Ad Sales Reps, New Years Resolutions for 2013

Each year we set new resolutions for personal and professional growth.  Here are four ideas ad sales reps may want to consider in 2013.

1.   Embrace Your Ratios:  Knowing your call to close ratios is a comforting number.   It is a number you can work from to stay on track towards your budget.  Determine for yourself how many calls you need to make to get a meeting.  Then, determine how many meeting you need to have to get to a closed deal. From there you can figure out your call to close ratios.

2.   Change Your Patterns: If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.   For changes to be of any true value, they’ve got to be lasting and consistent.  What are you doing that is not yielding you the results your desire. Perhaps you are not getting calls back from voice mails left… change the way you leave your voice mails.

e-Newsletter Revenue Ideas

Forget about making New Year’s resolutions to be richer, thinner and healthier. Start 2013 with a resolution to grow your customer base and your organization’s success. An e-Newsletter can be a great way to build a strong connection with your customers—one that makes them think of your business first when they are in need of the types of products and services you provide. The trick is delivering meaningful, easy to read content that customers want to read. Here are 20 ideas you can incorporate today to turn your e-Newsletter into a rainmaker.

Secrets To Selling Social Media, Ad Sales Training for Veteran Sales Reps

The secret to social media sales is the training of two people: the advertiser and the actual sales ad sales rep.  It is all to easy for an advertiser to say that they understand social media marketing because they post daily on Facebook.  It is equally easy for an ad sales rep to say the exact same thing.  It is through quality ad sales training that you can grow your ad sales team to social media superstar status.

7 Ways To Improve Your Monthly e-Newsletter to Advertisers

Here are 7 ways to really improve your monthly sales e-Newsletter:
1.    Keep it very short.  While context is good, bullet points are better.  Plus, bullets are easy to read.  Short is good.  Less is more.
2.    REALLY, really focus on success.  Get a quote from an advertiser and include it each month.  Success sells!
3.    Remove all your sales pitch “stuff”.  The idea is to “give a little and get a little.”  Become a resource.  If you pitch it they will run.  

Boosting Fall Ad Sales Efforts

I am often asked by clients how they can keep their sales teams "pumped up" during the fall selling season if budgets do not allow a coach to come onsite to offer ad sales training.  From my perspective, the critical issue to address is how to eliminate distractions  and help maintain focus during a fall filled with football, great weather and holidays that demand significant energy from everyone.  October and November are important months as many companies are planning their ad spending for 2013.  Did your ad sales reps sell in advance and get in the ring for these important decisions?  It is not to late to boost your sales efforts. Here are eight ways to help your team boost fall ad sales.

Facebook Pricing Gone Wild

Pricing your sponsored tweets on Facebook is an active and moving target.  The first step is to understand that the number of “likes” you have has become an irrelevant way to price your sponsored posts.  Yes, you did hear me use this number in the past to set prices.  Like I said, pricing your sponsored tweets on Facebook is an active and moving target.  Today, most of my ad sales training clients are using a solid metric that I have observed working very well in markets across the nation.

Bring in 50 New Advertisers

I am often asked about tools for prospecting.  As you all know, having a process, any process, is better than no process at all.  This 100% applies to prospecting for new advertisers.  To that end, I spend an entire day on location in ad sales training teaching my prospecting idea called the “Big 50 Prospect Plan”.

Team Call Zones Drive Sales

Looking for a way to drive sales over the next 48 hours?  Team Call Zones might be the answer. Recently a client shared with me that their sales reps lacked focus and seemed to wander around all day.   I immediately asked about daily call volume tracking and client tracking in their CRM tool. (CRM stands for customer relations management software.)  These tools where not in place and would not be in place for several weeks even if the ad sales manager liked the idea.  I shared with them an idea that I have seen work in markets big and small.  It has also worked in consumer and B2B markets.   Team Call Zones are specific times of the day where sales reps call new prospects or old clients for 35 minutes non-stop.  They are allowed 2 minutes between calls to research the next call.  The entire team must participate even the “super-star” sales reps.  After 35 minutes, the group takes a break together and grabs coffee or just takes a break away from their desk.  The break is mandatory.

Publishers and Ad Sales Reps To Meet in Chicago for Business Changing Conference

This awesome video will explain why every publisher and media sales rep should be in Chicago in September.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NicheMediaHQ

Learn how to find just about anyone email address online

Very often you know whom to call on but you do not have their email address.  In this video Ryan Dohrn shows you how to find just about anyone's email address online.

5 Critical Sales Questions Every Ad Sales Person Needs to Know and Ask

I wish I could say I was surprised when I go on an ad sales call with a client and they talk about their media product for the first 20 minutes of the ad sales meeting. Why do sales people talk so much? In most cases, it is bad training or fear. Fear of silence perhaps? Mostly fear of not knowing what the outcome of the meeting should be before the meeting begins. They just do not have a playbook to follow. It is sort of like placing 11 football players on the field and telling them to simply go out for a pass.  Every now and then you will score a point, but most of the time you get beat by a better team with a plan.   I preach a lot about having an ad sales process and holding meetings that win business. Ad sales training is mostly about understanding that there are several ways to win a ball game, but which one will maximize your potential to win. I have found that most meetings that win business are centered on the advertiser and have very little to do with the media you are selling. Sure, that is an important factor, but the meeting must be about them and their needs. Their desires. The things which are meaningful to them, like Making Money. So, how do you get to that winning moment where you ask for the order? You must first ask some really good questions of the advertiser. Lead them to the point where they realize that they need you more than you need them.

How Do Your Email Stats Compare?

