This self-paced course is designed to do one thing—help a brand new, inexperienced ad rep stabilize their territory quickly.

$59 for an individual ad rep for two weeks. $495 for a newspaper for 2 years.

 Feedback "This down to earth, practical guide to newspaper advertising sales is a must have for anyone selling newspaper advertising--by far the best newspaper sales training tool I have ever seen. It really increases ad sales immediately."— Matt Miller, Advertising Director Pittsburgh, Observer-Reporter "Just using the first few chapters that I've read helped me double the size of the paper...Your course is helping me get on the right track with contracts as well."—John Patrick, Publisher, Alpenhorn News (CA) "This is a great program! Well worth the money."—David Moore, Publisher, Charlotte Media Group "This course helped me be 200 pages up for November and December despite losing my ad manager and filling a territory with a new ad rep. My sales manager of 10+ years retired with very little notice in mid October...right in the middle of newspaper harvest season with our branch already behind budget for the year! I immediately promoted my other salesperson into the position. Kathy had been in the business for almost two years. She took this course last summer and was pleased with the content and said it not only would have helped her when she started, but it helped her almost two years later. Back to my sales dilemma. I found a new ad rep who was looking for a change after doing administrative work for a real estate company for 8 years. I had her run through this course at her leisure on-line at home during her two week notice period and she immediately start selling ads on November 1st, her first day with the Cochrane Times. We've never looked back. To everyone's delight, our page counts were up 200 pages (yes 200!) over last year for November/December and we came from behind to exceed our very aggressive annual budget! This team of two, one with two years' experience and one with no experience, were both armed with all the solid newspaper sales techniques from this course. They not only carried on with very little sales interruption, they grew the business during the most important time of the year, which has now translated to our best start of any year previous. This course is a must for new sales trainees and veterans alike. It also contains great information and sales basics for front office staff who are often thrown into a sales role at the counter. --Bob Doornenbal, PublisherCochrane Times, Cochrane, Alberta, Canada It happens to even the best ad managers. You hire a great person with little experience. You want to train him thoroughly, but you also have an unmanned territory just sitting there losing revenue. Plus, you have that special section closing later in the week that could use a few more ads.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if a salesperson could quickly learn everything they need to know to take over, stabilize, and begin growing a territory fast? That's exactly what our training program for new newspaper ad reps is designed to do.

 

While it's not designed as a long-term approach for making dramatic growth happen in their territory (that course is over here), it will help an ad rep get their territory back to how it was when the previous ad rep was in it and productive.

 

And it's available three ways--online, in a downloadable PDF document, and an editable Word document you can customize. All contain essentially the same material.

 

Whether it's taken online or downloaded in PDF or editable Word document form, this course is designed to provide you or your new hires with all the information to successfully take over a territory and begin selling advertising fast. In use by many top newspaper groups and newspaper associations, you'll most likely make a profit on this with the very first sale.

 

Appropriate for all kinds of local print advertising sales, including daily and weekly newspapers and magazines and just about any other kind of local print publication.

 

As an ad manager, we know how time-consuming it is to train a new ad salesperson yourself, and most likely it's only one of your many management responsibilities. Even if you do have the time, sometimes you still need that new salesperson out in a territory and selling fast.

 

That's the idea behind this course--turn a brand new hire, even one with absolutely no experience, into a seasoned, savvy newspaper advertising salesperson quickly and inexpensively. As you'll see in the outline below, the course covers every topic imaginable, interjected with advice, tips, and tricks that only a newspaper advertising sales expert can provide.

 

Contact us or you can go ahead and buy the course here. This course is also included in every configuration of our Response Oriented Selling course. If you have ad sales revenue challenges that go beyond training a new hire, you may want to explore that program as well.

