Anyone in the media business will agree that winning the lottery would be a welcome life event. But what if the winner is your top performing ad sales rep? Here's how quality ad sales management software can protect your business from the unknown—including unforeseen events such as sales rep turnover.
Purpose-Built Software vs. "Your Own System"
We hear it often in the media world: tenured sales reps who operate using "their own system." Many of these reps have been with their publishers for five, ten, or even twenty years. Moreover, their systems seem to work.
Now, let's examine them under the lens of a sudden lottery win. How do these processes hold up?
There are three main problems with "self-created" ad sales processes if a sales rep happens to win the lottery:
- Lack of documentation. Consider the methods you use to store your advertiser and lead contacts, the methods you use to track your contact with them, and your existing ad sales data. Now think someone else sitting down trying to figure the system out. Without documentation and support, someone else may not know where to start.
- Data accessibility. If your data is in spreadsheets, stored locally on personal computers, or (gasp!) on paper, it may not be accessible to anyone else. In essence, this means that stakeholders, sales managers, and other sales reps don't benefit from sticky notes.
- Sales Reporting. How long does it take you to create a sales run sheet? What about a product or issue comparison? Ad sales software creates a central repository for your sales data—and can even track touches like calls, emails, and other events. On the whole, without ad sales software, publishers are unable to steer their businesses based on real-time data.
Now, what would you do if your best sales rep won the lottery? Sure, it sounds farfetched. Yet, it's just one example of how a sudden life event can create headaches for businesses without centralized ad sales management processes.
Protect Your Sales Data With Ad Sales Genius
At Ad Sales Genius, we've worked hard to create the most powerful ad sales software on the market. Our CRM for publishing and media sales is cloud-based, secure, and ready for your data—whether you're coming from a legacy software product or you're shopping for your first CRM. Contact us now for a free personalized demo of Ad Sales Genius.
