Everyone in media sales knows this – it’s incredibly tough to get meetings with potential advertisers today. Is there some magic formula to reel them in?
Everyone in media sales knows this – it’s incredibly tough to get meetings with potential advertisers today. Is there some magic formula to reel them in?
No. The key to generating new business is to perfect your prospecting process. (Say that fast 3x!)
Prospecting (and learning to do it well), is a critical component of ad sales training.
Here are 3 perfect prospecting tips that work for me. Put these steps into practice and watch for truly measurable results.
First identify your call-to-close ratios
In order to create a really hot Top 10 or Top 20 list, you’ll need to know how many prospects you need to get to your goal. And it’s all about your call-to-close ratio.
To calculate your call-to-close ratio, consider this: if your goal is $10,000, for instance, and your average deal is $1,000, then you’ll need to close 10 deals to get to $10,000.
But unless you can close 100 per cent, you’ll need to meet with more than 10 people to get your 10 deals.
So basically, just double it.
If your goal is $10,000 and your average is $1,000 per deal and your close ratio is about 50 per cent, you’ll need to meet with about 20 people to close 10 deals.
And if your close ratio is 20 per cent…you’ll need to meet with more people to get to your 10 deals. (Plus you could probably benefit from more ad sales training.)
Then define the perfect prospect
Do you have certain criteria you use before you put someone on your prospecting list?
Come up with a list of 3-4 qualities of the perfect advertiser before you add prospects to your list. Do they advertise currently or have they spent in the past? If the answer is yes, they’re on the list. If it’s no, I wouldn’t necessarily NOT put them on my list, but they’re not going to be a top priority.
Keep this in mind – prospects that already believe in advertising are easier to sell. If they’re already running ads somewhere and they advertise digitally, they should be on the list.
Execute an effective pattern
The pattern of three works well here.
If I reach out to someone with an email or voicemail on Monday, I’m not going to try to contact them again on Tuesday or Wednesday. I’m going to reach out again on Thursday — three days later. Using this pattern can increase your sales when you incorporate it into your ongoing ad sales training and development.
New business prospecting is critical to our success. Dedicate an hour every day to these prospecting tips, and I think you’ll find your sales life going to places you never dreamed possible.
This article was originally published on the Niche Media HQ blog. Based in the US, Niche Media HQ provides events, education and training for B2C, hobbyist, B2B, city and regional, and association magazine publishers.
