Funneling the ad sale - the funnel approach to selling

Funneling the ad sale Imagine that you have the only magazine in a given field, and that it reaches the only market that could buy your advertisers' products. Think how easy your job would be. You could just walk in on a call, give an airtight pitch, and know that your chances of getting the business are excellent.

Now, come back to reality. The fact is that there are many good magazines, each with a strong readership, competing for the same advertising dollars. To make it even more complicated, there are usually several decision makers and decision influencers on any given account. As a result, final decisions are usually based on many factors--some logical, some emotional.

It is imperative, then, that you know your buyers very, very well--i.e., how they think, how they feel, what their perceptions and biases are, and what the triggers are that will get them to act in your favor. This means that you have to be particularly adept at the front end of the sales process, at the initial information gathering or probing stage of a call.

Many people think the key to getting business is being able to close a call. I would suggest that it is much easier to close a call if you've first done the front end of the sale thoroughly. In fact, I would go one step further and say that closing is actually the easiest part of a call when you probe well because then you know exactly how to present your magazine. Under those conditions, it is much easier to manage or neutralize objections and move naturally into the next step, or the close. But when you fail to probe well, you will find yourself in an uphill battle trying to present your magazine and deal with many objections. It then becomes awkward at best to close out the call to the desired next step.

One way to ensure your success in the front end of the call is to funnel your sale. Before I explain the funnel, however, let's look at some basic aspects of sales psychology. With that as a base, it will be easier for you to see how the sales funnel works.

Understand the difference

No two people are alike in their needs, their preferences, their biases, the pressures on them, their timetables, their personalities, or the way they make decisions. If you don't believe that, just ask any three clients why they decided to use your magazine at a particular moment in time and at a certain frequency, and what precisely they like about your magazine. You may be very surprised at the mix of answers!

Just look at yourself as a buyer. Think of three things you bought in the last six months--e.g., a gift? a suit? a ski jacket? a house? a car? a lawnmower? a VCR? a piece of furniture? For each item, note down why you bought that particular item/brand (size, shape, color) and not another one. You'll see that, depending on your personal needs, interests, preferences, emotions and experience, you bought those items for different combinations of reasons. Some were rational--"It fit the specs." Some were emotional--"I just liked it!" Or "It made me feel good!" And in some cases, you might have compromised on the specs--"Okay, so it cost a bit more than I originally wanted to spend, but look how slim it makes me look!"

Just as many factors drive your buying decisions, so, too, many factors drive an advertiser's buying decisions. It's the smart salesperson who recognizes that these differences exist in all buyers--even among buyers on the same account. Understanding those differences, reacting to them, and creatively responding to them is what makes selling such a challenge.

However, understanding a person's situation will not, by itself, sell new pages or expand existing business. The psychology of selling demands that you need a client who wants to solve a problem or who sees value in taking advantage of an opportunity. Only then will you have a client ready to buy.

No one changes the status quo without a reason. In selling space, that means no advertiser is going to buy just because you want him to. If he's advertising elsewhere, you're asking him to make a change and include your book or knock another book off the list. If he's not advertising at all, you're asking him to go to all the trouble of starting a campaign. If he's already advertising and you're asking him to expand his advertising, you're asking him to go to the trouble of advocating increased ad dollars.

Changing the status quo

Unless he wants to act, his inclination is to maintain the status quo. It's just human nature. We all resist change if it's just for the sake of change.

Look again at the psychology of your own decision making. I'm sure many of you reading this have changed jobs at some point. Chances are that move wasn't made lightly. Yes, we all, from time to time, think about changing jobs, but we don't really act on it until we wake up one day and either recognize that we have a problem that's become intolerable, or realize we're missing an opportunity. Either situation then propels us to act and actively job hunt. The point is, we didn't actively job hunt until the need and want became very great.

So if all this is true--i.e., that 1) it's critical to understand how individual buyers think, feel and operate and 2) that no one buys until he really wants to act--what are the implications for successfully selling your magazine?

