Make 2026 your best sales year yet: Seven smart strategies to grow ad revenue and close more deals
Shannon Kinney | for E&P Magazine
If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that momentum in media sales doesn’t happen by accident. It’s engineered through consistency, strategy and the right habits. The top reps aren’t winging it. They’re executing systems.
As we head into 2026, the opportunities in digital revenue growth for media companies are enormous, but only for those who approach the year with clarity, discipline and a modern toolkit that includes marketing and promotion, AI, data and customer insights.
Here are the seven most important steps media sales professionals and leaders can take to make 2026 their strongest year yet.
- Prospect weekly — not when you’re desperate
The number one reason salespeople miss their numbers isn’t a lack of closing ability. It’s an empty pipeline.
Too many sellers drift back to the “greatest hits list” of past advertisers or prospects they’re comfortable calling. Meanwhile, new businesses are opening in your market, new categories are emerging, disruptors are entering, and high-growth local businesses are investing … just not with you.
Weekly rule: Spend 60–90 minutes per week prospecting. No exceptions. Protect it like a client meeting.
Try this AI prompt:
“Give me 15 high-growth local business categories likely to increase advertising spend in Q1 2026, and identify three sub-categories with strong digital budgets.”
You’ll get fresh targets instantly. I like to use Perplexity.ai for this work. It has great contact information data.
- Fill your calendar with insight-driven outreach
A check-in email is not a sales strategy. In fact, as I’ve shared in previous columns, you should erase the phrase “checking in” from your vocabulary. In 2026, insight is your currency.
Your prospects should associate you with learning something new about their industry, their competitors or their customers every time they hear from you. And it takes 12-15 touchpoints with a prospect to get to a yes. Make sure that you have a cadence to stay in touch with your prospects regularly, leading with insights and value.
Try this AI prompt to personalize insight:
“Summarize the top three marketing opportunities for a local HVAC company using trends in search, social and consumer behavior. Give them an edge over their competitors Write it in three sentences and reference data points and sources when possible.”
Add that to your outreach and watch response rates jump.
- Nurture your pipeline like it’s your job, because it is
Too many sellers only contact prospects when they want to close. And, as we’ve covered, you need 12-15 touchpoints to get to a yes, so nurturing is your job. But your prospects are busy, so you need to master adding insights and value every single time.
I regularly read industry publications and blogs, and look at competitors’ social media profiles and more to gain new insights. AI makes that part of my job even faster. High performers maintain steady, value-rich touches every 7–14 days.
Here are three additional ideas of what you could share with your prospects:
Industry insights: “What are the top three trends affecting the roofing industry in New England right now, and how could I advise my client to market themselves to give them an edge?”
Competitive shifts and drivers: “What are the top five factors driving profitability and growth for auto dealers in in 2026? How can I best position my client, , for growth by leveraging ? What are the top campaign messaging ideas to help them stand out against their competition ?”
Campaign ideas and sample creative: “I’m currently prospecting to buy . Our highly engaged audience and unique differentiators are highly suited for this prospect. I want to establish a strong rapport by illustrating three sample campaign ideas and creative to help them sell . Please give your top ideas and why each one is strong.”
Pipeline nurturing increases close rates more than any other sales behavior, and you can get yourself into a good rhythm if you set aside time for this each week.
Ask yourself weekly, “Who in my pipeline hasn’t heard from me in the last 10 days, and how can I add insights and value?”
- Stop pitching products; start solving problems
Your competition isn’t other media outlets. It’s agencies that are solution-focused, and companies like Google, Facebook, Yelp and more that have aggressive outreach strategies to gain access to your client’s budget. And none of them will encourage your clients to advertise with you. To compete in this landscape, you need to lead with insights and have a strong sales process to manage client relationships.
Start by understanding your prospects’ needs in depth. Do your homework to understand their industry, competitive positioning, how your solutions can address their needs, and how you are uniquely qualified to solve their problems. In your presentation, continually point back to how each element of your proposed solution addresses their needs. And remember that ads don’t matter. Outcomes do.
