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.