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STOP Marketing your Library’s Instruction Program MILEX Meeting 4/21/17. Jill Burke, MLIS Community College of Baltimore County. Start selling your Instruction Program!!!. We need to stop looking at marketing our services and programs and start selling them!
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STOP Marketing your Library’s Instruction ProgramMILEX Meeting 4/21/17 Jill Burke, MLIS Community College of Baltimore County
Start selling your Instruction Program!!! • We need to stop looking at marketing our services and programs and start selling them! • Personal selling without the pressure to buy anything. • Sell your services and your expertise • Sell yourself! (Introvert v. Extrovert) • Personal Selling according to Finley (2013)
Prospecting: Cold Calling • What is a “cold call”? • How can we apply it to our Instruction Program? • Visit the offices of people you don’t know. • Take a flyer or business cards with your contact info on it • Visit the faculty members you know • “Approaching faculty with confidence is an essential personal selling tool.” (Finley 2013)
Cold Calling (2) • Send personal emails to the faculty you worked with in the past • Every time you meet a new faculty member, ask if they give a research paper • Send a notice, with a link, to the department chair when you create or modify a LibGuide • If you get a large number of students at the ref desk asking for help, send the faculty member an email suggesting a class
Prospecting: Referrals • Suggest to someone who just loved the class you gave, that they may want to tell their colleagues • Ask a faculty member you know to introduce you to one you don’t know
Preapproach: Information Gathering • Gathering information about the prospect before the meeting • Can you access the course syllabus before the meeting? • Do some research to find what the faculty has published • Sell your research services as well as your class (Finley, 2013)
Approach: Schmoozing • Building rapport with people by going to the party • Go to lots of campus events and talk to everyone there • Easier to do if you have faculty status • Faculty status helps us to establish collegiality and we can collaborate with others • Recognizes that we are fellow teachers and scholars • Get on committees that write CCOs, or common graded assignments, etc. Get IL in the objectives
Presentations • Present with faculty members at college wide learning events • New faculty orientations • Develop a “personal information literacy elevator speech” (Noe 2013) • Adjunct meetings • Departmental meetings – show new databases, LibGuides, resources (you!)
Upselling • “Would you like a Meal Deal for 2 dollars more?” • “It would be easier for the students if we added a second class so we can cover everything.” • “I can make a LibGuide to go along with the class”
Cross-Selling • If faculty contact you because they are having problems using a product, let them know students may be having the same problem
Dealing with Objections • What are the objections that we hear all the time? • If they can’t bring the class to the library, try to embed in their class
Closing and Follow Up • Send an email thanking them for letting you teach their class • Ask what they think went well and what they think didn’t work for their class
How do I know this works? • Essex campus statistics for instruction: Academic Year: 13-14 14-15 Classes given: 183 235
Reference List Finley, W. E. (2013). Using personal selling techniques in embedded librarianship. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship. 18, 279-292. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/08963568.2013.825111. Noe, N. (2013). Creating and maintaining an information literacy instruction program in the twenty-first century: An ever-changing landscape. London, U.K.: Chandos. Reale, M. (2016). Becoming an embedded librarian : Making connections in the classroom. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.