The CNA
In order to deliver results for your advertisers, you have to understand what they need and what their goals are. Understanding these goals and designing a campaign to reach those goals will put you in a place to produce tangible success your advertiser’s can use.
Gotta get BEAST-MODE on CNAs! #secondstreetsummit pic.twitter.com/NwVocqfCEM
— Gordon Smith (@gordo942) June 7, 2016
The CNA is the most crucial step in the sales process, but currently many sales reps are either not preparing for their CNA or not conducting them at all. Without it, it’s difficult to know exactly what your advertiser needs and difficult to ensure your engagement campaign will show its full potential.
@julie_foley says CNA is the most critical stage in the sales process. #beastmode #secondstreetsummit
— Kent Oglesby (@KentOgs) June 7, 2016
No one is more equipped to talk about the CNA Process than WPSD-TV’s Sara Droke. Sara believes that nailing a CNA involves a lot of work before you even walk in the door – starting with being able to prospect, research your potential client, and understanding best practices for the CNA itself.
Pre-CNA research: Don't ask questions you can find answers to. Go to client website, Facebook, sign up for their email #secondstreetsummit
You want to be your advertiser’s marketing consultant and that starts by treating the CNA as an avenue to learn about your client, without the goal of selling to them. Treat this as your opportunity to better understand the landscape of their business.
Don't we want to be our clients' marketing consultants? – @sjdroke #secondstreetsummit
— Second Street (@secondstreet) June 7, 2016
When your advertiser sees that you have their best interest in mind, they’ll value you much more. The WPSD strategy works. Sara shared her experience with a new advertiser, a local furniture store, Anderson’s Warehouse Furniture.
During the CNA, they were able to uncover great pieces of information about the advertiser, starting with the fact that they were relatively new to promotions. By leveraging opt-ins and survey questions, WPSD has turned this new customer into a lifetime partner.
Anderson’s Furniture Warehouse was so impressed by the results of the promotion that they have begun to consider Sara and WPSD as their own marketing consultants.
The owner of the furniture store now calls Sara to seek out advice on sales opportunities from other businesses. And while it may not be money spent with WPSD, if Sara thinks the sale is in their best interest, she’ll tell them to go for it. It’s all about building a great relationship with your clients.
My clients need to see me as authentically engaged with what their needs are. @sjdroke #secondstreetsummit
— Matt Coen (@mcoen) June 7, 2016
The Pitch
Once you start thinking with your advertiser’s goals front and center, you’ll open up additional possibilities you may not have even considered before. If you’re looking for ideas and inspiration for a specific advertiser, download the Seller’s Guide – it’s got promotion ideas, survey questions, and much more for over thirty different advertisers.
One of those possibilities is bundling multiple campaigns together. We’ve already said that each promotion and interactive content has their own strong points, so creating a bundle that leverages a variety of campaigns can produce big results for your advertisers.
For WPSD, they conducted a CNA with a local auto dealer and uncovered a variety of goals they wanted to achieve. They presented the auto dealer with a bundled campaign sponsoring their basketball pick’em, quizzes, and a sweepstakes. They were thrilled and ended up with 282 hot leads, 252 new Facebook Likes, and 737 new email addresses.
Want to see the entire case study? Check it out.
The Objections
Being agile enough to handle objections from advertisers is a necessity. And the best way to handle these objections is identifying them before the sales meeting and being prepared to answer. Renee Herrmann of Shaw Media has some great success stories for overcoming three specific objections.
For example, Renee began working with a local home improvement store that was interested in running a sweepstakes. But, when she suggested offering a prize of new windows (a cost of over $5,000 for the store), they hesitated to jump on board.
“I can’t offer a prize at that value and why does it have to be my product? Wouldn’t a gift card work better?”
Renee knew exactly what to tell them.
- A higher value prize drives more entries
- More entries leads to more data, insights, and email opt-ins
- A prize from the sponsor will attract qualified leads
- Consider using co-op dollars
Prize value drives entries! More entries = more FIRST PARTY data. A prize from a sponsor will attract QUALIFIED leads. #secondstreetsummit
— Second Street (@secondstreet) June 7, 2016
Not only was the advertiser able to get the windows paid for through co-op dollars, but they found that 95% of their entries were homeowners and 55% were their prime age demographic.
On another occasion, Renee knew she may have a tough sale when she went to a local HVAC company. The owner was very tech savy and struggled to see why he couldn’t just run the contest on his own.
“I can run my own contest on my site or on Facebook. Why do I need your help?”
You need to have confidence in explaining the value your campaign can provide. The advertiser should want to work with you because you:
- Can deliver the audience they’re looking for
- Are the experts and will optimize their campaign
- Have a relationship with their audience and have earned their loyalty
In the end, the HVAC company agreed to partner with Shaw Media and found the sweepstakes incredibly effective. Receiving 413 entries, the sweeps identified 52 people ready to buy a new furnace in the next year. Plus nearly 90% of entries had an old, outdated furnace – great for future prospects.
Lastly, when attempting to partner with a local electric bicycle company, eeRider, Shaw Media received one of the most common objections:
“This is just too expensive. I can advertise in other places and in other ways.”
Cost is one of the biggest sales deal-breakers. Lowering your price shouldn’t be your first option. Your package is valuable, and you need to have the confidence to show that value. Mention things that you will deliver to your client:
- Qualify hot leads
- Capture valuable market data and insights
- Generate organic, opted-in emails
- Reach your audience demographics
- Grow your Facebook likes
The advertiser sweepstakes was a huge success for eeRider (and Shaw Media too). Not only did it receive a whopping 2,481 entries in the two weeks, but they were able to add 849 new email addresses and 772 Facebook Likes. Plus, they now have a satisfied and returning advertising partnership.
Having pre-established packages and pricing is the key to growing your confidence as a sales team. Download the Pricing and Packaging Guides for your industry to help you create valuable sales packages for you and your advertisers.
The Follow-Up
Many reps aren’t prioritizing their follow-up conversation, and that’s a big missed opportunity. This is your chance to make sure your advertiser understands how to leverage the value of the campaign and for you to set-up future sales.
When you prepare for your follow-up conversation, you want to set yourself up for success by making sure you prepare everything you need:
- Review the Goals. Make sure to clearly explain the goals that you and the advertiser had previously agreed upon during your CNA (new email addresses, social fans, consumer data, etc.) In addition, include what was needed to consider that goal completed successfully.
- Media Campaign Recap From opt-ins, to on-air spots, to social media mentions, outline what was expected of your campaign and what your campaign delivered.
- Survey Question Details. Clearly breakdown the results of your survey questions and be sure to discuss why these results are important to your advertiser.
It’s time to get your sales team into beast mode to dominate the competition. If you’re not prepared, someone else will be."If you're not in #BeastMode, someone else is"
Get ready, @EWScrippsCo beast mode activated! ??#secondstreetsummit pic.twitter.com/SMJ8qcpLGq
— Chase Snider (@chasesnider) June 7, 2016
Related Articles
Julie is the Senior Customer Success Manager at Second Street and a former client in local media. Her best advice for driving the most success with your revenue and audience engagement strategy is to include promotions in every business initiative.