Navigating Sales Success Amid Economic Uncertainty

In today’s volatile economic landscape, sales professionals face unprecedented challenges. However, with the right strategies, it’s possible to not only survive but thrive.

1. Get Ahead of the Storm
Economic uncertainty often leads to hesitation among clients. To counter this, proactively engage with your clients. Understand their concerns and provide them with relevant information. By staying ahead of the curve, you position yourself as a trusted advisor rather than a reactive salesperson.

Action Tip: Don’t wait for clients to reach out—be proactive. A quick check-in or a thoughtful follow-up can go a long way in maintaining relationships and opening up new conversations. Remind them of your previous successes and show how your solutions have helped others weather tough times.

2. Sell Value, Not Just Products
In challenging times, clients are more focused on value than ever before. Shift your approach from selling products to selling solutions that address your clients’ immediate needs. Demonstrate how your offerings can provide tangible benefits in the short term, helping clients navigate current challenges.

Action Tip: A key to long-term sales success is knowing the difference between the features of your product and the value it brings to your client. When you highlight the ROI of your product in concrete terms, clients feel confident in their investment, especially when times are uncertain.

Remember: People don’t buy products—they buy outcomes. In uncertain times, outcomes are what they want most.

3. Step Up Your Activity
Increased activity leads to increased opportunities. During periods of uncertainty, intensify your outreach efforts. Engage with clients through various channels, share valuable content, and be present in their decision-making processes. Your heightened visibility can make a significant difference in securing deals.

Action Tip: Diversify your outreach methods. If you’re primarily using email, try adding phone calls, LinkedIn outreach, or even video messages. The more channels you use, the more opportunities you create to engage and influence potential clients.

Bonus Tip: Have a strong follow-up plan in place. Often, it’s the second or third interaction with a client that leads to the sale. Stay consistent, and don’t be afraid to follow up until you hear back.

4. Focus on Building Trust
Trust is everything in sales, especially during uncertain times. Clients need to feel that you are genuinely looking out for their best interests, not just pushing a sale. Building trust is an ongoing process that requires transparency, integrity, and empathy.

Action Tip: Share relevant case studies and testimonials that highlight your track record. Let your clients see that others in their industry or similar situations have benefited from working with you.

Bonus Tip: Focus on long-term relationships, not just quick wins. In an era of skepticism, clients appreciate salespeople who focus on building a partnership instead of making a fast sale.

5. Overcoming Objections with Confidence
Objections are inevitable in sales, especially when the economy is in flux. The key is to anticipate and handle objections confidently. From “We can’t afford it right now” to “We’re just not sure about making a commitment,” be prepared with responses that position you as a problem-solver.

Action Tip: The best way to address price objections is to focus on the value you’re offering. If a client says, “It’s too expensive,” respond with, “I understand that cost is a concern. What I want to make sure of is that you’re getting the right solution for your needs, which will provide a strong return on investment in the long run.”

Bonus Tip: The economy is often a convenient scapegoat for clients looking for an easy out. Counter this by turning the conversation toward opportunities. “I get it, the economy is tough right now. But now is actually the perfect time to double down on marketing and strategic investments. Here’s why…”

Conclusion

While economic uncertainty presents challenges, it also offers opportunities for those who are prepared. By implementing these strategies, you can navigate the storm and emerge stronger. Success in sales is not about avoiding challenges, but about adapting, overcoming, and positioning yourself as a trusted partner in the process.

As you reflect on these strategies, remember that consistent activity, a focus on value, and building long-term relationships will keep you ahead of the game, no matter what the economy throws at you.

The “One Up, One Down” Sales Strategy: How to Never Get Left Behind

In sales, losing your main contact at a client company can leave you scrambling. One day, you’re exchanging friendly emails with Bob, your go-to guy, and the next, he’s gone. Whether it’s retirement, a new job, or just an extended leave, the result is the same: you’re stuck, relationshipless, and at risk of losing business. That’s why I rely on what I call the “One Up, One Down” strategy—a simple, proactive way to ensure you’re never left out in the cold when change hits.

Pay Attention to the People Around Your Contact

Great sales training teaches you that relationships matter—but it’s not just about your main relationship. Take a look around Bob. Who’s Bob’s boss? Who supports him? You might see names like Julie (above Bob) and Brandon (below him) copied on emails or attending meetings. The goal? Get to know them all. It’s not about selling to everyone—it’s about creating a web of connection that keeps you anchored in that company no matter what happens to Bob.

Build Relationships Beyond the Obvious

Whether you’re at a conference, on a call, or just replying to an email, don’t zero in on your primary contact. Take the time to greet others, ask for introductions, and note who’s who. During meetings, jot down full names, roles, and even casual observations. Use events as a chance to build those “above” and “below” relationships organically. You’re not stalking—you’re strategically networking.

Tap Into the Sales Team Fraternity

If you can’t connect with people above or below your main contact, go sideways—connect with the company’s sales team. Salespeople tend to help each other out. It’s a unique kind of camaraderie, especially when you’ve walked the same path. Fellow sellers are often more than willing to introduce you around or give you inside insights that open doors.

Protect Your Pipeline from Disruption

Losing your key contact shouldn’t mean losing your revenue. By proactively engaging with the layers around your client, you keep your pipeline protected. Sales training isn’t just about closing—it’s about sustaining. When change comes (and it will), you’ll already have your next step mapped out.

Key Takeaways:

• Always identify and engage with the person above and below your main contact.

• Use meetings, calls, and events to spot and build those relationships naturally.

• When in doubt, build rapport with the sales team—they’ll often help their own.

• Stay ready for client turnover by building a multi-contact strategy.

Sales success doesn’t come from luck—it comes from thinking ahead. So get strategic, build your safety net, and never get left behind again. Never forget… If sales was an easy job, everyone would be doing it. They are not. We are the chosen few. Chosen to help. Chosen to do big things. Chosen to guide. Chosen to win.

– Ryan Dohrn

D.R.I.V.E. Into the New Year: Sales Success Strategies for 2025

As we ring in the new year, many sales professionals find themselves eager to hit the ground running but unsure how to fine-tune their strategies for the road ahead. Much like winning the Daytona 500, achieving sales greatness requires more than speed—it demands a detailed plan.

Auto racing isn’t just about going fast; it’s about precision. Tire pressure, driver skill, air temperature, and track conditions all play a role in crossing the finish line first. The same applies to your sales game. Without a strategy, you risk spinning your wheels in circles and losing deal after deal. To help you jumpstart your year, let’s use the acronym D.R.I.V.E. as a roadmap for sales success.

D — Differentiate

Your first task is to differentiate yourself and your product quickly. In a crowded marketplace, price becomes the deciding factor when two options appear similar. You need to create a clear distinction between your product and the competition.

