I ran into an interesting article from Paul Bradshaw of the Poynter Institute. He said "For all the talk of how journalists can get a grip on new media, there's been far too little on how ad sales people can do the same. So here I present ten ways ad sales people (and their managers) can save their jobs."
He goes on to talk about all digital applications that our competition in print is embracing or about to embrace. Are we even talking about this in our sales meetings or finding ways to ask "What is the Digital Application" like our friends at Jacobs Media preach? You can substitute your favorite media job into the title of his article and it would apply. A quick overview of his 10 ways....
1) Stop treating web ads as second class
2) Stop selling adverts on static pages
3) Sell advertising against search terms.
4) Give ad sales people access to the internet
5) Enable the long tail of small businesses to advertise without you doing it for them
6) Think beyond the banner: get creative about online advertising
7) Think about vouchers/coupons
8) Sell advertising aimed at the non-local market
9) Sell video ads, as well as the production of video content
10) Work in networks
And a Bonus...11) don?t take digital growth for granted
Paul goes through a good description of each item and of special interest were the comments from other professionals with some good ideas that can be used in any market. It's worth the read.
To read the entire article click here