As an internet consultant, I am often asked for average numbers for the clicks and open rates in the media industry in regards to emails and specifically email blasts.  Constant Contact reports that the publishing industry has an average open rate of 18.6%, a bounce rate of 8.6% with a click thru rate of 23.7%.  (See source link below for the full report.)  The media clients that I work with often report numbers that are slightly lower.  I compared 10 of my magazine clients to provide you these numbers…. an average open rate of 16.5%, a bounce rate of 6.6% with a click thru rate of 21.5%.  The two data sets are very close.

What is SOV, Share Of Voice in Online Advertising?

I am often asked about SOV in many Requests For Proposals (RFP) received by my media clients. What is it and how is it calculated?  SOV stands for "Share Of Voice". In comparison to other advertisers, what is a certain clients' share of the total impressions you will deliver in a certain period of time online for them. If there were 2 advertisers the SOV would be 50/50.  If there were 4 advertisers, the share of voice for one client would be 25% if all advertisers were given the same the number of impressions in the same period of time.

It is very important that all publishers know the details of their online stats to be sure that they can answer questions like this when asked.  In addition, it is important that ad sales reps understand what SOV is and how it effects clients and their ad campaigns online.  

More online:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_of_voice

e-NewsLetter Revenue Ideas

1. Increasing frequency and reducing the size of the email text often increases the user interaction.
2. Plan each eNewsletter topic with this thought… “How can partner with someone willing to pay for exposure to my readers?”
3. Create one master list and then break users off into segments that if they un-subscribe that you do not loose them forever.
4. Create a networking group that includes 6-8 business partners that are looking to share eLists and or space in each others eLIsts and meet quarterly to coordinate on topics, ideas and potential sponsors.
5. Write the subject line last and spend some serious time on it.  Ask yourself, “Would that subject line beg you to open the email?”

Ryan Dohrn to Host Sales Workshops for Publishers Australia

Print and digital media expert Ryan Dohrn headlined Magazine Week Conference for Publishers Australia last November, educating the enthusiastic audience about “Reinvigorating the Sales Process.” The overwhelming success of Ryan’s presentation has earned him an invitation to again travel ‘downunder’ to present workshops for Publishers Australia in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney. Publishers Australia represents a myriad of titles ranging from tourism to aviation to outdoor sports, and runs the gamut from niche to huge publications.

Improve Your Monthly Sales e-Newsletter

Here are 6 ways to improve your monthly sales e-Newsletter:

1. Keep it short.  While context is good, bullet points are better.  Plus, bullets are easy to read.
2. REALLY, really focus on success.  Get a quote from an advertiser and include it each month.
3. Remove all your sales pitch “stuff”.  The idea is to “give a little and get a little.”  Become a resource.

e-Newsletter Revenue Tips

Internet consultant Ryan Dohrn shares 3 tips to help business owners generate revenue from their marketing e-Newsletters.

Getting Out Of The Ad Sales Rut

I am often asked by senior level ad sales people advice on getting out of an ad sales rut.  What does this mean?  It can vary person to person, but in most cases, a senior level ad sales rep is either worn out from selling the same thing to the same people or the rep is tired of calling on their list of 100 and getting no replies.   Sure ad sales training is a great place to start, but if you want long standing results, media sales training is just the beginning.  Lets look at 10 things you can do right now to take a fresh look at an old media sales training issue…

Creating An Animated Banner Ad

Take your clients advertising to the next level. Make them a quality animated banner ad. Every wondered how to make an animate banner ad? Ryan shows you how in this quick 3 minute video. Plus, animated gifs work on the Ipad too.

Digital Pricing Strategies To Make Money

Internet consultant Ryan Dohrn offers strategies to media companies to make money using correct and accurate pricing.

Pricing your digital assets can be tough due to the large number of products and variables in your marketplace. There are three factors I would advise you to consider: competition, base line pricing and overall bundled price.

The first step is to create a competitive matrix or grid. This grid allows you to see a side-by-side comparison of what your competition has to offer in comparison to your multimedia offerings. Some pricing has to do with market exclusivity and special opportunities that only you or they can provide. So, be accurate and throw out items that are not year long offerings. Without this comparative grid, you are guessing at best.

Next, your baseline - where to begin with pricing your digital assets. In most cases you can simply take the price of your highest priced magazine ad times 25% to arrive at a base price. As an internet consultant, I have been a part of over 1,000 business evaluations on this exact topic and in almost all cases the numbers mirror this 25% example. Now, this does not mean that your banner ad sells for that figure, it just gives you a ballpark number to not go far below. Basically, a starting point. With social media, price those out at a CPM of $125. For every 1,000 fans or followers you have, charge the advertiser $125 per inclusion.

Last, your bundled price. If you added all your multimedia together, what type of discount can you give an advertiser for buying multiple products from you? To take this one step further, let's not discount print one penny. (Can I get an Amen out there?) Next, make a list of what you would charge the client line by line for each digital item under print a la carte’. You should not show this list to the advertiser. This is for your eyes only. Using a calculator, how low can you go on the multimedia discount and still make a 30% margin or better on the digital products?

Now, circle back to step one. Some pricing is based on playing the field and knowing what the current market will bear. But, how does your pricing line up with the competition? Unless what your multimedia offer is clearly superior, is market exclusive or contains some wild unique feature, your pricing needs to be real and in line with the competition. I hope you see that with your multimedia discount that you are lower than the competition and proving a better value and greater exposure to your client. After all, even if they like the salesperson, if the price is not real and in the same realm as your next closest competitor, you’re out.

Ryan Dohrn is an Internet consultant that trains sales and editorial teams to take full advantage of the web to make money. Ryan@RyanDohrn.com (803) 867-3769. Internet consultant, Internet consulting, business speaker, Internet design, business coaching.