Ad sales and marketing make a powerful team - periodical publishing

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The members of your sales staff can be a valuable source of new and effective promotional ideas. Many ad-space salespeople deliver a variety of compelling and well-targeted marketing pieces on their own. Most often, they provide key sell points along with their original ideas to make exciting and targeted custom presentations to advertisers.

The question is, however, at what cost? Are the salespeople spending their precious selling time creating custom sales tools? Is the marketing department even aware of the products that members of the sales staff are producing independently? Salespeople who execute good promotion ideas don't necessarily share them with other people in the company. Perhaps they just don't have the time, or it may be that they see no need to pass along their ideas. Whatever the reason, you can motivate them to share their processes just by demonstrating your enthusiasm and by explaining to them how it may positively impact the company.

Salespeople know their clientele. They know which buttons to push, what's hot, and how to interpret what's not. They are constantly on the firing line, and constantly reeling in direct response from advertisers. Tap into their resources, their perceptions, observations and methodologies, and you will dramatically cut down your concept and design time and create more productive sales pieces.

Here are some guidelines that I have found helpful in working with sales/marketing management whose intention is to involve the ad-sales staff in their promotional campaigns.

No idea is a bad idea

Encourage the advertising-sales staff to participate. To foster communication, let them know that you want to hear all their constructive ideas--no matter how unusual they may be.

Ask for--and use--their input

Tell your sales team that you want their help in evaluating and creating targeted sales tools. A good way to begin is to ask them for comments on sales tools you provided that they have found effective during the past six months. (To make this as easy as possible for them, give them an accurate list of these promotional tools.) Then ask them to list any new ideas that they feel would help them sell more effectively. You may discover that some of these suggested resources have already been created and used successfully by the sales staff.

In addition to making sure that you let the sales staff know that you value their input, it is important to explain to them how you plan to follow up on their ideas.

How do the products work in the field?

An excellent way to gather relevant, first-hand information on how sales tools work is to go with the salesperson on a few sales calls. As a silent observer in the client meeting, you will acquire a unique perspective on the effectiveness of the sales tools currently being used. And there is no better way to gain insights into additional sales tools that are needed. After the meeting, you and the salesperson can share impressions. At the very least, the salesperson will appreciate your sincerity and problem-solving abilities.

For salespeople who sell predominantly by phone, sit in briefly on a session where the salesperson is following up on a mail campaign, proposal or sales letter, or when a presentation is being delivered. A brief discussion after a series of phone calls will prove productive for you as well as the salesperson.

You should find that, as a result of these exercises, some marketing tools will get an instant facelift. An additional benefit to this type of research is that your rapport with the sales department will reach an all-time high, and trust and communication will be improved immeasurably.

Find out what their clients want

Once you have established a good working relationship with the ad-sales staff, suggest a sales meeting where part of the agenda will be salespeople sharing innovative marketing ideas that they have solicited from supportive clients. It is important to emphasize that these ideas are to be delivered strictly on a voluntary basis, and that the reason behind the request is to find effective new techniques/technologies that can be used in sales presentations or noteworthy promotional campaigns.

During the meeting, the sales team, marketing team and management team should collectively investigate the feasibility of the new ideas. Encourage an open exchange of opinions, and then poll the group to determine which ideas they would like to incorporate into the marketing portfolio.

And once again, after the meeting, be sure to keep the group informed of the progress being made on new campaigns and whatever time frames are involved.

Give sales a chance to think ahead

When setting up your next yearly promotional plan, give the sales staff a form that outlines your promotional categories and provides a space for them to comment on their upcoming needs. This is particularly useful for mailing programs that address special sections, editorial considerations, new products, value-added items, and so on.

Have you ever found yourself seriously behind schedule in delivering a promotion because you were not aware of the need for it until late in the game? By giving your sales staff a chance to plan their long-term needs, and by asking for their input, you significantly reduce the chances of being caught short.

Everybody wins

Have you ever asked the sales staff to assist in monitoring response from promotions and not received the cooperation you needed? As the members of your magazine's ad-sales staff begin working with refreshed and better-targeted sales tools that they actually had a hand in creating, they will be more inclined to heed your call for client response--which in turn will result in even better sales tools.

The new promotions developed will help generate more sales because the two departments will have combined their creative energies to solve more marketing problems. The effectiveness level of the new sales tools will dramatically improve the presentation, delivery and confidence of the sales team. And the sales volume will reflect the overall effectiveness of your revitalized marketing campaigns.

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