More contacts, more ad sales

By focusing on dials and quality conversations, reps reach more prospects and sell more newspaper ads

Newspapers earn between $25 and $85 per contact on outbound calls to classified advertising prospects. The problem is, newspapers are not talking to enough prospects.

Not the only game in town anymore
The world is changing fast for the newspaper industry, and nowhere is this change more apparent than in the classified advertising department. Competition is virtually everywhere—particularly in the form of publications that offer free advertising for homes, autos and private party items. The Internet is a strong player in employment and auto sales advertising, and it is becoming an increasingly important vehicle for real estate advertising. As a result, long gone are the days when we can sit back and wait for the phone to ring. We are no longer the only game in town. We can’t meet our goals by merely serving the calls that come in to us.

In the past, auto dealerships absolutely had to be in the Saturday newspaper. With so many different ways to advertise today, dealers don’t see the value of the newspaper in the same light as they once did. It’s time to refocus their attention on the strong value they receive from newspaper advertising.

Seeking them out
In newspaper advertising sales, we have to seek out prospects now more than ever. And when they do come to us, we must give them a compelling reason to advertise with us. We have to sell value.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that advertising clients demand—and deserve—a high level of excellence from newspaper. They expect newspaper advertising reps to understand their needs and show them products and services that will help them achieve their goals.

It’s not a stretch to say that newspapers remain one of the best values in America for readers and advertisers. We simply have to have quality conversations with every prospect, and we have to reach as many prospects as possible, to get the value story out there more effectively.

Dialing without distractions
A sales office observed recently had two sales people. One sold three times as much as the other. Interestingly, the sales person who was selling less actually sounded better when talking to the customers. So why was this person lagging behind? The answer came in watching them work. The top-performing sales person made a dial, and then immediately made another dial. She consistently made five times as many dials as the other rep.

The person who sounded better on the phone—who gave a better sales presentation when speaking to a customer—made a dial, and then took some notes. He’d look through some papers and take a drink of water, and then make another dial. The result was far fewer dials.

No matter how good a rep is on the phone, being a top sales performer still means talking to a large number of prospects. Staying focused on making dials requires the rep cut out distractions.

The value of block time
Cutting out distractions can be hard when reps have other duties. But in our work with newspaper classified advertising sales departments, we have seen remarkable success when reps have a certain time of each workday blocked out for prospecting. In doing so, reps have achieve 30 prospecting dials per one-hour of block time, and then 30 prospecting dials total during other parts of the day for a total of 60 dials per day. The result? Three times as many sales.

Bear in mind that another factor in this success has been the quality conversation itself. Reps need training, coaching and continual development on a proven, robust sales model and call flow to achieve and sustain high sales performance. The point is that a comprehensive approach to prospecting and quality conversations with prospects sells value and nets a dramatic increase in newspaper advertising sales.