Showcase unique advantages during prospecting, sales calls, and closing. Establish an “apples-to-steak” comparison to ensure your product stands out. Whether it’s better ROI, innovative features, or unmatched customer support, make your differentiation unmistakable.

R — Run

In today’s fast-paced environment, you need to run—not walk. Advertisers value their time, and you must demonstrate respect for it by being prepared and concise. Forget the traditional, drawn-out sales call. Bring actionable ideas to your first meeting and adapt them in real-time.

This doesn’t mean skipping relationship-building; it means compressing timelines. Be ready to present well-researched ideas that resonate. By moving quickly and efficiently, you’ll gain an edge over competitors who are still “walking” through their pitches.

I — Invest

Preparation is the key to a winning sales call. Start by researching your prospects using tools like LinkedIn or industry-specific databases. Come to meetings armed with three tailored ideas or scenarios. This approach not only demonstrates your commitment but also positions you as a problem-solver.

Forget the outdated practice of using the first meeting solely for information-gathering. Instead, invent and tweak proposals on the spot. Use technology or even a simple notebook to co-create solutions with your client in real time.

V — Value

Value is the cornerstone of every successful sale. Ask yourself: What does your product do to save time, save money, or make money for your client? Focus on the value proposition, not just the features.

Think like a teacher. Break down complex concepts into simple points, and emphasize ROI. Whether it’s efficiency gains, cost savings, or environmental benefits, ensure your client sees the full picture of what you’re offering.

E — Endgame

Finally, establish a clear follow-up protocol—your endgame. When a prospect says they need time to think or consult with their team, don’t leave the ball in their court. Instead, set a follow-up meeting within the “Magic 48-Hour Sales Window™.” This crucial timeframe keeps your proposal top-of-mind and increases the likelihood of closing the deal.

Validate the client’s interest, schedule the next step immediately, and follow through as promised. Avoid pitching new proposals on Fridays, as they often lose momentum over the weekend.

As you kick off the new year, remember: Any plan is better than no plan. Use the D.R.I.V.E. framework to differentiate, run, invest, emphasize value, and execute your endgame. Success in 2025 starts with intentional action and a commitment to improvement.

Never forget… if sales was an easy job, everyone would be doing it.

Your coach – Ryan

10 Ways to End the Advertising Year Strong

As the year draws to a close, finishing strong isn’t just a motivational slogan—it’s a strategic advantage. Here are ten actionable ideas to help you make the most of the remaining months and set a powerful tone for the year ahead.

1. Position Yourself as an Advisor

Stop thinking of yourself as just a salesperson. Seventy-four percent of buyers would rather go to the dentist than talk to a traditional salesperson. The solution? Adopt an advisor mindset. While salespeople sell what clients want, advisors guide clients toward what they truly need, fostering lifelong relationships.

2. Stop Mass Emailing

The era of generic mass emails is over. Personalized emails boast a 35% higher open rate and a 45% higher reply rate. Tailor your messages to the recipient’s needs and interests to stand out in overcrowded inboxes.  If your CRM offer mass emails, be sure to fully use the customization features.  Customization is WAY more than just inserting someone’s name.

3. Share Marketing Impact Reports

Showcase the value you bring by creating and sharing impact reports. These reports highlight measurable outcomes and build trust, reinforcing your role as a results-driven partner.

4. Focus on Recommendation-Based Selling

Seventy percent of sales are driven by recommendations. Think of your approach as a fine dining experience, offering curated solutions rather than a buffet of generic options. Personal, tailored suggestions close more deals.

5. Leverage the Marketing Triangle of Success

Educate your clients on the three pillars of marketing success: new business acquisition, brand maintenance, and re-engaging past customers. A well-rounded strategy that combines traditional media, digital channels, and social media ensures comprehensive coverage.

6. Master Pipeline Management

A well-maintained sales pipeline is essential for year-end success. Regularly review your prospects, in-progress deals, and active accounts to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Organization is key to consistent results.  Also, look carefully at how many clients did not renew.  Know your churn rate is critical.  Try to keep it below 20%.

7. Prioritize Client Retention

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing one. Work as hard to keep your current clients as you did to win them in the first place. Show gratitude, stay active between the holidays, and make your clients feel valued year-round.

8. Work Smarter AND Harder

While the idea of working smarter not harder is appealing, sometimes you need both. Smart strategies combined with relentless effort are what win the game. Grind it out—success favors the persistent.

9. Get Loud When Others Go Quite

The end of the year, especially during the holidays, is the time of the sale cycle when many salespeople tend to go quiet, figuring that most of their clients will be out of the office. Do not believe this philosophy, or follow this philosophy. Ever! When other salepeople go quiet, it’s your time to put your foot on the gas and close more deals.

10. Offer Urgency Incentives

Incentives don’t have to mean giveaways for free. Use time-limited offers, such as “buy three, get one free,” or, rate protection, or bonus inventory from surplus digital inventory, to create a sense of urgency and drive immediate action.

Conclusion: 

These ten strategies will not only help you finish the year on a high note but also lay a strong foundation for the next one. Focus on relationship building, targeted outreach, and strategic planning to turn the year’s end into a launching pad for future success. Remember, it’s not just about closing the year strong—it’s about opening the next one with unstoppable momentum.

Never forget if selling was easy, everyone would be doing it.  – Ryan Dohrn

 

 

Ryan Dohrn is the host of the #1 iTunes advertising sales podcast Ad Sales Nation and has trained over 6,000 media sales people in 7 countries. His 25-year media career spans consumer, B2B, traditional, and digital media brands from Disney to PennWell. He is also the Founder of Brain Swell Media, an international sales motivational keynote speaker, an Emmy Award winner, best-selling book author, and he still sells media today.  Learn more online at http://360AdSales.com or http://RyanDohrn.com

Selling During Times of Economic Uncertainty

There’s so much going on out in the world—so much economic uncertainty and insecurity right now. So this blog is going to get you pumped up and ahead of the storm we are selling through yet again. It’s not like we haven’t been here before.

Economic uncertainty means different things to different people, of course. But rather than talk politics, let’s just talk in general about economic uncertainty and how it’s impacting our customers right now—and how we will potentially sell to them.

In that vein, there are three key things we must be able to do to survive and thrive through this latest wave of economic uncertainty.

 

Podcast on this topic: https://360adsales.com/ad-sales-training-podcast/

 

No. 1: Get Ahead of the Storm

For me, getting ahead of the storm is about controlling the narrative. If you control the narrative, your clients will be hearing what you’re saying and what you want them to hear. Unfortunately, according to Adrian Brody, a professor at Wake Forest University, humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their viewpoint. Ok then, let’s not debate facts, but let’s just talk about it.

Here’s the reality: People are nervous out there right now. Business owners are nervous out there right now.

So, when you think about getting ahead of the storm and controlling the narrative, it’s about you being positive, and about you controlling the messaging that you want about your company to get in front of your potential clients.

