Berman E-News, April-May 2008

Desperately Seeking Advertiser; Unlimited Budgets Preferred
by Helen Berman

In the days before match.com, personal ads usually looked something like this (and don’t worry; there’s a sales connection): Looking for an attractive, slender blonde, age 19-32, to share good times. Must look great in jeans and love dogs. I’m a 35-year-old successful, green-eyed professional.

So how attractive is that? Most of the personal ad talks about what the advertiser is seeking; only a smidgen describes the seeker himself. That’s why sites like match.com are much more effective at “selling” singles: Those sites force you to talk about…you. What are your interests? How much do you earn? What’s your physical health? What are your past relationship experiences? All that information is essential to the singles “marketplace” (a term I use deliberately) because singles are in the business of trying to sell themselves.

That’s true in the advertising marketplace as well. Here, however, the tables are turned. As a media advertising salesperson, your job, in a sense, is to play the part of match.com. You have to know which questions to research, and how to research them, in order to convince your client that your media options are a perfect match to his wants and needs.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you want to nab Textiles Unlimited, a manufacturer in the home furnishings marketplace. To sell this client, you must, of course, convince him of the positive aspects of your media’s reach, value and effectiveness. You have to show what makes your magazine and Web sites special, unique and different from the competitor’s media options. But that’s only half the job. The other half involves learning what makes your client special, unique and different. The more client information you have, the more effectively you can convince him that your media offers the right match for his marketing.

Let’s say here’s what you know about Textiles Unlimited:

• Small company with $15 million in annual sales
• Family owned, selling textiles for 52 years
• Usually advertisers in competing trade titles and web sites
• Business is slow because of heavy import competition
• Trying to break into more profitable designer-furniture business

Sounds like you know plenty already—maybe even enough to schedule a meeting to discuss your media’s reach among high-end furniture distributors. Before you do, however, think how successful your “blind date” would be if you already knew the answers to the following questions (and/or were prepared to ask him):

• What’s the product line and price range—and profit margin?
• How are the products sold and distributed?
• What are the benefits and features of these textiles?
• How aware are furniture designers of the Textiles Unlimited brand?
• How do customers buy: Seasonally? Geographically?
• How does Textiles Unlimited currently attract new customers?
• Who are the target customers, and how do they compare to the ones
     Textiles Unlimited would like to reach?
• What’s the amount and frequency of its trade and consumer advertising?
• What’s the advertising budget?
  If it were cut significantly, where would Textiles Unlimited prioritize?
• What kind of editorial environment does the company prefer?
• Who has decision-making power?
• Who is a major influencer?
• How involved is their advertising agency in media buying?
• Which criteria do the company’s prospects use to choose a supplier?
• Which objections do its sales executives hear about the company’s products and services?
• When the company loses sales, how does it lose them, and to whom?
• Who are its competitors? How strong are they in the marketplace?
• What are the greatest areas of potential growth for the company?
• How open is Textiles Unlimited to changing its marketing practices?
• What are the company’s goals for the next year, two years, and five years?

Incidentally, that’s just a fraction of the questions you could research on your prospect’s behalf. You could also look into the information offered on Textile Unlimited’s web site, in its sales brochures, press releases and in its trade-show exhibits. You could contact textile and furniture associations for marketplace statistics, and check with your own editors about the company’s brand awareness, reputation and history.

Once you’re seated with Textiles Unlimited, here are a few more of my favorite questions guaranteed to keep the sales conversation going:

1. What are your sales and marketing goals?
2. What strategy do you use to accomplish those goals?
3. Which tactics are used to implement that strategy—i.e.,
    which marketing tools will you use?
4. If all things stayed relatively the same over the next 12-18 months
    (your products, pricing, costs, etc.) but your prospects would finally
     understand what you want them to know about your company,
    what would they know then that they don’t know now?
5. What kind of sales increase do you think your company would experience?
6. Who are the decision makers and influencers that need to accept your message?
7. At what steps of the buying process do you need to communicate your message?

The answers to these questions will tell you whom the company needs to reach, when, and with which sales message. That, in turn, enables you to play the ultimate “matching” game with your client. In other words, you can now demonstrate how the marketing needs of Textiles Unlimited line up with your myriad media solutions.

In the end, one thing is certain: The amount of effort you put into “knowing” your client ahead of time will correspond to the amount of interest your client will have in your media. In short, if you want a second “date” with any of your promising prospects, make sure to make the first one is worth his while!

Need help preparing for your next sales meeting with a client? Please give me a call - Mentoring is one of my specialties. 

Best of Selling!

Helen Berman

Helen Berman

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