Sales is sales, right? Not so fast my friend. Advertising sales is different from most other business-2-business sales for several reasons. Let’s review. Advertising media and sponsorship purchase decisions are public decisions. The public sees what a company decides and will have a point of view; approval or displeasure – […]
There used to be “a thing” called “over-exposure” that was thought to apply to some celebrities, particularly in relation to product endorsements. It made sense that if a particular person was seen to be endorsing too many products it would tend to put pressure on their perceived veracity, implying that their opinion could be bought, and perhaps bought cheaply.
Lately — okay for decades — digital advertising’s spread from supporting content to supporting every sort of amusement, game, software application and yes, keeping us in touch with friends, and their friends, and their friends, has so multiplied digital advertising that it, too, is over-exposed.
Woody Allen said 80% of success is showing up. When it comes to successful media selling that is a good place to start. And it’s harder than ever to “show up.” Prospects don’t call back, or say they don’t need to see you. Client-side contacts say to see the agency who you already know hasn’t called back for weeks. How can you “show up” in our fiercely competitive world of media sales?
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.
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 […]
Your cold-calling is adding extra targeted, customized, frequency to the rest of your ad-sales-marketing plan that helps you win new business. Your calls are targeted to the prospects with the greatest need or potential for business volume. Think of your cold-calling plan as a personal brand-building process.
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.
60% say that “input from the client” is always “a resource use when preparing/selecting the list of media for consideration.” This is the highest of all reported sources, far above SRDS itself (27%) and above “research,” the next highest at 56%. And 54% say “client dictates” “always” or “often” are the cause of changes/turnover in a schedule. Are you getting the client sales calls you need to win ad-sales in this environment?