More than a good story

It isn't just to have a good story. Jim Fishman at People put it well when he said, "Every magazine has a good story. The absence of a good story is not the problem. The problem is that unless the advertiser wants your story, you don't have a sale!"

The implication is that you must get the client to talk, get him to talk a lot, and get him to talk in a directed way so that you get a full picture of his situation. And then you must also get him to talk himself into a deeper problem situation or a deeper missed opportunity situation so that he feels a greater urgency to take action.

Many people have found it useful to do both of these things effectively by doing something that I call "funneling" the sale. Now that we have reviewed some basic psychology behind the sales process, let me explain what the sales funnel is and suggest how to use it effectively. Then I'll show you how to avoid getting "trapped" in the funnel.

Look at the funnel in the illustration. What you do is "go through" it down to the neck, at which point, if you've navigated wisely and well, you will know exactly what the key or keys is/are to this sale, what the likely obstacles are and, most important, which is the best way to demonstrate that your magazine provides added value or solves a problem. In other words, you will know what "story" to give that particular advertiser for his particular situation. Let's take it step by step.

First, you move from the general to the specific. In the ideal visit, you begin with the client's current situation. Likely topics are him, his situation, current problems, events leading up to the present situation and/or the challenges he faces. Then, since that in formation by itself is insufficient to create a sale, you must also ask questions that get the client to expand on the facts of his situation and talk about the implications and consequences of the present situation.

For example, if a fact of the current situation is that his is one of many widgets on the market today and that customer confusion is a real problem, possible implication or consequence questions could be, "If this confusion continues, what's expected to happen to your market share?" "How will this affect future new product plans?" "How long can you afford to live with this problem?" "What will that mean to your shelf space?" "What does that do to ...?" "How much time do you estimate you have to reverse or at least halt this trend?" "Why?" "What will happen then?" Talking about the short- and long-term implications of the advertiser's situation draws him more into a state of wanting to solve his problem. This also tends to get you incremental information that your competitors most likely are not getting.

The implication or consequence questions will vary with the situation, but you get the idea. In short, your questions in the "now" part of your discussion draw out the facts. You then expand on those facts to create a larger problem, which creates in the prospect a greater desire to do something to resolve it. (The same approach could be taken with someone who is in an opportunistic situation--i.e., business is great, they're number one, etc. Further discussion revolves around the challenges and opportunities they're facing and the consequences and implications of achieving those gains.)

The second step

Moving through the funnel, after you've established the situation and expanded the facts into a larger issue/problem/challenge by discussing the implications and consequences of those facts, your next move is to get the advertiser to talk about the goals and objectives that the advertiser is seeking, and the results achieving them would bring.

For example, with a customer-confusion issue, if your prospect's goal is to emerge as the premier vendor of product X in the market, then possible questions could be, "Assuming you reach that spot, what would be the implication for you in terms of entering new markets?" Or, "So assuming you achieve X, what new ventures could you undertake?" What you are doing, in effect, is getting the client to "see," to visualize the result that he very much wants. Between the discussion of his larger problems and the visualization of the desired results, you are going to have an advertiser very much more excited, motivated and interested in doing something about his situation and listening to your story.

Before you start selling, though, there is a third step. Consider exploring with your client how he is thinking of resolving his problems or achieving his objectives. Questions here would be, "What options are you looking at?" "What do you see as the best ways to go about this?" "Why?" And so on. Doing this will let you know how he is thinking, what's important to him, what objections he's likely to have about your magazine, and how you should position your magazine to solve his problem or add value.

Then, after a good recap of his total situation by you, you can make an intelligent, on-target presentation (formal or informal), highlighting only those benefits and ideas relevant to him. You will also find it much easier to balance potential objections with your strengths and to move the call to the next step in the sales process.

That's the ideal call.

In reality, your discussion will jump back and forth between the "now" and "future" stages. Also, in reality, you may walk in and be hit with "I have to tell you up front that I'm not advertising in your magazine." In reality, you may have to deal with someone who doesn't share information willingly.

