A dramatic increase in the supply of online inventory and a decline in advertiser demand are putting severe pressure on online ad rates.  Online sales teams in traditional media businesses are struggling to turn increased traffic into extra revenue, and compare poorly to “old media” sales teams on efficiency measures.  Internal competition is often exacerbated by incentive schemes that encourage the trad media team to hold back on client leads for their online colleagues.  Yet the old media ad revenues are in inexorable decline, and there is no option but to keep learning and investing, however tempting it may be to outsource online sales.  Here are five essentials for success in online ad sales for traditional media companies.  I’m indebted to European media consultancy and online sales gurus at Red Door who have extensive expertise in this field. (more…)