Best Training Program At the Minnesota Daily, training is divided into two parts: the initial training one receives upon being hired as an Account Executive, and the on-going training, which is emphasized on a daily basis. While the initial training sets a tone for the new staff and contributes greatly to both their knowledge and confidence, we also recognize the importance of continually sharpening our skills and teaching new things in interesting ways. Initial Training Training begins immediately upon being hired for an Account Executive position. Every new staff member is provided with media kit to study, as well as a personalized binder. These binders contain everything from tutorials on how to use our software to how to create campaigns for a client to information about calculating the cost of an ad. Account Executives are expected to be experts on the material contained in both the media kit and the binder. As they are representing the Minnesota Daily every time they go on a meeting, we take great responsibility in properly training each and every Account Executive. While we used to do one massive hiring push every summer, the Daily now focuses on training sales reps in over the course of a semester before allowing them to take on a client list. Depending on the semester, a new hire spends anywhere from one-three months being trained in before becoming an Account Executive. During this time, they are working out of the “Shark Tank” with other new hires. While in the Shark Tank, sales reps are expected to focus on learning the fundamentals and practicing them extensively. Training includes mock phone calls and meetings, practice scheduling ads, and conversations about the different elements the Minnesota Daily has to offer. During this time, the focus is on learning and developing as an Account Executive, not on making the sale. On-going Training Upon successful completion of initial training, the new hire moves into the role of Account Executive and begins working with a list of clients. The sales representative discusses this list in great depth with their manager. This conversation includes information about past advertisements, how to best reach the client, and general information about the business and its managers. Often, this conversation is accompanied by a client tracker, which lays out all of the discussed information in detail so it can be easily referenced in the future by the Account Executive. One of the most important elements of on-going training is bi-weekly one-on-ones between the Account Executive and their sales manager. In this meeting, the manager has a list of questions which are personalized to each sales rep. They often focus on making sure the rep is informed about all upcoming events and special issues, tracking progress with individual clients, and reviewing strengths and areas of improvement over the past two weeks. These meetings are also a time for the Account Executive to give feedback to their manager regarding areas where they would like more training or ideas they would like to see implemented in the office. However, the most crucial part of training is our weekly sales meeting. This is the only hour of the week where absolutely everyone is present in the office and is a time to build both relationships and sales expertise. In weekly meetings, we inform the Account Executives about upcoming promotions, track progress towards team and individual goals, “shout out” to those who have gone above and beyond, and share new information. We talk about upcoming events
Best Training Program on campus, have brainstorming sessions, and use our motivate reps with the use of our “Inspiration Station”. Additionally, weekly sales meeting is always followed by “noonish”, the sale team’s term for lunch. While it is not an official part of training, this additional time spent together as a team holds us together and allows us to get to know each other outside of an office setting. You will often hear Account Executives refer to their co-workers as family. We believe that the strength of this relationship motivates sales reps to come in to the office, inspire others, and work harder to achieve goals. It has also kept our turnover incredibly low. Since beginning this process, we have had only one person leave willingly, only losing staff due to graduation. At least a few times a semester, guest speakers are brought in to sales meeting. We have been very lucky to attract sales experts from a variety of companies in the Minneapolis area including those from the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Twins, General Mills, and ESPN 1500. Additionally, former sales reps will stop in from time to time and talk about what they learned during their time at the Minnesota Daily, how it impacted them post-graduation, and additional skills they have learned since that time. Each semester also includes specific Sales Training Days. Prior to these days occurring, we sit down with Account Executives and talk about what skills they would like to brush up on or areas where they believe we could improve as a team. This semester, one of our main focuses was finding discovering new clients outside of our University neighborhoods. Our sales managers led a training day that involved sending sales reps off in to Minneapolis to discover new businesses, get their business cards, and ultimately set up meetings and generate new client revenue. In the past, we have also done trainings that focused on teaching Account Executives how to create campaigns for their clients and training focused on making cold-calls. Finally, at various points throughout the semester, we bring in students from other areas of the Daily to teach the sales division how what they do every day impacts their co-workers. We bring in our Creative team to teach everyone the process that occurs once they receive the layout of the paper, our Finance department to talk about collecting payments, and our Editorial department to talk about ethical guidelines and relationships between divisions. Conclusion In the past year, we have experienced great success with our two-part training program. Our initial training allows new reps to build knowledge and confidence before taking over as an Account Executive, with our on-going training keeping everyone informed, motivated, and connected to the Minnesota Daily. Ultimately, we hope to prepare every sales rep for success beyond their time at the Minnesota Daily. While we want to teach them to make cold calls, pitch to clients, and close sales, we hope they learn about more than how to achieve sales goals. Though these are practical, present-day implications, we hope that the persistence, dedication, and professionalism they learn in their time at the Minnesota Daily follows them though their post-graduation careers and helps them achieve success well beyond our office walls.
Summer/Fall 2013 Training Schedule Monday, June 3rd – Day 1
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10:00 HR Orientation 11:00 Welcome + introduction to training 11:15 Icebreaker 11:30 Tour of the Minnesota Daily 12:00 Structure of the Daily + sales department 12:30 Out to lunch as a large group [Noonish] 2:00 Job description: Hours, goals, responsibilities 2:30 Overview of media kit 3:00 Prepare for tomorrow
Tuesday, June 4th – Day 2
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10:00 Introduction to current employees + ice breaker 10:30 7 Steps of Sales 10:45 Glengarry Glen Ross clip – Always Be Closing 11:15 Review of upcoming special issues 11:30 Importance of online & digital + selling techniques 12:15 Order in food [Noonish] 1:00 Steps to a sale: Prospecting, cold calling, setting up a meeting 1:30 Overcoming objections activity 2:00 Introduce Wednesday teams + prepare for tomorrow
Wednesday, June 5th – Day 3
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10:00 Mock sales pitch businesses distributed 10:15 Time to work with partner to research for mock sales pitch with managers 11:15 Make pitches to sales managers Lunch 1:30 Set up phones, computers, Ad Pro account 2:00 Sales meeting
Thursday, June 6th – Day 4
• 10:00 Prepare for summer of selling • 10:30 Begin working Friday, June 7th – Day 5
• 12:00 Annual sales staff kickball game
Introduction to the Daily
Upon their arrival at the Minnesota Daily, all new Account Executives are outfitted with Minnesota Daily gear and a personalized binder. Their “swag� immediately makes them feel like they are part of the team, while the binder includes all the introductory information they need to know to do their jobs.
At our initial training with our new Account Executives, we spend the course of 3 days going through a PowerPoint to teach them everything they need to know about the Daily. We focus on technical elements, such as how to schedule ads or calculate rates but also intersperse this with icebreakers, activities, and videos to make the training experience more exciting.
On-Going Training
All of our on-going training focuses on face-to-face communication and interactions with other Minnesota Daily staff members. Above, our Retail Sales Manager has a one-on-one with one of his Account Executives. Below, the sales team meets in the Creative Department to learn about how the paper is laid out each day and how delayed advertisements negatively impact the rest of the process.