Monthly Archives: June 2009

Refusing to Participate Feels Great

Refusing to Participate Feels Great.  

          Last fall the American portion of my business began to shrink.  I let myself fall into a downward spiral of excuses about the economy, like water circling to go down the drain.
          While in this frame of mind, I found myself on a plane beside a building contractor. “I guess things are a little slow for your business right now”, I said.
          “No”, he said, “this economy has created all kinds of new opportunities.”
          I’m on my way to a plant in Arkansas that is doubling its staff and building a huge addition.”
          He went on to explain that the booming business made frozen waffles, pancakes and pastries. He said that people with large families were going to restaurants less often and opting to prepare convenient low cost meals at home. The frozen waffle factory couldn’t keep up with demand!
          After speaking to that contractor, I reflected upon the immortal words of Henry Ford; “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.”
          I immediately chose to discontinue participating in the recession.
          That decision alone actually made me feel better! I chose to utilize the extra time I had as a result of a downturn to develop new and innovative services which are now producing amazing results for the stations we work with.
          My business, like the frozen waffle business, is back on track for growth.
          Sir Winston Churchill said, “Sometimes it is not enough to do our best. Sometimes we must do what is required.”
          Just “doing our best” can cause us to blame the economy or other uncontrollable external factors for our failures.
          I invite you to join me. Choose not to participate in the recession. Seek new opportunities to capture your long-term vision. Doing so will re-ignite the passion that makes your job exciting and your company successful.   

Vision vs Panic

Vision versus Panic

“You always have two choices; your commitment versus your fear.”
-Sammy Davis, Jr.-
 
          Experiments on hypothermia at the University of Winnipeg have proven that the choices we make out of fear are often fatal.
          In controlled experiments at the university, two groups of students were immersed in freezing cold tanks of water to study what choices they would make to save their lives.
          Most people believe it only takes two to three minutes for hypothermia to set in. The first group of students was thrown into the freezing water with that belief.
          In reality, it takes 35 to 40 minutes for hypothermia to take its toll. The second group of students was thrown into the freezing water with that knowledge.
          Invariably, the first group made choices out of fear and panic….choices which, under real life scenarios would have cost them their lives.
          The students who understood they had time to think ahead, consistently made better choices than their panicked counterparts.     
          The absence of vision, commitment and long-term goals for your stations can also result in panic choices which can be fatal.
           Are you committed to a long–term plan for your business survival? Or are you making panic decisions under pressure?
          Your advertisers are reading newsletters and blogs which suggest they should “take advantage of this downturn and put the heat on media suppliers”.
        That “heat”has caused some broadcasters to sell at rates below break-even. We’ve all heard the joke about the widget manufacturer who was losing five dollars per widget but planned to “make it up on volume”.
          Even in good times, far too many sales managers let the bottom right hand corner of a broadcast order influence them to sell at a loss. You cannotsell at a loss and “make it up on volume”!
          Selling at a loss not only hurts your stations, but in the long run,hurts advertisers.
          Cutting your rates will inevitably cause cuts in service to your advertisers and to your audiences. As those cuts impact audiences negatively, advertisers will find it increasingly difficult to find a media that has enough reach and influence to achieve their goals.
          Our biggest selling job has always been internal, not external. We need to sell ourselves and our staffs on the value of advertising before they can have the confidence to sell our services to advertisers at a profitable rate.