Call it a comeback? The rebound in automotive sales continued to cruise in July, fueled by the economy and the improving inventory stockpiles. We’re always paying close attention to auto news over here at ShareBuilders, knowing it can have a significant effect on our clients' bottom line.

Project managers are pros at managing long, drawn-out jobs because they set checkpoints to verify their progress. As sales professionals, we can learn something from their playbook. If we don’t check milestones along the way, we will probably miss clues that can keep us from hitting our numbers.   

Milestone 1 – Teach your sales team to give you REAL pending. 

As you get to know your sales team, you will learn who excels at calling pending vs. those who are spouting “pie in the sky” numbers. You are accountable for your forecast, so you must trust the people reporting back. At ShareBuilders, we can work with you to determine if the pending number you are given is an actual possibility. Providing that data during your weekly call is crucial to the forecasting conversation.

Milestone 2 – Use ShareBuilder’s forecasting tools to check against pending and react if necessary.
Our forecasting tools allow us to analyze how much business is typically written from this point forward in the month or quarter. Do you have 20 points to go before you realize your number?  We can tell you if you have ever written that amount of business in the past. This encourages intelligent discussion about how accurate that pending amount might be in this current environment.   

Milestone 3 – Keep Revenue Potential within 5% of your Quarterly Forecast.

When the entire market is tight, it can be tempting to dive and grab as much share as possible.  This may be the correct strategy early on, but it can backfire quickly if you don’t pay attention.  Revenue Potential is an excellent check to verify if you can reach your forecast with current sellouts and AURs.  Once you get inside the quarter and paid is all entered, Revenue Potential can highlight your ability to “hold” your forecasted number without bumping orders out.  

Revenue Potential is calculated as follows:

Current Booked Revenue + Unsold Inventory at ShareBuilder Recommended Rates

Is the Revenue Potential number significantly lower than your current forecast?  If so, you need to adjust quickly by raising rates for your unsold inventory OR accepting that you will be bumping out cheap rates and potentially alienating some customers. If Revenue Potential is higher than your current forecast, you can certainly hold your forecast, assuming you continue moving inventory and don’t overprice.  

We can use many other checkpoints to help you stay laser-focused on accurate forecasting.  Talk to your ShareBuilders Consultant about these and other options.    

With the recent announcement of the CW Network airing 50 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) football and basketball games, the amount of live sports inventory increased substantially. Some would argue that there is a glut of inventory, hence a buyers' market. But as money continues to move out of Prime and into other dayparts, pricing your live sports becomes more of a priority as the competition for dollars will increase.

We’re told time and time again that one of our clients' favorite features in ShareBuilder Pricing is our aggregated pacing. And while the name doesn’t garner much excitement, the data behind it does.

“I love budget season,” said no one ever! Budgeting can be time-consuming and stressful, depending on your expectations for the following year. How much political should we expect? Should we price in full or ease into full political pricing targets? How much avoidance or crowd-out of core revenue should we account for in our expectations? Do we have any tentpole events that will change historical comparisons or make one month stronger at the demise of another? Do our competitors have major events that could dilute what we can expect?

Recently I underwent a medical procedure that required an extended period of rehabilitation and recovery. Suffice it to say, during that time, I watched a ton of local television. I was sequestered in a medium-sized market in Iowa and arrived at these three observations from my viewing in May.

Programmatic ad sales have become a buzzword in the advertising industry over the past few years. It refers to the use of automated software to purchase and sell ad inventory. The technology has been primarily associated with digital advertising, but its impact is now felt in broadcast TV.

When major sporting events, legalized sports betting, or heavy political spending are expected, TV pricing strategies can be adjusted to take advantage of the increased viewership and demand for advertising. Here are a few possible approaches:

Media sales managers often have those gut feelings that tell them where the market is headed or how they are doing against the competition. Can we trust those gut feelings, or are they leading us down the wrong path? With ShareBuilders as your guide, we can help determine if your gut is misguided or spot on.

On May 2nd, 11,500 writers from the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike due to a labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. At the heart of it, writers are fighting for higher minimum pay, improved residuals for streaming shows, and regulating the use of artificial intelligence programs. As of now, there is no immediate end in sight. The strike’s timing didn’t cause any disruption to broadcast networks - spring finales were already completed, and in Q3, most prime programming is either reality-based (unscripted) or repeats.