International Classified Media Association Online

Thursday 9 March 2006

1300-1400	Delegates meet together for a networking buffet lunch
SESSION 1	Introductions + 25 revenue-generating ideas from around the world
The first session brings the delegates together in an interactive format where everyone gets to speak and contribute immediately. Following the introductions, delegates will speak for a minute on one of the three revenue-generating ideas (on any sales-related issue) and answer questions from the group.
SESSION 2	PHOENIX and the path to profitability…
Lucie leads a session on how to sell more and more profitable international advertising using the new PHOENIX ad-exchanging system. This is not a software training course (although we will be using the PHOENIX interface to illustrate some of the points). Rather, the group will work together to understand what are the key target groups for international and national advertising, the best strategies for securing their business in a timely manner, and the simplest and most effective promotion techniques. When should you approach regular holiday/travel advertisers to re-book their schedule? Who are the best prospects for your call-centre people to target? And what sort of packages are most attractive to advertisers (and how to build them using PHOENIX)?
1900-	Group dinner in a central Amsterdam restaurant

Friday 10 March 2006

SESSION 3	How to address issues of neutrality of online vs print revenue streams?
One of the toughest challenges of our times - how to get to grips with selling online as well as print? If you're managing (or working in) a print sales team and now trying to sell online as well, you'll know the difficulties of convincing your team (let alone your customers) that this is an effective and worthwhile channel with a value/cost attached to it. How can you overcome this hurdle and maximise both print and online revenue streams? Packaging and bundling of the print and online products is often seen as the answer, particularly the 'forced upsell' where advertisers are obliged to pay for online as well as print. But are we shooting ourselves in the foot by not being honest with our advertisers? Or is resistance to new things so strong that mandatory packaging and bundling is the only answer? Discuss your experiences with others in the same situation, a problem shared is often a problem halved!
SESSION 4	Handling common problems and answering objections
Sales managers and people are faced with challenges and problems that they have to solve every working day. Some of these are internal e.g. integrating the sale of a new product into the existing team structure, and some are external e.g. overcoming common objections from advertisers. Most advertisers raise several objections to our selling proposition during the sales process, and it's our job to respond to these positively, answer them wherever possible, and, on some occasions, dig a bit deeper to identify the 'real' objection. In this session, delegates will discuss the toughest internal and external challenges that they faced with on a daily basis and work in break-out groups to develop effective responses to these.
SESSION 2	The best 'carrots'
They say that sales people are ultra-competitive, and often care only about money but what's your experience when devising incentives to encourage your team to perform better? Is it all about money? Or does the competitive element pay better dividends? What's the most creative idea that you've ever come up with? Or seen elsewhere? Are the simplest ideas the best? And what about the worst motivation programme? Breaking into workgroups, each group will present back the best and worst ideas that they come up with to all the delegates.