What I tend to do during times of economic uncertainty is just get on the phone. Talk to your customers. Understand where they’re coming from. Walk a day in their shoes. Understanding what they’re experiencing is so very, very important.

But what’s even more important is providing these potential clients with social proof. Social proof is you mentioning to them that they are not alone—and that other businesses like theirs are keeping on keeping on. Now, I’m not saying that’s true in every circumstance, but you have customers, advertisers, clients that are continuing on with their marketing or business. And so social proof is about you ethically name-dropping other businesses, as much as you can talk about it, that are staying the course and continuing to invest in tech, advertising, and other growth initiatives.

Now remember, typically, businesses that keep on keeping on during times of uncertainty are the ones that tend to exit a recession or pull through the pandemic doing better than if they’d battened down the hatches, pulled back, and done nothing.

So, get out ahead of the storm and help your clients get out there too.

 

No. 2: You Must Sell Value

This is true no matter what it is that you’re selling. So you need to focus on the now and the value a client receives from doing business with you. How can you impact somebody right now?  When times get tough, our clients and prospects tend to get tunnel vision.  They get very narrow in their focus.  Price is what someone pays.  Value is what they get.   What you’ll see with a great deal of the products or marketing or other goods being sold out there is that the focus seems really about the impact that’s going to happen six months from now. That is just too far ahead for most people right now.  They can barely handle the now, much less the thoughts of the future.  Let’s sell how we can help them right now.  Live with them in this moment.  How can our product or service impact them right now? And we need to do that by separating ourselves, differentiating ourselves. So I ask, what is your differentiating factor? I like to call it my “D” factor. What’s your differentiating factor, personally? What is something that you, your business, or your service does that’s different and how will it fix things now?

And remember, it needs to be beyond you. Of course, you’re different—we’re all different. But the point is, it has to be something that differentiates you and your selling from everybody else.

The reason this is important is because, especially in the marketing business where a lot of my friends and fans live, if there are two companies that are advertising right now and each one has set their volume level to 10, if one of those companies changes their volume level down to five, the other company is simply louder right on the spot. It’s what I call the Law of Being Loud. And the Law of Being Loud is that if two people are in a room and both are talking at a volume of 10, then one of them starts talking at a volume of 5, the one that’s at 10 doesn’t need to get any louder to be heard. By nature of the speaker going from a volume level of 10 down to a level 5 volume, the other speaker just seems louder—without having to change what they’re doing at all.

It’s sort of like when you’ve been in a crowd of people and you were talking at a normal volume to a friend, and then all of sudden the room got quiet for a minute and what you were saying sounded REALLY loud. That’s the Law of Being Loud.

So, for those of you listening who are in the marketing business, whenever an advertiser says, “We’re just going to turn the volume down a little bit,” you can tell them that by turning your volume down a bit, your competitor doesn’t have to do anything whatsoever to sound louder and draw the attention.

 

Podcast on this topic: https://360adsales.com/ad-sales-training-podcast/

 

No. 3: Step up your game. Step up your activity.

When things are getting bad out there, you need to step up your game. You need to get on the phone a lot more. You need to be positioning yourself as a thought leader. You need to be going on LinkedIn, polishing up your profile, following your clients, commenting and liking. Then following your clients’ companies and commenting on things and liking. Following them on Instagram, Facebook, etc. Commenting. Sharing. Liking.

During a time of economic uncertainty, people need to feel like someone’s looking out for them. And guess who that person is? That would be you, reading this. Because If every outreach you have with your customers is a sales outreach, then you’re just a salesperson.

But as a salesperson I want to position myself as a helper. As a trusted advisor. Because if you’re just a salesperson, you’re a salesperson like everybody else. So consider, are you in sales or you out there to advise and help people?

I’ve decided I’m there to help and advise people. So 50% of my outreaches to my current clients are typically retention-based, non-sales outreaches. I also realize that simply reaching out is not a differentiating factor, so please keep that in mind. Because, remember, customer service is expected. And everybody supplies it to one degree or another, so it’s not typically a differentiating factor. True differentiating factors are all the things you do better or differently, beyond great customer service.

Here are some examples that can help you develop a true differentiating factor. First, get personal with people during times of economic uncertainty. Stop all the mass emails; nobody reads mass emails anymore. Email really only works today when you give it a personalized approach.

In other words, grow your brand. Get personal with your outreach. Step up your activity. Maybe consider this question: “What am I going to do to grow 22 customers in 2022?” You could start with something along those lines.

So, here’s a quick recap. First and foremost, I want you to think about getting ahead of the storm. That means controlling the narrative, getting on the phone, providing a lot of social proof.

And the second thing: sell value. Focus on the now and share your newly identified differentiator, or “D” factor. Remember, too, the Law of Being Loud. It’s important here and you can use its example to help your customers understand why it’s important to preserve a strong presence in the market and not to let their volume slide.

And then third, step up your activity. Specifically your non-sales activities—beyond customer service. Get personal with customers and prospects. Stop the mass emails. Be very relevant and very specific with them. And then on LinkedIn, work to truly grow your brand.

To wrap up, it’s what I end every blog and every podcast with—if sales was easy, friends, everybody would be doing it. We lived through the recession of 2006-2008, and we survived. Some of us even thrived throughout the pandemic. And now we’re going through another time of economic uncertainty. But here’s the deal: we will survive.

My first book was written in 2008, right after the Great Recession. This next book, Selling Forward, was written just after the pandemic, so it’s well-positioned right now to help you really get ahead of the storm. So read the book. Use it.

You can find Selling Forward on Amazon, Audible, and Kindle. And your purchase will help me help you help others—because a portion of the proceeds are slated for charities.

 

Podcast on this topic: https://360adsales.com/ad-sales-training-podcast/

Buy the book on this topic:  https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B0B3Q1NK4C

 

Until next time!

Asking for the Order: New techniques to close the sale without acting like a salesperson

There are usually two points during every sales call that are mildly awkward. Most salespeople will say that those two are the beginning and the end of every scheduled sales call with a prospective client, since both of these can present a unique set of challenges. At the beginning of the sales call, we’re trying to figure out how to quickly connect to build rapport with the customer. And at the end of the sales call, we have to get the client to let loose of their purse strings and give us some money.

Even the most seasoned sales pro will tell you that without a plan and without practice, these two awkward areas can trip up a sales professional for years. So let’s dig deep into this issue and figure out a way to make a positive change in our sales lives. Let’s create a repeatable pattern of success. Shall we?

If you have ever spoken to a long-distance runner, they will tell you that the way you begin the race sets a precedent for the way you will probably end it. For instance, if you start the race too fast, you may not have enough energy to win in the end. And if you save all your gas to the end of the race, you may be too far behind the pacesetter to close the gap and win.

