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Best Training Program - The State News The State News sets out to improve our training program every semester. With an ever-changing media landscape, a large market, and an evolving product we must constantly evaluate our training to ensure our staff knows how to best sell, overcome objections and close. The State News lives and breathes from its training; there is no staple that could substitute the value of our training. From the first day an individual sets foot in the door, they are involved in the sales cycle and thrust into situations that engage them with the products, the process and the clients. We’re a department that thrives on competition, communication and teamwork. Our success was not built in a day and it did not appear out of thin air. Our success is rooted in our training program, which focuses on practice, coaching, motivation and retention.

Practice: Sales training that is based on tips and techniques doesn't pass the test of time. We incorporate these things into our training program because they are necessary but we focus our training program on the execution of these techniques. Our training is effective because it transfers knowledge into applicable selling skills. In our training program, we combine training through hard material and situational role-play.

Newly hired account executives work through our training manual and sales tips provided by the management staff while simultaneously using the knowledge from the training in activities and role-plays.

The activities and role-plays help reinforce the selling strategies and techniques that trainees have learned. We role play different scenarios so the trainees can get comfortable setting up meetings, making cold calls, performing a needs assessment, making and presenting sales plans, and overcoming common objections to print advertising. Veteran account executives, managers and even industry professional donate time to act as clients with whom the new account executives practice; these role-plays build confidence through consistent practice within the office.

Coaching: In accompaniment to training, new account executives are paired up with a Living Training Manual (L.T.M.). An L.T.M. is a more experienced veteran that stands out as a leader within the office. New account executives shadow their L.T.M. and look to them for answers to questions and selling tips. This part of our training program allows L.T.M.s to share their knowledge too, instead of having the managers as the only ones who conduct training. The best part of the L.T.M. program is its ability to teach old dogs new tricks. New AEs are encouraged to ask as many questions as possible, often challenging their L.T.M’s knowledge. This has forced our veterans to stay on track and make sure they have a grip on the bigger picture, while gaining basic training and coaching experience. Account Executives often view L.T.M.s as “Bigs� and “Littles� in a sorority or fraternity, which creates a bond between the two co-workers and gives new AEs a role model to look up to.

Motivation: Ultimately, without motivation there can be no learning at all. Thus, we strive to ensure that our new hires come into the office with as much support and motivation that is necessary to fuel them toward success. L.T.M.s help drive motivation by cheering on their new hire and guiding them as needed.

L.T.M.s create a fun playfulness in the office because they often engage in friendly competition with one another and boast about the accomplishments of their new hire; this encourages the new hires to work hard because they are being recognized for their work.

Furthermore, to drive individual progress we have developed an advancement program. By accomplishing tasks related to cold calling, establishing client relationships, and creating sales among other criteria, account executives can increase their commission rates (please see supplementary material titled ‘Advance Card’). We conduct weekly staff meetings to encourage office morale, food is usually provided and games are incorporated. Games usually involve team-building activities that teach problem solving skills, selling strategies, and public speaking.

Our staff meetings are the best time for the department to come together and for new hires to

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starting integrating into the office. Outside of our weekly meetings, account executives meet in small teams of five. Each team has a leader that encourages sales, helps account executives overcome current objections and difficulties, keep record of weekly goals to fuel our advancement process, build morale and offer additional aid to account executives in training. These teams regularly compete against each other in sales competitions. These competitions allow individual sales and achievements to add to the team's total points. Team competitions are not only popular among the staff, but drive them to individually succeed, work as a team, help others make sales and generate revenue. Every team competition held thus far has resulted in an increase of sales revenue over the previous year.

Retention & On-going Training: It is impossible to remember everything we learn; thus, it is important to extend our training program to continued development and retention. To streamline our continued education within the entire department, at our weekly staff meetings we include a weekly sales tip or a recap on specific training sessions to keep everyone on their feet. Additionally, at team meetings, our team leaders not only encourage morale but also help aid in training retention. Team leaders help account executives overcome current objections and difficulties. Team meetings open up discussion for account executives to discuss any difficulties they have been facing and then come up with new ways to overcome that difficulty and close the sale.

