Hi. I'm Doug Lessells. On behalf of everyone at SalesFuel, we welcome you to this month's featured Sell Smarter Award, where we honor excellence in media sales.

Sales aren’t just about courting new business. Current clients are just as important, especially when unexpected new opportunities arise. For Carla Klinger, an account manager for Hometown Stations — WLIO, ELIO, WOHL, EOHL, that meant teaching a decade-​old client some new tricks. 

“I have a local appliance store that’s been a loyal customer with our stations for over 10 years and didn't realize all of the co-​op available to them,” said Klinger. 

Seeing as they were a small business, the store owners were struggling to stay competitive in the marketplace, losing sales not only to the internet, but also to big box retailers. To stay competitive, Klinger showed them AdMall’s Co-​op Intelligence Reports in order to explain how they could score free advertising money. 

“As a new account manager, I did an account review for them and used AdMall to research what co-​op may be available for them,” said Klinger. “I discovered co-​op dollars for both Whirlpool and GE paid at 100%.” 

Klinger was especially eager to help out because the store had been a well-​respected name in the community for more than 68 years. The owners were from the area, and were also very involved in community events and supporting local business. Only this time, Klinger realized, it was them who needed the support. 

“I committed to help them navigate the co-​op system to ensure they received the reimbursements," said Klinger. “As a result, they committed to an additional $16,000 in TV and digital dollars for 2019.”

Congratulations to Carla, along with the other Sell Smarter Award recipients: Brandon Brackett or Redding Record Searchlight and Cheryl Froman of Anderson Independent-Mail.

To read more about these winners, along with submitting your own story for a chance at a Sell Smarter Award, please visit SalesFuel​.com/​SSA.