In my last post, I talked about the importance of a real needs assessment when working with advertisers to help fully understand their needs. Advertisers are looking for guidance when making their marketing decisions, not just rate cards and sell sheets. And too often, salespeople nod their heads at me when I talk about consultative selling, and asking questions – thinking they do it – but then turn around and sell new features, sections, or ad spots.

When an advertiser or prospect feels like you are truly hearing them and thinking about what is best for their business, they will be loyal to you. They will try your product. It is so simple, and yet for many, so difficult. One evening after a busy day at a conference, I discussed this topic with industry veteran Mike Kment  of Gannett, and asked his strategies for combating this in his organization. He smiled and told a story of his days as a print manager with a large auto dealer advertiser that was frustrated with a high staff turnover on Mike’s team. He complained that he had explained his business over and over to reps and then they are gone. One of the reasons they were turning over had to do with their ineffectiveness at the position and in handling car dealers. This inspired Mike to ask the auto dealer if he would literally “train” the reps, and he agreed. From then on, initiation and training when joining Mike’s team consisted of a week on site at the dealer’s location, learning all about their business and marketing needs. After that change, they found an effective rep, a happy auto dealer that felt heard, and increased sales that provided more results for the advertiser. Talk about trial by fire!

While not all reps can benefit from Mike’s grass roots training techniques, they do leave us with a very important lesson. If you want to be a truly effective salesperson you need to put yourselves in your advertisers’ shoes.  You need to learn about their marketing goals and challenges FIRST, and then consider how your products and services could be effective. Instead of creating packages or products that you want to sell, consider what your advertisers and prospects need and can afford. Mike knew that the best way to get a rep that could effectively do this for his car dealer advertisers was to put them in the dealership so that they could truly understand.

Examples of effective needs assessment questions:

·         What is your target (most valuable/profitable)customer type? How do you attract them? Would you like more of them?

·         Are there any particular products or services you’d like more business in currently? What kind of customer typically buys that?

·         How do you measure success of your marketing efforts?

·         What budget do you have allocated to solve these challenges? (Or, if you could have more of your target customers to buy what you’d like, what would that be worth to you?)

Consider your sales efforts. Are you asking enough questions of your advertisers to truly understand their needs? And, even more important than asking the question – are you LISTENING enough? Share your success stories and your questions here, or drop me a line and let me know about your situation. I’m happy to help!