Don't Rely On the Opinions of Ad Reps Alone - Adult B2B Marketing Tip

Don't Rely On The Opinions Of Advertising Salespeople Alone

Before we start this tip, my advance apologies to the honest, caring ad reps in our industry. As you'll see this doesn't apply to you.

Advertising salespeople make commissions on the ads they sell you. That's obvious. So realize that they're sometimes they will try to load you up with as much as possible because it makes their commissions bigger. This may come as a shock, but there's a chance they'll try to sell you more than you actually need to get the job done. So you've got to understand what you're buying so you can know if they're loading you up with too much or not. It's not like buying something like a suit. You walk into the suit store; you need to buy one suit. If the guy in the suit store attempts to sell you four or five suits, you smile politely and let him know that you only need one suit. If he becomes pushy, you tell him to back down because you're absolutely sure that you only need one suit. See, if you know you only need on suit, you just buy one suit; maybe two max.

But how many magazine ads do you need to make an effective campaign? That's harder to say. What publications should you be in? Some are definitely more expensive than others. So how do you even know what you need to buy? How big should your ad be to maximize effectiveness? What position in the magazine should it be in? And on and on - for every possible medium out there. It's not exactly easy to know what you need to buy in the first place, which is what makes it difficult to know whether or not the ad sales rep is proposing what you really need or not.

Ask your advertising sales rep the following evaluation questions to see if they really have your best interest at heart. These questions will help you find out if they're trying to maximize your dollars or just maximize their commission check. To qualify these questions first though; you need to have a general idea of what you should do before you ask the sales rep these questions. Or in other words, you need to form your own opinion, draw your own conclusion about the best way to buy that particular medium...and then ask the sales rep these questions.

Test #1: Budget Allocation

So here's the first question. Tell the sales rep that you have a certain budget for your advertising campaign. Say it's five thousand dollars, or $20,000, or whatever. The number isn't important. Just tell them what your entire budget is for your entire campaign - not just their portion. Tell them what your entire budget is and then ask them this magic question: How would THEY spend your $X budget if they were in your shoes? Which publications, websites, whatever. Again, make sure you've researched it out ahead of time so you have a good idea. Their answer to this question won't mean much if you don't know. If you do know, however, their answer to this question could be very revealing.

Let's say that you've determined by doing your own research that you should spend about $5,000 of your $25,000 budget in one particular publication, and maybe as much as $7,500 would be within reason. Then you ask the ad sales rep the question, "How would you spend my budget if you were in my shoes?" Then let's say they suggest you spend at least half your budget in their publication, and only $3,000 in the other magazine that's their major competitor, and the rest should go to direct mail, seo or email. Throws up a big red flag doesn't it? You've determined that they should get 20% of the budget, and they're gunning for 50%. Obviously, you can't fault him for gunning for half your budget. However, you now know that you can't trust his opinion. Again, this is assuming you've done your homework.

More tomorrow.

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