• Silicon Alley Insider, Monday, May 4, 2009 11:15 AM

Silicon Alley Insider's Nicholas Carlson says that a big reason that AOL's sales were down 20% in the first quarter is that AOL's sales people rely too much on Advertising.com, AOL's low-priced advertising network, instead of pushing clients into higher-priced premium display advertising. Why? For starters, due to AOL's many acquisitions over the years, sales people have to work with as many as 6 to 13 systems to manage a premium ad campaign. One source says the number is actually closer to five, but that's still way too high, considering an Ad.com campaign requires just one system.

Even more shocking, AOL sales people aren't given the proper incentive to up-sell: according to SAI's sources, AOL ad sales people are not paid any more for pushing premium inventory. Sales people need to be given proper incentives for selling premium inventory, and they shouldn't have to deal with five different systems to manage a single campaign. Fixing these two problems should be top of new ad sales boss Jeff Levick's to do list, Carlson says.

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