Chris (and anyone else interested in
this).
David is spot on. One of my duties in my
job is to purchase media, worldwide. I WISH salespeople were as prepared
as David would make them (would they listen to them). Simply put, I can’t
add anything to his great advice.
Rick Short
http://rickshort.blogspot.com
-----Original Message-----
From:
videoblogging@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Yirchott
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 9:45
PM
To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [videoblogging]
Questions Regarding Sponsorships, Underwriting, Ads, and Rates, etc.
Chris,
Good questions and ones I'll attempt to answer,
however, I have not dealt
with this per say. In my experience, either
someone has contacted the sales
or promotion department at the television station
where I worked or the
reverse, our sales or promotion department reaches
out to them. In either
case, I have been brought in after initial contact
has been made.
That being said, I think who you should contact
will vary by whom you seek
out as a sponsor. If it is a local business, you
might need to speak with
the owner. If you want to approach Coca-Cola, you
might need to go through
their media buyer. It also seems like many
businesses are set up
differently: Is it the Advertising, PR, Sales, or
Marketing department you
want to speak with? It could be different at each
one. I would suggest doing
a little research -- checking out their website
and whatnot -- to find out
what you can about their structure. And it
couldn't hurt to call up and ask
to speak with whomever handles buying advertising.
Many business are used to being hit up to
advertise on TV, on radio, and in
print. So it shouldn't be like you're the first.
I'd suggest calling rather
than emailing. Email is spam and is easy to
ignore. It is easier to
trash/ignore an email than it is to say
"no" to a person.
Ask yourself why the business would want to
advertise with you. What are the
benefits to them? Write them down and put it in
front of you before you
call. Last thing you want to do is be on the phone
with a decision maker and
sound like you don't know what you are doing. I'd
go so far as to practice
your selling speech. Record your voice and see
what it sounds like. Try to
eliminate verbal ticks like "um... "
"ah..." "y'know" or "like." Become
comfortable with silence -- often people are
compelled to fill those small
voids with word, any words; it can become
problematic. Be very aware that
when people are nervous, they tend to talk fast
and breathe fast -- don't do
this, it doesn't sound credible. Also, don't
concentrate so much on not
being nervous that you aren't paying attention to
the conversation. Have a
pen and paper with you to take notes. And you
might want to put on a suit
and tie -- research shows even though the person
on the other end can't see
you, it affects your behavior and attitude. Also,
know what you want to sell
and for how much -- or at least have a fairly
strong idea. If they are local
try to set up a meeting to show them what you can
offer them.
If you do get a meeting, be prepared: ask to meet
in a room with a computer
connected to the Internet so you can show them
your website. Bring your
laptop if you have one. If you have time, do a
mock-up of your homepage with
their ads on it. Bring a CD with screengrabs of
your website in case there
is some crazy Internet/DNS issue. Bring several
copies of a one-sheet that
lists the benefits of advertising on your website.
Bring documents to back
up your claims (traffic numbers, etc.). Know how
and when they will be
billed and how and when they will receive whatever
you promise them
(pageview numbers, for instance). Dress
professionally. If they say "no,"
say, "I can understand you aren't ready to do
this right now, Is it okay if
I contact you in a month or two to update you on
any improvements I've made
on my site and see if you guys might be ready
then?" Or something like that
-- in other words, give yourself an opening to try
to resell yourself later.
Thank them for their time.
As far as a directory goes, I did a quick Google
search for list of media
buyers, and one of the results I got was: ( URL:
http://www.salesvantage.com/d/Media_Buyers/
). I can't speak to how legit or
useful the site is I just saw it for the first
time, but there is stuff out
there.
Maybe there is someone in the group who's had more
experience in this area,
who can contribute some additional useful
information? Hint, hint to all you
lurkers :)
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
-David
>From: Chris Baudry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
>To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [videoblogging] Questions
Regarding Sponsorships,
>Underwriting, Ads, and Rates, etc.
>Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 20:36:16 -0700
>
>David,
> As a follow up to what you say about
sponsors, a very practical question:
>after identifying a list of potential sponsors
that might be interested,
>how
>do you contact them? Do you contact their
marketing dept. and what type of
>person are you trying to reach? Or
communication agencies? Phone? Email? Is
>there a directory of these marketing and
communication people?
> Thanks,
> Christian
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