Advertising


What The Best Sales People Think

The top sales professionals ranked the effectiveness of five sales strategies. The top-ranked strategies were “Getting customers to emotionally connect with you” followed by “Tailoring your sales pitch to the customer’s needs” and then “Asking questions that show your expertise.” The two lowest ranked strategies were “Showing the value of your solution” and “Driving the topics of conversation.”


Is Digital Ad-Effectiveness Diminishing?

There used to be “a thing” called “over-exposure” that was thought to apply to some celebrities, particularly in relation to product endorsements. It made sense that if a particular person was seen to be endorsing too many products it would tend to put pressure on their perceived veracity, implying that their opinion could be bought, and perhaps bought cheaply.

Lately — okay for decades — digital advertising’s spread from supporting content to supporting every sort of amusement, game, software application and yes, keeping us in touch with friends, and their friends, and their friends, has so multiplied digital advertising that it, too, is over-exposed.


When is Data Sexy?

Data is sexy when it drives profits. Publishers can profit most by bringing their own data to the point of sale. Sales people can learn to develop custom data sets for advertisers that adds value to the publisher’s impressions, driving greater advertiser loyalty and revenue.


Why Invest in Human Capital Through Ad Sales Training?

The question about ROI that should be applied to sales training investments is this: What percentage increase in sales productivity can be reasonably anticipated from sales training? I encourage my clients to think of a minimum of 10% increase in sales.


Are You Spending Enough on Ad-Sales Training?

As a media company manager, you talk all the time about how fast the media business is changing around you. Do you spend enough on helping your sales force stay up-to-date with new media, and new tactics to win in todays hyper-competitive advertising sales market? US companies spend 1.75% of sales compensation on training. That would translate to $1,750 annually for a $100,000 a year sales executive.


Research Says Persistence Pays

Research shows that persistence pays. Research targets were more likely to respond to requests affirmatively than expected by the requesters, and being told “no” by a target may increase their likelihood to say “yes” to the same request later.


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.”


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.