The Wonderful World of Advertising Sales

I recently saw a post in a forum from someone new to advertising sales. I read all the responses about what training materials to read/listen to/watch. And I chimed in with my two cents.


But, it got me thinking about my humble beginnings in the world of advertising sales and how scary it can be.


It also gave me the idea to add some thoughts and ideas to advertising sales reps to this blog in addition to my suggestions to small business owners (aka advertisers.)


Typically, when you are brand new to advertising sales, you get a list of names that other reps have never been able to get on the air, or clients who advertised once, 4 years ago. (The "Royal Lippanzer Stallions" was on my first "account list.")  The sales manager says, "Here is your account list."  Of course, account would mean that this business has actually done some business with the company before, right?


So, there you are with your "account list," the phonebook, your desk, your phone and a bunch of unfamiliar names and numbers.


What I would always suggest to new advertising reps is listen to what the others in the sales office are saying. If a veteran rep says, "Don't bother with that place. They'll never advertise," I would advise calling on that business right away! Typically, that means that the veteran rep screwed up the account so badly, that they don't want anyone to find out.  A new rep can go in and be the hero.


I always talked to my sales staffs about what I called the "Grief to Dollar" ratio. You have to analyze this list of names that you received on your 'account list' and figure out which ones are going to be worth it and translate into Dollars and which ones are just names on a list and will cause you more Grief than they are worth.


The main task in those first few weeks was to just weed through this list of names and figure out what names were worth the trouble and what names were just filling space on the list.  But you have to give it time.  I always found that the "chickening out" period came somewhere around the 9th month.  Maybe it's like giving birth, if you can make it 9 months, you might as well keep going and see how things turn out! :-)


After all, sometimes success in ad sales is just sticking around long enough!


Good luck and happy selling!