Now, I think we can all agree, there is way more to running a marathon than just the beginning and the end of the race. But this analogy gives us a scenario that we can potentially use as an example to build upon as we explore our client meetings. One takeaway from the marathon runner example is that if we want to end the race strong, we have to start the race smart.

Here’s another example. Let’s look at great storytelling for a minute. We know that every great story needs three components: a beginning, a middle, and an end. You need to start the story strongly by giving the reader a compelling reason why they should keep reading. Then, as a reader, if you get to the end of the book and it doesn’t conclude in a way that’s dramatic, you will often feel like you’ve wasted time reading the book. A lackluster ending can really let you down. Just as with the racing example, there’s a lot more in those pages between the beginning and the end, but you can see that there’s a similarity between the two.

As a media sales and marketing professional for over 30 years, I think both of these are great examples of what we need to do to create a plan to make sure we start our sales calls strong and end them strong. We shouldn’t be lopsided at all in this attempt. We should be well-practiced, and we should understand that if we start strong, we will probably finish strong, as well.

So let’s look at how we sales pros can set ourselves up for success in the media sales business and host the very best meetings to help us achieve our goals. First, I suggest that we start with the end.

What is the one thing that nearly every sales manager asks us to do on a regular basis? Ask for the order, right? Yet, asking for the order can be one of the most awkward situations, even for veteran salespeople. Why? Because it’s that point in every conversation where we have to move into ”sales mode.” Or do we? I don’t see the end of the sales calls where you ask for the order as a “yes” or “no” type of question or situation. Sometimes, I can tell that a potential buyer is ready to go, and it’s very easy to move them on to the next step. In my experience, though, the majority of the time they’re holding back some of their cards and I truly don’t know exactly what it is they’re thinking. Even in the middle of the sales call when I ask some really great questions, I don’t always know exactly what they’re thinking. I need a little more engagement. So at the end of the sales call, if I ask a yes-or-no question, I will probably hear a “Well, let me think about it” response. I suppose that is better than a “no.” But is it, really? Are potential clients telling you that they need to think about it as a way to end the sales call? Or do they really need to think about it? Or, are they just not telling you “no” because you are a nice person? Or do they just hate saying no? Or are they afraid that if they say no that you will go into a desperate sales rant to save the deal? All of these questions are valid. And these questions have led me to a unique closing technique that I call the 1-to-10 close.

The 1-to-10 close is an easy way to ask for the order and to engage more deeply with the client. It sounds something like this … “Bonnie, thanks so much for the opportunity to meet with you today. I think this has been a really great conversation. If you don’t mind me asking, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning you’re really not that interested, and 10 meaning you’re ready to write me a check today, where are you at?”

This 1-to-10 closing technique allows me to re-engage more deeply with the customer and really see where they’re at in their mind, related to buying. If a client says to me they are a 5, I simply ask them what I need to do or say or what questions I can answer to get them to be more like a 6 or 7. If someone says they are a 5, that tells me that they are about at the 50/50 mark as to whether they should buy or not. If I don’t engage more deeply, I only have a 50% chance of closing the deal. If I had not used the 1-to-10 technique, I would bet that they would have said they wanted to think about it, and I would not have had a chance to give them more decision-making details. If a client were to say to me that they are at 3, I would simply ask them what I can do or say or what questions I can answer that might get them to be closer to a 5 or a 6. Thus, I have just attempted to move them from a “no” to at least a 50/50 shot.

I truly believe that if a customer is at 3, they will never tell you unless you ask them for deeper engagement. If they are at a 3 and they are bold enough to say “no,” they fully expect you to jump back at them and get aggressive and try to close them. Who likes that? When you continue to sell after a “no,” you are setting yourself up for future failure. Because you have just solidified in their minds that you are a typical salesperson—pushy, over the top, and money-hungry to close a deal. What is interesting to me is the number of times when I press for more during the closing process, only to realize that the client just does not want to say no to me, because I am a darn nice guy, or they just don’t want to hurt my feelings. So again, the 1-to-10 closing technique, when paired with a solid sales call opener, can create a strong strategy for closing success.

Now, let’s talk about the start of the sales call for just a minute. I do not like to start with bologna. I like to start strong. So I first validate time. “Thanks, Bonnie, for the 20 minutes today. Do you still have 20 minutes?” Then, I set my three-point agenda and make sure that they agree with the agenda. And then I begin sharing my success stories. Because let me emphasize, I truly believe that starting the call with bologna forces you to engage in making a bologna sandwich. And I simply don’t have time for that. Do you?

Being great in sales is all about creating repeatable patterns of success. What is your prospecting process and how do you repeat success? What are the five main questions you ask on every sales call that you know will work? What are the stories you share that almost always get you a positive response? How will you end your next sales call to get past the “I need to think about it”? In today’s emotional sales environment, you cannot do what you have always done. What you did in the past may not get you to where you need to be in the future. Growing in sales is about adjusting. So, the real question is this … are you willing to adjust to close more deals?

Fellow media sales warriors, never forget, if ad sales was an easy job, everyone would be doing it. And they are not. We are the chosen few. And we have found careers that will feed our families for a lifetime.

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Getting Out of a Sales Rut: Exploring the intersection of mental health and sales fatigue

Mental health is a very important subject for us to discuss as it relates to our work life and, I believe, our sales life, as well. Please understand that I am not a clinically trained therapist in any way, shape or form. I do hold an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) certification from the International Coaching Federation. My intention with this column is to try to provide inspiration to those of you who might have found yourselves in a sales rut or mentally fatigued at work, or in life, as we’re getting back to some level of normal sales business across America. If you are experiencing significant mental fatigue or issues related to your mental well-being, please seek professional advice. I have listed several resources at the end of this column. I dedicate this column to my fellow media sales warrior, Chris Atkins, who took his life amidst a vibrant media sales career. Chris, you are missed.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 31% of survey respondents report symptoms of anxiety or depression, 13% report having started or increased substance use, 26% report stress-related symptoms, and 11% report having serious thoughts of suicide within the past 30 days. These numbers are nearly double the rates expected before the pandemic. Friends, this is a real problem. This is more than a revenue issue. This is a human issue.

We’ve all had those days and weeks and months. Days when you just don’t feel like doing much of anything, much less selling. It doesn’t matter if you are selling copy machines or advertising. Some days you just don’t feel like doing it. Have you had one of those days? If you haven’t, you’ve probably not been selling for very long, because it’s quite normal to feel this way. But know this: you are not alone out there.

So, what do you do? Is there a way to get yourself out of a sales rut? Is there a way to push through the mental fatigue? The answer is a resounding … YES! Rather than blaming this dilemma on the pandemic, it’s probably better for all of us in sales land to recognize that we’re just normal people that have chosen a career many would never take for any amount of money. Each month I end my Ad Sales Nation podcast by saying, “If ad sales was easy, everybody would be doing it. And they’re not. We are the chosen few. But, we’ve found a career that will feed our families for a lifetime.” It is a statement that I feel deeply about. I tell my ad sales coaching clients all the time that I go where I want, eat where I want, travel where I want, all because of media sales. It has literally been a part of my life for 30 years. But over that period of time there have been many days, many weeks, many months when I’ve just not felt like I wanted to sell anything. Here are the seven things that I often do when I find myself in a sales rut or mentally exhausted from the business of sales.

