Monthly Archives: December 2008

Guided Discovery Selling

Guided Discovery Selling©

Chet Holmes, author of The Ultimate Selling Machine, says “You will attract more buyers if you are offering to teach them something of value to them than you will ever attract by simply trying to sell them your product or service.”
Put simply, selling is teaching.
Every profession masters certain techniques or best-practices proven to improve the end results for that profession.
Radio sellers can benefit from the inductive learning or ‘guided discovery’ teaching model developed by cognitive psychologist Jerome S. Bruner   
His discovery teaching method is a proven effective technique that encourages students to take a more active role in their learning process by answering a series of questions or solving problems designed to help them uncover the answers for themselves.
In sales, mastering the technique of helping customers discover for themselves that your products or services are the solutions to their problems can be magic.
When you tell prospects about your benefits, they tend to be skeptical, or in a best case scenario, they will ‘give your solutions a try’.   
When you guide prospects to discover your benefits for themselves they will take ownership of your solutions and become committed to making them work.
Here are just a few of the discovery teaching tools that sellers can adopt to guide prospects to buy their solutions.
1.) Tell Stories – Customize stories to fit your prospect’s situation and help them discover how your solutions make sense for them.
2) Engage them – Employ powerful graphics, let them hear and make changes to your spec spots, and ask meaningful thought-provoking questions.  “What’s your budget?” or “Who’s your target demographic” are NOT thought-provoking questions!    
3.) Get them Involved – Invite your prospects input to develop things like customer or staff focus groups that you can facilitate to help them discover answers to their marketing problems.
4.) Use Maps and Models – Use case studies, maps pinpointing all of their competitors, or models like Roy William’s Relational/Transactional Customers model to teach them how to use your stations more effectively.
5.) Questioning – Don’t ask all of the questions.  Invite your prospects to ask you questions about their concerns or their ROI in advertising.
6.) Facilitate Marketing Seminars – Seminars can be one of the most effective ways to prove you care about your customers and for them to discover where your stations should fit in their marketing plans.
Click here to read my article in Radio Ink on ‘Selling by Seminar’.
 
© Guided Discovery Selling is the exclusive sales training system developed by ENS Media Inc.

Untapped Opportunities

Untapped Opportunities 

          Many station’s pursuit of ‘spot sales’ blinds them to the numerous other revenue opportunities we have.
          For example, media like TV and magazines, sell ‘product placement’.
          Why can’t we sell opportunities for our announcers to talk about the products and services they use, like the restaurant they frequent, or the test drive they took, as part of their shows?
          And what about sampling opportunities?  Many marketers pay huge dough to have someone stand in a kiosk and hand out samples of their cheese or perfume.  Can’t we do the same at our remotes, offering non-competing sponsors the opportunity to sample their products at all of our remotes and public appearances PLUS on-air promotion?
          And why should marketers pay for paper, ink, postal delivery and other hard costs to get their coupons into the marketplace when we can do it on our websites and pre-promote them on air?
          As marketers search for new ways to increase their marketing ROI, the smart radio operators will think beyond air-time, spots, ratings and packages and develop new ways to capitalize on their local knowledge and influence to help their clients market their goods and services…..It’ll be more fun than competing for cost per point, I promise!!

You Choose

You Choose

           You have an important choice to make as you plan for 2009.
You can focus on reducing your ‘cost of sale’ or focus on preventing the ‘cost of NO sale’!
          You have been telling your clients that our economy is cyclical.
You have explained that the trough in that cycle is an ideal opportunity to increase market share and that doing so will give them a coveted edge as we enter the recovery phase.
          It’s all true. This graph from the Nation Bureau of Economic Research points out how each recovery and boom is bigger and longer than the one before.  Wow! I can’t wait, because that last boom was pretty darn good.
 
          So if all of this is true, do you have the will to practice what you preach? Or will you cut your marketing and training budgets and drive your rates and revenues to new lows that will be hard to recover from?
          What is your plan and strategy to capitalize on the opportunities created by an economic slow-down?  Will you act out of desperation or will you strategically improve your market share and revenues by helping your clients sell more when they need you most?
         
          ENS Media Inc. has two specific programs designed to increase sales for you and your clients during tough times.  Email Wayne if you would like us to contact you to discuss increasing your sales in 2009.   

Email Marketing

E-Marketing Your Stations

 
ENS on Sales is sent to you FREE every week to stimulate your grey matter into thinking about ways to increase your sales and profits.  But once in a while we have to try to make a living too!
Today’s ENS on Sales explores The Ten Demandments, Kelly Mooney’s essential handbook for email marketing to informed, empowered and demanding customers.
We have listed her Ten Demandments here to help you design your own email newsletter or e-marketing system for your stations.
Our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system meets all Ten Demandments at an investment you cannot possibly beat with an in-house product!
 
The 1st Demandment:  Earn Trust.  Your emails must have integrity.
SoundADvice; Does not hard sell, and gives your advertisers and prospects marketing tips from you that they will welcome.
 
The 2nd Demandment:  Inspire. Your readers want to be inspired to do something that will improve their business.
SoundADvice tells advertisers that ‘advertising can’t make a bad business a good business’ and gives them a new tip each week on how to build a better business and make their advertising work harder.
 
The 3rd Demandment:  Make it easy.  Keep your emails simple, relevant and make them a satisfying experience.
SoundADvice takes less than 30 seconds to read and you’ll receive emails every week telling you how much advertisers appreciate your tips.
 
The 4th Demandment:  Put the reader in charge. The reader needs to be in charge of how much email they receive.
The initial SoundADvice is short and to the point, but readers have the option of clicking through for additional information on every topic.
 
The 5th Demandment:  Guide your readers.  Anticipate their needs and give them the tools they need to interact with you.
Ens Media Inc. surveys all responses to SoundADvice to keep them timely and topical, and readers simply click on your account executive’s photo or your call letters to send you a message or request more details.
 
The 6th Demandment:  24/7 Busy business owners expect 24/7 access.
SoundADvice lets you monitor and respond to all advertiser inquiries immediately.
 
The 7th Demandment:  Get to know your prospects.  Keep solid records and know what interests your prospects.
SoundADvice monitors and issues regular reports to you on the topics each of your readers request additional information about.
 
The 8th Demandment:  Exceed readers expectations.  Give customers more attention than they expect.
Every SoundADvice has a companion training document for account executives to become experts on the topic and arms you to make an appointment to give advertisers the information and tools they need to grow their businesses.
 
The 9th Demandment:  Reward your readers.  Reward your readers by giving them special exclusive offers.
SoundADvice allows you to issue your own special offer to your prospects and advertisers once per quarter.
 
The 10th Demandment:  Stay with them.  Make it clear you want your relationship to extend beyond their first purchase and follow up after their interaction.
Every SoundADvice gives your readers valuable information they can use whether they purchase from you this week or not, and provides valuable marketing tools you can deliver to your prospects and customers after every interaction.
 
If you have thought of developing your own email campaigns, but do not have the time or resources to do so, consider SoundADvice.
Click here for a special offer to be the exclusive SoundADvice stations in your market. (Offer available to eight markets on a first come first served basis!)