Shannon Kinney

Sales as a profession, not just a job

Published May 16, 2010

TORONTO — In an information-packed presentation, Peter Kvarnstrom shared his philosophies about effective techniques for advertising sales. “You need to treat sales as a profession, not just a job,” he advised attendees at the Canadian Newspaper Association here, “I don’t sell things to people, I help them to buy.”

Unlike some executives, Kvarnstrom is actively practicing what he preaches in the communities that his papers serve, and his many years of experience in yellow page directory and newspaper advertising sales shaped an excellent session full of tidbits for the attendees. Highlights included:

– Best practices for managing time and efficiently hitting as many sales calls as possible

– The importance of having deep product knowledge

– The difference between directional and creative advertising

– Creative ideas to increase advertiser spending while also making their advertising much more effective

– Real-world examples of how techniques in consultative selling and effective needs assessments can increase revenue and also capture new advertisers

Peter’s unique perspective on sales as a profession vs. job is particularly inspiring to me. He has strict guidelines on demeanor, technique and perspective that his team should possess in order to work on his team. “There can be no ‘space cadets’ on our team”, he cautioned, “they need to be true professionals, or get them off the street”. Too often, we don’t focus enough on assisting our reps to hone their skills not just in selling our products, but in viewing sales as their chosen profession and coaching their growth in that field.

If you have ideas of how to do this in your market, or would like to know more about how Peter cultivates it in his, let us know!

Posted in Building Sales

To win with small businesses, it is do or die time

Published March 25, 2010

Media companies understand that to help transition their traditional media companies into the future, one of the ways to combat revenue erosion is to target a wider array of advertisers on their Web properties. And, one of the easiest ways to do that is to reach an audience that many traditional media companies haven’t been able to serve due to cost: small businesses. By now, many of you have explored opportunities in adding a marketplace section and/or business directory to reach small businesses. And at the AIM Group, we have spent a considerable amount of time over the past several years working with many of our clients to launch these products and successfully target these new advertisers through product launch support, sales training, and events. The concept for the media company is a win-win, bring low cost and targeted advertising to small businesses and deepen your relationships with them while also diversifying your advertiser base and growing revenue.

In an effort to put my money where my mouth is (yes, even consultants try to do that!), I’ve spent the past several months out in the field working with small businesses to understand their needs in online marketing, their strategies, their perceptions of traditional media and media Web sites, and worked with them to execute their plans. The effort has been truly eye opening for me. While I have been advising our clients correctly that they need to get a solid (and affordable) small business solution quickly, what I had not anticipated fully was how quickly social media (Facebook, in particular) can overtake the local newspaper site as the prominent source of leads and traffic for a small business.

The strongest objection I have been hearing in the field when discussing the local media site offering is “Why do I need them when I can use Facebook?” In some markets, small businesses have more fans on their Facebook page than the local media company, and it becomes harder to argue the point.

According to research by Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia, 86% of companies plan to invest more in social media next year, but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity. Only one-fourth of companies say that they have gained “real, tangible value” from social media, whereas 60% say that they have gained “some benefit but nothing concrete.”

According to the Small Business Success Index, small businesses are steadily increasing their adoption of social media to attract and retain customers at a low cost. Their study shows that 45% expect social media to be profitable in the next year.

My research is showing that even the smallest of businesses in a wide variety of business categories can quickly become very savvy in engaging and attracting an audience. And, nearly any industry conference you see, from Chiropractors to Realtors to the Auto industry has sessions on social media that rank among the highest attended. And, in the markets that I’m studying, which are small rural ones, small businesses are flocking to Facebook at the rate of several per day.

A key difference for media companies to note between many of their sites and marketplace offerings and Facebook is the interactivity, the ability for businesses to directly publish to their audience. Can they do this on your marketplace section that you offer today? Do you publish their press releases, news updates and offers throughout your site in addition to the marketplace section to reach passive and active seekers for their business? What are doing to better support small businesses in your market? What are you hearing in your market? To learn more, comment here or drop me a line: shannonk@aimgroup.com, on Twitter: @shannonkin, or Facebook: www.facebook.com/shannonkinney