It's not easy to recruit and maintain a stellar team of digital sales folks. Let this guide show you the way.
Over the past year or so there has been a lot of discussion about the difficulty of recruiting good digital talent. So how do you find it and how do you develop it?
The truth is that successful sales professionals, like any other craft, must develop the skills and disciplines necessary to truly become effective. With these skills they can succeed anywhere. Here are seven fundamental tips for smart digital sales professionals:
1. Turn the doorknob
Engage the market. Prospect new accounts. Keep a full pipeline.
You will not win business if you do not leave your desk. In today's world of real-time communication, instant messaging, email and Blackberries, the art of the in-person sales call is at risk. Nothing replaces meeting your clients in person. Looking across a desk face-to-face, listening to their needs and determining the best solutions you can offer is important.
Even the most seasoned digital sales professionals skip this step from time to time, and it can be costly. I was talking with an industry colleague recently who expressed his disappointment in losing out on a large digital buy. He attributed the loss to the fact that he didn't take the time to have an in-person meeting with this client because the client was a little off the beaten path of his normal sales travel schedule. His competition made the trip, and in turn, won the business. The client later conveyed that the company felt more comfortable with the other rep. This was most likely because the client had the opportunity to meet the rep in person.
2. Seek profitable revenue
Be strategic about where you focus your energy. Strive to understand how you should spend your time so that it will be most profitable.
Strategically manage your time and focus your efforts on the clients that will be most profitable for you. Ultimately, this will result in better solutions for your client and more business for you. You can't be all things to all people and it is not productive to sell that way. Determine your strengths and your product's strengths and find your target. Perhaps you want to focus your efforts on companies with the largest digital budgets, or maybe you want to hone in on companies in a specific vertical that you are well versed in. Whatever your target may be, take time to learn about your clients and what will make them successful to determine which products they will benefit from most and will therefore be most lucrative for you. By doing this, you're more focused and less distracted by the clutter of an endless list of prospective clients, and you help you and your clients become more successful.
3. Sell the line
Sell what you have. Know your product and its unique proposition.
Know your product and understand how your product drives results. Far too often digital sales people quickly look for ancillary solutions that may not be part of their current portfolio of ad products at the first sign of client skepticism. In most cases, this occurs because the sales person is uncomfortable answering objections -- not because the company is not offering the right solution. This results in elaborate, customized solutions that are difficult to execute for both the client and your business.
For example, if you sell a plan with every possible targeting option available and create a customized media set that's day-parted to run two hours per day on Mondays and Tuesdays, chances are the campaign won't perform as well as you or the client would like. Not to mention that your operations team is likely spending a considerable amount of time ensuring it is set up and executing it properly. If you know your products well and spend more time asking the right questions to find out what your client needs, you will most likely find that the solution is already available.
4. See your client's perspective
Go beyond just online media needs. Serve your client's customer.
Understand your client's relationship with his customers and determine how you can best support them. It is important to do your homework, research your client's business, understand his goals, challenges, and how marketing fits into his overall business plan. Reading your client's annual report is a great place to start, and with so many online tools available today, there's really no excuse for being unknowledgeable about a client. It's not up to your agency contact to fill you in on these details; it's up to you to find them. If you understand your client's customer you will be able to offer smarter solutions that translate into more business for you.