Every recommendation you make should answer one question: “What business problem does this solve, and how am I uniquely qualified to solve it?”
Use AI to refine your solutions:
“Translate this product pitch into a business-outcome-oriented solution for a local retailer .”
- Improve your closing ratio by mastering pre-close alignment
Most deals are lost long before the proposal is delivered. Top sellers never present a proposal that isn’t pre-approved. I learned this one the hard way.
Before you invest the time building anything, validate:
- Budget: While it’s ideal to understand a prospect’s budget, they aren’t always clear on it and often become defensive. I let them know that if I even understand a range, I can ensure that I bring our strongest ideas in a range that won’t waste their time.
- Goals: These are non-negotiable and the most important thing to uncover in your needs assessment.
- Timeline: Is there any urgency to be considered? Can you create any?
- Decision-makers: This step is often skipped. Don’t make that mistake.
- Expected outcomes: I ask, “What does success look like to you?”
Then ask, “If I bring you a proposal that meets these criteria, are you comfortable moving forward?”
That one question changes everything. When I incorporated this into my sales strategy, I stopped doing free consulting and proposals for everyone, and it was a game-changer.
- Retention and upsell meetings need a real cadence
If your renewal conversations only happen when a contract expires, you’re already behind. Your best growth opportunities come from current clients. The cost of retaining a client is far lower than acquiring a new one.
Build a quarterly meeting cadence with every client to review:
- Performance
- Competitive landscape
- New opportunities
- Seasonal campaign ideas
AI can support this:
“Analyze this performance recap and suggest three upsell opportunities based on best practices with these products and current digital trends in their industry . What are three things we should be looking ahead to in the next quarter to accomplish for this client to fuel their growth?”
- Use objections to advance the sale, not end it
Objections are buying signals, and the best salespeople anticipate them. Yet so often we become defensive when our prospect has them. We also know that practice strengthens your approach, but no one likes role-playing in sales meetings with your boss and your peers. Don’t sweat it. You can use AI in the privacy of your own computer to practice responses that feel natural and empathetic.
AI prompt to try:
“Act as a small business owner who thinks digital ads are too expensive. List objections one at a time and let me respond as the salesperson. After each of my responses, score me 1–10 on effectiveness and suggest how to improve.”
Another option is “Act as a skeptical business owner . Give me your top five objections to my advertising proposal and help me craft confident, insight-driven responses.”
This kind of AI coaching sharpens your pitch and builds confidence before you walk into the meeting. Practice until you’re bulletproof.
2026 belongs to the sellers who prepare now
The media sales professionals who win in 2026 will be the ones who:
- Fill their pipelines consistently.
- Deliver insights that matter.
- Nurture relationships with intention.
- Leverage AI every week.
The tools have never been better. The opportunities have never been bigger. The time to build momentum is now.
Let’s make 2026 your strongest revenue year yet.
I’ve created a free resource for all of you with the best tools for media sales professionals and proven winning prompts for every stage of the sales process. You can find it here.
Dream Local Digital Founder and Client Success Officer Shannon Kinney brings more than 30 years of experience in leadership roles, developing scalable digital marketing strategies and supporting and training media companies with scalable digital revenue growth. She played a vital role in the development of prominent internet giants, including Cars.com, CareerBuilder.com, Knight Ridder Digital, LinkedIn, Google, eBay and Microsoft. She worked with media companies worldwide until pivoting to found Dream Local Digital. Since Dream Local Digital’s creation in 2009, Shannon has served on the Local Media Association board, received the LMA Digital Innovation Award, appeared on hundreds of stages as a keynote speaker, and helped media companies transform their business models. She currently also serves as a project lead on the Local Media Association Branded Content Project Cohorts, helping media companies transform through new revenue streams. Shannon can be reached at shannon@dreamlocal.com.
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