Managing your sales territory to generate additional revenue for you and your paper is not a case of working harder, but working smarter. Here are seven suggestions to get you headed in the right direction:
- ‘What is it you are trying to manage?’ Do you want to increase ad revenue, account count, development of a particular geographic area, ad count, or more use of a particular newspaper product?
- Optimize your selling opportunities for success by structuring your day to assure less in office, production time and more out-of-office, face-to-face selling time.
- Practice Time Management. Plan, plan, plan. Learn to prioritize. Stop procrastinating and wasting time (identify your time wasters). Know yourself and understand the value of time (both that of your client’s and your own). Say no!
- Delegate and use all available resources. Everyone at your newspaper (circulation, production, newsroom) is part of your sales and marketing team, from top to bottom. Remember, no one can do it all.
- Organize your information. Ideally, you have or will develop a pitchbook (it may be as easy and simple as a ring binder) to keep all appropriate sales information at your finger tips and presentation ready.
- Assess your accounts specifically and realistically. What degree of potential $$ exists with each account? What problems may be evident, what may change, what’s the future? Review, too, the urgency or priority of each account. Who may be at risk from competitive challenges, both from other retailers or other media?
- Reward yourself by taking care of yourself. Ensure both your professional and personal growth. Take time for you. Maintain a positive attitude, don’t dwell on past failures and rejections – use them to build on future successes. Think of a new way to handle an old problem. Keep growing. Learn from others. Have fun!!
As you grow and develop and your territory or account list changes and evolves, remember to learn and work on inventing the future rather than trying to redesign the past. Good luck!