Bringing in ad dollars with a sophisticated master plan.

By William Dunkerley

"Strategizing for ads" is a term we've given to a variant of what's commonly called feature-benefit selling. The premise of F-B selling is that prospects will be motivated to buy if given a one-two pitch: a feature followed by a benefit.

But that's still not an optimal approach. Now we'll ramp things up to a higher level of sophistication, one that will yield far better sales results.

Common Feature-Benefit Selling Mistakes

One of the most common mistakes feature-benefit sellers make is that they assume what benefits an advertiser is looking for. As a result, they go into a sales presentation with a pat list of features and benefits. They rattle them off to the prospect and then expect to get an order. Often they come up short.

Why? It's because they led with the wrong feature-benefits. It is far better to not prejudge what will strike a responsive chord with any particular advertiser.

So how will you know what features and benefits to pitch? You've got to get the advertiser to tell you. This will require a bit more sophistication than just asking an advertiser, "What interests you?" You need to start by establishing rapport with the advertiser and creating a sense of trust. If you sound like you're just after a sale, you may be perceived as a predator. That won't get you very far.

Building Rapport: Three Approaches

Rapport building can be established by a variety of styles. I'll illustrate this with three scenarios:

1. Pauline is a loquacious person with an open and friendly personality. People find it easy to like her right from the start. A risk in her approach is that some might think she is frivolous. So Pauline has to be alert to how her prospect is receiving her and adjust her level of outgoingness to what is comfortable for each prospect. But given that, the Pauline style of rapport building can be very productive.

2. Herman, in contrast to Pauline, tends to be more on the introverted end of the spectrum. His personality is quite reserved, and he shies away from small talk. If he is not careful, he can come across as cold and boring. Herman has a very sincere quality to his voice, however, that can make him sound reliable and trustworthy to his prospects. He just has to learn some kind of small-talk vocabulary for when he faces a prospect who wants to hear some friendly-sounding talk.

3. Judith has a very different approach. It can be very effective, but it comes with a strong caveat. She starts off a call to a prospect by asking a set of survey questions. Two valuable things come from that: First, she is starting the conversation with a focus on the advertiser, not on herself or her publication. Generally, prospects are far more interested in talking about themselves. Second, by asking key questions she can discover directly what things are important to the advertiser.

This will allow her to eventually pitch exactly the right feature-benefit statements when the time comes. Both Pauline and Herman will have to find those hot-button issues through less direct means during conversations with their prospects. The basic questions will be similar, but Judith's method gets right to the point.

Now here's the strong caveat: If Judith is representing that she's conducting a survey, there really has to be a survey and, ultimately, a survey report that can be shared with each prospect she's contacted with her questions. Otherwise, she will end up sounding like a phony. That won't be good for her or her publication.

The Value of Survey Reports

An ongoing survey with periodic survey reports can be a positive thing for everyone. To show what such a survey report might contain, let's consider the kinds of questions Judith might ask. (Note: Prospects should be assured anonymity for what they report.) For example:

--What position do you see your company playing in the market?
--How long has your company been active in this market?
--How long have you personally worked in this market?
--What do you think your company's best accomplishments have been?
--What competitive threats do you face?
--What are your expectations for the market in the future?
--What are you aiming to accomplish in the next twelve months?

Answers to these kinds of questions will give Judith valuable insight into how to customize a future sales presentation aimed right at a particular prospect's needs and objectives.

But what about the survey report? There really must eventually be one to keep this sales approach on the level. It can be called a state of the market report or a market update.

For report preparation, a publication might elect to turn over the research data acquired by their "Judith" to a research or consulting firm. That firm then compiles the information and presents it in an interesting format for the intended audience.

Some publications can actually incorporate the report as content into their publications, something of interest to readers. Otherwise it can be distributed to advertisers and prospects as a standalone publication.

In a subsequent issue we'll deal with how to turn survey insights into a targeted sales presentation.

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

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