The Telluride Watch has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of revenue they earn thanks to the help of a new Matchbin powered marketplace. Earlier this year, Online Editor Dennis Lankes asked Matchbin to help him revamp his newspaper's online classified ads. Roughly four months and a great deal of revenue later, he's got a promotion and kudos from his colleagues. Could $1,000 of earnings for every $100 invested into Matchbin have anything to do with it? We asked him how he did it? We present the keys to his success below:

1. “Prepare the Market for Your Arrival” Before Dennis and his sales team put foot to concrete; they took a step in the right direction by contacting the top sales prospects in the area and setting up appointments. “They knew we were coming and were ready and willing to hear our value proposition,” says Matchbin Sales Representative Paul Richardson. This small step allowed Dennis and his team to reach much greater success as compared to previous sales efforts.

2. "Get a Good Sales Team." After prepping the market by contacting individual businesses, Dennis took two sales agents from his paper and borrowed three from Matchbin. Together, they took local businesses by storm, having great success in the Real Estate Industry. Dennis targeted Real Estate agents because they typically have large advertising budgets and get many of their clients from the Web. They arranged to make presentations to local brokerages during their weekly meetings, and closed deals with several agents.

3. "Create Listings for Potential Clients before Meeting with them." Dennis and his team were sure to create business listings to show potential clients during sales presentations. "It was real easy to get people to upgrade once they saw it online," he said. "There really wasn't a whole lot of selling involved." Once they had several local businesses populated in the directory, Dennis had "Mom & Pop" retailers ordering classified ad upgrades on their own.

4. "Know your Clients and Develop Good Relationships"

Knowing who is Web savvy and who is not can really make the difference during a sales call. Target those who are aware of the Web and its power, or be prepared to educate them. It also helps to let potential clients know the full gamut of ad upgrades you offer, from bolding to personalized Web pages to photos. It's likely one will pique their interests.

5. "Promote your Classifieds, Events and Business Listings with House Display Ads Peppered throughout your Publication."

To get people interested in the new functionality of the site, The Telluride Watch ran display ads of all sizes on many different pages of their newspaper touting the new directory. In addition, Dennis says he ran at least one full-page display ad per week.

6. "Think About Specials you can Offer to Customers."

The Telluride Watch offers a free classified ad in the print edition to anyone who signs up for an account and places an ad online. This really builds the amount of customers placing online, upgradeable ads.

Dennis has made it clear that approaching clients well prepared, promoting your sales initiative, and offering special pricing can do much to improve your Servicefront sales and make capitalizing on your marketplace much easier. For more about Dennis, or the Telluride Watch, check out their marketplace www.telluridewatch.com. For more tools and tips on how to capitalize on your marketplace, click here to speak with our VP of Business Development now. We are dedicated to your success, no matter how you define it.