1. Connect with others in the sales business. The first thing for every sales rep to recognize is that sales ruts are normal and they happen to everybody. You are a unique person, but this circumstance and situation is not unique at all. You’re human. These things happen to all of us. It’s important also to surround yourself with other people that understand where you’re coming from. Oftentimes, those around you can’t sympathize very much because they don’t really know what it’s like to be in the sales business. Think about it. If every day you’re guaranteed a paycheck, you’re not used to what we in sales land are going through each day. Being in sales is tough. We live and die by our sales activity. Nothing is a guarantee in sales. Having a few mutual connections that are also in the sales business is important to your long-term sanity. While it’s always good to get other people’s outside perspective, it’s also equally important to surround yourself with other people who completely and utterly understand what you’re going through on a daily basis. There’s a reason that people crinkle their noses when you tell them you are in sales. You probably do not smell bad. They just know they could not handle being in sales. In every major city there are groups of sales professionals that gather together on a regular basis. With COVID restrictions subsiding across the country, It’s probably easier now than it has been in the last year to find a group of like-minded sales professionals that you can gel with and who will provide you a shoulder to lean on. Here is a link to several groups that you can join: https://jobstars.com/sales-professional-associations-organizations/. I truly feel this is an important piece of the puzzle. If you’re not able to find a networking group, seek out professional sales coaching. Finding a coach that’s also in the sales business can be extremely helpful to you since they will be able to better sympathize with your current situation and provide guidance.
2. Change your frequency. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to read the book The Secret, you’ll understand a little bit of what I’m talking about. Even if you feel that book to be complete hocus-pocus, I feel it to be based in some level of reality. There is a universal understanding that when you continue to do something the same way and expect a different result, you are defining or trying to redefine the non-clinical version of insanity. Many of the salespeople that I personally coach will find themselves on the wrong frequency. They have been doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and they just can’t see why things aren’t going in their direction. Whether you believe that life operates on certain planes or frequencies is completely up to you. But, I can tell you that changing things up, changing your frequency, can be part and parcel to your success and getting out of a sales rut. Recently, I was working with a fantastic sales professional that found herself in a sales rut. I encouraged her to change things up. To leave home at a different time for work. To drive a new direction to the office. To listen to a different style of music on her way to work. To change her coffee. To park in a different parking spot. To wear a different type of outfit than she would normally wear to work. All of these little factors contribute to you looking at things from a different perspective. What’s interesting is that we are all creatures of habit. Some of those habits become so ingrained in our lives that even though we’re doing the same thing over and over again, we just don’t see it as being that simple. After just 48 hours of doing things completely differently than she normally would, she closed a big dollar sales deal. Was it the coffee? Was it a magic parking spot? No. I don’t think that this is a conspiracy theory by any means. A lot of times it’s just about retraining your brain to see things from a little bit of a different perspective. Try something different today. You might be surprised at how impactful it is on your life.
3. Call a client who loves you. All of us have advertisers that we love. In some cases, I’ve been in the wedding of some of my favorite clients. After all, sales is about quality relationships with quality people. Do I love all my advertisers? The answer is … no, I don’t. But I do have a select group of advertisers and clients that I absolutely enjoy and would spend time with regardless of whether or not they did business with me. These are the types of people that I often call on when I’m having a bad day. I do not usually tell them that I’m having a bad day. But, I will engage in conversation with them knowing that they are not going to beat me up about price or frequency or Facebook. There are three things that can come from this. The first is that you just might find a sales opportunity. The second is that you are actually doing yourself a favor by retaining that customer. The third is that you created a positive conversation that will probably lead to another one. I’m not suggesting that you ask your advertisers to be your therapist. I’m merely suggesting that when you talk to people that really like you, you tend to re-energize yourself with positivity.
4. Work your list of clients. Within any competent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, you are able to form a list of customers. I have three lists that I work on a daily basis. The first list is a standard prospecting list like the one we all have in front of us. The second list contains those clients that I’ve already met with that I consider “in progress” towards a sale. The third list is my active clients that I am looking to retain for a lifetime. When I’m having a bad sales day, I focus on my lists. I might put on some rock music and increase the strength of my coffee, and then I work my lists. What I find is that lists create focus. When you’re mentally fatigued you often have a hard time focusing. With a focused list, I’m able to really laser-focus in on a particular group of people that I’m calling for a reason. Keep in mind, I’m not a big fan of leaving voice messages and asking people to call me back. Rather, I leave a voicemail to encourage a customer to reply to the email that I sent. So, when I’m working this list, I am usually using a cadence of phone call first, followed up by an immediate email. My lists are a living, breathing document. My goal is not to work a list from 10 to 0. My goal is to have a list that is always growing and changing. From a pipeline sales management perspective, I never want any of my list to get to 0. If your CRM system can’t create a list, I would suggest you find a new CRM.
5. Work new categories. In addition to the list that I work on a daily basis, I will oftentimes change my sales approach on categories that I sell. Personally, I like to trade accounts with other sales professionals on my team. The reason for this is because when I give someone an account that I’ve worked hard and they trade with me, we almost always close a deal one way or the other. Many times customers just need to hear a different tone of voice or a different approach. From a team perspective, I like the fact that I can get out of a certain category and focus on another category to give my brain something fresh to look at.
6. Get some sleep. Sleep experts from the Mayo Clinic tell us that a lack of focus or mental fatigue can often be traced back to a lack of sleep. Don’t fool yourself. Most adults need seven or more hours of sleep each night to function at a high capacity level. If you’re like most salespeople, after a long day you’ll have a couple of cocktails, a nice meal, and stay up late binge-watching Netflix. Completely normal. But also, this particular habit could lead you to a lack of sleep. One of the things I noticed when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea is that I was definitely not getting enough sleep. I am an eight-hour of sleep kind of guy. My body truly needs eight hours of sleep. Can I function on seven hours of sleep? Absolutely. But if I want to be at my prime, I need eight hours of sleep. I know this sounds like a basic thought. Sort of a 101 kind of thing, right? So do it! Sometimes it does take a village to be successful. You may need to talk to your significant other and make it a team effort. In the end, though, your success is a team success at home and in the office.
7. Get back to the basics. When things aren’t going well it is a common practice for us to take random sales approaches to see what might stick against the wall. This is an absolutely bad sales strategy whether you’re new or old in the sales business. There are fundamental pieces to the sales game that have to be achieved in order for you to be successful. Go back to the basics. Are your emails short and simple and to the point? Are your emails and voice mails relevant to the exact needs of the customer? Are you contacting your customers at the optimal time of day? Are you selling strictly on the phone or are you trying to get in front of people to have face-to-face meetings? These are just a few of the basics that you need to wrap your head around if you’re going to be successful and get back on the sales horse for a long ride to victory. Look back at your sales life. What are the three things that worked best for you in the past? Go back and look at them closely.

