Turn Data into Selling Points: Reciting statistics won't work in this market. Data must be three dimensional, personal, perceived as pertinent by your clients before they will buy

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 2002 by Helen Berman

5 Communicate your point persuasively

Information that impresses one client simply won't impress another. One may be sold on your magazine's gorgeous new redesign; another may think readers (his clients) will hate it. The very thing that might excite someone might turn off someone else.

Don't feel, however, that you need to suppress information to win certain clients. Presentation can be just as critical as the facts. Don't show your client the redesign alone; show how new or younger readers (his prospects) are responding in droves.

Every client, every magazine, needs the right presentation. If I'm selling People to Neutrogena, for instance, I might position it as "The Spa for the Mind." But if I'm selling to an investment company client--someone who is concerned that it's not serious journalism--I might be better off positioning People with it's own positioning statement, "the intersection between real people and real events."

Either way, I can back up my positioning with facts and information. More important, I can use those facts and information to create presentations to meet each client's needs.

If information is the bridge between data and understanding, make sure you have on hand all the information your clients need. You'll find yourself building many profitable bridges in your sales career!

Helen Berman is president of Helen Berman Corp., a publishing sales training and marketing consulting firm.