When I read the story in the Harvard Business Review about the need to approach selling differently when selling to women, I was very curious. Is this an issue I need to understand better? Do I need to learn about nuances of selling to women versus men to teach advertising sales training at the highest level?
Sales people must seek out the objections, starting with the price objection, to make sure the prospective understands your value proposition. If your customer has a hidden price objection, thinking there are less expensive ways to accomplish what your medium offers, it is often because they don’t properly value the media you are selling. So it is critical that your sales people are trained to probe for objections and to handle objections with all the skill you can help them develop.
It might need to be said that media companies too need to be built on teamwork because when it comes to advertising sales, advertisers tend to be like sheep. The more one sales person is successful, another will find it easier to win business because other advertisers will follow.
In the marketing world of 2013, creative that works in one medium may not reach enough of the target audience effectively. With shorter attention-spans, and so many attention-demanding media, achieving engagement with the creative is tougher than ever.
Clients are finding that an industrialized – assembly line – approach may make more creative but not more effectiveness. Just like more movies from a studio doesn’t mean more movies that are successful, there is a limited about of great creative talent to make great advertising.
Publishers can help by executing creative because they know what works in their market better than anyone.
Everywhere I turn recently I hear more about the abject story of the serial-harasser and generally thuggish Richie Incognito of the Miami Dolphins. As you most likely have heard he so hassled and threatened his teammate, Jonathan Martin, that Martin left his team and multimillion dollar salary. Apparently Incognitos activity was tolerated and quite possibly encouraged […]
The objective for the 10-minute sales call should be clear; to get the client to agree that there is enough interest to schedule more time. You’ll either get the extra time on the spot or get another meeting scheduled with proper time.
Consider the a famous scene from Jerry Magurie when Renee Zellweger said: “You had me at hello.” Tom Cruise had the opening right when he said “Hello, I’m looking for my wife.”
I can say with confidence that in today’s sales environment, opening your sales conversation with a show of care; preparation and knowledge of the prospects situation is what wins attention. Without attention you can’t close the sale.
RTB will not kill all the advertising sales people, just change their job. The old role of advertising sales people, to provide the price to the buyer, will be ceded to the RTB media exchange. Sales people will, instead deliver value with understanding of the market and how it is changing, and help their clients by showing them how to configure packages of media for the best results much like a former stock broker, now called a financial planner, makes recommendations for investments but no longer sets or communicates the price.
We have all been there. We are so excited about our media property, and so convinced it is right for the customer, we talk too much. We never give the client the opportunity to tell us about their views, or their needs, or even objections. Here are some ideas from […]