In the end, you control you. While other people around you influence you … in the end, the decisions that you make are the decisions that you will make. Please don’t settle for the statement, “It is what it is.” I don’t accept that with myself or with my family members or with my team members. I truly believe it is what you make it.

If you’re in a sales rut, choose just one of the seven ideas listed in this column and put it into action. Wrap your brain around it. Commit to it. And own it. Getting out of a rut is not about giving it half your effort. It’s going to take everything you’ve got to get the train back on the tracks and rolling in the right direction.

And finally, never, ever be afraid to ask for help.

As I stated at the beginning, you might find yourself in a situation where you just can’t get yourself mentally correct. Please seek professional advice if that happens. Here are some resources to help.

 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255); En español 1-888-628-9454

Use Lifeline Chat on the web: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/

The Lifeline is a free, confidential crisis service that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Lifeline connects people to the nearest crisis center in the Lifeline national network. These centers provide crisis counseling and mental health referrals.

Crisis Text Line: Text “HELLO” to 741741. The Crisis Text hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the U.S. The Crisis Text Line serves anyone in any type of crisis, connecting them with a crisis counselor who can provide support and information.

 

Helping Advertisers Prepare for the Buying Bump: 10 Ideas to Update Your Media Sales Game

All research points to a buying bump that is set to occur. We see citizens getting back to some level of normalcy, signaling that many buying habits will soon come back into play. Yet, our advertisers are still throwing us the same COVID-based objections. Do they not want to get back to business? Why is it so hard for them to grasp that advertising starts the process to get customers back in the door?

I believe that business owners are suffering from a sort of PTSD over the massive shock to their businesses that the COVID pandemic dealt them over the last 12 months. So, how do we help them? The first step is to understand them.

As a media sales rep myself, I have the chance to speak to advertisers daily. I also have the unique opportunity to coach media sales reps around the globe. Sarah in Singapore, Peter and his team in Australia, John and his colleagues up in Toronto, and of course my teams here in the United States. They all report a distinct change in their advertisers over the last 12 months.

For the last three years, each Friday I have asked a group of my coaching clients to answer this multiple-choice question: What type of advertiser attitudes did you come across last week? Their response options have been 1.) advertisers making ego-driven advertising decisions, 2.) advertisers making logical-based ad buying decisions, and 3.) advertisers making decisions based on emotion and how they feel at the moment.

This past week when I asked the question, 5% of media sales reps reported that they met with ego-driven individuals last week, and this did not change much between 2019, 2020, and 2021. Interestingly enough, and sorry to all of the agency media buyers out there, reps reported that many clients in this 5% were agency buyers.

Now, let’s look at the percentage of logical buyers. Down 9% from 2020, logical buyers represented 21% of the buyers that your fellow media sales warriors met with last week. These logical buyers typically want nothing but the facts, just the numbers.

And next, and what’s really interesting, is the number of emotional buyers—up 9% last week and reported at 74%! You read that right. Seventy-four percent of the media sales warriors I’m regularly coaching are telling me that the buyers they’re meeting with right now are highly emotional. This doesn’t mean that they don’t use any logic in the process of making decisions, but they’re showing us that they’re very emotional in the way that they’re buying. It’s a lot about how they feel, regardless of the facts that are being presented to them.

With the knowledge presented here in hand, we have to change how we sell media. If we keep selling traditional media in traditional ways, we will keep getting traditional results. So here are 10 thoughts on changing your media sales approach to increase your close rate as you sell in a post-pandemic media sales world:

1. Emotional buyers do not respond well to data and stats. You will find your best success in selling with advertiser success stories or case studies. Talk up-front about the three advertisers that you love the most and the results they are seeing.
2. Do NOT ask the standard questions you have been asking for years. Why ask what their budget is and reinforce the fact that they have no money to spend? Instead, talk ethically about your other advertisers that are seeing results. Paint them a picture of potential. A better question to ask would be, “Tell me about a local busines you feel does a good job of marketing?” Then, talk about what marketing success could look like.
3. Do not try to win the traditional vs. digital argument. Instead, talk about multi-media. Speak to five or six things that other business owners are doing to win. Traditional and digital. Digital is really kind of the bare minimum, actually. We’ve got to raise the bar or set the bar with our advertisers and prospects, and that’s one of the things I want you to seriously consider. As ad sales pros, we’ve got to control the narrative. Digital-only advertisers limit themselves and their total ROI.
4. Talk about minimums required for ROI success. There is a reality to marketing. There is a dollar value attached to that reality. Show the reality. It might sound something like this, “If you’re going to be competitive, there’s a certain minimum number of marketing initiatives that you need to do in any given 30-day period just to be competitive.” These minimums should be shown in your thee pricing plans/packages that you present on every sales call.
5. Come with ideas ready to roll. Most people have lost patience for just about everything. The last thing they want to do is sit through a sales discovery interrogation session. You are 70% more likely to close business when you recommend what somebody needs to do as opposed to what they want to do. Sure, ask questions, but stop being a custom solution builder. There is no proof that custom advertising solutions sell more than recommending what will work for a tested category of your clients. Custom solutions require a higher level of knowledge. They take longer to close. And, they require the most customer support from your team.
6. In a time of crisis, most people want to be led. So lead. You are a Media Sales Ad-visor. Recommend media options based on what has worked for your other advertisers. I’ll reiterate: it’s not about budget. It’s about what the advertiser’s category demands. Identify what they NEED, get them results, and you’ll have customers for a lifetime.
7. Social media is not the single answer to marketing. If Coke or Tide could get away with doing only social, they would. Yet, they collectively spend millions each year on traditional media. I might say this to my advertising clients right now, “Mr. or Mrs. Advertiser, so you love social media. Great. We do too. But, pretty much every business is on Facebook. Let’s talk about what things are you doing to be different.” Because everybody’s on social media right now. Social media is really, really saturated. Digital as a whole, quite honestly, is saturated. So the question is, “What are you doing to stand out from the crowd in a digitally cluttered, digitally saturated marketing landscape?” I love digital. But it is not the single holy grail.
8. Digital and social are different. Show the difference. Social is intrusion-based advertising. The digital we sell as a media company is permission-based marketing. If you’ve watched the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” we’ve got Apple, iOS, and Chrome about to block all cookies, and in fact some of those things have already happened. From watching this documentary and from observing numerous other sources as well, I believe we’re going to see a traditional media resurgence. Now, is it ever going to be the way that it was in the ‘80s? No. But neither is the music ever going to be the same.
9. Traditional media is a dominating marketing play. Not everyone can afford print or radio. Every business does social. Not every business does traditional. What’s interesting, for those of you who sell traditional advertising, is that we’re seeing in almost all of our research that one of the best drivers of social media activity—search activity, Google, etc.—comes from traditional media sources. Look no further than the NNA, Borrell, or the Association of Magazine Media for facts to back this up.
10. Sell the marketing triangle of success? Traditional, digital, and social. Because events aren’t really in play right now, stick with these main three now. Yes, there are virtual events and they’re working in B2B. But the trifecta right now is going to be social and digital, and then having traditional media in the mix as the differentiating factor. Because, if advertisers want to be dominant in their marketplace, they have to do what others either don’t know how to do, or what others think they need to do but can’t execute on because of budget or other circumstances.

