Why can't co-op be more co-operative? Listen up

ORLANDO, Fla. -- If your paper didn't send someone to the Newspaper Association of America's Co-operative Marketing & Sales Conference held here June 18-21, it missed some practical coaching on new revenue development.

Yes, co-op is a pain. It's what psychologists call an approach/avoidance -- you want to do it and you don't want to do it. So you head in neither direction with certainty.

For those of you who sent your co-op person to the conference, you may notice one big difference in his or her selling style: listening skills.

The only standing ovation was earned, not by a newspaper pro, but by motivational speaker Steve Wiley in a returning stand-up gig with the Co-op Federation.

In a era of commodity markets and relationship selling, Wiley contends most American sales reps fail, not for lack of product knowledge or closing skills, but because they don't listen carefully. He proved it by reading a short uncomplicated story with few facts and fewer characters. He asked a series of questions about the vignette, to which attendees could respond true, false or insufficient data. Only 30 percent scored 100 percent on the questions.

Wiley offered a list of questions for customers aimed at cultivating better selling relationships: