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In This Issue
Internet Sales Guidebook
Upcoming Seminars and Presentations
Sales Tip: Make Sales Calls More Effective

Buy book, focus on what works, save thousands.

MIN ISG Book Cover
Internet Sales Guidebook; Selling, Managing and Marketing Web 3.0 Media Brands, by Daniel Ambrose 
 
   Print publishers, in particular, will find the point of view of the book to be refreshing and reassuring, because I help readers understand how the business model they are used to -- paid circulation or controlled circulation print publishing -- relates to successful Internet publishing.  And you'll learn how the two media -- Internet and print -- complement rather than compete with each other from the point of view of the publisher and of the advertiser. 
 
To learn more and buy the book click here.
Daniel Ambrose 2005Dear Colleague: 
Are You Prepared For Hyper- Competition?

     I surprised the audience last month at the City and Regional Magazine conference when I asserted that giving away their content online doesn't reduce demand for their print magazine.  I know it's counter- intuitive.  But no statistically significant correlation has been shown that links a large audience of unique users reading a magazine's content free on the web, with a decline of its print newsstand sales or subscriptions. 

     Make no mistake, there are many factors putting pressure on magazine circulation.  The internet as a whole - and its many attractions - is one thing (or a trillion things) competing for readers' time.  Reduced direct mail response rates, higher postage rates, increasing competition for space on the newsstand, hundreds of cable channels and on-demand entertainment are some other factors that are winning our readers time and hurting magazines. 

(continue reading below)
Upcoming Public Events & Presentations:
Maximizing Your Online Advertising Revenue Strategy:  a Seminar at the AABP: June 23 - 25th in Providence RI
The Alliance of Area Business Publications Summer Conference will include two dynamic ambro.com seminars; one focused on Internet Sales Training, and the other on Internet Strategy.    Learn more here.
Sales Tip:  
Make Sales Calls More Effective 
     Don't even bother reading the Advertising Sales Imperative if you are satisfied with selling the same advertisers the same amount as you have before.  My mission is to help you sell the incremental ad contracts that help you grow, or the tough sales that keep you from shrinking in a down market.  It's about engagement and persuasion of people who, previous to your contact, aren't interested in advertising.  They may "know" print doesn't work or they may "know" that online isn't for them.  Or they may believe that your prices are too high or your competitor is better.

     Sales calls come in many flavors but they all share one thing in common; the sales person captures and maintains the attention of the prospect to engage, persuade, and agree on next steps.  This can be done best in person, but can be done well "inside" using today's communications tools.  Yes, it can be done by phone, but remote calls are much more effective when the sales person can better control what the client is viewing...since we know that communication is far greater with verbal and visual combined. 

     At every level there is an opportunity to use today's technology to upgrade the quality of the engagement, communication and persuasion.  Color printers mean sales people can take printed web pages to a meeting so sales people are in control of what is viewed (and which ads are being displayed in the rotation) by the prospect.  Web meeting services like Go-to-Meeting and Web-x are a very cost effective and low tech (by today's standards) ways of upgrading a phone conversation to a "meeting" where the sales person can display and review graphic material that immensely improves the communications value of the time and attention you have won from the client.

     Selling advertising successfully is hard.  Some customers are easy, but you don't get paid the big bucks to win the easy ones.  It's the incremental sales that matter most.  You can win more if you maximize the number of the sales calls you have and then focus on being as effective as possible.  You can't sell what you can't show.  Use the tools.

      For more on modern advertising sales and other sales skills click here, or contact us.  To read more sales tips, click here.  Or to learn about ambro.com Strategic Sales Tactics Training and other services click here.

DearColleagueContinuedDear Colleague (continued):  
Re-invest and retool for the New Competition

     Many observers have attributed the malaise of print to magazines and newspapers giving their content away on the Internet. And they also assert that because purchases of magazines and newspapers have been declining, print is dead. 

     But the current print decline isn't simply about print dying.  As I wrote two years year ago...the pressure on the magazine industry is due to the air going out of the print bubble.  

     Keep in mind, while bubble driven advertising was at a high, many new McMagazines were launched (comparison intended to McMansions).  Professor Samir Husni unintentionally documented the trend for years with hundreds and hundreds of magazines being launched every year.   And while there was so much so-called "demand" for magazines, Audit Bureau of Circulations and Business Publications Audit aided and abetted the bubble with rule changes that called bunches of liar loans -- I mean very low priced, bulk and free circulation -- triple A rated circulation.  The bubble economics of print seemed to make sense at the time; lots of advertising (financed in the bubble economy by the purchase of goods and service financed on debt) seemed natural. 

     Now, while we work our way out of the bubble, print properties are being closed.  Is it because print is dead?  Is it because magazines and newspapers are giving away their content online?  No, just as we know people will still live in houses after the housing bubble, we need to know that people will continue to read magazines and newspapers after the print bubble because they provide a fundamentally different experience; being fabulous places to browse lots of different content and advertising, sampling some, deeply consuming other content.  

     And advertisers like print too.  Because they can do a great job in print of displaying their wares or their ideas in great size and detail...highly impactful ad units that can't be blocked by pop-up blockers or turning off images.

     So the fundamental problem print publishers have is the growth of competition.  New competition has emerged ramping up the number of media seeking the attention and the budgets of every advertiser. 

 

It Is About the Competition

    My purpose here is to make clear that we all operate in a far more competitive market than we did in the past.  This competition starts with the fierce fight for readers online, and extends to the struggle to sell advertising.  This eletter is about how to thrive in a business where advertising sales is IMPERATIVE.  And I would assert that it is imperative that we re-tool and re-train our sales processes and staffs to compete in this new "flat" world of many competitors competing on a level playing field. 

     How is sales different than before?  Let me count the ways.

  • It is far more difficult to get appointments than in the past. There are fewer buyers being called on by more competitors, limiting the time available from buyers to learn about your media. 
  • This scarcity of interactions with clients mean that the value (and the stakes) of a sales call is far higher than before.
  • The buyers have greater access to information than before so they don't need to see a sales person to get a media kit or to learn your circulation or how many unique users you have.
  • Advertisers make shorter commitments, making advertising purchases on a more tactical basis than before.
  • Bigger sales are available when selling integrated packages to clients accross multiple media.
  • Advertisers profess to be more results oriented focusing on measuring the ROI on their advertising in a greater way than before.

To learn about ambro.com Strategic Sales Tactics Training and other services click here.  Or contact us for a custom proposal.