Is your advertising rate card a hard-and-fast rule book, or merely a suggestion as to what advertisers pay for your products? If you're leaning toward the latter, you are probably familiar with the pain of trying to control the flow of discounted rates offered to your advertisers.
These three simple ideas can help set clear boundaries for ad rate discounts, for owners/stakeholders, sales managers, and sales reps.
Tame Deeply Discounted Ad Sales With These 3 Simple Ideas
- Set a warning threshold in your CRM software. The easiest way to control discounts is to control them when a proposal is created. If your software allows you to set a warning when a discount exceeds a set deviation from your rate card, you can discourage "freestyle" discounting at the sales rep level.
- Require approval for discounts beyond a certain threshold. This step goes one step further than a warning message. But because it stops sales reps until a sales manager can approve, it can slow down day-to-day sales.
- Change your commission structure to compensate for discounts. A bigger step to control discounts is implementing a rule that states discounts beyond a certain threshold receive no commission.
Do You Have the Power to Manage Your Ad Sales?
Whether you're selling ads for magazine publications, online ad placements, outdoor advertising, or expo sponsorships, managing ad sales efficiently relies upon your software.
At Ad Sales Genius, we offer CRM software that's compatible with thousands of ad products. Beyond that, our features manage every step of the ad sales process from prospecting to invoicing. Book a free personalized demo of Ad Sales Genius now to see how our CRM software increases efficiency, output, and team communication!