When your revenue-generation team begins vetting firms for ad sales representation, ask yourself this question: What else can my ad sales firm do for me?

It’s no secret that an ad sales team can help bring in event sponsorships and advertisers to your association or B2B organization.  But perhaps you were not aware of the other contributions they can bring to your ad sales and overall non-dues generating program.

The Value of Investing in an Ad Sales Firm

These days ad sales firms, like AdBoom Advertising, are providing additional value to their clients by becoming one-stop-shops for all things ad sales-related.  This offers associations and B2B organizations several benefits:

• Less additional staff and vendors to oversee and manage
• A team involved in all parts of the ad sales process from prospecting to implementation.
• A cohesive product with less people handling it.
• A dedicated ad sales team, freeing your staff to focus on other internal projects.

Additional Ad Sales Firm Services

Every ad sales agency is different, but here are some of the less emphasized offerings, outside of advertising sales, that they can traditionally provide to clients:

Consulting and Training Services: Perhaps your association or organization already has an internal sales staff. There are firms that will come in as consultants, providing an outside review of your current sales process, pipeline, and pricing. They can also offer up strategic recommendations based on their sales and multi-industry experience for prospective advertisers and industries to target.

Ad Trafficking: After some great consultation and strategizing, the ads are pouring into your print or digital publication.  Once those ads are sold, someone has to ensure that they get published on time and in the right places.  Collecting creative materials from the advertisers and ensuring they are delivered in a quality fashion are all services your ad sales firm can do to streamline the process.  Once ads have been published, the trafficking staff will be able to provide valuable reporting and analysis data for the client.

Accounting Services: Ads have been sold and placed; now comes the best part, getting the money.  The not-so-fun part can be billing and trying to collect from advertisers.  This can get particularly confusing when you have multiple publications and lots of advertisers (a good problem to have).  Invoicing advertisers and vendors, managing the process, taking payments, and simply providing support to your accounting team are all financial services that can be handled by your ad sales team.

Marketing and Design Services: These services will vary by firm but in most cases, ad sales reps operate as an extension of your marketing team.  This can include management of email marketing, social media marketing, and prospect research.  This can also include designing advertising creative, media kits, and other digital/print collateral.  Contact the ad sales firm directly for specific service availability.

A good ad sales firm is not only a representative or ambassador for your organization.  They are also an extension of your associations providing value through their sales and various other contributions.  Be selective, ask questions and do your research when vetting potential ad sales partners.  Understand that the true worth comes from how they make your organization a more streamlined, revenue-generating business.