Hi Everyone!
Well, it’s
that time of the year again. I truly can’t believe that there is less than a
month left of the Advertising Account Management program. I have to admit that
out of all my years of schooling, this is the year that has gone by the
fastest. I hate to say the “time flies when you’re having fun” phrase, but it’s
kind of true. This program has been extremely rewarding and has only confirmed
and increased my interest in advertising.
One area of
advertising that a lot of you may or may not be considering, is sales. This
isn’t just retail sales, but advertising sales in particular. As you may have
seen me mention in my previous posts, Professional Advertising Sales Practice
is a course that we have all taken during second semester. The majority of the
course has been based on learning about different client personalities and how
to effectively present and sell yourselves. Additionally, we learned about what
it means to create and maintain effective and meaningful relationships with
potential clients. What I loved most about this course was that we were able to
put this theory into real practice. In partnership with the Oakville Beaver, we
had the opportunity to sell advertising to various businesses that will be
contained in a Sheridan College insert at the end of this coming year.
We were all
broken into groups, and assigned sales representatives that would provide us
with different lists of clients that we were required to call for potential
sales. With that we had to develop potential prospects (other businesses that
could advertise in the insert) of our own. Not only was it pretty frightening,
but realistic because we were being exposed to how sales people interact with
clients, whether it is in a positive or negative way. With most of the groups
including my own, some clients were indeed interested in the sale, however many
were not, and this was somewhat discouraging. With that being said, you tend to
learn not to take things personally. Sometimes you can even learn from those
negative experiences with clients by thinking about what you can do better. Or
simply accepting the experience as what it is – the business wasn’t interested
for reasons that were beyond your control. Moral of the story is, continue
trying your best, be friendly and always ensure that you are offering a
potential client the best, and let them know what you can do for them. Eventually,
and with more practice, you will experience that first sale, and I must say it
feels pretty great. Incentives are also a plus, and the top 3 groups in our
class with the most sales were given great prizes, such as Leaf/Raptor tickets as
well as gift cards.
While sales
may not be my area of choice for my career, I know that I have gained practical
life skills that will help me in the future. Building relationships in the
workplace is extremely important and is a skill that is useful in every day
life. I encourage you all to go into an assignment like this with an open mind,
be confident, and to ultimately never give up.
I hope this
post was helpful :)
Sincerely,
Ashleigh
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