The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Regardless of the industry you are in, there is no doubt that you risk seeing your job function become extinct.

Think about the travel industry. Twenty years ago, who would have ever thought it was possible to book a business trip that included two different cities, multiple flights, car rentals, hotels, and more, all without the help of the travel agent?!

That’s not to say that all travel agents went away, but the business certainly changed. Today, we will look at the media industry—specifically, Digital Media Sales Managers.

Make no mistake—this is not a media-specific issue. The same could happen in many industries.

This is a great time of year to be a sports fan. 

Baseball playoffs are here, and every weekend brings a full slate of college and pro football games. Every game has its own set of stats to follow, but just looking at the stats the following day doesn’t necessarily tell you who won the game.

In baseball, the team with more hits is not always the winner. In football, the winning team could have fewer total yards or more turnovers. While the stats can provide you with an educated guess of who the winner is, they don’t tell the full story of the game.

Digital advertising is very similar if you think about it.

It's always surprising to me how few sellers conduct an audit of a prospect's website and social media presence prior to meeting with a prospect.

This simple step doesn’t need to take a lot of time, but it will go a long way to help prepare you to ask better, more knowledgeable questions about the prospect, their business, and what might be important to them.

Over the years, we've seen a pattern with media sellers to pursuit of prospects who welcome ideas that include digital.

Selling digital as part of an integrated solution requires a certain kind of prospect that will "get" what you're talking about with respect to integrated solutions. To help navigate through your best opportunities, try these tips as you prospect and plan your approach.

Every business wants raving fans; consumers that are so overwhelmed with great customer service that they can't stop talking about your brand. This is particularly important if your business has a relatively long sales cycle. If prospects take their time to research different offerings, building brand awareness and trust is big.

And, businesses are catching on. Those using effective inbound marketing initiatives are producing sales leads and, at the same time, establishing expertise and thought leadership in their specific industry. Those experiencing this success will tell you that it's contagious, but requires the constant sharing of quality content, which attracts interested prospects to their companies.  

So how do you get consumers to not only know about your brand, but like your products and services enough to engage with your company frequently, and rave to others about you?

You finally got an appointment with a strong prospect. Now, it is time to prepare for a successful digital needs analysis to make sure that all the effort you spent getting the appointment isn’t wasted. You want to make sure that you have a strong and thorough needs analysis—because understanding your prospect's business, their specific needs, challenges and expectations is imperative to developing a solution that will achieve results.