While Sensis is based in Australia you can no longer say they are down-under. Their brilliant turn around had over 650 Yellow Pages industry executives gathered in LasVegas April 6-9 for the YPA Association Annual Conference, captivated. How did Sensis revitalize the print yellow pages and see up to 10% usage growth in urban centres?

Sensis publishes over 88 yellow pages and 55 white pages directories in Australia. They are the 6^th largest publisher in the world and part of Telstra. They also operate the primary online directory in Australia www.yellowpages.com.au

With so much negative press circulating against the yellow pages, Sensis had bought in to the myth that the yellow pages print was dead and that the world was moving online. This resulted in cut backs in areas that hurt their customers, employees, distribution, and the brand. The information pages were removed and the product reduced. They set up discounting programs. The more their sales people talked about price, the more the customer became price conscious. 14% of their revenue was discounted. Everyone throughout their organization had lost belief in the product.

Then one day, this all female management team, said: Wait a minute! Look at the usage research and the ROI. It is strong. They gathered to scrutinize the data further. Australia, they discovered was similar to the US in that the larger markets  in this case Sydney and Melbourne – were the biggest challenges. But the research showed quite distinctly that life events result in heavy usage of the print yellow pages and the users don’t even think of the yellow pages as advertising. They are looking for information rich ads and lots of choices. From these great moments great opportunity was born.

The Sensis management team became agents of change and they were vigilant. They identified the key things that would make the biggest difference. They recognized that their front line was their bottom line and that their sales people were heroes. This meant revamping the sales compensation plan and implementing one that had buy-in from sales staff. Flawless execution was also very important and made all the difference. They eliminated discounts in one-year and focused on training and selling the value story. In essence they grew customer and employee satisfaction proving the adage that its not just about revenue but about people. They achieved 10% growth in the metro areas and overall growth of 2.5%. They are positioned for 4.8% growth for 2008.

Print is not dead. There is great opportunity to extend the directory category and for continued growth in the yellow pages print product. As Carol Johnson , COO of Sensis said:  We owe it to our consumers, communities, advertisers, and to the 60,000 people who work in this global industry to embrace these opportunities”.

Will other publishers follow Sensis  example? It is not everyone who can let go of ego and shed their skin in public for the greater good. Innovation, while invigorating is also painful. Hats off to Sensis for sharing their story and proving that Believing is Succeeding.