Upcoming Public Events & Presentations
MIN Seminar: October 8, 2009, New York City
eMedia Advertising Bootcamp: From the publishers of Media Industry Newsletter and the Internet Advertising Guidebook; join me for this one-day boot camp to equip you with the smartest ideas and tactics to accelerate your online advertising revenue. Back by popular demand, this updated one-day workshop is a hands-on, high impact class for you or your team who need to learn the proven strategies for selling online and hybrid programs to increasingly finicky clients. Social media and Internet video are two key tactics that you'll learn about and you'll walk away with an approach that is immediately achievable, and will generate revenue. At $895 per person this will be the best investment you make this year.
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ambro.com welcomes David B. Fales
As demand for ambro.com services has soared, we welcome aboard Dave Fales to extend our consulting and sales training capabilities. David brings deep online and print publishing and sales management experience in both B2B and B2C media. His insight and expertise has been garnered in leadership positions at publishers including Hearst, Ziff Davis, iVillage.com as well as business publications. David has been monetizing online publishing for more than ten years and is an expert on the special ad selling techniques crucial in today's new economy. Recently, David's 2-hour presentation,"Online Revenue Development Strategies" at the Florida Magazine Association Annual Conference received high acclaim. David's office is located in Wilton, CT. Read Dave's Bio here.
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Sales Tip:
Tell a Story to Make a Sale
ambro.com works for companies that are not content to take orders. Our customers wish to influence advertisers to move their money from a competitor to our client's properties. Sure our clients are happy to accept the flow of orders for advertising that come easily. But leading franchises know that most advertising must be sold. And selling requires persuasion. And optimum persuasion involves storytelling.
Advertisers are jaded. They think they know what they need to know about your property. Agencies are pressed for time. They think, what more could you tell them about your magazine? Whether it is Parade, or Popular Woodworking or Practicing Pediatrics, advertisers see your sample in your media kit or inbox, and they think they know all they need to know. Your prospects have formed an impression, if only a first impression. How are you as sales people going to break through this complacency and make a difference?
Top sales people tell stories because it engages customers and puts the sales message in a context that captures the prospect's attention perhaps even tugs at the prospect's emotions. A well-told story captures you audience's attention and provides a structure that makes it easier to understand your pitch. And they'll also remember it better, so your sales contact can defend your property when you are not in the room.
When it comes to storytelling, the opening should be dramatic. The beginning of the sales conversation should focus on dramatizing the needs of the readers. If the story is delivered in the right way, it captures the prospect's attention and involves them in the drama of the story, communicates a sense of tension, and has them interested in learning the outcome.
"Persuasion is the centerpiece of business activity. Customers must be convinced to buy your company's services...and partners to sign the next deal" says the June 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review. Every publishing CEO should read a terrific article "Storytelling That Moves People: A Conversation with Screenwriting Coach Robert McKee." It will help leaders capture the rapt attention of their audience in any situation. And in sales the right story will dramatize the need for your magazine, cable show, conference, or Internet property.
Every publisher and sales person can develop his or her own story. Properly developed, it can be related in a variety of situations to dramatize the need for your magazine or Internet site, and the ways that audience uses your property and your advertiser's products. ambro.com can enable each of your sales team to develop a story that works for them in their industry. A an one-day workshop will help each sales person find a lead idea that will capture the attention of their prospects and provide a platform to relate the features and benefits of your media property in a way that comes alive for the prospect and enables revenue to flow.
Do it yourself, or with ambro.com's help. But be sure to develop a story.
Click here to learn more about ambro.com training services. (Next issue: Negotiate Up to Your number, not Down) |
 continued from:
... Chris and his dynamic publisher Alan Greenberg assembled a sales team that became a powerhouse when he trained them on a 10-point sales process that required three skills; getting to know the clients needs, getting to the real decision makers, and persuading to Esquire's solution, in an engaging way that was very hard to reject. The Esquire team simply out-sold other men's magazines for the business. Clients moved money because Esquire's sales team got to the real decision makers and were highly effective when they got there.
The 1980s were a different time, advertisers had far fewer choices. But the moral of the story is that sales skills, and sales training make a difference. In today's ultra competitive world sales-person-ship will be rewarded even more than earlier times.
It is true that advertisers and agencies are structured differently in the early 21st century than in the 1970s or 80s. The balkanization of the former full service agency is one difference, making it harder to penetrate past the buyer to the head decision makers who set the parameters and approve the buys. And the cost structure of agencies and clients has been squeezed down; less supervision and less staff, means the decision makers are more time constrained. But this simply means that sales skills to get appointments and to use them well are all the more important.
Contact us if you have issues with the number or quality of your sales calls. We can customize a program that will make a measurable difference in your sales.
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