Advertising Industry

The retail magazine publications division of an international media business media firm needed to upgrade the selling and negotiation skills of their advertising account managers.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Due to recent high turnover in the sales force, the company had hired many new advertising account managers. The account managers who had been terminated were viewed by senior management as deficient in certain critical selling and negotiation skills.  Notably, they needed to become stronger negotiators at preparing and presenting opening positions so that customers would agree to run more display ads more frequently.  In addition, they felt that many of the prior sale force had conceded too much and negotiated primarily on price, and did not capitalize on the strengths of the retail publications that they represented. The new account executives were hired with these competencies in mind, and management decided to implement a corresponding selling skills and negotiation skills workshops.

Sales Training Solution 

Peak Selling interviewed several high level sales managers, and then collaborated with the HR manager to design a customized negotiation workshops and role play exercises.  Our Negotiating for Success Workshop was purposely implemented in two stages. First, during a normal slowdown in the sales season, the first workshop taught all of the skills mentioned above. A couple months later, just prior to the time when a lot of contracts were due for renegotiation, we then taught the second workshop. During this second session, the account managers planned and rehearsed for an upcoming sales negotiation with one of their critical accounts. 

A large number of newly hired account executives needed to sharpen their selling  skills to sell display advertising in a newly launched retail publication.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

A large publishing firm decided to launch a new weekly "events" publication that would be customized for discrete communities in a major metropolitan area.  Their business model and strategy determined that they needed to quickly blanket all of the targeted communities in order to build visibility and not give the existing competitors time to react.  As such, they needed to hire many new advertising account executives.  To ensure that the new salespeople would succeed, the senior management team decided that the intensive new hire training program would include selling skills training in critical competencies such as questioning & empathy, closing, cross-selling and handling sales objections that were likely to arise when selling display advertising to smaller retailers.

Sales Training Solution

Peak Selling designed a customized sales training program to address all the selling skills and sales competencies mentioned above. Modules from our Selling Skills and Value Selling training programs were used in the initial new hire training.  We also designed an advanced follow up workshop to be given a few months later, and coached the account executives on a one-on-one basis in the interim.  The sales manager and upper management saw an immediate improvement in the competence and confidence of the new account executives.

Additional training materials available for managers through our Coaching Kit product line, specifically the Selling on Value Not Price kit.