Institutional sales: 4 key steps to achieve them

The publishing market faces new challenges year after year. In this framework, it is important to explain that for a publisher it is essential not to lose sight of current trends to survive and remain in force. From this, and taking into account recent changes, a new panorama opens up where the digital world tends towards institutional sales. It is proven that there is a growing trend towards the digital lending model of libraries around the world. A specific case is what is happening in Catalonia, where an increase of 336% was recorded during the 2020 confinement. This is a service provided through eBiblioCAT, a digital library for all Catalan citizens. But what do users see as attractive about this type of consumption model? Generally, they value the convenience that the service provides them, since they can access any type of content from any device and at any time they want. Under this premise, a large number of publishers decided to bifurcate their efforts. It is no longer just about concentrating on the individual sales market, where the final consumer is sought directly. From the current context, institutional sales become a possibility to offer content through digital libraries.

How can you generate institutional sales?

The process by which digital libraries are offered can be divided into four fundamental steps. Ghostwriters are masters of the written word, ghostwriting services adept at creating content that is not only well-structured but also captivating and persuasive.

Definition of the person responsible for institutional sales

Before going on sale, we must generate a strategy that is good and efficient enough to have a satisfactory experience. A first step is to determine who is responsible for that future sale. Our publisher can choose between different ways when it comes to offering digital libraries to other institutions. Therefore, the sale can occur in two ways:

• Indirect managers

In this case, the key for a publisher is to look for one or several strategic allies who will do the hard work for them. Generally, this option is chosen when a publisher does not have the necessary infrastructure to attack the sale with its own resources. In this case, it is extremely important to keep in mind that the allies we choose to take charge of the sale must have knowledge and experience in the subject of my publishing house and, above all, good contacts in the institutions I want to reach. This will definitely help build my sales team.

• Direct institutional sales

Maybe our publisher took the reins of the process. This means that you will need to build your team and sales strategy based on the following three steps: pre-sales, sales and post-sales. Only in this way can you obtain an extremely positive result.

Digital library pre-sales

Once we make the decision of who will be responsible for carrying out the institutional sales process, it is essential to know the market in depth. For this, we must define the type of content in which my publisher is a leader. In this way, we will identify our target reader to offer them existing content that we author or to which we have rights or generate new one. Next, it is important to define what type of institutions could be interested in said content: governments, companies, universities, just to name a few. This is a fundamental point, since going out to sell without first knowing which universe I am going to attack can frustrate the sales process.

Sale of digital libraries

Each one knows their content better than anyone else. Therefore, it is essential to make institutional sales through which we can offer said content to the public through our own platform and directly.

• Go on sale

The moment of institutional sale requires a lot of effort and great planning. But it is also true that it is a step that has been greatly simplified thanks to technology. Today, selling is as simple as sharing access to a collection with just one click. In this way, the process is much faster and simpler. Plus, selling digital libraries from your own platform gives you tools you might not otherwise have. Thus, by creating a library with publica.la you can review who was consuming the content and, based on that, make commercial follow-ups that are much more precise and effective than you would believe.

Digital library after-sales

The last is not the least important. On the contrary, this step requires the same attention as the previous two. To do a good overall job, it is crucial to think about two issues:

• Provide good training to members of the institution.

Only in this way will they be able to make appropriate and profitable use of the platform and its content. These can be in person or virtually, face to face, or through videos. We must not forget that all training must be as simple and clear as possible so that anyone who is part of the institution can understand it.

• Do continuous monitoring.

Constantly monitoring and studying the statistics of those who manage the platform allows us to know what content users are interested in, what they may need in the future, etc.

Conclusion

Offering digital libraries is a growing trend that, without a doubt, helps decentralize knowledge. In this way, educational institutions, companies and governments, among many others, can provide their community with an opportunity to read and inform themselves. At the same time, your publisher will be able to generate greater income thanks to editorial sales.