Expert: Peter Gabany - 4/6/2006

Question
Pete, I've never sold advertising before but recently taken a position selling advertising in a direct-mail advertising magazine.  What are some of the things I should do to be good at my job?  The training at my company is poor at best.  I can't seem to land any "larger" accounts, so far everything is small...........a couple of larger accounts would help me be able to stick it out financially.......it's straighht commission.

Answer
Ken,

I hope that you have a flexible publisher. I'm unclear who you sell for - might it be Prism Business Media? If so awesome. It will require a flexible publisher to accomodate this proven method to enhance sales.

Like my friend and colleauge Bob stop selling the steak and start selling the sizzle. I must state  - in order for this wo work you DO need the flexible publisher and his/her consent.

You are selling for one pub. They - the publisher - often have several publications in their roster that are or somewhat related. Your client, CAN have a product or service that bridges these associated publications.

Prism Business Media for example has a Direct Mail publication, but also Promo, NCOF, NCDM, Promo Marketing and a host of other publications.

You always have latitude on rate card. If you sell one ad at a time you will win one commission at a time. If you can sell in a PROGRAM to your client - again with the publisher's blessing - you will have multiple wins and multiple cheques.

You will have to be able to read and understand the profiles of each publication. Meet with the editors and understand the editorial calendar like the back of your hand and heres the difficult part - use your buing power to leverage the readership of the combinded set of publications to expand your client's reach.

I can sell you this one ad for $2,000 and get you 20,000 readers, but I can put you in these five publications - expand your reach to include 230,000 readers for $7,000. Not only will we reach this one market but these other markets that will increase your overall penetration in the B2B or SME marketplace. I can also bonus you by getting a news release in said publications and the program ramps up from there.

This flexibility helps the publisher to promote all of their lines of pubs. It makes huge impact for you both through your credibility and bottom line. If your publisher is NOT flexible. Will NOT let you cross sell, will NOT allow you to promote other books, only harnesses you to one publication or only has one pub for your to represent - move on. Find a publisher of a similar product line and field and move on.

The obvious stuff like know you product, know your industry etc I won't bore you with. And don't forget to get in the hearts and minds of media people at ad agencies. They can be your repeat customer lifeline.

Call or write, there is so much more

905-885-9895

Pete