Wrap up yearbook sales with a calling campaign

The best yearbook is a sold-out yearbook. If you still have copies available for sale, here’s a highly-effective strategy to finish your sales on a high note. It’s easy to do and will yield results in less than a week. Contacting your target audience directly bridges the gap between the yearbook and the needs of the potential buyer. Personal contact will increase your book sales.

Here is what you do:
1. Get a list of all of the students in the school with phone numbers and parent names.

2. Remove the buyers from the master list of students.

3. Split up the list of non-buyers among your yearbook staff. Ideally, have students choose who they want to call. They will have a better chance to sell a book if they know who they are calling. A calling record is a convenient tool to ensure accountability.

4. Make calls on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday nights for best results.

5. Download a calling script in English or Spanish.

6. Know your audience & decision-makers. A quick survey of staff members or other students will confirm the vast majority of yearbook purchases involve mom (no offense to dad 🙂 This is important to your success: Have students call and ask for the “mom” of each student.

7. Inform parents that they haven’t purchased a book for their students and tell them the deadline to buy one.

8. If staff members get a voicemail, encourage them to leave a message telling the parent they’ll call back the next night (and do it).

9. Make sure yearbook students know the procedure for purchasing a yearbook. To be sure they feel confident, have them role-play calls a few times before making actual calls.

Adding a personal touch creates a need. It’s proven to work. Three schools who just wrapped up this sales campaign increased their book sales by 14%, 45% and 80% – in one week!