“It’s not a good time, can you call back next month?” Prospects are not just busy. They are also distracted, forgetful, and risk adverse. However, every prospect on your list has a list of goals and objectives they must meet. They have a business plan that needs to be executed – or risk failure.
As professional newspaper salespeople, our primary responsibility is to understand our prospect’s objectives and, in turn, provide a solution to help them meet and exceed their goals.
However, unless your proposed solution aligns perfectly with the goals and objectives of your prospect, your chance of success when you ask for the sale is slim to none. Marketing budgets are under intense scrutiny, and the days of customers taking risks are behind us. We need to be able to demonstrate a sustainable return-on-investment model before a prospect will agree to invest dollars with us.
Are you certain of your understanding of the prospect’s objectives? Do you clearly understand their expectations? Can you successfully overcome any objections (drawbacks, skepticism or misunderstandings) that the prospect might throw at you along the way? If you cannot confidently answer “yes” to each of these questions, go back to the prospect and ask additional questions. Look to discover the need behind the need.
“A” (business objectives) plus “B” (proposed solution) must equal “C” (measurable ROI). Keep this is mind as you go through the sales cycle with your prospects to ensure that your newspaper advertising proposal is poised to deliver the results needed to meet your prospect’s business goals!
Have a great week,
Dan
If there are specific topics you’d like to see discussed in a future issue of The Sales Cycle, please contact me at (612) 278-0223 or dan@mna.org