Yearly Archives: 2010

Recharging Your Batteries

Recharging Your Batteries

          When I was a naïve young station manager, I went for two and a half years with no vacation.  I had booked vacations, but something ‘urgent’ always came up that caused me to cancel my plans at the last minute.
          On one such occasion, the station’s owner came into my office, threw a pair of airline tickets and the keys to his Florida condo on my desk and said, “Ens, get the hell out of here!”
          I thought he was nuts. I was so dedicated to achieving the company’s goals that I was willing to cancel my vacation to get the job done and he was forcing me to take a vacation!
          It wasn’t until I returned to the office two weeks later that I realized his wisdom in forcing me to “get the hell out of here”.
          I achieved more in the next 30 days than I had achieved in the past six months. I now know that vacations are absolutely essential to recharge your emotional batteries and help you see your day-to-day problems and opportunities from a fresh perspective. 
          And an occasional day off, doesn’t cut it. If you’re like me, it will take you three or four days just to start to relax.
          In hindsight, my youthful ego probably resulted in me thinking only I could solve the problems that interrupted my vacations. The reality is, everyone can be replaced and the job will get done. I’ve been away from that station for more than 30 years now, and guess what…they’re still on the air without me being there!
          Don’t wait to take your vacation until you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.

The Value of Warm and Fuzzies

The Value of Warm and Fuzzies

           Reading a lot of the consumer ‘research’ these days, you might draw the conclusion that branding is going the way of the dinosaur; that consumers only care about price and savings.
          But consider the following;
1.) Consumers are NOT fully aware of the complex mix of influences that consciously and subconsciously influence their value perceptions and purchase decisions.
2.) When asked in a ‘survey’, of course they’re going to focus on price….do you expect them to say, “I’d like to start paying more for everything”?
3.) What if the price offered by business ‘A’ is competitive with the price of business ‘B’? What’s the tie-breaker consumers’ decision-making process defaults to? 
          I would submit that in a fiercely competitive pricing environment, branding becomes the tie-breaker, making it more important than ever. It’s those ‘warm and fuzzies’ that can make the difference.
          Of course price is important today. And price comparisons are fast and easy to make by shopping or going online. It’s not rocket science for consumers to figure out which product or service is the cheapest.
          Going to the next level and searching for all of the value and benefits a business offers is more complex and takes time consumers generally do not have.
          That’s where branding kicks in. Over time your advertisers can talk about things like their good corporate citizenship, their ‘green’ attributes, warranties and service to build their brand. None of these are substitutes for competitive pricing, but all can be the tie-breaker in a competitive price environment.
          Are you defaulting to the easy, “we’re the cheapest” campaigns for your clients, or are you building their brands in between the price events?  

Little White Lies

Little White Lies

           Many professionals, like dentists or lawyers, will tell you their governing body won’t let them advertise. They find that excuse gets rid of advertising sales people faster than telling the truth.
          The truth is often more along the lines of, “I don’t want my peers to think I’m an ‘ambulance chaser” or “I don’t want to spend the money on advertising”.
          Your best course of action is to make the call prepared with their governing body’s code of ethics and advertising guidelines. You can usually find them by simply Googling things like ‘Florida law firm advertising regulations’ or ‘Ontario dental advertising regulations’. You can also offer your services to communicate with their governing body to develop a campaign that is approved and acceptable. 
          All professions from accountants to chiropractors in every state or province may advertise. Understanding what their governing body will and will not allow them to say in their advertising, can help you overcome their objections.
          And to get the appointment, don’t ask to talk to a professional who does not advertise, about ‘advertising’.
          Tell them you want to talk to them about an ‘educational awareness campaign’ to clear up misconceptions about their areas of expertise. Every professional has some message regarding their profession that they want the public at large to understand. It may be about changes in the tax laws for accountants, or changes in criminal law for lawyers.
          By sponsoring an educational awareness campaign about these issues, professionals will gain name recognition among their prospects and respect among their peers. 
Click here to inquire about our ‘Selling to Professionals’ sales training.

More Feet on the Street

No Excuses. Every Station Can Sell More

           We take great pride in the success of our media clients. While the ad industry as a whole experienced a decline in revenue during the economic downturn, our media clients have experienced modest, or in some cases spectacular, revenue growth.
          There are four basic pillars upon which we build our clients’ success. The first of which is ‘More feet on the street always equals more sales’.
          I’ve heard all of the arguments against hiring more sales people, but frankly we have consistently proven stations are missing opportunities by not hiring more sales people.
          Consider why some stations don’t beef up their sales departments, and why they should;
1.) Cost of sale? The next 20% of your sales will be much more profitable than the first 80%. While cost of sale for new recruits is high with start-up guarantees, management time and training, once your fixed overhead is covered, every new sale these new recruits make goes almost entirely to your bottom line.
2.) No new business? There are approximately 50 prospects for every 1000 population in your trading area. If you do the math, and understand how long it takes to prepare, prospect, follow-up, present, negotiate and close, you’ll soon realize there are not enough hours in a year for your current sales team to approach every prospect in your market.  
3.) Protect your current sales people? The myth that protectionism creates a more productive sales force is just that…a myth. Your best sales people have built lists that have so much growth potential they don’t have time to prospect aggressively, and they certainly won’t let a ‘rookie’ out-perform them. Protectionism can also create complacency.
4.) The smell of staff turnover? I admit there can be a negative connotation to staff turnover at the entry level. But that ‘smell’ is always overpowered by the sweet smell of success. Even ‘failed’ recruits will leave the lasting residual value of accounts they got on the air that will still be on the air long after they leave. And the new categories they open will see other advertisers in that category follow suit.
5.) There are no good sales people to recruit? Most new rep turnover is a failure of management, not a failure of the recruit. We give them crappy prospects that our best seniors couldn’t sell, no training, and kick them out into the market with a rate card or package and no training or plan. If you hire for attitude rather than ‘experience’ and train and work with new recruits to develop productive plans, you’re helping another human being, your company, your clients and our industry!

Your Internal Marketing Plan

Your Internal Marketing Plan

            The radio station marketing model is unique, in that we have three distinctly different target customers. Most other businesses only target those who can spend money with them.
            But in radio, we have three target groups that affect that ‘spend’. And we need a strategic marketing plan for each of those target customers.
            One, of course, is our audience. Most stations do have promotional and marketing plans to attract and maintain audiences.
            Our second target group is our paying customers…our advertisers. Most stations are fairly effective at reaching and influencing this group as well.
            It is important to calculate the per capita value of each of your customers. If a station has annual revenue of $1 million with a listening audience of 50,000 people, then each listener is worth $20. Using that same revenue base and a total of 250 advertisers, each advertiser is worth an average of $4,000.
            But it is our third target that is by far the most valuable per capita and yet we often have no marketing plan to attract, motivate and keep these customers. The third target is our internal customers; our staffs. If that same $1 million station has a staff of 20 who sell, create, administer and invoice the $1 million in revenue, then each staff member is worth an average of $50,000.
            When the lights go off, your biggest assets go home!
            Do you have a marketing plan to attract and create customer satisfaction for your most valuable customers…your internal customers?