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A manifesto
AN ADSALES MANIFESTO The first duty of an advert is to be NOTICED. The first duty of an advertising space salesperson is to sell adspace which ALLOWS an advert to BE NOTICED. The PURPOSE of any vehicle (print or broadcast) which includes advertising, is to ATTRACT EYEBALLS to the ADVERTISING The 'popular press' (including broadcasters) publishes what is popular; NOT what is true. The PURPOSE of the editorial content in the popular press is to attract an audience to the advertising. It therefore follows that the editorial side of the popular press supports and works for the adsales team. This FACT is never admitted by the editorial staff - a sad bunch of losers living in denial. As part of their social duty towards the more unfortunate in our society, adsales people are required to keep up the pretence of 'editorial integrity' and allow the editorial staff to wallow in their ignorance. An adsales person is like a professional sportsman, because they are paid to PERFORM. An adsales person is like a professional ACTOR because they perform in order to produce an EMOTION in their audience (the client). There is no 'sales emotion'. But the two emotions which CAUSE sales are FEAR (of loss) and GREED (for profit). The art and science of selling adspace consists of producing and enlarging these emotions in each client. Because these emotions cause each client -- a human being -- to ACT. Just as each client's situation is different (though similar), so each sales PERFORMANCE is different (but similar). With every client, the aim of the expert adsales person is to NOT to "make 'em drink", it is to "make 'em THIRSTY". They'll drink when they're thirsty enough, and BE GRATEFUL for the OPPORTUNITY to be allowed to advertise. All advertising faces the same PROBLEM. Nobody's paying attention any more. It is the job of the advert -- not the adspace -- to CAPTURE attention. The life of an adsales person is TRANSITORY. NOBODY (that we've ever heard of) aged 6 chooses to sell ad space as their life's mission. Most people FALL into adsales, on the way to somewhere else. That somewhere may be 'up' the management ladder, across into bigger sales, or over into their own business. Selling adspace is a SKILL and an EXPERIENCE which helps you on your way to somewhere else. ************************************************************* YOU - AND YOUR SELLING PERSONALITY What KIND of person are you? Short term thrill-seeker, or long term harvester? There is room for BOTH to make a big success selling adspace, because not all ad sales situations are the same. There are different styles of selling personality, which succeed in different situations. Some adsales situations require a short sales cycle of minutes or hours. Others require weeks or months. If you are the kind of person who revels in the cut and thrust of 'beat 'em up' ad selling, with its instant rewards and failures, you'll be unhappy selling space in a sales cycle which takes a long time to unfold. The situations which you love are the kind where you are given a project to complete in a week, then leave town and move onto the next project. An example of this kind of space sales? The space in a booklet specially written for a doctor. The booklet gives details of the doctor's surgery, opening times, nurses' names etc. -- and the cost of producing the booklet is paid for by advertising from the local hospital, chemist, nursing home, taxi firm .... There is no time to form relationships. Meet 'em; pitch 'em; close 'em; forget 'em. It can be very lucrative. It can be very lonely. Catherine loves it. Every day she is out on the hunt. She's trying to book a new page of advertising for her booklet and will knock down 12 doors and upset 16 people to do it. She will win this piece of business or raise hell in the process of trying. Catherine is a hard core ad sales "hunter/killer." On the other hand ... If you enjoy getting to know your clients well, and looking after them for months and years, you'll hate the kind of sales which must be closed by lunchtime before dumping the client and moving on to the next project. Long term customer relations are the most profitable way to sell space, for you and your publication or station. But it IS long term. The highs come now and then, not twice an hour. Jane is working her sales patch. She has asked for and arranged a meeting with the head of marketing and has an agenda that includes tracking the success of a trial advert at a discounted price -- before proposing a series at full price. She'll suggest placing a coupon in the advert that will produce an accurate proof of the profit to be made against the cost of the advert. She hopes this will result in a big order by the third quarter of the year. Jane is a hard core sales "farmer or carer." Which one is the star salesperson? THEY BOTH ARE.. And fortunately they are both performing sales jobs in companies that offer each the perfect expression of their own unique talents. Catherine can open any door in the western world or blow it up trying. Jane can work an account like a symphony conductor playing Beethoven -- once the door has been opened and the real sale, customer satisfaction, starts. But whatever you do, don't try to do Catherines's job if you're Jane, and vice versa. Because Jane gets bashful when she has to meet a stranger for the first time. She has to do it, of course, but not as often as Catherine. And Catherine doesn't like hanging around the trophy room once the contract is signed and the commissions are paid. She's already got a new target in her cross-hairs. If in YOUR own world, you think you might be a hunter in a farmer's role or a farmer in a hunter's -- better look hard and think twice. That's not your road to fame or fortune. There's room for BOTH in most publishers. Choose a role which fits your personality. |