1. Jill Burke, MLIS Community College of Baltimore County
STOP Marketing your Library’s Instruction Program MILEX Meeting 4/21/17
Jill Burke, MLIS
Community College of Baltimore County

2. 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)

3. 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)

4. Cold Calling (2)
Send personal s 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 suggesting a class

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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!)

9. 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”

10. Cross-Selling
If faculty contact you because they are having problems using a product, let them know students may be having the same problem

11. 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

12. Closing and Follow Up
Send an thanking them for letting you teach their class
Ask what they think went well and what they think didn’t work for their class

13. How do I know this works? Essex campus statistics for instruction:
Academic Year:
Classes given:

14. Reference List
Finley, W. E. (2013). Using personal selling techniques in embedded librarianship. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship. 18, / 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.