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| Lesson
Nine: Managing Your Territory Part 8: Time Management: Selling Special Sections |
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The best manager I ever had showed us how never to be, as he called it, blind sided, by a special section. He made us sell a third of the advertising goal three weeks before deadline and he made us sell the second third of our goal by two weeks before the deadline. That way, we only had another third to go for the final week. This was not easy to do, but we pulled it off by telling our accounts, "look, let's get the ads in early and we can not only make a better ad but we can get all the kinks out of it before it runs." It also gave us time to get all the right information from the account, create a spec ad, and give a strong presentation. Which means we had to actually start meeting with account to gather information four weeks out so we could start selling spec ads.
One more thing about selling special sections. You should always try to get your hands on the calendar of upcoming special sections and incorporate the special section sales into your regular sales presentations. So when you first meet an account, analyze his business, and make up one spec ad for running in the regular paper, or ROP, and another spec for special sections coming up in the next few months or even year.
By incorporating it into your overall recommendations, you'll position the sections as they should be, not as a one-shot deal, but part of a larger strategy to increase the account's business. I can't tell you how many times I fell victim to selling special sections at the last minute and contacting businesses I'd never met before to tell them about the section. Some I'd end up selling, but later, after the section came out and I tried to sell them into ROP, they'd say, "Look, that special section did really well for me, call me when it comes out again." So try to avoid making your first contact with an advertiser a sales call for a special section, or that's all they may run in the future.
If you have to do some last minute selling to new accounts for a section, constantly remind them that the sections are merely supplements to a good advertising campaigns, and the newspaper itself is a great place to advertise. Get the account to agree that after the ad goes into the special section that you should really talk about running there. Again, as with almost all the problems and stress associated with territory management, if you sell way in advance, and are constantly cold calling and creating spec ads, you'll reach your goals, get a better response for your advertisers, make some money, keep your stress down to a minimum and enjoy your job more.
