You might think that a super-star like Heismen Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers would just go to a meeting and clients would through money at him. But as the group discussed how to break new accounts and build the relationships and trust that leads to business, Johnny pointed out that in his experience it takes 7 “touches” to build a relationship to be ready to do business.
As a media company manager, you talk all the time about how fast the media business is changing around you. Do you spend enough on helping your sales force stay up-to-date with new media, and new tactics to win in todays hyper-competitive advertising sales market? US companies spend 1.75% of sales compensation on training. That would translate to $1,750 annually for a $100,000 a year sales executive.
The members of the focus group told us that when they go to the web site they know what they are looking for. But, they said, when they read the magazine they love the serendipity of discovery, and the absorbing experience of learning about something completely new.
When you think about how to sell print advertising, you’ll want to be sure that your advertiser understands their own needs to present their message in places where serendipity can happen. When advertisers appreciate their own need to show their message to people who are not already looking for it they’ll value the unique environment of print, and they’ll become your customer.
Your customers have little time for you because they are under so much pressure to be productive. Only if you add value to their day, every time you meet, will you win time with them to build the relationship that gives you a leg up in the competition.
Open the Mind w keyThat is why I loved seeing new research on now b2b buyers separate winners from losers. The research directly supports the ambro.com Strategic Sales Tactics Training for advertising sales that we teach in customized form for media companies and publically through the Masters of Media Selling seminars with MediaPost.
I have been advising and training digital publishers on how to sell advertising for 20 years. After a career in selling print advertising, first I predominately worked with digital publishers. Then, after the internet advertising industry was off and running, I was most often hired by print-advertising, sales-driven publishers to […]
Last week I wrote about how digital-direct-marketers are using print to drive more and better sales results. I have asserted for some time in my Hybrid Media sales training that consumers use print for different reasons than they do digital media, and that the two together are more powerful than […]
“One of the biggest problems of publishers and advertising sales staffs today is falling behind the customer.” Leading advertisers are moving as fast as they can to keep up with the changing information habits of their customers. But most publishers are more focused on selling what they have, the way it’s been sold in the past, than thinking about how to sell new services or sell advertising in new ways. So publishers and advertising sales executives are falling behind the perceived needs of their customers, the advertisers.
In today’s crowded media market, the core value of print is in the inspiration. For digital, it is in the execution. The WSJ reported “Boden, the U.K.-based clothing retailer, ships millions of catalogs around the world each year. Shoppers spend up to 15 to 20 minutes with the catalog, says Shanie Cunningham, head of U.S. marketing, compared with an average of just eight seconds for a Boden email and about five minutes with the Boden iPad app.”
Smart advertising sales managers know that they can’t skip selling to the ad agencies and media buying services, but they must never forget where the power is; at the client. And getting client appointments is harder and more valuable than ever.
What gets the attention of clients? Certainly it’s not your circulation or your demographics. That is what they pay agencies to put in to spreadsheets. In order to be successful working at the highest level of advertising media decision making, at the client, you need to be adding value by contributing to their understanding of how customers make purchase decisions to buy their products. If you bring value to keeping up with the changing habits of buyers you will always be welcome in the executive suites of your advertising media customers.
It is the Path to Purchase that is intriguing to customers. It is not simple, rather it is nuanced. It is not static, but rather is changing with the changing media consumption patterns of consumers and business buyers.
Digital content environments are known for short attention spans, and difficulty introducing advertising for unknown brands and products because the user has so much control, to the point of blocking banners. “Magazines don’t have the issue of ad avoidance… People happily read ads alongside content in magazines, and are equally likely to remember ads and editorial.”
