Today’s podcast guest is Andrea Messimer Henley talks about how to sell out of home.  Andrea is Sr Director of Sales and Business Development at Adomni.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:13 — 36.0MB)

On the difference between posters and bulletins.

Bulletins are larger…poster showings get more local penetration…A bulletin is like you use a hose to water one part of your grass.  But posters are like turning on the sprinklers.  You want to reach everybody at once…

On keys to success in selling out of home.

I go back to the basics.  Knowing your market.  Every inch of it.  And knowing where your inventory is…If you get out and drive the market not every day, maybe once a month things change…So you drive it once and that location was wide open.  Maybe three months later there’s a new walk-in clinic there…When you get in the car and drive around…you learn a lot…Become a consultant…versus a sign seller…Ask them what are your KPI’s what are your expectations….Look at your current clients.  What are their new initiatives…Once the billboard goes up followup in the middle of the campaign…are you happy…keep asking what the results are…If they give you positive feedback try to create a case study…

My toughest out of home sale

The one that comes to mind was Taco Bell. I was at Clear Channel Outdoor.  Late 90’s.  Early 2000’s.  I spent a lot of time with the agency – for almost two years.  They would buy short term, 1-2 months, when they had an opening of a store.  I kept talking to them about the value of poster showings.  They did a ton of TV back then…I stayed on top of it for two years.  We’d invite them over, we’d give them a tour of the plant…at some point it was like, man, I almost want to give up.  But I stayed on top of it…finally got an opportunity when Taco Bell increased their hours…The campaign was open later – 10pm to 2am…They did 100 showings for 4-6 months consistently…that’s over 250 posters, everywhere you turned you saw Taco Bell later…We had to add extra illumination on some of the posters…It was the hardest but it was the most rewarding.

On listening to the client.

When you go into the first client meeting ask what are you trying to achieve, what are your kpi’s, what’s your target audience, what’s your budget, what are you trying to accomplish – awareness, are your trying to get the phone to right, butts in the seats if it’s an event…Then once you’ve put the proposal together and come back to present it the best thing is to use their words: “Mr Customer, you said you wanted to reach this area, this location reaches that exact area.  You said that you wanted more traffic through your door.  This is going to accomplish that because there’s an offer on the billboard that says come in…” You marry their answers back into the presentation…The natural next step is to close a sale.

On not being afraid to suggest alternatives.

I got a request from an agency that said they wanted roadside billboards only…I looked at what our inventory was…There were just a few. But when I looked at our inventory we had bar and restaurant networks, we had college campuses which were perfect for their product.  I said I know you asked for roadside billboards however we have this bar and restaurant network which is 21 and up which is what you are looking for and the billboard inventory in the market is limited…

How to keep your sales knowledge current.

I try to look for people who are super authentic…People that have actually have done it.  I read a lot of industry publications like Adweek… Learning from other media is what I’m doing now.  I’m on a panel with Pandora and I’m learning what they are doing and how we can fit in with them…

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