Do salespeople know their onions?

However, overall I am convinced that the standard of salespeople is actually improving, despite the job getting harder.

In defence of salespeople, parallel with the consolidation of buying points transforming the agency world, there has been a comparable reduction in the number of sales points. Most salespeople now need to know more than their predecessors ever did – nowadays, the age of selling a single ITV region is long past and in the radio industry someone selling Kiss also needs to live and breathe Magic.

But the real challenge for media owners is to become more aware of the needs of their customers. Successful salespeople are developing a better understanding of what will turn a planner on about their medium or product.

It’s no longer enough to be a bubbly embodiment of their brand or particular medium – now they need to think more about what their agency customers need to know.

And it’s no longer enough to expect buyers to want to buy something, just because you happen to want to sell it to them. Media owners have to prove the value of what they want to sell.

The unexpected explosion in digital radio listening, which became apparent in 2003, required some explanation to agencies. How had listening to these services established itself so quickly? What were the differentiating factors between digital and analogue radio? What’s the effect of listening to the radio via the TV? Emap Advertising accepts that it is its own responsibility to explore and research these new areas of radio to ensure that we and our customers understand new radio and can plan and buy it more effectively. That’s great salesmanship – being able to advance media knowledge and add value to our customers' days.

As a sales person, if you can continue to provide customers with new insight into your medium, audiences and effective creativity then you’ll be having meetings that agency people will find productive.

What else does it take to make a great media salesman? Most vital is passion. A focused enthusiasm is vital, simply because it transfers to every aspect of what they do.

A great salesman needs to have the passion to want to understand their own products, to consider how they would work for an advertiser and the conviction to see their ideas for these advertisers through to conclusion.

By this, I’m not suggesting that talented people are great boisterous Labradors, galloping around agencies with their tails wagging, “wowing” at everything around them. (We’ve all seen plenty of these). But they are committed people who believe in what they are selling and have a conviction in what it can do for advertisers. This enthusiasm, for me, normally expresses itself in a desire to offer something that adds value to a client’s campaign.

Time and time again, this passion pays off in all-round performance. Repeatedly, we have found that those who make the best salespeople are those who have the passion to learn more about their medium, watch and listen to what the competition is doing and have an interest in the media world around them.

With an understanding of the tight constraints facing the agency world, training is obviously a vital part of improving the skills of great people. Practice really does make perfect.

Our own sales training combines out-ofoffice courses and structured at-work train ing. We spend time demonstrating to our sales people the value of spending quality time thinking about and preparing for meetings with media buyers.

As I’ve said, the job of a salesperson is harder than it’s ever been. There is more to understand on our own products and agency people are busier than ever.

The golden rule is that, when presented with a good salesman, the more information on your brand you give them, the better the response you will get back to your brief.

Media sales... it’s a hard job – but there are some great people doing it.

Bruce Daisley is head of agency sales, Emap Advertising – Radio

AGAINST

BOB MORRELL

Of course, not everyone’s dumb. Expert account managers selling superbly tailored solutions do exist. You can visit the media buying floor of a top agency to see a buyer’s sales craft wielded ruthlessly.

But between these top operators and the lower tiers there’s a widening knowledge gap.

This is because staff haven’t been trained properly on their products or on how to sell well – the art of conducting worthwhile business conversations.

Here’s a hypothetical example: a telesales rep is promoted to field sales. He felt a bit stiffed on the package, but was assured that, once he proved himself, the money would go up.

Thrust into a competitive marketplace about which he knew nothing, he survived on his wits and sussed out how to work the system.

He hit his targets, he spread bookings for his benefit and forged a network of “friend” clients to build up visit numbers. In short, he learned to cheat.

He spent so much time working the system, that his creative abilities were forgotten. He got bored and left the industry. He could have been a brilliant account manager, but the current systems teach us to cheat before we learn to sell.

So many staff don’t use the internet to research (that would be surfing not working, after all), they plough blindly on and their flaws in industry knowledge are exposed in seconds. As a result, their clients don’t advertise much. Marketing gets involved and gives incentives to advertisers – ie, dropping their rates; the combination of poor selling and crisis marketing weakens the offering and the business suffers.If 80% of the turnover comes from 20% of the clients then why spend 80% of your time trying to hit activity targets with little creative selling effort? Spend 20% of your time increasing your knowledge.

No one person is to blame, but most media companies are run the same way – the people who could support and give salespeople room to grow restrict them instead.

Most managers want their salespeople bashing the phones, or out seeing clients.

Managers believe talking is much better than learning.

Managers should stop depending on activity and other targeted measures. Some feel scared that well-trained staff might show them up. This unwillingness to develop talented employees is at the heart of this issue.

Editors are not entirely blameless here – many will only speak to sales staff if it’s absolutely necessary – and this means we feel less interested in our product’s content. If editors swapped roles for the day with media salespeople, who would win? The best could do both, of course, but overall the editors’ knowledge would see them through. Editors should bite the bullet and point out facts and information that will help their sales teams.

They should also attend client meetings with sales staff (heaven forbid!) – this policy has helped many products achieve higher ad rates and form better media partnerships with clients.

If a salesman doesn’t know the answer, why not ask the question? No one talks anymore.

“Hi, I’ve got an offer for you the price is...” Find out what the client thinks and have a conversation, build a relationship.

People feel unhappy when they’re not understood. There’s nothing wrong with asking – “I’m not as well informed as I’d like to be, could you help me by giving me an idea of how you see things?” We are selling response, not space. To be able to do that, we must know about our product and the markets and buyers it serves.

The truth is that, if you’ve been trained to sell well, then you can sell pretty-much anything. For the media market there are easytolearn solutions to these issues and new methods that can quickly change a sales person’s attitude and make them more productive.

Managers and editors need to recognise the value of ongoing communication and training. Most companies are happy to pay 50% to 70% of their turnover in wages yet spend less than 1% on training.

Our message is, stop the rot and train your staff. And if you won’t give them that, give them time to self-train. Knowledge, after all, is power.

Bob Morrell is a trainer with sales training firm Reality Media