Much like the 100m final at the Olympics, being in with a chance of closing a sale isn’t just about what happens in the closing stages of the race. It is the time, effort, discipline and strategy that has gone into the previous weeks, months and sometimes years that has enabled a salesperson to get to this point and be in with a chance of winning the business. While salespeople often run the final race alone, it is the unwavering support of the wider team that has enabled them to reach this point. A successful sale is a team effort.
In our media consultancy work, we talk a lot about momentum in sales being the key to success. Momentum isn’t a fluke. It is a series of planned actions, sometimes historic, sometimes current, often both, that ensures when a salesperson approaches a prospect in earnest, everything possible has been enacted to facilitate success.
With the recent spike in M&A activity, momentum in sales for newly acquired / relaunched brands can be difficult to achieve, especially when pressure is mounting to generate much-needed revenue before the money runs out. If you have purchased a physical brand, such as a print-first publication, there is a great opportunity to start gaining momentum relatively quickly and cheaply by deploying digital / social media assets in order to create engagement ahead of a full-scale sales campaign. Use your evergreen content / assets to begin the engagement / interest cycle so that your sales team can be sharing relevant information with prospects early. Whatever you do, don’t stop communicating with your audience! When brands are bought and sold, it creates uncertainty. A lack of information and uncertainty will create a budget paralysis (aka the ‘wait and see’ approach) in your prospects / customers – strain every sinew to avoid it.
In more established brands, momentum has usually been established. In publishing brands, the success of the editorial and sales strategy are intrinsically linked – success in one begets success in the other. The challenge in established brands – especially in the face of so much competition in the marketplace – is maintaining sales momentum. The key here can often be in ensuring that the sales team has access to, and is utilising, all relevant engagement data. Can your sales team see if a prospect or existing client has attended your recent webinar, downloaded that special report, received the latest print issue, visited your trade show… In our experience, the more data / intelligence you make available to your sales team, the more likely they are to be able to close and renew business. Remember to keep your customers’ ‘why’ at the heart of your sales strategy, and that product review and innovation can be the key to long-term sales success.
Launching into adjacent markets, even for established brands, can be risky. Again, the imperative is to ensure that your sales team has the requisite information and intelligence to mount a successful sales campaign. Where we have seen success is in ensuring that a strong marketing, content and data strategy is deployed ahead of (or at least in tandem with) the sales effort. The marketing principle of ‘know, like, trust’ is important when purchasing decisions are made. Creating familiarity with your brand is critical for sales success. Whether you decide to partner with events, mount a social media campaign, send a physical mailing / voucher copies et cetera, it is vital that there is alignment between your marcoms and sales strategy to achieve early momentum.
Coming a close second behind a poorly thought-through strategy, is an ill-equipped sales team. Central to being able to close that deal and finish first, is being able to provide all the supporting evidence and examples a prospect / renewing client will demand to see. Accurate and up to date product descriptions, customer testimonials, audience stats et cetera should all be contained in a well-written, concise, uncluttered, well-designed, informative, accurate, balanced media pack. You can find helpful information on how to create / refresh your media pack in this previous sales post, ‘Is your media pack fit for purpose?’.
Five quick tips to help your sales team win:
- Generate & maintain sales momentum through targeted actions
- Ensure your sales, marketing, content and data strategies are aligned
- Give your sales team access to all appropriate prospect / client engagement data
- Work hard to create brand familiarity among your target audiences
- Support your sales team with good quality sales aids
About us
Spread the Word Media (StWM) is an independent sales and marketing agency based in Hampshire serving clients throughout the UK, Europe and US. StWM has extensive experience of working in the media and publishing sectors. We work with clients on an ad-hoc basis, or as an extension of their sales and marketing team to deliver fresh ideas, targeted strategies and measurable outcomes.
+44 (0)1730 719 600
