I had lunch with a frustrated radio salesperson yesterday who said, “I have eight car dealers on my list who have never advertised on our station. I’ve been calling and leaving messages, but they never return my calls.”
          “From their point of view,” I asked, “why should they return your calls?”
             He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The bewildered rep did not have an answer to my question.
          When we call a prospect and leave a message without a Valid Business Reason, we might just as well say “Please mail your wallet to me full of cash.” just like the 21 other sales people who tried to dip into the average client’s wallet this week.
          A Valid Business Reason (VBR) for a call means there is something in it for the client to meet with you. Your VBR might be a new lead, a new business development idea, some pertinent market research or a host of other benefits from a client’s perspective.
          Your prospects have an average of 16 to 21 sales people calling them every week, each claiming they can increase sales. From the sales trainer who says they don’t need advertising and traffic, they need higher closing ratios, to the software rep trying to persuade advertisers that investing in customer relations management (CRM) programs is more effective than advertising, you have lots of competition for that wallet!
          Do yourself and your clients a favor… Don’t “leave a message” unless you have a Valid Business Reason, from the customer’s perspective, for them to contact you.

          Most professions require their practitioners to upgrade their qualifications and skills on a regular basis. This is because there is so much at stake if the professional makes a mistake in judgment or performs their duties unethically. 
          Lawyers must study the latest laws and precedent-setting judicial decisions, doctors must stay on top of new medical breakthroughs and surgical techniques and accountants must stay abreast of new accounting rules.
          Notice that professional skills development is the obligation of the individual professional, not the hospital, the law firm or the accounting practice. And professionals invest their own time and money to upgrade their skills. 
          Professional media executives are no exception.  My friend Kennen Williams of Noll & Associates, for example, makes a point of reading a minimum of one new business book a month. 
Have your people ask themselves:

1.)   Given the skills and integrity I bring to the table, will my clients appreciate the value for my clients’ advertising and my company? 
2.)   What is my plan to continually upgrade my knowledge and skills to ensure that I am qualified to be entrusted with crucial advertising budgets?

 Two final points:

3.)   If a professional only gets the training their employer or industry association offers, where is their competitive advantage over competitors who had the same training?
4.)   When you invest in yourself, that’s who the learning benefit stays with for life wherever your career may take you.

 NOTE: ‘Professionals’ also earn substantially better incomes than people holding down ‘jobs’.

          Did you know there were millions of drills sold across North America last year even though not one person wanted a drill?
            That’s right. They all wanted holes! If another tool would have given them the same holes faster, easier or cheaper they would have bought that tool, not the drill.
            By the same token, none of your clients want to buy radio, spots or schedules. The all want sales and profits. It’s up to us to prove that the features we offer are the best means or tools towards that end.
            All of the traditional sales training courses address the need for selling benefits versus features. It’s pretty basic stuff, and yet the benefits of our features are so obvious to us that we still fall into the trap of thinking our clients will make the feature-benefit translation for us.
          Look at your next presentation or one-sheet. Are you trying to sell features to customers who only want benefits?

Here is the litmus test that distinguishes features from benefits;
A feature remains true if the client does not buy. i.e.;  “Our 50,000 watt signal covers the entire county.”
A benefit only occurs if the client buys. i.e.; “Your selling message is heard across the entire county.”
The benefit always answers the question from the client’s perspective, “What is in it for me?”

          At your next sales meeting it might be a good review to invite your account executives to list all of the features you offer, then round-table the benefits for each feature. 
          Remember, your clients are in business to make sales and profits. Your job is to show them how your features offer the best means to get there. 

          After sending last week’s SoundManagement about the teacher’s sell and the importance of a frequency of three, a Regional Sales Manager made an astute observation.
          Talking to a co-worker she discussed how ‘annoying’ it was that she had to tell her staff everything three times as well. By mistake, she sent me a message about the teacher’s sell that simply said, “That’s annoying”.
          When I responded asking what was annoying and asking if she wanted to cancel SoundManagement, she explained she had hit reply by accident, and that the message was meant to go to her co-worker in reference to having to communicate messages three times to staff.
          Two valuable lessons were learned.

Lesson 1: Sales people are people too! That’s not wrong, it’s just normal. They need repetition before they get your message.
If it’s important, cover it in a sales meeting (that’s once), send a memo or email (that’s twice) and be sure to discuss it at your one-on-one coaching session (that’s three times).

Lesson 2: A lesson I’ve personally learned the hard way…always, always, always double-check and re-read your emails before you hit send. 

P.S. The embarrassed Regional Sales Manager and I had a good laugh about the error, and she made it clear she wants to continue to receive SoundManagement. If you know someone who might like to receive this free weekly service please forward their email address to us.

          You often tell your clients that “repetition sells.” In fact, you probably tell them their message needs to be heard three times before their prospects can capture and retain their selling proposition.

          To many advertisers, this statement just sounds like we’re trying to sell more spots.  Here’s a common sense way to make your point.

Tell your prospects and advertisers about, ‘the teacher’s sell’.

          Teachers know that students have to get the message three times in a seven day window or they won’t pass the test.

          The tried and proven teaching formula is;

·        Tell them what you’re going to tell them (that’s once)

·        Then tell them (that’s twice)

·        Then tell them what you’ve told them (that’s three times!)

Challenge your clients to ask a teacher if this is the formula they use to ensure their message is heard and retained. They’ll get the point about the importance of a frequency of three.