Six mantras for newspaper sales reps

By the editors of Media Life

These must seem the roughest of times for people who sell advertising space in newspapers, with so much doom about their future. But one thing reps need to keep in mind is that for all their troubles newspapers are still seen by media buyers as a vital part of the media mix in any community. As much as anyone, and a lot more than many, they’d like to see newspapers rebound and reinvent themselves. What follow are tips from media buyers to help newspaper reps compete in this new, tougher environment. These tips have been culled from reader surveys over the years, as well as from industry analysts and insiders.

This article is part of a Media Life series “Reinventing the American Newspaper.” Click here to read other stories in the series.

One) “Let me tell you who reads my newspaper.”

You may be selling ad space in your newspaper, but the advertiser is buying your readership, and your readership is your greatest single asset on a sales call.

Newspapers are the medium of choice of people who matter in any community: These people own businesses, own homes, pay taxes, vote and have children in school. Those are the people advertisers most want to reach.  You can’t know too much about those people. The more you know, the better you’ll be at selling them.

Two) “My newspaper can boost your sales. I can prove it.”

Listen to a digital sales rep and you’ll hear a stream of numbers. Are the numbers any good? Who’s to say, but they serve to explain the major reason digital is exploding and newspapers are suffering.

Advertisers want and expect data on what they can expect of their ad dollars, but few newspapers have the research to prove their publications can deliver.

Worse, they simply don’t sell advertising that way. The irony is that driving sales is the one thing newspapers are particularly good at (see chart, below).

So get the research going. Get testimonials where you can.  Make the argument.

Three) “I’m a believer. I believe in my paper, I believe in newspapers.”

Selling newspaper advertising these days has to be heart-breaking. So many think newspapers are dying or already dead, and what advertiser wants to invest in a publication that’s on the verge of extinction?

But you have to believe. If you don’t believe, you’ll sell fewer ads. You’ll also do deals you shouldn’t, giving in to cockamamie demands. You can become a believer by mastering mantras one and two: Know your reader and be able to prove advertising in your newspaper can deliver.

Four) “I can sell against anyone. Bring it on.”

The old newspaper days were great. You were the one paper in a one-newspaper town.  Media was a silo business; each silo had its slice of media dollars it could call its own.

Digital came along and blew the silos down. Now everyone competes for every scrap of business.

To sell in this new environment, you need to know your paper but you also need a deep understanding of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. All have weaknesses.

Catalog all the arguments against newspaper advertising and marshal arguments knocking down each.

Put yourself in the position of the advertiser facing five choices. How does he choose? How do you help him choose? By understanding all five choices.

Five) “Yes, I know what’s in my paper because I read every page of it.”

The worst thing a rep can do on a sales call is flub a simple question about the paper. It looks dumb. You come off as not caring, and in front of someone who you want to invest ad dollars.

Assume the person you are selling to reads the paper every day and has for years.

You need to read the paper every day and be able to discuss what’s in. You the rep are likely that advertiser’s one human link to the paper. You are, in his or her mind, the publisher, editor, favorite columnist, despised columnist and delivery boy, all wrapped into one. Their engagement in your paper is a blessing. Put it to work for you.

Six) “I will stay ahead of the curve of change in media.”

What is true one day may not be true the next, and vice versa. Such is the nature of change. For all the forecasting done in media, the sad fact is we are invariably taken by surprise by the biggest developments. Who anticipated social media? Or Google even?

Newspapers have had a rough slog this past decade or so. But that could change tomorrow, or next Thursday, or Jan. 1, the result of this or that development in the media marketplace.

You need to know about it in order to sell with it.

The only way you are going to know about it if you closely follow not just newspapers but all media: radio, TV, out of home, direct mail and of course all things digital.

So stay tuned in.

Tags: newspapers, newspaper advertising, future of newspapers, media life series, reinventing the american newspaper, newspaper sellers, newspaper buyers