Personal ad salesmanship can be an effective technique, but that alone likely isn’t enough to create a relationship of dependency.

By William Dunkerley

Any sales call that produces a sale is productive. Beyond that there is the matter of the long-term value of the prospective advertiser that was just closed on. Getting repeat insertions is far less costly to a publisher than the work that often goes into getting the first order.

What makes the difference between an initial sale that has real long-term value and one that is more transient in nature? I've found that it is closely related to the level of commitment the advertiser feels toward your publication. Let me explain:

Pros and Cons of a Personal Sales Relationship

Some publishers have sales agents who rely upon a form of "personal selling" to close deals. That means they establish a personal relationship with the ad buyer through a series of sales calls. And the strength of that relationship forms an essential part of the sale. In effect, the salespeople schmooze their way to a sale. (Note: I'm not using "schmooze" in a pejorative way here.) That's good in that it can result in a sale.

There are limitations to that kind of sale, however. For instance, if a sales agent leaves your employ, someone new will not necessarily pick up from where the previous agent left off. The former relationship has been broken. An additional problem could arise from your sales agent. I know one publisher that had a sales agent who schmoozed her way into a lot of sales. The revenue coming from those sales was essential for the publication. But the sales agent realized that and demanded more money than the publisher thought was fair. Nonetheless, the publisher had no comfortable alternative to accepting her demands.

A broken relationship problem can also arise if it is the ad buyer who leaves the scene. That would require starting all over again with a new buyer. And the new buyer may or may not be as amenable to placing insertions based on a personal relationship.

There is one more problem with sales based on a personal relationship. This arises when the advertiser needs to reduce expenses due to changes in the industry you are selling to, mismanagement at the advertiser's company, or, more often, from a downturn in the economy.

In either case the result is the same. The advertising company will be looking to cut expenses. Unfortunately, advertising expenditures are often high on the list of likely cuts. That happens almost universally. When it does, the ad buyer may be called upon to justify the expenditures he is making. If the buys are based on his having a good relationship with your sales agent and a generally favorable attitude toward your publication, the buyer will be hard pressed to supply evidence of value.

Shift Your Focus to Creating a Relationship of Dependency

There is a clean solution to this potential problem: Avoid establishing a relationship based mainly on good feelings toward your sales agent and your publication. Certainly it is always good for you to enjoy that position, but that alone is not enough.

Creating a relationship of dependency is necessary to sustain a pattern of buying even during difficult times. Doing so requires going beyond what's done in simple personal salesmanship.

In Part II we discussed the basics of publishing economics. A graphic used to illustrate the concept can be seen here. The underlying idea is that for a publication to become an effective advertising vehicle, it must (1) assemble an audience of good potential buyers for your advertisers, (2) present content that will not only attract them, but retain them as well, and (3) achieve a good level of trust in your publication as a reliable source of content and advertising information.

With that in place, your sales agent will be in position to work toward creating a sense of dependency with the advertiser.

A real sense of dependency needs to be built on a factual basis. Your sales agent must be in a position to prove that advertising in your publication can produce a concrete result.

Determine What Your Advertiser Wants to Achieve

That brings us to consider just what it is that the advertiser wishes to achieve by advertising. That's something that you must find out from the advertiser. The first step is to simply ask the advertiser why her company advertises. The best responses will come if the sales agent has already established an amicable relationship with the buyer. Sometimes that can be done in a single call. Other times it may take longer. But whenever your agent feels comfortable enough to ask the question, the answer will be just the first part of understanding the advertiser's needs. Examining the content of the advertising the company is already placing in your market can add to that. Understanding what its business is doing will help too.

Generally speaking, advertisers will be seeking to do one or more of the following: (1) Portray their company in a positive way. If that is a primary objective, the company will typically be placing institutional ads. (2) Prompt orders in response to seeing the ads. In some cases the company will be seeking direct orders. In other cases it may be sending viewers of the ads to a retailer or distributor to make a purchase. (3) Show that the company is still active in the marketplace. If a company does not maintain an ad presence, consumers may conclude that it has left the marketplace or gone out of business.

You've got to demonstrate that your publication can play an essential role in achieving the advertiser's objectives. The best way to do that is by providing research data to back up your claims.

Typically that proof is provided in your media kit. But some publications use media kits that are built on puffery and unsubstantiated claims. A better approach is to utilize factual information from survey data.

In the next installment we'll discuss the kinds of survey data that can be most helpful in building a relationship of dependency with your advertisers.

William Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.

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