AdMall Announces Results of Local Media Sales Forecast Survey, Finding 9 Out of 10 Media Sales Managers Expect Revenue Growth in 2014

WESTERVILLE, Ohio, Jan. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly half (49.1%) of executive managers and sales managers predict a revenue increase of 6-10% in 2014, according to the recently released 2014 AdMall Local Media Sales Forecast. Twenty percent expect revenue increases of more than 10 percent. Additionally 40.3% expect increases of 1-5 percent. Only 5.3% predict revenue declines, while another 5.3% expect little or no change in sales.

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The report also revealed that digital is expected to account for 19.1% of overall revenue, on average, by 2015 – up from 12.2% in November 2013.

• Nearly 56% of media salespeople are selling mobile advertising – up from 37.5% last year
• Nearly 40% of media companies are now selling digital marketing services
• The top three digital marketing products sold by local media companies are SEO, ad retargeting and website development

"Local media companies that can serve their advertisers as full-service marketing consultants are better positioned for long-term profitability," said C. Lee Smith, president/CEO of Sales Development Services, Inc. "Pursuit of increasingly competitive revenue streams like digital marketing services can improve the bottom line, so long as it does not distract from retention of their core business," Smith added.

Advertiser churn is a concern for both managers and account executives. Thirty-nine percent of managers and 37% of account executives believe it is more difficult to replace lost accounts than it was a year ago.

"One troubling finding from the study is that 31% of media salespeople feel it's getting harder to make money in media sales than it was just a year ago – potentially leading salespeople to leave the industry," said Barry Shawgo, vice president of sales for AdMall. "This is likely one factor explaining why nearly one-fourth of AEs surveyed report three or fewer years of experience in the advertising sales or marketing fields," he added. 

The Local Media Sales Forecast also finds that nearly two-thirds of small business owners want media sales reps who "know my company/line of business," while "knows my customers" is now the #2 attribute desired by over 55% of SMBs" – up 21% from last year.

"Knowledge of your company's products is no longer enough to be competitive," Shawgo said. "Advertisers want industry-specific, personalized answers to their marketing challenges rather than the media product of the month."

The full report will be available at the Key Executives Mega-Conference Feb. 24-26 in Las Vegas; and the Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference March 3-4 in New York City.

METHODOLOGY

The AdMall Local Media Sales Forecast was conducted November 11-22, 2013. The sample size for this online survey was 1,073 media salespeople, sales managers, executive managers and marketing/research/sales support professionals across the United States.

ABOUT ADMALL

AdMall® is the most powerful consultative sales intelligence database available for local and digital advertising. More than 2,000 media properties nationwide arm their sales staffs with AdMall including: Television, cable, newspaper, online, direct response, out-of-home, radio, cinema, local search, and magazine. Additional information on AdMall and a free trial for qualified media companies can be found at AdMall.com.

ABOUT SALES DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

Sales Development Services (SDS), Inc., SalesDevelopment.com – a Westerville, Ohio firm founded in 1989 – is the parent company of AdMall, SalesTouch CRM and Ad-ology Research. SDS also provides the Marketing Forecast and Media Sales Today blogs for marketers, agencies and media companies. AdMall, SalesTouch and Ad-ology are registered trademarks of Sales Development Services, Inc. Sell Smarter is a trademark of SDS.

Media contact

Faye E. Oney 
(614) 794-0500 ext. 100 
Email

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SOURCE AdMall