Every Western Producer reader has seen the results of his work, yet they rarely see his name in the paper. Joe Gagnon is the man pictured above, with thanks to WP staffer Randy Ruppel for the clever portrait.
Gagnon has been our national advertising sales supervisor for 21 years and he will retire effective May 1.
That’s 21 years of advertising sales for this newspaper, a process involving hard work, persistence, relationship building and customer service. It’s no exaggeration to say he has helped the Producer survive and prosper into its 80th year.
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Salesmen often take a bad rap as professions go, but that has nothing to do with Gagnon.
“He communicates his own sense of self-respect for the activity of sales,” says WP marketing director Glenn Caleval.
Adds publisher Ken Zacharias: “He understands our business and he understands our customers’ needs. There’s never any question where his loyalties lie.”
OK, that’s the official story. But what’s the man really like?
WP sales colleague Jim Rieger says Gagnon is easy to find in a crowded room because he’s always surrounded by a knot of people, telling stories.
Gagnon can recount the perils of admitting his eastern Canadian roots to a bunch of Western Canadians (you’ll get blamed for everything that’s wrong in Canada), as well as the faux pas of commenting on the “nice” weather to a farmer who has spent weeks praying for rain.
Some clients say Gagnon sold his first ad to John Deere – the original Mr. Deere! He isn’t quite that old, of course, but he is old enough to remember when, as a former Montreal resident, the Stanley Cup parade was an annual event.
Ad client Dave Kington, media director for Adculture Group Inc., recalls when he and Gagnon devised the banner ad on page 2 of the Producer 10 years ago. Kington’s client still has the spot.
Kington says Gagnon’s success is due in part to his “never forgetting that the reader was the key to everyone’s success. Joe would never compromise the integrity of the paper or the perception of the reader for the sake of a sale, ever.”
“He puts extra Os in smooth,” says Gagnon’s successor, Lisa McVeigh, who has worked with Gagnon for five years in the Mississauga, Ont., office.
“He’s very classy in the way he deals with people. He has empowered me over the last five years, and he doesn’t just do it for me, he does it for others.”
Thank you, Joe, from all of us.
