Video Media Sales in a Cross-Platform World

By Tracey McCormack

TV ad sales veteran Tracey McCormack, the Founder and President of McCormack Media Services, specializes in training media professionals to succeed in a changing landscape. This fall, McCormack and Court Stroud, President of the Cledor Group, are co-teaching “Video Media Sales in a Cross-Platform World” at the NYU School of Professional Studies. (Registration ends October 14; details are here.) McCormack shares some insights on best practices for an ever-evolving business.

Being a video media seller in the new cross-platform world requires an evolved orientation to selling. You must create value (not sell a commodity), become your client’s brand manager and advocate, and always continue to represent your own company.

How is this achieved? Learn to think “cross-platform” and become a consultative seller! It is critical to identify what’s important to marketers and agencies and how to successfully connect the dots for your media company in order to make the sale. The conventional sales process must be reset in order to identify an advertiser’s goals and objectives and provide media and communications solutions.

The great news is that ideas and concept selling have no barriers! Just best practices with the goal of doing good work.

1. The marriage of social media and broadcast is critical to the future success of television.
Social Media can be used as a powerful and effective tool to drive broadcast ratings. There is a “loop” that exists between on and off-line marketing. Today’s sellers need to be empowered and enabled with the skills to develop new, unique, and fresh content ideas that can be distributed across these platforms.

2. Preparing your sales strategy for internal management is a key element to your success as a media seller.
Too often sellers do not take the time to prepare a well thought out strategy for their sales managers. It is equally as important to create an internal strategy as it is an external strategy.

3. Linkedin and Twitter are the modern, critical tools for media sales prospecting.
Too many sales teams are prospecting and trying to develop new business with the same techniques that were used in the 90’s! Today’s technology and social media platforms have created tremendous opportunities for sellers to prospect, warm-call, and solidify more meetings with record success.

It's about conversation, not presentation

It’s about conversation, not presentation

4. “Presentations” are dead. “Storytelling” is the modern sales form of communications.
The presentation style meeting is what has been done for many years but no longer works in the modern marketplace. The concept of Modern Storytelling is about having a conversation with your audience and putting their needs ahead of your own. It’s a technique that, when applied, creates a more engaging and successful dialogue which will yield better results.

The Cynsiders column is a platform for industry leaders to reach out to colleagues, followers, and the public at large. In their own words and in targeted Q&As, columnists address breaking news, issues of the day, and the larger changes going on in the ever-evolving world of television, video and digital. Cynsiders columns live on Cynopsis’ main page and are promoted across all daily newsletters. We welcome readers’ comments, queries, and column ideas at [email protected].

Related Stories

02/09/25: Cynopsis Jobs

CLADS CAREER PIC SLIDER 2

Sunday February 9, 2025    FEATURED JOB VICE PRESIDENT, POLITICAL SALES >> NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP, INC./WASHINGTON, DC: Lead the company’s political advertising revenue across its dynamic portfolio of broadcast stations. Responsible for developing sales strategies tailored to the fast-paced, high-stakes political advertising market. You will possess an understanding of the political advertising landscape, and the […]

Cynopsis 02/06/25: Fox News signs Lara Trump

Fox News signs Lara Trump

Thursday February 6, 2025    IN THE NEWS As requested, CBS News handed over the unedited video and transcript of its “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris to the FCC – and the FCC made it public. The interview is the source of a lawsuit by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, and its attendant FCC inquiry. […]

02/05/25: Cynopsis Jobs

jobs12

Interested in moderating a roundtable this fall? We need leaders comfortable with subject matter including media planning, buying, leveraging ai, cross-platform measurement and more. SUBMIT MY INTEREST Wednesday February 5, 2025    FEATURED JOB VICE PRESIDENT, POLITICAL SALES >> NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP, INC./WASHINGTON, DC: Lead the company’s political advertising revenue across its […]

Cynopsis 02/05/25: “The Flip Off” a hit for HGTV

"The Flip Off" a hit for HGTV

Wednesday February 5, 2025    IN THE NEWS AMC Networks kicked off its Upfront on Tuesday with a technology breakfast, where the company unveiled AMCN Outcomes, a feature built into its Audience+ data and insights platform. The tool allows advertising partners to view the performance of their campaigns, across all platforms, in real-time based on […]

CynCity

Cynsiders

  • A New Era of Kids TV

    Kids programming has not escaped the massive impact of changes in the media landscape. Guillermo...
  • Super Bowl Strategy

    Audience are changing – and advertisers along with them. Martin Blich, Executive Director, Sports and...
  • Ahead of the Game

    How have Super Bowl advertising strategies evolved over the years, and what makes a winning campaign...