Outsourced Media Sales

The James G. Elliott Co., Inc. (JGECO), founded in 1984 as a regional advertising sales firm, has evolved into one of the nation’s largest national outsourced media sales companies for advertising, exhibits, and sponsorships. With offices in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, JGECO has generated an estimated $750 million in revenue for more than 600 brands.

We help to simplify sales operations by providing our clients with an alternative to managing their own direct employees or patchwork of regional representative firms.

What We Sell: Advertising of All Types

  • Digital

  • Mobile

  • Brand studio

  • Newsletter

  • Print

What We Sell: Related Marketing Products

  • Exhibits

  • Sponsorships

  • Affinity programs

  • Database enhanced listings

  • Lead generation

    • Webinars

    • Whitepapers

    • Ebooks

JGECO sells everything that any direct ad sales force sells, but we eliminate the management and organizational headaches. And, because our preferred method of compensation is commission on sales, we are a variable cost option for companies looking for a more efficient alternative to a direct sales team.

How It Would Work for Your Company
JGECO employs talented and seasoned advertising sales representatives to work on your media properties as though they were on your payroll. They carry your business cards, use your email addresses and CRM systems, attend your meetings, collaborate and communicate with other members of your organization. The difference, however, is that they are on our payroll, under our management and they are located in offices in major advertising centers. We pay salaries, benefits, and commissions, which relieves you of the costs and headaches associated with HR for your sales team. We handle hiring, training, and results reporting. Outsourcing your advertising sales to JGECO is simply hiring sales experts so you can free your attention to concentrate on your core competencies. 

The JGECO Advantage

JGECO has the sales, marketing, research, IT support, and management resources one would typically find in a mid-size publishing company. We must because we are asked to provide a unique solution for every client we serve. After all, no two media organizations face exactly the same challenges.

Efficiency
A single sales and marketing resource can reduce your communications burden, help eliminate redundancies in administrative and accounting tasks, and provide tighter focus to your sales direction. Most importantly, it virtually ensures that all elements of the media sales organization are strategically aligned.

Experience
Simply put, JGECO brings more advertising sales experience to your media brand than any alternative you can consider. Moreover, our sales team members bring broad and diverse media advertising experience to our clients’ projects. We handle assignments ranging from integrated publishers to digital-only and print media. Our salespeople call on advertising agencies and advertisers.

Outsourced Management
With advertising sales representatives in the major markets who report to our sales management, JGECO offers every client day-to-day management of the sales function.

Ready to Outsource Your Media, Event, and/or Sponsorship Sales?

Questions to ask about any potential outsourced partner:

Are they financially sound?

  • How long have they been in business?

  • Do they have established banking relationships?

  • Are they financially sound and can they weather a downturn?

  • What is the plan if the owner meets an unexpected emergency—or gets a job offer?

  • What is their turnover like?

  • Have former employees ever sued them?

  • Do you have an understanding of how the outsourced sales company is set up?

  • Have you examined the systems that the firm has in place?

Are they right for your current needs?

  • Do you like and trust them?

  • Are they competent and highly recommended?

  • Do they have contemporary skill sets?

  • Do they have experience with sales similar to yours in scope, size and volume?

  • Do they have sales management?

  • Can the firm’s senior management provide insight and help with strategies?

  • Do the sellers make personal sales calls or do they run a telemarketing operation?

  • Is their sales style representative of the style you want to project?

  • How do they recruit salespeople (what kinds of tests do they use?)

  • Do they offer sellers competitive compensation packages?

  • Can the sales firm’s capabilities deliver on your actual sales expectations?

  • Do they have an intelligence network to alert sellers to opportunities and RFPs that could benefit your sales effort?

  • Do they have ability to sell integrated programs with events, print, digital, etc.?

  • Do their office locations reflect the prestige you would want to project?

  • Do you understand what resources the firm uses, such as SRDS, MediaRadar, MRI-Simmons, MARS, custom research capabilities and other assets?

  • Do they have a current CRM system you can use, or are they able to adapt to yours?

  • Do they have publisher support services if needed, like media kit and collateral design, IT consulting and CRM implementation, and billing?

Are they right for your future needs?

  • Do they have a track record of client longevity?

  • Does senior management keep up-to-date so they can help you plan?

  • Do other publishers seek out and act on their advice?

  • Do they have the ability to expand to meet your needs nationally?

To find out more about outsourcing your media sales, contact j.elliott@jamesgelliott.com.

Publishing executives who are not planning to change their media sales representation by outsourcing their sales can also tap into JGECO’s accumulated knowledge and experience and apply it to their own company through our advisory service, Ads&IDEAS®. You can learn more about it at adsandideas.com.

We manage the process, you manage the results.

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