 

Lesson 1: The newspaper's departments

Salespeople first get an overview of the newspaper to better understand each department and how the advertising department relates to each. Topics include:

 

• Editorial department
• Production
• Circulation
• Marketing/research
• Credit/Billing
• Advertising sales dept.
• Classified
• Retail
• National/Majors
• Sales assistants

 

Lesson 2: Getting to know your territory

Sometimes your first priority is just getting a warm body out into that empty territory, keeping current advertisers running and getting advertisers who ran in last year's special section/feature/page running again this year. This lesson teaches salespeople how to identify and approach these accounts to maximize revenue from day one. Topics include:

 

• What to do first
• Learning about the territory
• Activity reports to look for
• Keeping current advertisers running

 

Lesson 3: Ad Layout

Even more important than selling skills at this early stage, the salesperson will need to know how to get these existing advertisers into the newspaper. The first step is learning how to put an ad together that will get in the newspaper correctly. Topics include:

 

• Ad layout
• The layout sheet
• Indicating copy and art
• The copy sheet
• Keying copy to layout
• Keying artwork to layout
• Acceptable artwork
• Scaling artwork
• Model release forms
• Proofs
• Credits and adjustments

 

Lesson 4: The rate card and contracts

In this lesson, salespeople learn the in's and out's of the rate card. It covers how to calculate rates based on various rate structures as well as explaining all the other issues that's discussed there. Topics include:

 

• Volume discounts
• Frequency discounts
• Combination discounts
• Modular rates -Contracts
• Ad agencies
• Other parts of a rate card
• Coverage map
• Readership vs. circulation
• Co-op information
• Color
• Electronic ads
• Deadlines
• Special section schedule
• Column widths
• Line screens
• Odd sizes
• Disclaimers
• What's acceptable
• Billing periods

 

Lesson 5: Reserving space

After salespeople learn how to lay an ad out and are comfortable with the rate card, salespeople learn how to reserve space, including all the stumblingblocks to watch out for. Topics include:

 

• The ad reservation form
• Salesperson and ad info
• Ad size info
• Co-op
• Group page
• Coupons
• Proofs
• Ad types
• Pickup ads
• Camera-ready ads
• Advertiser information
• Color
• Special instructions
• Position/special charges
• Credit hold

 

Lesson 6: Spec ads

Now that your new hire has learned to stabilize their territory, now they can learn more about how to grow their territory fast. Since spec ads (or visuals if you're from the U.K.) are the foundation of selling newspaper advertising, this is covered here. Topics include:

 

• Spec ad intro
• Information you'll need
• Securing artwork
• Determining ad size
• Elements of a good spec ad
• The graphic
• The headline
• Copy
• Logos, etc.

 

Lesson 7: New accounts

If everything goes well, your new salesperson will be selling accounts who haven't run before. This lesson teaches salespeople what's involved when their advertiser doesn't already have an existing account or needs credit. As with the rest of this course, we keep things general and direct the salesperson to ask how you deal with the specifics. Topics include:

 

• New account form
• Credit application
  
  

Lesson 8: Your various products, your competitors, and what's important

In this lesson, we explain what types of products they may be selling at a typical newspaper as well as typical competitors. Also, salespeople learn about demographics, circulation, and readership and other ways to evaluate and sell against each medium, as well as better communicate their own products' advantages. Topics include:

 

• What ad agencies look for
• Demographics
• Circulation/readership
• Possible competitors
• Dailies
• Weeklies
• Shoppers
• Your products
• ROP
• Special sections
• Preprint inserts
• TMC products

 

Lesson 9: More advanced approaches to managing your territory

In this lesson, salespeople learn solid territory management techniques with tips and tricks that only the most experienced salespeople know. We also discuss the pitfalls of territory management including not planning ahead, fear of cold calls, believing nobody wants to advertise, and not getting discouraged when everyone's telling them your rates are are too high. Topics include:

 

• Identifying best prospects
• Special section prospects
• General time management
• Special section approaches

 

Lesson 10: The sales call

Here's where we teach your new hire about how to approach a sale. We believe in the consultative selling approach where the salesperson first listens to the account's needs and then, often in a second sales call, the salesperson recommends a strategy based on those needs. All aspects of the sale is covered, including how to deal with the typical objections they're likely to face. Topics include:

 

• Introduction
• First sales call
• Second sales call
• Overcoming objections
  
  

View samples of the course here.

 

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