What is YOUR Internet Strategy?

As the Internet continues to change the way people do business,  having an online presence just isn't enough anymore.   It is crucial to your organization's survival to develop and implement a solid, practical and innovative Internet Strategy that is logical enough to provide a solid foundation for company policies, yet flexible enough to stay current with the warp-speed of change. 

Predicting the Future of Media Sales

How can we predict the future of our media sales business?  Very often media companies venture into the vast unknown of new digital projects because they feel that they have to or they will be seen as an "old dog" or as a company that is not "keeping up with the times".  Asking your advertisers what they truly want can yield solid results.  

Ryan Dohrn Keynote Speaker at Publishing Heroes Conference in London

On the last Wednesday of February 2013, ad sales training guru Ryan Dohrn spoke to an overwhelmingly appreciative audience at the Publishing Heroes Conference hosted by the Publishing Media & Expo and held at the Publishing Heroes Theater in London, England.

“This was a remarkable opportunity to not only share what I’ve learned over the years about increasing revenue and selling digital assets for the publishing world, I was pleased to learn from a huge international audience about their publishing trends and needs,” reports Ryan. “I also grew to like tea and bangers and mash!”

Weekly Ad Sales Training

I was asked last week about weekly ad sales training. One of my clients has a veteran sales team and felt that training was no longer needed. Like everything else, sales requires practice. As professional sales people we get so busy with everything else that we forget about the basics. Chet Homes, in his bestselling book the Ultimate Sales Machines, considers weekly sales training fundamental to your success as a business. So, what can you do each week that will keep the sales team strong and not offend the sensitive nature of the veteran sales rep?

Statistics Or Bust

Let's talk a little bit about statistics. From an ad sales training perspective, I am always asked for great stat that my students can share with their clients.  I normally ask…why?

The thing about statistics is that ad sales reps love stats and very often when they hear or receive statistics they quite honestly go crazy and start emailing customers left and right. The problem with this is that very often advertisers don't want statistics, don't need statistics, and quite honestly statistics will just boggle their mind.  I think it's important for all ad sales reps to ask this question, “Will this statistic help me better explain why advertising is beneficial to their business.”  If you find that you are sharing a statistic because it helps you feel better about the case that you're making to an advertiser STOP!  Some of you might think that this is the same thing.  It is not.  If an advertiser has a question, a stat might help better explain.  But, if you are using a stat to better justify your position, you may just be adding confusion to the conversation.

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.