Adventures in sales
RIP talking a dog off a meat truck
I missed the opportunity for an anniversary post. It’s now been three years since I began The Rebooting. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write about different aspects of the business because, while self-referential, it is informative to how I view the next chapter for the media business. This week, I’m with an evaluation of sales. First up, a message from Hashtag Labs
Hashtag believes that the digital ad supply chain starts with the publisher. That sounds obvious, but the digital advertising ecosystem is often set up so that a vast array of middlemen and the buy side have greater visibility into a publisher’s audience than the publisher itself. With HTL Debug from Hashtag Labs, you can easily understand and visualize ad requests and bid responses for common ad tech services: Install HTL Debug from Hashtag Labs for free today.
Thanks to John Shakman and HTL Labs for the support.
Adventures in sales
Sales might solve everything, but it’s notoriously difficult to get right. I spent my career on the editorial/audience side. I tend to think in terms of leverage. What are the advantages I bring that have a high VORP? I could make the product myself, and have deep experience in the field. That was a big one. I was “more than a content guy” in my last job because tech, product and memberships were part of my remit. One glaring weakness: I never sold, outside hawking papers in front of Orlando’s Bakery in Avalon.
I’ve now sold over for three years, so I’ve dispensed with the disclaimer I don’t know sales. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve developed an appreciation for sales acumen that isn’t like the caricature of a big personality who knows enough to be dangerous and is adept at simultaneously kissing babies and petting dogs.
Sales is a lot like reporting: It rewards persistence. I noticed over the years in an open newsroom that the reporters with the most well-sourced stories, I heard on the phones all day. The ones with thinly sourced stories, who told me they “reached out but didn’t hear back,” were far quieter. More is not always more, but in sales, more activity tends to correlate with more results. You have to be competitive.