In the magazine publishing business, data-driven decisions are the best decisions. But data points by themselves don't tell a story. For that, you need powerful, automated ad sales reporting.
Ad Sales Reporting and Opportunity Cost
First, let's talk about opportunity cost. To illustrate, let's use an example of an employee who spends an average of two days per month to create and distribute one or more reports. Maybe the reports are related to commissions, or products sold, or forecasts—for this first point, the content of the reports doesn't necessarily matter.
In contrast, here's what does matter: time. Your employee is spending a collective 24 days per year creating reports—nearly five work weeks in total. This is time that they could be doing market research, making advertiser calls, or pushing new products.
Likewise, this example also affects decision-making stakeholders. If your business data is spread across docs, spreadsheets, and other sources, it means that your ability to make fast data-driven decisions is limited.
In conclusion, automation means fast access to powerful reporting (and in turn, faster decision making). Additionally, it means your employees are freed up to pursue the types of tasks that can grow your business.
What Does Automated Ad Sales Reporting Look Like?
In essence, automated ad sales reporting translates to easily customizable reports based on nearly any of your sales or accounting data points. You should be able to:
- Choose the data points you want to compare.
- Display data how you want (bar graph, line chart, pie chart, etc.)
- Save and replicate the report.
- Set the report to run at the interval of your choose.
- Determine who has access to the report.
- Distribute the report automatically via email or within your CRM.
- Compare your business with industry trends and averages.
In summary, automating your ad sales reporting allows your employees to focus on growth-generating tasks. Furthermore, decision makers get instant access to data that's ready to be interpreted.
The Most Powerful Magazine Publishing CRM Software
At Ad Sales Genius, we're laser focused on building automation-focused CRM software that helps magazine publishers grow. Schedule a personalized demo now to learn how we can maximize your efficiency across sales, production, and invoicing.