The Results: Our training program has sent rookies with no selling experience into the sales world as account executives with experience already under their belt. Since adding our role-play and application portion of training we've found that new account executives start off feeling more confident and driven.

Our best way of measuring the success of our training program is through our advancement program. From our January 2013 hiring class, we’ve seen AEs advance more quickly then ever before – 3 AEs advanced in their first 6 months and have moved into managerial positions. We hired three new students in September 2013 who used the same training schedule and have bonded together into a selling team; with minimal assistance from veteran AEs, they increased our Holiday Shopping Guide special section by 20% from the previous year and have brought in over $6,400 of new business to the daily paper in their first semester at The State News.

Overall, The State News has never seen such a driven staff. I have never seen a group of so many opinionated, driven individuals put their unique skills together to create an unstoppable sales force. Each obstacle we overcome is a team success and celebrated thus. I do believe that the office environment and the nature of our staff are created in the very roots of our training program that focuses on retention and consistent development but which depends on encouragement, motivation and teamwork.

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Training Calendar Spring 2013 Upon hire, new Account Executives undergo an intensive 3-day training, which focuses on tactics and strategies to teach them how to sell while they find their first prospective clients. At the end of the 3-day training they have put together research, a needs-analysis plan and have done a practice pitch for their prospective clients. Over the course of the semester they continue training through weekly training sessions that include veteran AEs. Training Objective: Teach our products, practice our selling strategies, find real prospects and prepare AEs to sell to those new businesses.

Day 1: Morning Session • The Basics: Learning to love our product: market survey data, newspaper terminology, responsibilities, expectations, and opportunities.

• Classifieds Ads: How to do it, customer service, guidelines, practice elevator pitch and cold calls • Overcoming Objections to Classifieds • Practice Classifieds by taking Mock-Calls Day 1: Afternoon Session • Welcome to retail: terminology, deadlines, and our individual products • The Selling Strategy and Our New Approach: bundling products to fit individual clients’ needs and offer discounts as incentive for long-term advertising plans.

• Presentation: prospecting new business, research & what to take on a sales call.

• In office prospecting. o New AEs work with a manager to find 3 prospects that do not current advertise and have an invested interest to get those prospects advertising in our paper.

• Research your 3 prospects based on presentation and knowledge of local market.

Day 2: Morning Session • Group Meeting: discussion on each AEs 3 prospects that they have researched. o What media mix do you think is best for them? How are you going to go about finding out what package is best for them?

• Presentation: Winning New Business in 20 Seconds o New Hires learn how to set up a meeting with a prospect by using their elevator pitch • Selling Exercise: Winning New Business • Presentation: Overcoming common objections we face in our market and responses we’ve learned work and those that don’t work.

• Selling Exercise: Overcoming common objections using scenario given to each new AE. Day 2: Afternoon Session • Presentation: S.P.I.N. Selling and the importance of conducting a needs-analysis.

• Selling Exercise: S.P.I.N. Selling o Interns come up with SPIN/needs-analysis questions for their 3 prospects. They will go over their sets of questions with 2 different managers. The managers will answer their questions as a mock client and the AE will have to determine what media mix is best for the client and create a marketing plan for the client.

Day 3: Morning Session • Recap from yesterday: Setting up meetings with an elevator pitch, needs-analysis and SPIN Selling techniques

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Group Discussion: New AEs discuss their mock SPIN Selling/needs-analysis from yesterday.

Everyone shares the challenge they faced and what they did well. Managers coach the new AEs so they are ready to do the needs-analysis with the real client.

The Nitty-Gritty of production, internal workflow and The Life Cycle of an Ad, a walk through where an ad is born and how it reaches print.

Jeopardy for a fun recap.

1st week: After training, AEs spend their first week in the office focusing on meeting with the prospects they researched and used in mock-calls. The goal is to have meetings arranged for a needs-analysis and be able to make and present a media mix to their prospect after their first meeting.

At the end of week 1, new AEs have a training session to recap the first week, go over issues that have come up for the group in general and spend extra time preparing for their needs-analysis with their real prospects.

Every week after: New AEs join our veteran AEs for training sessions every Friday. Training last 60-90 minutes and consists of presentations, mock-calls and mock-pitches, along with presentation and tips from industry guests.

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