Media sales warriors, people have been putting off significant buys for quite some time. COVID forced them into that scenario. Now with vaccinations rolling out, with restrictions being lifted, people are going to come back out and buy. The critical question is, “Mr. or Mrs. Business Owner, are you going to be ready?” It doesn’t matter if they’re local, national, or global. Are they going to be positioned ahead of time to take advantage of the buying bump that’s going to occur? Demand for products is going up, and it’s going to go up higher than it ever has before. Are they going to be positioned correctly? Think about it, friends. You’re dealing with a lot of emotional people—74%, remember. So guide them. Lead them. Help them understand what they need to do to be successful.

You know what I always say, “If ad sales was easy, everybody would be doing it.” And they’re not. Is that because we’re crazy? No. (Well, maybe we are a little bit.) The truth is that we’ve found careers that will feed our families for a lifetime. And there has never been a better time than now to sell media.

 

 

Stop Being Ghosted by Your Advertisers

6 ways to stop advertisers from simply disappearing after a sales call

Ghosting is a relatively new colloquialism that refers to the act of abruptly cutting off contact with someone, without giving that person any warning or explanation for doing so. Even when the person being ghosted reaches out to reinitiate contact or gain closure, they’re met with silence.

Out here in sales land this phenomenon happens to all of us and, unfortunately, often at a higher frequency than we would like to admit.

Has this happened to you? You had a great meeting with a potential advertiser and they’ve asked you for a proposal. You go back to the office and you are excited. You create the proposal. You send over the requested proposal with the anticipation of hearing back soon. Then, everything goes dark. You hear nothing. Every day you play a game of what feels like hide and seek. You reach out by email or phone. You hear nothing. In some cases, you begin to stalk the advertiser by driving past their business. You hear nothing. At a certain point, you become frustrated with yourself. You think maybe you did something wrong. Well, maybe you did.

Ghosting is not necessarily a new phenomenon for salespeople, it’s just that now the behavior has an actual name associated with it. And since it’s really nothing new for a salesperson to experience, why are we surprised when it happens yet again?

But it doesn’t have to be like this, generally speaking. So let’s look at six ways to avoid being ghosted by an advertiser.

STRATEGY #1: Acknowledge the ghost. At the beginning and end of every sales call with a client, I’m vividly clear about the expectations for the meeting and the expectations for the follow-up. Because typically, there are two awkward moments in every sales call. The beginning. And the end. So, why not just talk about it upfront?

For example, I might say, “Thank you so much for the time today, Bob. At the end of our conversation today I would love to set up a clear plan for follow-up. If your answer is yes … wonderful. If your answer is no … that’s okay, we can always work together at some point in the future. Or, if your answer is that you need to think about it … that’s no problem. We’ll set a very clear plan for following up together. A plan that meets your exact needs and decision-making timeline.”

When you begin sales calls by setting yourself up for success, you normally end the sales call with success. If you begin the sales call with a bunch of the normal bologna that accompanies the typical rapport-building, then you are destined to end the call with an equal amount of bologna.

STRATEGY #2: You must own the follow-up process or you will lose the deal. Very often salespeople will give control of the follow-up over to the advertiser. And very often the advertiser will say they will call you back. We all know this is a flat-out lie, in most cases. So, why do we allow the advertiser to control the follow-up? Because we don’t know what else to do. But know this: there should always be a plan in place to control the follow-up with the advertiser.

Very often I will end the sales call by getting out my phone or looking at my calendar and creating a meeting invite for the follow-up. When I create that follow-up I create a short, 10-minute meeting on the calendar. That way when the follow-up meeting appears on the advertiser’s calendar, it looks like a very short meeting and is less likely to be canceled.

STRATEGY #3: Agree on the best plan for follow-up. A lot of times when you end the sales call, there is not a clear plan nor an agreed-upon plan. Take ownership of the follow-up and be sure that both parties agree that the follow-up plan is crystal clear. You might even ask some questions like, “What is the best way for me to follow up with you? Do you prefer texts? Smoke signals? Carrier pigeon? Or email?”

Now, all kidding aside, my follow-up preference would be by phone. But if you happen to be selling in a local sales environment, you could set the follow-up to be a quick drop-in. You might be thinking to yourself … what if the advertiser wants to call me back and they refuse to set the follow-up? At that point, I believe you need to acknowledge the circumstance as it has been laid in front of you. I would ask this question: “If this is a marketing idea that you love I would think a follow-up would make a ton of sense, right? If this is not an idea that you love and you’re just being kind to me, please let me know. My goal here is to help and not to be a waste of your time.”

STRATEGY #4: Texting may be the best way to follow up. Ugh. Yes, I said it. I consider myself to be a technology expert. I absolutely love technology. I believe that technology has really helped salespeople increase our sales games and be more productive. But I admit that I am not a huge fan of texting advertisers.

The reason is because of the personal nature of texting. However, with that said, I have definitely seen a large majority of my clients move to texting as a quick way to follow up. To that end, at the close of a sales call, I want to make sure that I get the advertiser’s permission to text them. Sure, you probably don’t need to do this, but I just like to have someone’s permission before I’m texting to their personal cell phone. Call me old-school if you want. I will wear it with a badge of honor. But please understand, I do recognize that texting is an important part of the sales process.

STRATEGY #5: Be safe, but recognize that face-to-face is still the best way to sell. My comments are not meant to be political in any way. I want everybody to be safe, and as a survivor of COVID-19, I would never wish it upon my worst enemy. I’m finding that most advertisers I’m working with are fine with face-to-face meetings. But be safe out there. Because it is hard to ignore that face-to-face meetings are better than virtual meetings. And yet we know that virtual meetings are always better than phone meetings.

So whatever you need to do out there, be safe, but recognize that getting in front of advertisers is a very important part of being a professional in the sales business. It is harder for an advertiser to ghost you after they have a personal, face-to-face conversation and connect with you.

