Hello again! I’ve been busy reading your TVFU applications, but I took some time to head over to the sales department to speak with Paula Fortgang, Director of International Fashion here. As an International Business major, I was keen on learning what exactly her job entailed.
For a bit of background, the sales department sells pages in the magazine for advertising; so when you see your favorite brand’s campaigns in TEEN VOGUE, it’s the hard work of our brilliant sales team. In her role, Paula gets to travel and work with some very iconic European brands and houses—read on for the scoop!
When did you start at TEEN VOGUE and what was your initial position?
I started at TEEN VOGUE a year and a half ago, and it’s the same position I have now, which is Executive Director of International Fashion.
Where did you go to school, what was your major, and how has it helped you in your career?
I went to Emory University, I majored in psychology, and I guess the best way that that has helped me is just providing an understanding of people and situations, and getting inside their heads so I can better do my job.
What is the most rewarding and the most challenging aspect of sales?
The most challenging aspect is the stiff competition fueled by the number of magazines that we compete with. Also the economic times, because with a tough economy there’s fewer ad dollars and whereas in the past, those ad dollars may have been spread amongst more magazines, they’re now concentrated in what people consider the quote on quote "core," which are a little bit older-skewing fashion magazines, the VOGUEs, the Elles, et cetera.
How is working with international accounts different than domestic?
When you have international accounts you have a couple of other things that come into play. You always have the economic factors, how Europe reacts to a down economy is very different than the US. So for example, in the US if things are tough, companies reduce the workforce. In Europe, a lot of it’s family business. There are also different laws, they don’t fire people the same way they do here; they really just cut their advertising. Business can just grind to a halt.
So that’s one of the challenges: really understanding how business is done in each country. As I said before, it’s a lot of family-owned businesses, so that becomes more emotional, and up until this point, it was more privately held. Now you’re seeing companies, such as Prada, going public. Public versus private also has it’s own positives and negatives, but when a company is going public they reduce spending because they want to show more money on the bottom line.
Most rewarding is either being able to get business that was never in the magazine, and to show them why you fill a need that they might not have seen they had. And to really grow business, to work with someone and to tell them, ‘Well this is why my audience is so important, my magazine is so important to your business,’ and have them really get it and to work with them over the years and to grow that business from season to season.
That kind of leads into my next question! Obviously a lot of the accounts are repeat business, but how do you acquire new ones, and how do you grow and develop existing accounts?
Well, maintaining business is as hard today as getting new business, because there are so many people who are trying to chip away at you and trying to get business from your magazine. So I look at it every season, as there are new businesses that I constantly have to sell. How do you get new business: prospect via the other magazines, which carry different advertising than we do. The core fashion books are a great roadmap. If someone’s advertising in them, you know that, number one, they have the money to spend. Two, if they’re advertising in a Condé Nast title, there’s a chance they may have a corporate contract so there may be a way to leverage the corporate relationship to have that affect things in a positive way.
The other things are just what I hear in the market place - I’m always talking to my clients, always going to their stores, always hearing who’s new, and if I know someone’s opening up a store I’m thinking ‘Then they have to have money to support that.’ You know, that’s another way to lead forecasts.
In sales, there's a lot of emphasis on meeting and exceeding goals every issue, and even every week: is it ever difficult to deal with this type of pace and pressure?
At times it is, but I think when you’re a salesperson, you’re motivated by making money, and the only way you’re going to make money is to exceed your goals, so that’s always in the back of your mind. For me, my business is seasonal, so I know that March, April, September, October, and then December for holiday, are key. So if I have a really strong March, and say I exceeded my goal, and I don’t have as strong an April, that could be because I move things up into March. I mean, there’s a lot of pressure, I try to look at it from an issue-to-issue basis, but I also try to take a long-term approach as well. So it’s a balancing thing.
How much of your job requires face-to-face? What percent is travel and how many of your clients are in NYC versus abroad?
Well my clients, most of them have offices in New York. I go to Europe 2-3 times a year. So unfortunately I don’t get to Europe as much as I’d like. We have a rep in Milan who’s my partner, but I try to see people as often as possible. Everyone is so busy that there are times that I don’t get to see somebody maybe for a month, but I’m on the phone with them all the time, usually taking them out to lunch and dinner and breakfast as well as meetings, so I try to make sure I’m seeing my clients at least once a month.
So you're very stylish! Do the accounts you work with ever influence your personal style?
I’ve always loved clothes. I always spent WAY more money than I should on buying clothes. You know, a lot of our clients give us discounts, which certainly makes things easier, but I’ve always sort of had my own style: I’m classic with a twist, I guess it would be. And in the summer I tend to wear more dresses, and in the winter I tend to wear more pants, and big sweaters, but I go from classic to a little bit of a boho look.
What advice would you give girls who want to go into magazine advertising & sales?
I think the first thing is to make sure you really want it, because it’s not what it used to be. I think the thing I would say is to learn as much about the business as you can to make sure it’s what you want to do, because I think a lot of people see the entertaining, and they see, like, I travel to Europe, and it sounds so glamorous, but at the end of the day, it really isn’t. And there’s no such thing as a free lunch and you always have to make sure you’re advancing the relationship and advancing the business.
I would say the most important thing is intern, intern, intern! And when you start out, really become invaluable to your boss. I love mentoring, and I love when people want to know what I do and why I do it. Really help try and get in their head, and really think what is it they need, why are they doing this, how is this moving business forward? Just trying to learn as much as you can, and talk to as many people as you can. And then the thing is, stay in touch with all the people you worked with.
It’s hard to get a job in sales, usually you have to start the ad agency route, or as a sales assistant. Here though, at Condé, it’s very hard, we don’t promote sales assistants to salespeople. Ultimately to get to where you want to go, you’re going to have to take other steps—I did, I was an assistant planner.
If you are currently studying business in school but can’t ignore your love of fashion and fashion magazines, this may be an area to consider! Like any sales job it’s high pressure and you have to be good at building and maintaining relationships. But it’s a wonderful atmosphere with many rewarding aspects!
