How to Sell Ads Online > Hire a Dedicated Sales Person (2/7)
December 16, 2009 – 11:44 pm How to Sell Ads Online > Hire a Dedicated Sales Person (2/7)
This is the second part of the How to Sell Ads Online series.
A good sales rep is worth their weight in gold. However, how do you know if it’s appropriate to hire one, how to hire one, and when to do the hiring.
When to hire
First of all, don't hire a rep too early. Doing so can literally bankrupt you. At the low end, a direct sales rep can cost around $50,000 a year. An experienced, sales rep can set you back $80 – $100k plus compensation.
In other words, you'll need to be selling over 1mm impressions at $5CPM every month just to cover the costs of a junior rep.
Additionally, keep in mind that once you hire a new sales rep, be ready for at least 2 quarters of missed numbers as they settle in, truly understand your offering and establish their relationships within your niche.
So deciding whether to hire a rep is a straight choice between
- Whether you can generate enough from ad sales to cover their salary and make more than
- What you would earn as profit from selling through an ad network or site representation agency like Federated Media, Adphillia etc.
If you can’t afford one, don't worry. You can always use a self service ad solution.
Where to find them
If you are in the fortunate position to afford one, you can grab good sales reps by through the many of the marketing networks like AdAge, iMediaConnection, LinkedIn, or if you want to go the free route, you can post your vacancy on Craigslist.
Who to hire
To be clear, you need someone who can sell 6 figure ad deals to ad agencies, movie studios, big regional advertisers etc. Experience and relationships matter since what you are about to do is not far removed from how Oracle hires the top talent that sells its database licenses for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you get it right, serious ad dollars will flow in. If you don’t, you will leak cash faster than a basket.
Action Points
- Do the math quickly – can you sell over $2mm impressions per month at $5CPM (or generate over $100,000 from ad sales).
- If you can, and you are currently earning less than $50,000 annually, then write that job ad fast and get cracking.
Effect
- If you get the right sales rep, more dollars will flow in whilst you focus on generating content, or improving your product.
- As you improve your site/product, you can generate more traffic and that’s even more revenue coming in.
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