In part 1 and 2 of this post, I shared with you advice from experts on how to sell advertising better.

In the video below, Spider Graham, Certified Sales Trainer, and writer outlines 5 rules to help salespeople better sell and manage digital advertising campaigns for their clients. His main argument is that you have to act as a consultant to advertisers. Your job isn’t to sell just ads per se,  but to listen, guide and educate your clients on the best solutions that will help them gain sales. You have to ask questions and find out what is important to your client. In short, ditch the sales pitch and listen.

Here is his video –

Prof. Dr. Christian Belz, Director of the Institute of Marketing (IfM), in cooperation with Dr. Marc Rutschmann, make an interesting argument is that you need to stop advertising and start selling. In the “Little Green Bag” video from the University of St. Gallen, they argue that the old model called “World of Identification” which links positive feelings to consumers with the end result of that consumer purchasing your service is outdated. Why? Because people are becoming overwhelmed with too many advertisements and social media. The focus should be on customer activities and actions, they argue, under their “World of action” model

But this gets into the classic question – “Who was first, the chicken or the egg?” You see, while I agree that you should follow and measure customer’s actions to obtain sales, something had to encourage them to go to your company in the first place.

I would argue that advertising is still necessary to increase your name recognition and branding. But advertising alone is not full proof without helping clients solve their problems, and backing it up with good customer service.

Example: I knew of two hardware stores in the same community that roughly advertised the same way. But only one hardware store survived and the other went out of business. Why? Because the successful hardware had better customer service. Sure, advertising can bring clients to the door, but it’s still your responsibility to make sure they become satisfied and repeat customers, and spread the good word of mouth about your business.

You be the judge. Here is the video below from YouTube –