My business partner blasted me last week for telling one of our employees something in confidence. I respect my partner, so I reflected upon their critique that I was too trusting. I thought back upon my 42 years in business and realized that trust is a two way street.

People don’t trust you until you trust them. I’ve heard the old used car dealer quip that "buyers are liars" and I know what kind of trust most people have in those same dealers.

One time in ten, trusting someone comes back and bites me. The other nine times, trusting people and achieving their reciprocal trust, pays back huge dividends.

I can accept failing one time out of ten!

Besides, it’s just less stressful trusting people than playing Chicken Little and being a skeptic.

In his book, The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini identifies psychological reciprocity; ‘the deep-rooted subconscious need to return effort to those who put forth effort for us’, as one of the six most powerful influences on human buying behaviour.

Psychological Reciprocity is one of the most powerful sales levers radio sales professionals can develop.

Even Hare Krishna, the unusual 1970’s group with shaved heads and ill-fitting robes, capitalized on people’s deep-rooted subconscious need to return something to those who give them something.

They discovered their likelihood of receiving a donation from unwilling travelers at the airport increased dramatically, if they first gave the passersby a rose before asking for a donation.

They also learned it didn’t matter if their target donors wanted the rose or not. In fact, the robed team always had one member scurrying about the airport collecting the roses travelers threw in garbage bins, to give them away to another unsuspecting traveler

The effort you put into pre-call planning, customer research, and after-sale follow-up, can generate Psychological Reciprocity for you with your clients and prospects. You’ll be surprised how objections like ‘my budget is spent’ or ‘radio doesn’t work for me’ disappear when your prospects feel a deep rooted subconscious need to do something for you.

Remember the good old days when getting a first appointment with your new prospects was relatively easy, and only a matter of math where more calls meant more appointments?

You simply picked up the phone and said things like;

• I’ve got a great idea I want to share with you.
• I’d like to learn more about your business so I can find a great idea for you.
• I have a new station package or special offer I’d like to drop off.

In the new math, quality of calls multiplies the effect of quantity of calls.
Today, your prospects are bombarded with a long list of new media and traditional media sales amateurs claiming they want to learn more about their business or they have a great idea, even though they know nothing about the prospect‘s goals. And with staff cut backs, more competition and way too many sales people calling them, they certainly don’t have time to teach you about their business. Business owners today want to work with sales people who have put in the extra effort to learn about their business BEFORE they call.
And as for your big idea, the skeptical business owner is saying to herself; "I don’t know you, I don’t know what you stand for, I don’t know your company, and what do you know about my business that makes you believe you have an idea that fits my objectives?
The number of ‘special offers’ managers receive by email, snail mail, drop-offs and over the phone, is mind boggling.
To secure an appointment today, you have to prove you have put in a lot of effort for each prospect. Advertisers assume that if you haven’t put a lot of effort into learning about their industry, their specific business, and branding yourself as a credible marketing consultant, you certainly aren’t going to put in a lot of effort on their behalf once you’ve secured the coveted broadcast order.
Effort breeds psychological reciprocity; that deep-rooted subconscious need to do something for someone who has done something for you.
You can begin building your brand and demonstrating your knowledge and effort by sending a few helpful marketing tips like those in our SoundADvice e-marketing system, before you ask for the appointment.
Once you have presold who you are, what company you are with and what you stand for, you can take the next step in securing an appointment; do something specific and relevant to the prospect’s business.
You might talk to a few customers, or the prospect‘s competitors‘ customers, to capture their perceptions of the prospect and offer to share that information.
You might search their website for inconsistencies or improvements you can offer to share in a first appointment. Talking to their staff, their suppliers or reading their industry association website, can also prepare you to share what you’ve learned about their business.
The bottom line? The most important thing you have to sell is trust. And trust is seldom built in one phone call or without time, pre-sell and effort.
Busy decision makers today don’t have time for typical sales people or old school sales tactics. But they will make time to talk to professionals who have branded themselves as marketing experts who obviously understand their industry, know something about their particular business and marketplace, and are willing to apply that expertise to helping them grow their business.
Want to learn more about how the SoundADvice e-marketing system can pre-sell your qualifications? Email [email protected] for a no-obligation online demo.

A friend of ours was going to Costco, and sent an email to my wife and business partner, Angela, asking her if she needed him to get anything for her while he was there.

Her "NO THANKS" reply, mistakenly had the Caps Lock on when she responded. Our friend emailed back; "Okay, but don’t yell at me".

There is no doubt that email conversations are more subject to misinterpretation when the recipients can’t view body language, or hear your verbal inflections and tone.

While straight typed email messages can look like boring legal documents, with a little attention to detail they can have body language and tone.

Don’t hesitate to use the tools on your keyboard; bold type, italics, caps, pauses, icons, color, exclamation marks and more, to inject some life and body language into your messages.

Where applicable, include cartoon clips, video links, attachments and all of the tools at your fingertips, to hit home the points in your emails, in an entertaining and credible manner.

At the same time, you can also learn a lot about the personal style of those you receive emails from, if you read beyond the written word. If their salutation has a smiley face icon, or if they ask you about your weekend, you can respond in a similar style. Emails that are abrupt and to the point, will indicate yet another personal style, and also need to be answered in that style.

You are in the creative communications business. Exercising some creativity and paying closer attention to your email ‘body language’ and communications objectives, can ensure your message is perceived correctly.

There is a great deal of buzz among advertising and marketing types today about the synergies between paid media, owned media and earned media.
‘Paid’ media, of course, are the commercials or space advertisers pay for.
‘Owned’ media are newsletters, emails, websites, or any of the marketing communications vehicles that the advertiser produces and distributes themselves.
‘Earned’ media are the media exposures ‘earned’ by doing something newsworthy or ‘buzz-worthy’. Going ‘viral’ online, spreading a story via social media, or achieving traditional media news coverage, are all types of earned media.
Advertisers have total control over their owned and paid media messages. But it’s risky to rely upon earned media alone because they can’t totally control their earned media exposure.
While some might think of earned or owned media as ‘free’, they certainly are not. Paid media investments are obvious via invoices for spots or space.
Owned media often requires hidden expenses in man-hours, software, and expertise to produce and distribute, and earned media costs include the hours for planning, organizing, writing news releases, creating events, and managing the buzz.
Aristotle’s study of metaphysics noted that, "the whole is more than the sum of its parts".
The multiplier effect of utilizing two or three of these media forms in tandem is always more than the impact of any one of these media types in isolation….1 + 1 can equal 4, and 1 + 1 + 1 can equal 6 or more in terms of impact, awareness and results.
But many advertisers who use all three types of media, don’t do so with a synergistic strategy. Often their paid and owned media, sound or look like traditional advertising, and the message bears no resemblance to the more newsworthy or buzz-worthy content in their earned media.
When you can show your clients how to drive more traffic and awareness for their owned and earned media via your paid campaign, with content that is congruent with their earned and owned media goals, you will dramatically improve their results and capture more revenue for your stations