It doesn't matter. What matters is that you cover all these bases in the funnel in your conversation before you start to tell your story. The funnel is a fairly straightforward model--easy to see and easy to understand. However, like anything else that involves people, there are traps that you can fall into if you're not careful. Let's take a look at six of them:

* Winging it: The number-one mistake reps make in the initial part of a call is to walk in with no preplanned questioning strategy. They know their book, they know the industry--and they think that's enough.

It isn't. Lack of smart preparation results in the loss of precious time as you try to get your conversation focused. Or, worse, there's plenty of conversation--but it's perfunctory, polite, doesn't really involve the buyer--and ends inconclusively.

Point: Good reps think through a call and determine a questioning strategy before they see an advertiser.

* Rushing it: The rep in this situation is only slightly better than the rep described above. This rep has a strategy all right, but he's so hot to talk about his magazine that he rushes through the funnel. The conversation sounds like this:

Rep: I understand that you're experiencing some customer confusion. Is that right?

Client: Yes it is.

Rep: Where would you like to see yourself in the market vis-a-vis this problem a year from now?

Client: If we could achieve a 9 percent market share, that would be very good.

Rep: Great. Have you decided on your advertising plans yet?

Client: We're planning them now.

Rep: Is XYZ Magazine on the list?

Client: Well, not really.

Rep: Well it should be, you know. We have ABC consumers, who have X disposable income, etc., etc.

Client: Yes, but we're getting that now with magazines A and B.

Rep: Oh, but you get so much more from us.

Client: But . . . .

1-2-3-Sell! A formula for failure.

Don't reinforce resistance

What is this rep going to sell? He has so little information to go on. By rushing the call, he's going to present information that is only going to reinforce the buyer's resistance. The whole meeting will become adversarial in tone. The rep never got the full picture and never got the buyer drawn into the conversation so that the buyer felt a sense of urgency about wanting to do something. About the only thing this rep will get is an invitation out of the advertiser's office!

Point: Don't rush the probing phase of the call. Selling is a process that involves building a relationship. Just as it's hard to rush a new romance for fear of spoiling it, remember that it's a mistake to rush the sales relationship as well.

* Shooting yourself in the foot-1: Your call begins well. Your client is friendly, even talkative. You're feeling welcome and relaxed. Very early in the conversation, your client says, "So, tell me all about Magazine X." Or he asks "How are you more effective than Magazine Y?"

Eager to respond to someone who (finally!) actually wants to hear about your magazine, you leap in with both feet and start to tell everything anyone ever wanted to know about your magazine. Alternatively, you answer the three, four or five ways that you are more effective than Magazine Y. As you finish your answer, you are feeling very proud of the excellent analysis you've just provided.

However, you won't feel smug for very long because you've just stepped into a trap of your own making! What you've done is spilled everything before knowing the client's unique situation, mindset and needs, and before he felt any real desire to do anything. You may have said many wonderful things about your magazine, but how--at this early stage of the call--can you be sure you said the right things in the right way to this advertiser? You can't. Chances are you gave what you thought were good answers, but your good selling points may not be the ones that would strike the responsive chord in your buyer.

For example, suppose you are calling on an automotive advertiser. Your book carries a great deal of automotive advertising, and you point that out as a sign of success, a vote of confidence by the automotive market that your book really reaches the right people for their cars. Sounds like a good selling point, yes?

Not necessarily. If this particular automotive advertiser dislikes clutter, likes to dominate a book, etc., and finds your long list of automotive advertisers a liability, you will quickly find yourself in the awkward position of having to retract what you've said, dismiss what you've said, and/or reposition what you've said. Pretty soon, you're going to be on the defensive and into an argument. And whatever the outcome, the focus of the sales call will have shifted to you and your list of automotive advertisers and away from this client and his needs and his desires to act.

Indeed, you'll find yourself taking back some of your selling points with a lot of "yes, but" arguments or "well, another reason you should advertise with us is" arguments. Either one probably means death to the call.

When this happens, depending on the situation, consider doing the following: Give a very brief, credible answer and then turn your answer back to the client and ask a question. Example:

Advertiser: Tell me, what's new at XYZ Magazine?

