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Ad Sales Training Blog

Ryan Dohrn

August 12, 2016

Ad sales is an amazing business. As a sales executive myself and as the lead ad sales training coach here at 360 Ad Sales, I live and breathe media sales every day just like you. Sales will feed your family for many years to come, if you adapt and evolve. If you live for yesterday, you will die tomorrow. This is why continuous sales training is so important to you and your entire sales team.

Be sure to listen to this blog LIVE on the podcast! The link:

https://360adsales.com/ad-sales-training-podcast

Those that want to buy from you are growing tired of your “needs assessments” and your “open ended questions” and your “soft close techniques.” The sales “tricks” of the past are just not working any more and you need to stop selling this way. Period. So, what do you do? Easy. Well, sort of easy. Create great conversations with great advertisers where you pitch great products and get your advertisers great results.

Create great conversations. This idea is all about having a plan for prospecting. My Big 50 prospecting plan is focused on myself working 50 new advertisers to set 10 great meetings within 30 days. From those 10 meetings I will secure bye-in from 8 advertisers and close 4 deals quickly. I always promise not to waste my advertiser’s time and to come to them with a great idea that will improve their business. This idea is core to my sales training plan of
Talk to great advertisers. This idea is all about setting meetings with the perfect advertiser for myself. Not random advertisers, where I hope for a deal. This is a waste of my time and the advertiser’s time. I have a six point checklist that each advertiser must match before I ever call them as a prospect. For example…
- Do I have a connection point via LinkedIN or in my community?
- Do I know who the decision maker is?
- Does their company size match my ideal advertiser?
- Is it obvious that they have a need for what I am selling?
- Are they working with my competitor?
- Do I have any type of inside track to the advertiser?
Pitch great products on the spot. Consultative selling is still alive, but now more than ever; I am coming to the advertiser meeting with ideas ready to present. The days of gathering information to then chase down the advertiser are gone. Advertisers expect sales executives to come to the meeting ready to roll with ideas to solve their problems. Use the data at your fingertips and your industry expertise to come ready to go with great ideas. Sure, you may need to tweak your ideas, but coming with nothing is just not acceptable to the buyers of today.
Offering great results is all about return on investment. But, are you being held to a standard that is to high? Perhaps? Did you check your advertisers expectations from the get go? How are you at managing your advertisers expectations? Are you providing reporting or results on a predetermined basis? What is your ROI management plan? You need to have one in place. You need to execute on the plan. No ROI, no future deals.

Create great conversations with great advertisers where you pitch great products and get your advertisers great results.

All four of these sales training points are about hosting meetings where you have great conversations with your advertisers. No amount of sales tricks will replace having quality conversations with your advertisers. I sell each and every day just like you. I have read literally hundreds of sales books. What I am noticing is that most sales trainers are not updating their sales strategies to work on millennial buyers. Buyers born after 1984 are awesome, but they come with a certain expectation.

Don’t waste my time.
Be relevant.
Come ready to roll.
Do your research in advance.
Prove to me that what you say will happen.

Sales is an amazing business. It will feed your family for many years to come if you adapt and evolve. If you live for yesterday, you will die tomorrow.

–Ryan

About this blogger:

Keep up to date with Ryan’s ad sales training advice on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/brainswell/

Ryan Dohrn is an award winning ad sales training coach, a nationally recognized internet sales consultant and in international motivational speaker. He is the author of the best selling ad sales book, Selling Backwards. Ryan is the President and founder of Brain Swell Media and 360 Ad Sales Training, a boutique ad sales training and sales coaching firm with a detailed focus on ad sales training, internet consulting and media revenue generation. Ryan is also the Publisher of http://salestrainingworld.com“>Sales Training World.