I accepted a job in Sales and I was expected to recruit as many advertisers as possible by knocking on doors. Anxiety immediately set in after my first weekly meeting with my “strong silent type” boss where I told him I had not recruited a single new advertiser. To my dismay, this same conversation would take place each Wednesday for over a month. Being a highly sensitive individual with a strong desire to please, I found myself losing sleep at night trying to figure out where I was going wrong and how I was going to fix it. I had no budget (not even enough for color copies) and little support. I went to a former marketing instructor who I really respected and her advice to me was this “It’s only going to work if you make it work”. She was right. How I was going about things was not working so I needed to try something new.

For starters, I had to take a closer look at who I was trying to sell to. Were we compatible? Was I offering them something that was going to help them reach their objectives? Then I went back to some of those individuals who previously said no to me and asked them why. To my surprise, they all had very similar responses; not enough bang for my buck. They wanted more. From there it was easy. I came up with a package deal and included many more benefits once they signed up. I then set a limit on the number of advertisers I would accept to create a sense of immediacy and eliteness.

The following Wednesday was a big day for me. Telling my boss I recruited 3 new advertisers that week was so rewarding. It also taught me a big lesson. Marketing isn’t just big budgets and major ad campaigns. Regardless your size, it’s about focusing on your target market, finding out what they need and delivering that.

Until next time…

Kerry-Anne