Rep: Lots of things. Maybe you read that we had a record half this year, which we're very excited about. And I noticed in the press that indeed your firm has also had a good first half as well. Tell me, which division was more successful, was it the X division or the Y division?

Advertiser: As you know, we like to merchandise along with our advertising. What can you do for us?

Rep: Probably a number of things, ranging from simple reprints to more dramatic events. What have you done in the past?

Getting out of trouble

Another way to counter this problem is to defer the question until later in the meeting. Example:

Advertiser: Tell me, why should I add XYZ Magazine to my list?

Rep: Since every advertiser is different, in order to give you an intelligent answer to your question, it would be helpful if I knew a little bit more about your situation. I read that you had a record second half this year and that you plan on expanding your line in the second half. Is that correct?

* Shooting yourself in the foot-2: In this case, instead of selling too soon in response to a question, you start a war in response to an objection! For example, shortly after you walk in, the client says, "You're wasting your time. We're already reaching our market with our existing list."

The tendency is to counter with arguments in support of your magazine, usually along the lines of, "We have these readers and our editorial environment is better, different or more wonderful than that of magazines A and B currently on your list." Or, you'll roll out a wagonload of numbers showing how your book is better. Because your advertiser has a positive opinion of the books on his list, he's only going to dig his heels in deeper to defend his choices and continue to attack your magazine. The result is disaster as you eventually fall into an extremely adversarial mode with your advertiser (unless, of course, that's what you want to have happen--a risky strategy).

Again, since you don't have much to go on, the way out is to answer briefly and return with a question.

For example, "Yes I've seen your ads in magazines X and Y. What is it about your buyer that makes these books appealing to you?" Or, "Many of our advertisers also advertise elsewhere. Tell me, how did you come to select these books?" (Which would then enable you to shift the conversation to his customer.) Or, "Mr. Advertiser, can we talk about the relative merits of the three books a little later after we look at some of the objectives of your program? I understand . . . . Is that right?" (The key here is not to breathe or wait for an answer after the words "your program.") Most often, if you conversationally roll into the next question, your client will move along with you in the call.

Points: Don't sell prematurely. Don't become defensive.

* Getting stuck in quicksand: Too often, reps get bogged down with unexpected objections, or they present virtues and values of their magazine that fall flat on the buyer. This happens when you fall into the trap of forgetting to ask good test questions in the early stages of your call.

A test question explores your advertiser's thinking. It allows a discussion without getting into an argument and without you having to present prematurely values that may not be right for the advertiser. For example, if you know that frequently the perception of your magazine is weak or controversial, don't wait for the advertiser to object to your book midway through your presentation. Test the waters early in the call with an exploratory question such as, "What's been your experience with XYZ Magazine?" If his answer is negative, then you can explore why that is so and factor in his answers later in your presentation. If his answer is positive, then you can build on that later in your presentation.

Another example: If your book has the highest CPM in its category, you might ask if the advertiser's budget has been increasing or decreasing over the last year or how his marketing dollars are being allocated among the different media. Again, his answers to these questions help you avoid/manage problems later on in the presentation.

Point: "Testing" in your probe for potential selling points or possible problems will tell you how to talk about your magazine later in the call in such a way as to minimize resistance and maximize acceptance for your book.

In summary, in today's competitive, more sophisticated market, it is imperative that you be expert at understanding an advertiser's total situation, and that you be effective at making that advertiser want to take action on your magazine. And, since there are several players on every account, you need to be able to do this effectively for each person.

Finding the key

The key is to get the client to talk in more than a routine manner. Many reps have found the sales funnel to be a useful framework within which to develop that kind of conversation. The funnel approach helps you think through the direction of your questions before going into the call. It gives you a path to travel in your conversation. And even if you get temporarily off track, it is a force that pulls you back into a more meaningful dialogue with your client. It keeps the client talking in a nonthreatening, conversational way. It gets you the information you need to make it easier for you to make the right presentation--i.e., to tell the right story. And, finally, it makes it easier for you to collaborate with the client on the next step in the sales process.

Let me encourage you to try this approach in your next several calls (without falling into the traps, of course!). Experience says you will be pleased with the results.

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