". We need that passion in our industry today!

On the business side, my biggest sleep depriver is the fear that despite our customers' increasing acceptance of the online and mobile space, we as an industry are not adapting quickly, even drastically, enough. We are also not concentrating enough on customer segmentation in an effort to maximize profitability from the audience we do enjoy. On the people side, I worry that we are not recruiting younger, newer faces to the industry with fresh ideas to challenge some of the old guard. In the same vein, we do not have adequate mentorship systems in place, to not only attract the "new breed", so to speak, but to also accelerate their growth. On the personal side, what keeps me up is the dynamic and evolving political and economic situation in my homeland, South Africa.

• A picture with my mom and dad at the Cape Town airport the very first time I left the country to play tennis.
• A picture with my two boys, Brian and Kevin, all dressed up in our tuxes, at a friend's wedding.
• Create Marketplace Disruption, How to stay ahead of the competition by Adam Hartung.
• Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence people. Nelson Mandela's autobiography: Long Walk to Freedom.
• Harvard Business Review's Special Sales issue.