By Nick Coston
Any guesses?
I’ll back up a bit. My first advertising sales gig was with Washingtonian Magazine, a very high-profile monthly magazine in the DC area. It’s there where I fine-tuned my approach and my attitude towards advertising sales. Most importantly it’s where we were shown how having pride in our occupation as a salesperson and the product that we sold went a long way. We’d dress like bankers, had a prime downtown DC office location, drove luxury sedans. All we needed was a business card, a magazine, and a rate card.
No media kit, no data, just a well manicured salesperson carrying a product that you wanted them to advertise in.
Because of the way we were trained and the way we carried ourselves, all of us were successful.
That was in 1985 and by the time 2001 rolled around and national magazines were going out of business due the events of September 11th, I turned to OOH.
I applied the same sales techniques that I learned 16 years earlier only this time didn’t have to worry about editorial. It was pure advertising. Signs on the side of the road, or on the side of buses, or in the airport terminals.
We had ample inventory to sell and because of the state of the advertising industry in September 2001 a lot of availabilities.
All I had to do was show up.
I’m not kidding. Just like I did back in 1985, make sure my car was always washed, my shoes always shined, and I that I was clean shaven.
Of all my colleagues that were also in the industry when I came on board in 2001, close to 50% of them are still here. That’s over 25 years of the same industry.
Because the OOH industry mostly if not, always, survives on advertising sales, for the industry to stay alive and thriving most of sales peeps will always have jobs. My first day on the job at Clear Channel Outdoor I asked our local sales manager “who’s your best salesperson”? Within seconds, he replied “that guy over there, his name is Dave.”
By the time I met Dave he had been in the industry for three years and was one of the top salespeople at CCO. He would go onto work there for around 25 years and is still in the industry. He would win numerous sales awards, both local and nationally.
We quickly became good friends and colleagues and are still to this day.
My point is of all the salespeople I know in the advertising industry, television, radio, online and or print, OOH salespeople stay in the industry the longest, develop a large client base that loves to renew, and they usually retire comfortably.
Some more than comfortably.
OOH salespeople may also go on to become extremely good media people either buying or planning, because they know what it takes to run successful campaigns. They also know how to sell their client on which type of OOH to buy and that they should always buy more then they budgeted. Many of them have gone on to form their own agencies, usually taking some of their key clients with them as a start. I should know, that was a path I took.
All because they were trained properly on the products that make up OOH, showed their potential clients the upside, and could take them on a car ride with them to see the product that they want to sell them.
My point is it’s always been my contention that OOH salespeople are by far the most personable, best trained and successful sales folks of any advertising category. We stay the longest, we are experts in our geographical market as well as the products we sell. Probably because the products don’t change much overtime, we just occasionally add some new tech.
This is why anytime I am asked the question “hey I see that ABC Outdoor is looking to hire more salespeople”, I tell them run don’t walk and to grab that job. Everybody you go to sell to understands exactly what you’re selling. It’s not magic. It’s not crazy science and there’s not that many numbers involved.
Cold calls? Ha! I perfected the greatest opening line for any billboard salesperson. It’s two sentences and you get your answer right away.
I’m not going to tell you what they are right now, but when you see me at the upcoming shows hit me up.
And if you’re in the business, I hope you stay in the business and if you’re looking to get into ad sales, please consider OOH. We’re big, bold, in your face, we stay in the business for decades and our products are completely apolitical.
We are advertising in its purest form.
Insider’s Note: Nick Coston has been writing opinion pieces for the OOH industry for 10 years now. His weekly pieces also appear on Substack where you can view the last 2 years worth. Full-time, Nick is the VP, Sales and Sales Strategies for Moving Walls, the Singapore based media and ad tech giant, here in The America’s.
If you are interested, here is Nick’s Substack LINK
To receive a free morning newsletter with each day’s Billboard insider articles email info@billboardinsider.com with the word “Subscribe” in the title. Our newsletter is free and we don’t sell our subscriber list.
Paid Advertisement
