Newspaper sales is looking for the extra 2-4% sales to stabalise the business. That is percieved lie in training the sales fource to be pro active and seek out opportunities to increase sale wherever possible. Does anybody know of any training courses or indeed any ideas at all as to what I can source to get the training off and running?
sheena bolton
2 Responses
Sales training.
Hi Sheena
When I’m working on sales growth for clients, I go back to basics.
What’s the target market – location, size of company, type of person in the company, type of company etc etc
Once that’s established you at least know your audience which saves a LOT of ‘faffing’ time with inexperienced (and some expereinced) sales people.
I’d be happy to speak with you about LMI’s offerings, or put you in touch with someone locally if we are too far apart.
Drop me a line if interested.
All the best
Mark Bell
Director
Leadership Management
07723 015 444
m.bell@lmi-uk.com
Generating new business
I guess you mean advertising sales.
The first step is to segment the advertising opportunities you offer. I’d go for: recruitment, other classified (motors, etc.) and display. You need to do this because customers tend to behave differently in each different segment.
Broadly, there are two ways to achieve the growth you are looking for: sell more to existing customers or find some new customers. It’s usually easier to sell to existing customers.
If you want to get some new customers you then need to look at prospecting and servicing activities. Prospecting will help identify new opportunities while servicing is aimed at businesses you already know who aren’t doing business with you. You’ll need to train and encourage your sales team to contact non advertisers and build a relationship to get the sales process going. This takes time but usually brings reliable long term business.
There are a number of organisations that run training in this area. I run a programme myself.
Best of luck
Mark