Daniel M. Ambrose


About Daniel M. Ambrose

Ambrose, launched ambro.com, corp. in 1994 to provide sophisticated strategy consulting and advertising sales training to advertising-driven media clients in the U.S. and abroad. Starting with the founding of About.com and iVillage in 1995, ambro.com has worked with hundreds of clients to help accelerate advertising revenue growth.

How to “Show Up” to Make More Advertising Sales

Woody Allen said 80% of success is showing up. When it comes to successful media selling that is a good place to start. And it’s harder than ever to “show up.” Prospects don’t call back, or say they don’t need to see you. Client-side contacts say to see the agency who you already know hasn’t called back for weeks. How can you “show up” in our fiercely competitive world of media sales?


The Most Difficult Objection: “I don’t need to see you.”

All this is a preamble to this simple point: You better have a really good message when you ask for an appointment. If it works, you’ll win more appointments and ultimately win more business. If your message is so-so, you and your property will stay in the mental “circular file.”


How to Sell Advertising at Trade Shows

Attending and utilizing tradeshows for sales is a key skill for almost every kind of advertising sales person. If you sell national trade advertising, the trade shows in your industry are a key source of content and of leads, as well as a place to meet your prospects. If you sell local TV or radio or newspaper advertising attending the local “home-show” will be a source of leads and a great place to chat up potential customers.


Have an Adgenda

Have an Agenda – Make More and Bigger Ad Sales

Preparing and proposing an agenda at the beginning of the ad-sales conversation has many positive uses. Proposing an agenda for your meeting or conversation can be done on the phone or in person, and works in informal situations as well as in formal presentations.


Negotiating for Advertising Dollars

Ad sales executives need to keep good negotiating practices in mind when the negotiation starts. When a client devotes time to an actual discussion of whether you can meet their price, it is a powerful signal your property is one of a few, not one of many choices.


I Was Wrong

As we should know from many other industries, when there is a lot of money available, very creative scams will be hatched. Recently Advertising Age ran this article explaining how more sophisticated scammers have developed technology that avoids bot blockers by appearing to be a human scrolling and interacting with a web page.


What I Learned at Masters of Media Selling

I learned something new last week in NYC when I taught my seventh 2-day, high-level advertising sales class: Masters of Media Selling.  Sales people need training in how and when to entertain prospects and clients. Despite the “its all about the results” mantra we hear from advertising buyers, it’s not.  […]

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Manage Sales or They’ll Manage You (out the door)

As a result many media sales managers have a very difficult time with forecasting their company’s business. Will you be up or down next month? How much business should you be forecasting for 6 months from now? Management hates surprises, so the pressure is on.

The advertising sales process is particularly frustrating for inexperienced managers because the purchase-decision process at an advertiser or media-buying agency is so opaque. While one person may be identified as the “buyer” they are often not the key contact in terms of influence.


What You Can Learn from Techies: How To Sell Print 1

The members of the focus group told us that when they go to the web site they know what they are looking for. But, they said, when they read the magazine they love the serendipity of discovery, and the absorbing experience of learning about something completely new.

When you think about how to sell print advertising, you’ll want to be sure that your advertiser understands their own needs to present their message in places where serendipity can happen. When advertisers appreciate their own need to show their message to people who are not already looking for it they’ll value the unique environment of print, and they’ll become your customer.


Connect, Educate, Collaborate, Close

Your customers have little time for you because they are under so much pressure to be productive. Only if you add value to their day, every time you meet, will you win time with them to build the relationship that gives you a leg up in the competition.

Open the Mind w keyThat is why I loved seeing new research on now b2b buyers separate winners from losers. The research directly supports the ambro.com Strategic Sales Tactics Training for advertising sales that we teach in customized form for media companies and publically through the Masters of Media Selling seminars with MediaPost.