I recently donned my door to door salesman hat and was extremely successful selling ad space to local businesses for our music school’s spring concert program.
In the video below, I share five key elements which helped me cover our $400 concert expense, get FREE water ice for 100 people, and get FREE printing for all our programs. All this in only 3 hours of my time!
There’s one thing I don’t mention in the video that was super helpful in coming up with the five key elements.
Before starting, I thought about how I would want someone to approach me as a business owner and ask me to buy ad space. I knew I would want someone to be clear and to the point, quickly explaining the opportunity. And, I would not want to feel “sold” to.
5 key elements of my successful sales presentation
1. Establish credibility – I physically handed them a business card when I introduced myself. This gave me a certain level of credibility.
2. Picture opportunity in their mind – I said, “We’re going to have a whole audience full of families from the area.” They could picture in their mind the exposure they would get.
3. Tell them it is a good opportunity – I said, “I’m stopping by some of the local businesses to see which of them are interested.” I didn’t say, “to see if any of them are interested.” I positioned it as something that businesses are already interested in.
4. Show them exactly what they will be getting – I physically showed them the professional looking program their ad would be in. I clearly laid out the three size options and the prices, $27, $47, and $87.
5. Directly ask them if they are interested – At the end of my 20 second presentation, I directly asked them, “Is this something that interests you?”
I hope there’s something from this story you can take away and apply to what you’re doing. For me, I learned it pays to think through how I’m going to explain something and what it would be like if someone was coming to me with the same offer.
How can you apply what I experienced with selling ad space to something you’re doing in you life or business?
Wow Michael that’s amazing and I love how you presented this as an opportunity. I will definitely take your points and use them in presenting my offers.
Great, Ann! I’m glad you found it helpful. It was a lot of fun to do and a great learning experience. For sure!
Well done! Love it!!! Great points!
Hey thanks, Char! Hope you and the boys are having a great Monday.
Terrific work Michael! I love how you presented this to the businesses, especially using WHICH and not ANY. It shows that positive mental attitude that’s so important.
Thanks, Joe! It was fun to think through how I wanted to present it so it would come across as the opportunity I know it was.
I really like how you incorporate video in your posts, Michael. Great tips here for selling to businesses..key seems to be to keep things positive and moving forward.
Thanks, Tom. It really helped to think about how it would be if someone were coming to me with the same offer. The videos are fun. We used to do them quite a bit but haven’t as much lately. Thanks for the feedback!