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Selling Yellow Pages in tough economic times
Posted by Elizabeth Gage | Under Other Thursday Dec 25, 2008
The keywords and phrases people use when searching over the internet can be fascinating to observe. Recently though, one searcher caught my attention. They had typed into Google the following: “Selling Yellow Pages is getting harder”. Pausing to imagine the person behind the search I envisioned a veteran yellow pages sales representative facing sales rejection and feeling fearful and under pressure in their current work environment. They are searching in anonymity on the web to find answers on how to achieve success. The wonderful thing about the web is that you can search for answers to things without your boss knowing. So, this blog is written to you my anonymous friend. While a large part of our focus was on sales to national non-advertisers to Yellow Pages (timeframe to close generally 2 years) I believe the same sales tips apply to both environments. It is my hope you will find the below comments useful towards your quest for success in 2009.
Top 5 Sales Tips:
1. Listen
2. Be prepared
3. Keep your presentation short
4. Uncover all objections (most are hidden)
5. Close
Listening is something you do with all your senses. It is something we can all do well if we slow down, drop any agenda we may have, and release the need to control. Often the best sales call is when nothing is sold at all. People buy from people they like. And people they like, like them. Being a good listener opens the door to great relationships. (You also learn all you need to know to adapt your presentation and set the correct course to close the sale).
Preparation for a yellow pages sales call involves knowing everything about the customer’s business and environment. What kind of service or product are they promoting; who are their customers, what advertising are they doing, who are their competitors, etc…Research, research and more research. (Also, have your contract and product brochures with you but don’t bring them out without asking if it is okay to do so).
Keep your presentation short. Presentations should be custom, succinct, and not boastful or intimidating. Know your audience and whether it is the appropriate to bring out your new laptop. Your presentation it is not about you or your company it is about the customer.
Sales Objections are mostly hidden and often difficult to uncover because people are not always straight up. Some open ended questions help flesh out what they are really thinking. You might ask a question like, “How do you feel the yellow pages are working for you?” If the client perceives it is expensive and is unsure about continued expenditure keep them talking. “Is there anything else you don’t like?” This is the first step in uncovering objections. Then through illustration you can share an experience of perhaps another customer who felt the same and how together you built a program that addressed these same concerns.
Closing the sale is accomplished if steps 1-4 have been handled. It flows naturally from successfully uncovering and handling the objections. Ask for permission to bring out a contract though. Consider the old concept of “automatic renewal” as dead. No one has to be in the yellow pages. With a buyer who is price and roi conscious you may close with: “If I could show you how you could have a yellow pages program that brings you increased business at the least cost would you be interested?”
And finally, I believe you should find comfort in the fact that all sales is hard (not just yellow pages), however, the sales process is a numbers game. The more calls you make the more you’ll close, and you can’t close them all. Sales success is a journey and it is something that is best shared to be achieved. In this regards, it is important that you are working for a company that values people and in particular values you. Values are not posted on the company wall they are part of the organizational DNA and evident in the leadership and vision of the company. In the same way you treat your customer so should your employer treat you.
Best of luck in 2009.
Hey Adam strange comment coming from a guy who uses yellow page ad design to feed the family. The only thing your looking at to make those loose lip acusations about print phone books is you and your wife’s personal useage habits. As for being a small business owner, which you are not. Try going out and finding relevant local leads, not useless clicks to your website. I do it everyday and the book is still the best place to find those relevant, I’m ready to buy people. So as for shifting sands, the internet is a natural place to look, but not for local immediate need products and services. Remeber that yellow pages are not and never where used every day by all people. They where simply a natural place to make a selection when the furnace breaks or a plumbing leaks shows up. If your right and the yellow pages are dead as they have been saying since 1997 then I would suggest finding a new job.
Thank you for your comments Mr Johnson. It is interesting to note that many of the large established yellow pages publishers are promoting “opt out” in hopes that consumers will cancel receiving the hard copy yellow pages and in return will use the online yellow pages product. This could be said to be an unfortunate failure of an industry as there does not seem to be the creativity to reinvent the current print model to meet the needs of the new consumer and advertiser. But rest assured there is value in a printed product because no new invention takes away “ease of use”. As an advertiser, which you sound as if you are, have a look at independent niche print directory products. These independent players may very well replace the monopoly giants and “old players”. We live in a customer focused world and the old monopoly “cultures of entitlement” more than often illicit behavior that points to the fact that they do not understand this salient fact.