Don’t Miss The Opportunity To Sell Your Magazine’s Value Over Price
Are your Advertising Sales Reps reporting to you that their potential advertisers are more worried about price and not seeing the value of your publication? Be sure you and your staff do not miss the opportunity to sell value over price. Below are four tips that can help you and your Reps sell on value so that price is no longer an issue.
Do you find that your adverting prospects are focused on the price of your publication and often pressure you to give them discounts?
You’ve told your ad prospects in so much detail about all the great value and a ROI they will receive but, they just don’t seem to get it. You know that if only they could see the value of advertising in your publication then price would not be such an issue.
Here are four tips, if learned and applied, could almost guarantee that your ad prospects will see the value in your publications printed magazine, digital, and web services so that price is no longer the issue. These four tips are common sense and obvious once you know them but in selling advertising what is common sense and obvious is rarely applied.
Tip #1: Forget about selling and trying to get your ad prospect to buy advertising in your publication.
The common trap, that you don’t want to fall into, is to start selling your publications advertising from the very first conversation with your ad prospect. Instead, you want to forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy advertising. Just have a conversation and ask the right questions so you can understand their problem and determine, if in fact, your publication’s advertising can help them. I call this initial phase the ‘Discover Phase’ and it is where you should be spending the majority of your time in the sales process.
The common trap, that you don’t want to fall into, is to start selling your publications advertising from the very first conversation with your ad prospect. Instead, you want to forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy advertising. Just have a conversation and ask the right questions so you can understand their problem and determine, if in fact, your publication’s advertising can help them. I call this initial phase the ‘Discover Phase’ and it is where you should be spending the majority of your time in the sales process.
Tip #2: Have your ad prospect tell you the value (instead of you tell them).
If you tell your ad prospect about the value you offer, they may or may not see this as relevant, of interest or of value. However if you ask the right questions so your prospect tells you the value of solving their problem, they will then see this value as relevant, of interest and of value. The big difference is that they have told you (and themselves) the value as opposed to you telling them.
Tip #3: Have valuable conversations.
The conversations you want to have with your ad prospect should include so much value that they actually thank you for speaking with them and, in fact, look forward to having more conversations with you. How do you have such conversations? It’s easy really. You see probably no one has asked your prospect powerful questions which help them get clarity around their problem and what it is costing them. This sort of clarity and information is of great value to your prospect. They will see that you have a valuable skill and they will want to have future conversations with you to continue gaining clarity in other areas. They will see having conversations and having a relationship with you as valuable.
The conversations you want to have with your ad prospect should include so much value that they actually thank you for speaking with them and, in fact, look forward to having more conversations with you. How do you have such conversations? It’s easy really. You see probably no one has asked your prospect powerful questions which help them get clarity around their problem and what it is costing them. This sort of clarity and information is of great value to your prospect. They will see that you have a valuable skill and they will want to have future conversations with you to continue gaining clarity in other areas. They will see having conversations and having a relationship with you as valuable.
Tip #4: Add your value to their value.
Once your ad prospect has told you the value they will receive from solving their problem, they will be receptive to listening to how you can add even more value. Not only will they be receptive to listening to how you can add more value but they will also be appreciative of the additional value you can add. This is because, at this stage, they will have effectively sold themselves on taking action to solve the problem and the more value they can see that they will receive; the easier it is for them to justify buying your products and services.
Once your ad prospect has told you the value they will receive from solving their problem, they will be receptive to listening to how you can add even more value. Not only will they be receptive to listening to how you can add more value but they will also be appreciative of the additional value you can add. This is because, at this stage, they will have effectively sold themselves on taking action to solve the problem and the more value they can see that they will receive; the easier it is for them to justify buying your products and services.
In summary, you will lose ad sales opportunities as a consequence of not selling advertising while you ask the right questions, your ad prospect will see both the value in solving their problem plus they will see the value in having a relationship with you and thus your publication. You are then in a position to help them justify a buying decision by adding more value to what they have told themselves. This all leads to a decision based on value and not on price.
Your publication is worth what ever you are perceived to bring into the business relationship with potential advertisers. Nothing more, and nothing less.
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