STRATEGY #6: Present ideas on the spot. I have preached about this for years. You are not selling a cure for cancer. You are selling and recommending marketing options. So why are you not going to the sales call armed with a proposal filled with great ideas? Because someone has convinced you that you cannot create a proposal until you know the advertiser’s “needs.” This is just not true. Any given advertiser in any given category is going to normally do three to six things to be successful. Period. So look at the past success other advertisers have had in a certain category and make educated recommendations. While on the sales call, tweak what you brought to better fit the advertiser’s needs. There is truly no reason to leave to create a proposal. This is an invitation to be ghosted. Why give that invitation?

If you’re a reader of my column on a regular basis, you’ll know that I’m all about having an organized sales plan of attack. I do like to be a little unorthodox at times, though, because breaking up consistent patterns of failure is very important to success. But still, never forget that failing to plan is planning to fail. And I believe that in the sales business, this quote is more accurate than ever.

In closing, ghosting is just something that’s going to occur in the sales business. It’s a part of the sales process. Be prepared for it. Any plan is better than no plan at all.

And never forget, if ad sales was easy everybody would be doing it. And they are not. We are the chosen few. We have found amazing media careers that will feed our families for a lifetime.

Think Like a Doctor Not a Salesperson

AUTHOR NOTE TO READERS:  This article was written to assist my clients in the advertising sales sector.  I say all the time, “if you can sell a newspaper ad, you can sell anything.”  I think we all can learn from these street smart sales superstars. So, take the info and translate it for your industry.   – Ryan Dohrn, Founder, Sales Training World

Every single sales call with an advertiser is valuable. So valuable that you do not want to waste time asking questions that will not help you close the deal. After 30 years of selling and marketing media, I find that you have three to five questions, and that is about it, on every sales call. More than that and you might as well turn on a bright light and point it into your advertiser’s eyes and take the interrogation to the next level. I am kidding, of course. The issue is that many media sales warriors have been misled to ask the wrong questions. When you first start your training as a salesperson, there is usually a conversation about asking the three critical sales questions that are core to your success. Those three questions normally include the following: Are they the person that can make advertising decisions? What marketing are you currently doing? What is your budget for marketing? But what if I told you that I deeply believe that these are not the best questions to ask on a media sales call? Would you read on? Or would you roll your eyes? Well, thanks for reading on because I feel we need to sell differently, now more than ever before. In previous blogs I have stated that if we keep selling traditional media in traditional ways, we are destined to get traditional results. So, what can we do to be bigger, badder, and better in the media ad sales business? I believe it starts with reformatting the questions we ask. I deeply feel that we all need to think like a doctor and not like a salesperson.

Consider this: you go to the doctor looking for relief from some type of ailment. They will normally ask you these three questions. What is causing you pain? How long has this been a problem? What have you done so far to fix the pain? If we can be in the business of removing pain, like a doctor, we have a repeatable pattern for ad sales success. Let’s start with the old questions and move to the prescription for success.

Do we need to know if the person is the decision maker? Of course. But, if we only meet with decision makers, we will not have enough meetings to get to our sales goal. In addition, in the media business, we are working with a different buying structure compared to “normal” companies. Unlike a copier salesperson, we are working with marketing directors or business owners. Both are in a unique position, unlike an acquisition clerk at a standard company, to make decisions or highly influence decisions. There are normally not many layers to get to a marketing decision. So I suggest that we swap this question out for a new one. Keep reading, it is coming up.

Do we need to know what marketing they are currently doing? Of course. That helps immensely. But, this question leads the advertiser to hijack your sales call and talk about the other things they are doing. You have just invited them to talk about your competition on your sales call. There is a better way to handle this question and get the answer that you need to move your ball down the field towards a touchdown. We need this answer, but we should ask it in a different way. So, I suggest that we swap out this question for a new one. Keep reading, it is coming up.

Do we need to know their budget? Of course. But how many times have you been given an accurate answer? How many times have you been told, there is no budget? Asking an advertiser their budget forces you to live in their often unrealistic reality of what it takes to market their product or service to your readers. You are asking them to force you into their reality instead of guiding them to the actual reality of what it takes to have a presence, be competitive, or dominate the pages of your publication or website. Asking for budget without showing them the reality of marketing is a waste of a question. Again, we need this answer. But I suggest that we swap out this question for a new one. Keep reading, it is coming up.

When it comes times to asking questions of an advertiser, I have a proven three-step process that has worked over and over again. I truly feel it is the prescription for getting the answers we need and for closing deals. It will probably sound like just what the doctor ordered. So, what is your biggest problem or pain point? How long has that problem been painful? And, what have you done to fix that problem or alleviate that pain? Let’s expand on this three-step process of questions, right now.

Question #1: I like to ask, when you agreed to meet with me today, what is the one business challenge or point of pain that you think I can help you solve? This helps the advertiser get specific with you. It allows you to provide them with specific solutions to specific problems. This helps you get clear on their points of pain. They may have one or they may have five. Ask them to get clear with you, and take notes. Sympathize with them. Tell them they are not alone. Reference that you have heard this pain point before and have some ideas to help. Once you know their pain, now you want to enhance the pain … just a touch.

Question #2: Pain is a real motivator in problem-solving and customer relations. If you can be seen as the person or company that removes the pain points a business owner is facing, your secret media elixir will sell like wildfire. After I ask and identify their pain points, I will ask this simple question: “How long has this been a problem?” Normally, the answer surprises me. I am trying to enhance the pain. I want to make it very real for them, especially if they have been advertising with a competitor for years. I want them to subtly realize that they have been advertising elsewhere and this darn problem still exists. I am not looking to make them feel dumb, however. I just want them to see that they still have the pain point and they do not like the pain. Once the pain is real, I dig just a bit deeper by asking my third question.

Question #3: What have you done to fix this problem? I might even ask how much money they have spent to try and fix the issue. Oh wait, did I just ask their budget? Well … sort of. I want to enhance the fact that they have spent money and time and the problem still exists. Again, sympathize with them. Tell them they are not alone. Reference that you have heard this pain before and have some ideas to help.

Your doctor does the same thing when you come to their office. Right? What is the problem? How long has this been a problem? What have you done so far to fix the pain? If we can be in the business of removing pain, we have a repeatable pattern for ad sales success.

Now, I am not suggesting that these are the only questions you should ask. If you read this blog often, you know that there are many other questions to ask. I am simply suggesting that we have limited time on that single valuable sales call, and we want to ask the best questions to get the best results. The other thing is that there are so many age-old sales questions that make us sound like every other media salesperson. In most markets, the questions that you ask will set you apart from the other salespeople that are calling on your same clients. Do you believe that questions separate you from others? The answer is yes.

Two final points. If we keep selling traditional media in traditional ways, we are destined to get traditional results. So let’s change a bit. And remember, if ad sales was an easy job, everyone would be doing it. We are the chosen few. Let’s always be looking to improve our media sales game.

 

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