Quick Take: The Future of Media Sales

Today, in this Quick Take episode, we’re wrapping up our coverage of The 5th Annual Media Sales Report by spending a few minutes to think about what this year’s findings can tell us about the future of media sales industry 

In short, you’ll find that while obstacles are ever-present and, in many cases, more difficult than ever, media sales managers and salespeople alike seem to be up to the challenge.

Links:

The 5th Annual Media Sales Report

Matt Sunshine

The Center for Sales Strategy

Transcript

Matt Sunshine: 0:15

Welcome to improving sales performance, a podcast highlighting tips and insights aimed at helping sales organizations realize, and maybe even exceed, their goals. Here we chat with thought leaders, experts and gurus who have years of sales experience from a wide range of industries. I'm your host, matt Sunshine, ceo at the Center for Sales Strategy, a sales performance consulting company. Today, in this Quick Take episode, we're wrapping up our coverage of the fifth annual Media Sales Report by spending a few minutes to think about what this year's findings can tell us about the future of media sales. In short, you'll find that, while obstacles are ever present and, in many cases, more difficult than ever, media sales managers and sales people alike seem to be up for the challenge. With that, let's get started. So, again, digging into the media sales report this being the fifth annual media sales report is one of the things I really look forward to every single year. I look forward to the end of the year when we start building the survey and sending it out, and seeing the responses come in and I try not to peek as they come in, because I really want to wait until you see the big numbers and everything, but it is always fascinating to me to get a good read on. What are salespeople and sales leaders in the media industry? What are they thinking, how are they feeling, what are some of the things that are causing them to have pause and what are some of the things that are making them be excited and optimistic about the year ahead, in this case, 2024? And we've been fortunate to do a whole series of podcasts that really focus on breaking out and dissecting the media sales report. I hope that everyone has had a chance to either has had a chance to listen to them or will find the time to listen to them, because, I will tell you, it is extremely insightful information.

Matt Sunshine: 2:40

But while the media sales report is filled with let me say a different way while the media sales report is loaded with information, filled with information I think it'd be smart to pull back and look at the media sales industry and just okay, well, what's going on? What are we seeing in the report? But how does that relate to the industry as a whole? And the industry is filled with uncertainty, perhaps as much as it's ever had. I've been at this a long time. I wouldn't want to say it's more or less, but I'll say there's as much uncertainty today as ever before.

Matt Sunshine: 3:34

Even in spite of that, the results from this year's survey paint an overall optimistic picture. People are not blind to the challenges ahead. They're not blind to the challenges ahead, but they feel informed, empowered and excited about the opportunities that they have to make an impact, and I think that's great. So, overall, my take is that while it is clear vision on the challenges, it's optimistic on the results, and while things like recruitment are as tough as ever and new business development is becoming more difficult and salespeople are having trouble converting prospects or getting appointments, there's still an optimism of okay, we're gonna meet this challenge head on and we know what we need to do and we know how we're gonna do it. So there's a nice balance.

Matt Sunshine: 4:47

But take every detail from this year's data and remember the following. Remember the following 70% of managers are using sales talent assessments in the hiring process. 7 out of 10 are using sales talent assessment in the hiring process and 86% find them to be accurate or very accurate in predicting the future. Anytime that you hire a salesperson, anytime you hire a salesperson, you're taking a chance, you're making a bet Right. They gotta have the right skills, they gotta have the right experiences, they gotta have the right fit with your organization and what else. They have to have the right talent and, in our opinion, you can't sacrifice any of those. They have to have the right skills, they have to have the right experiences, they have to be a good fit with your organization and you know what they have to have the necessary talent that they need to have in order to be successful. And the good thing is, 86% of sales managers think the talent assessment that they're using is accurate or even very accurate. So that's awesome. And 7 out of 10 are using a talent assessment. If you're not using a talent assessment, you should be. You should be. If you wanna hear about ours, give us a call. We'll help you. We'll talk to you about it. If you're not using ours, use someone else's, but use a talent assessment.

Matt Sunshine: 6:25

Second thing, I wanna leave you with. Most salespeople 4 out of 5, 81% better than just over 4 out of 5, say they have access to the resources needed to exceed their sales goals. Again, that's that optimism, right? It's like, at the same time that they're saying, oh, it's harder than ever to get a point, man, it's more difficult to close business but at the same time they're saying that 4 out of 5 are saying you know what, though? I have the resources I need to hit my goals. That's awesome, great job.

Matt Sunshine: 6:55

And last, and it can't be stated enough 93% feel supported by their manager. 93% of salespeople better than 9 out of 10 of salespeople feel supported by their manager. That's pretty awesome. So that's where, when I said this is gonna be a tough year, people are open to it. They're not eyes closed, they're not being blindly optimistic. They're being realist about what the challenge is ahead. There is a very optimistic picture being painted, and the reason for that optimism is that they do feel supported by their sales managers. They do feel as though they have the resources and, probably because they've been selected based on the talents that they have, they probably feel as though they have the confidence to have success. So, with all those amazing data points, almost anything is possible, right? There's no wonder that nearly 3 fourths of the sales managers out there 72%, so just about 3 fourths are optimistic about the future of the industry. Again, like I said, they're not blindly optimistic. They're actually informed and optimistic, and I think informed and optimistic is exactly where we want people to be. So that's what the data showed.

Matt Sunshine: 8:29

I'm excited for you guys to have a chance to read through the media sales report. I think you're gonna find it to be extremely valuable. Lots of amazing takeaways, and I'd be interested to hear what your takeaways are. Please share. All right, everyone. Thanks so much. This has been improving sales performance. Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard, join us every week by clicking the subscribe button For more on the topics covered in the show. Visit our website, thecenterforsalesstrategycom. There you can find helpful resources and content aimed at improving your sales performance.