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Interactive Sales Consultant, Orange County Register Communications

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Opportunity Snapshot

In this role you will help pioneer a new vision for our organization, driving success on the leading edge of two initiatives that will propel us into the next decade: growing our online business and acquiring new customers. You'll leverage your creativity in partnering with customers to create custom online advertising solutions. This position is referred to internally as a "Hunter," and will be exclusively focused on acquiring new customers in the Orange County market.

You will prospect and sell to a huge untapped market of local businesses that are spending an increasing share of their ad budgets on interactive products. To be a good fit for this opportunity you will have a high performance background in sales, including demonstrated success in interactive sales. We're looking for a highly motivated, performance-oriented individual who is accustomed to producing results. You'll need a demonstrated ability to carry out a high volume of cold calls, get through gatekeepers to decision makers, quickly match customer needs with our portfolio, and close the deal.

Prominent in the portfolio you'll sell will be two of Orange County's premier online destinations, OCRegister.com and OrangeCounty.com. In addition you'll be able to offer products across the entire Orange County Register Communications portfolio, as well as the network of Freedom Communications, Inc., one of the nation's largest media corporations.

What Else You'll Bring to the Table

The ideal candidate will be an aggressive sales professional but also have the account management finesse to circle back with clients, share the metric results and ROI of an online campaign, and make recommendations for moving forward. In addition to the qualifications detailed above, you'll need:

A track record of consistently meeting or exceeding goals in a high production sales environment.
The ability to learn and apply new information quickly.
The ability to drive sales through networking and associations.
Strong organizational skills and excellent follow through.
A proven ability to be flexible and adaptable.
Outstanding people skills and the ability to work with all position levels within sales and marketing.
A professional demeanor and the ability to make effective, polished presentations to clients.
Experience with CRM systems such as SalesLogix.com.
Experience with web analytics tools such as Omniture and DoubleClick.

What's in It for You

Support and autonomy -- the Manager of Interactive (to whom you will report) will help you develop a sales plan and set you up for success. In addition to one-on-one coaching, we'll host team meetings so you can share insights and successes with your peers. At the same time, as long as you are achieving your goals, we'll give you the "elbow room" you need to be successful.

The best of both worlds -- you will enjoy the entrepreneurial energy of a new venture as well as the stability and resources of Freedom Communications, Inc, with revenues approaching $1 billion. We'll make sure you have the tools you need to succeed.

High impact -- in our dynamic and energetic sales program you'll channel your initiative, innovation, and competitive spirit to make an impact on our customers, our organization, and your own career.

Excellent compensation -- we offer a competitive base salary and generous incentive program, and we'll guarantee a minimum income for your first 90 days. In addition, our comprehensive benefits package includes medical and dental insurance, a 401(k) plan, a generous allotment of paid time off, and more.

More About Your Role

You will join the fastest growing team at Orange County Register Communications and, while you can expect to spend a fair amount of time with your Manager at first, that will taper off as you gain momentum.

Your objective will be to target market sectors with huge numbers of potential customers that typically do not advertise in our newspapers, but who are turning more and more (or should be) to online ads. This will include professionals and service providers such as attorneys, dentists, mortgage brokers, insurance agents, the entire spectrum of home service providers (electricians, plumbers, etc.), and others. While you will interact with sales teams at our newspapers, your focus will be on interactive, not print, ads. You'll offer solutions in four categories:

Banner ads that may appear on the main site in your market as well as affiliated targeted sites; for example, a mortgage broker in Orange County, CA might place an ad on OCRegister.com as well as OCRrealEstateFinder.com. You also may procure video to run on banners.
Search engine marketing solutions, including Search Engine Optimization and pay-per-click programs through our partnerships with Google and Yahoo.
Category sponsorships, such as sports, cooking, or home improvement.
Email marketing programs designed for direct advertiser response.

This is a hunter role, no question about it. You will prospect and qualify leads, work your magic to get to the decision-makers, and probe for information. On the spot you'll match the customer's needs to our products, and then follow through to develop the proposal, close the deal, and finalize the details. The sales cycle tends to be short, generally taking only a few days. Once an ad strategy is launched you'll consult with the client regarding results and possible "tweaks" to improve performance. Just as important to in the process is the administrative aspect, such as reporting your activities, updating our databases, preparing work orders, and more.

Keys to Success

As the media industry undergoes major changes, you will need to overcome some outdated thinking on the part of some customers. In many cases you will be targeting customers who have made a conscious decision NOT to invest in newspaper advertising, and you will need to make sure they understand you are offering something different. In addition, in order to be an outstanding Interactive Sales Consultant, you will:

Possess strong initiative and self-motivation, and achieve your goals with minimal supervision.
Bring a competitive spirit and goal orientation, including persistence in pursuing your objectives in spite of obstacles.
Be confident and resilient in the face of challenges and disappointments.
Maintain a high level of innovation and creativity and be willing to try new things and find new inspirations in unusual places.

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity for you, and you meet the minimum qualifications, we want to hear from you!

Who We Are

Orange County Register Communications is a multimedia company offering a diverse array of online properties, including OCRegister.com, OrangeCounty.com, the Spanish-language OCExcelsior.com, myOCHigh.com, OCRegister.com/monster, OCRegister.com/realestate, OCRegister.com/cars, and more. In addition, we publish The Orange County Register, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper and the area's most trusted source of news and information since 1905. We also publish 24 community newspapers; magazines such as Coast, Orange County Home, Coast Kids, and Preferred Destinations; and several publications supporting the performing arts.

Orange County Register Communications is part of Freedom Communications, Inc, which owns and operates websites, newspapers, and television stations across the US. Freedom is in the midst of an exciting period of growth and transformation. We continue to innovate by looking for new business opportunities through a mix of acquisitions and internal growth, developing our Interactive business, and pushing the envelope in online, on-air, and print media delivery.