This sponsored post is produced by The List.
Quick, what’s the first thing that pops into your head when you think of an advertising sales executive? Perhaps a well-dressed gentleman schmoozing clients on the golf course or at the city’s finest restaurant; or, maybe someone who’s always on their cell phone and never at their desk?
With the high-life image they portray, ad sales executives often get a bad rap for being lazy, when indeed they’re not. Their 40-hour work week might look a little different than yours, but here is what ad sales executives are really doing — and how they’re proving a return on investment from their business development efforts.
1) The dreaded cold call: Targeting helps.
The sales exec life might be glamorous from the outside looking in, but it takes someone with persistence (and tough skin!) to make cold calls. To help avoid the occasional angry prospect, it’s best to target those that fit the verticals and media spend your company can best accommodate for.
2) Approaching at the right time: It’s a bust or a win.
Most ad sales executives spend a large portion of their time blindly approaching prospects, not really knowing (or caring) if it’s the best time to make an introduction. It’s a gamble: Do this at the wrong time and you’re coined as just another pesky sales person, but make an introduction when a company has just fired their current vendor, for example, and you’ve doubled your odds of sparking a relationship.
3) Chasing prospects constantly.
Did you know that 25 to 30 percent of company contact information changes every 120 days? With professionals switching jobs at about the same frequency as you change your sheets (okay, a bit exaggerated, but you get the point), ad sales executives are constantly having to update their prospecting data – and they’re not using their grandfather’s rolodex from 50 years ago to do it. Instead, business development professionals are using sales enablement platforms that feed them accurate, up-to-date information on a consistent basis.
So, perhaps we should give the sales execs in the flashy suits a break – they are really working hard. The secret is, most business development professionals are using tech-forward sales enablement resources to help them target the right prospects at the right time, ultimately helping them simplify their efforts and gain more revenue.
Want to be that person in the flashy suit? Click here.
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