Last week MediaRadar saddled up and headed to sunny Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2017 AHP Equine Media Conference! Year after year, this event continues to be advantageous for bringing together equine media members from across the country.

Escaping the 115°Arizona heat, each day’s educational breakout sessions provided the perfect mix of revenue building, photography, journalism, sales, digital media, and publishing content. I spent most of my time attending sessions from the Sales/Revenue Building track.

My favorite was a sales panel called,  Changing the Sales Conversation – Described as a role-playing exercise where panelists provide sales managers and staff with responses to common and not-so-common objections to sales, I cannot express enough just how engaging and insightful this panel was! I sat alongside three other advertising and sales veterans, where we were presented with objection scenarios like, “I have no budget,” “I don’t see the value of print ads,” and “Your price is considerably higher than I expected.”

Working in sales, these objections are heard far too many times to count. Selling is a highly social experience, and it’s important to know how to surmount the skepticism and prove the value of your product or service to a prospect. This is also a hot topic among reps at MediaRadar, so we shared some of our best ideas to combat objections in a blog post! For more tips on how to validate your price point, defend the value of your product, and close more deals, check out our best practices here.

I found people were most fascinated with the idea of growing digital, and how to prove its value. Overall, the audience left this panel excited and continued to ask questions and discuss numerous ideas of their own!

I had a great weekend learning, networking, and sharing my own tips and best practices for sales success with members of the Equine media industry. Already looking forward to next year!

–  Jacqueline Baranov
   Team Lead – Sales