tonning

Matt P Tonning III

March of 1942 my life began in Seattle WA.
At the age of three my mom dumped my dad and we moved to Boise ID.
Boise was home until I was 11. Then off to Butte MT. I claim Butte Montana as my home town. Butte is much more that just a town. Meet anyone from Butte, anywhere in the world, and you will know without asking that they are from Butte.
People from Butte are a family. We look after each other.
After graduating from Butte High in 1959 my new home became the US AirForce.
There I learned that being a punk kid was not acceptable in society.
The TI's (training instructors) did something about that.
After my service obligation was finished my next life adventure was husband and father. My days were filled with making a living for my wife and kids.
I decided to try sales. In 1964 I took a sales job with Combined Insurance Company of America.
That career lasted 13 years until 1977.
After leaving Combined I tried other sales jobs like janitorial supplies, real estate, other insurance sales, and used car sales. A very good friend of mine who knew that I was not happy handed me a “help wanted ad”. GTE was hiring salespeople to sell yellow pages advertising. I answered the ad, and 6 months later they called me back and hired me. Still needing solid employment that was a welcomed phone call.
So in Sept of 1978 I began a new career as a Yellow Pages Advertising Account Executive for General Telephone Directory Corporation, known now as Super Media.
But this was still "working for the man".
My desire was to be my own boss.
In 1979 a new and much more exciting opportunity came knocking. My workmate Jay Valiquette proposed we start a risky but lucrative business as Independent Yellow Pages consultants.
The mission was to show the business owners and managers how they were being oversold and over charged while buying yellow pages from aggressive and somewhat unscrupulous yellow pages publishers.
It was quite easy for the publishers sales people to sell yellow pages in that manner as the was no real competition in those days and advertising agencies were not interested in yellow pages because publishers’ didn’t offer any commissions unless the client, known then as a National Advertiser, advertised into three or more states and bought into a minimum of 21 books. Plus a whole raft of other rules and regulations imposed by the publishers.
Local advertisers were at the mercy of the integrity of the sales people employed by each publisher.
The need for an independent voice was apparent and Jay created that voice and invited me to help. Jayco Yellow Pages Marketing Services was founded and we changed the way yellow pages was bought and sold in the Untied States.
We became the yellow pages publishers and their sales force "worst nightmare".
We educated the business community on how to buy yellow pages and developed “cost effective” programs that safely saved up to 50% or more while at the same time produced the same, or even better, results than the bloated, and more expensive programs sold by the publishers sales people.
We would re-submit the “cost effective” program as a revision to the publisher. The sales force had no choice but to accept the changes and lose the previously paid commission. The publishers ended up with less revenue but still was able to keep their customers happy. We were paid by a percentage of the gross savings by the client. The client (business owner) kept the lower cost ad in the yellow pages.
It was a win-win except for the yellow pages publishers sales people who, rightfully so, were very disgruntled at our new venture.
Jay and I were Jayco partners, but there is an old saying about partnerships.
“from the beginning of time there are two golden thrones waiting for partners that can remain partners for a life time” they’re still empty.
In order to save the friendship Jay and I split the partnership in 1980 and I formed a new agency WestPage Marketing.
The new agency quickly grew with the help of Perry Johnston, Lou Stabb, Terry Holo, and my wife Jackie as we continued setting the yellow pages industry straight. Which now brings me to today. I am still hard at work. Today WestPage is operational even as the print books are slowly going by the way of the “Buggy Whip and the Studebaker”.
The next phase of WestPage Marketing is to continue consulting the internet client.
The internet yellow pages publishers are quickly becoming more expensive and confusing than print yellow pages ever were. What took 100 years for print in the way of total revenue, it has taken only 100 days for internet to produce the same and greater gross revenue.
Bill Gates suggested, in his 1995 book the Road Ahead, that the internet will be the major player of business as soon as entrepreneurs figure out how to use it to make money.
Well --- they have figure it out.
As in the past the cheats and schemers also figured out how to gouge the un-informed business community out of money by selling useless and over subscribed internet programs.
There is still a very important need for someone to be the “voice of reason” to help business owners and managers find the most “cost effective” way to buy into the new deals and avoid the scammers from raiding their bank accounts.
I will continue to be that “voice”.

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