With some advertisers shifting their budgets to shiny new media, prospecting for new business is more important than ever. By the way, those who migrate from proven advertising basics to try something new will eventually return to a more intelligent mix of broadcast and online, but in the meantime, you need to make a living.

These 3 steps will set you apart from those salespeople trying to sell technology instead of results:
1.)  Prequalify prime targets. Just because you saw a business advertise elsewhere does not prequalify them to advertise with you. Know your audience and what your audience is likely to buy. Then do your homework to become a marketing expert in those categories your audience wants and needs.
2.)  Develop customer-focused reasons for prospects to see you. I recently interviewed a group of sales people who said prospects in their market would not make appointments to see them. When I asked them why advertisers should see them, they said things like “you know, the usual stuff…we have a new format, a great station, a growing audience…..” Wrong!  Your prospects want to talk about their goals, their problems, and their objectives, and what you can do for them; they don’t want to hear how wonderful your station is until you can persuade them you care about achieving their goals.
3.)  Just do it. Once you have become fluent in the language, the marketing and trends of your target categories, set aside a fixed time every day to pick up the phone, send an email or snail mail to demonstrate your expertise, and your intent to serve your prospects’ needs. And don’t give up after a couple of contacts. Go long, often, and deep, with each prequalified vertical you have chosen to serve. As long as every contact you make benefits the prospect and doesn’t degenerate into talking about you or your station, you will eventually get that appointment to begin the selling process.  

“Psychological reciprocity” is one of the most powerful sales levers a radio sales professional can develop.
In his book, The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini identifies psychological reciprocity as “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.
Even the Hare Krishna, that unusual 1970’s group with shaved heads and ill-fitting robes, knew the power of capturing unsuspecting travellers’ deep rooted subconscious need to return something to those who did something for them.
They discovered that the likelihood of receiving a donation from an unwilling passerby would increase dramatically if they gave their victims a complimentary rose before asking for a donation. They also knew it didn’t matter that the donor didn’t want the rose. In fact, the robed team always had one member scurrying about collecting the roses that donors threw in trash bins, to give to the next prospect.
If you want to stand out in the maze of traditional media and the growing list of new media competition, you must put in the extra effort required to generate the psychological reciprocity that is necessary to give you a competitive edge.

“It’s no secret that radio has reached the Critical Visionary Point in the Business Revenue Lifecycle  outlined in this graph.

Of course the enemy of Critical Vision is, “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
As consultants, we introduce new ideas at the Critical Visionary Point. No one hires us to keep doing things the way they’ve always been done.
Admittedly, consultants represent “change” and “extra effort”… two factors that create discomfort for people who are in their comfort zones and content in the Sustaining stage of the Revenue Life Cycle.
But lately, we’ve noticed increased resistance to change and effort at the Critical Visionary Point.
On one hand, we’re hearing that the local-direct radio business is “getting tougher” or is “flat”. Yet on the other hand, when we introduce new visions or proven revenue development systems we’re hearing, “We don’t want to do that much work to increase local sales”.  Huh? … Really, I have had people actually say that!
We’re often told, “Reps are too busy” to utilize new revenue-generating strategies and tactics. Too busy doing what?
If sales are flat, and we’re “too busy” to increase them, aren’t we simply replacing “productive” with “busy”?
“Busy” generally means we’re frantically-focused on this month’s budget and this short term thinking is fostered by our measurement and compensation systems.
Ironically, this month’s results are seldom a result of this month’s efforts, but rather the result of the work we did 90 to 120 days ago.  Closing seems to be the only task in the revenue development chain that gets recognized and rewarded.
Seldom is there recognition or compensation for completing new tasks which can lead to improved results 90 or 120 days from now.
With all due respect, most radio account executives do appear to be willing to do some “extra work” in addition to closing, like collecting some generic research, facilitating a typical customer needs analysis, writing custom presentations and some even put almost enough valuable insights in their Creative Briefs to produce some reasonably good copy.
But if your competitors are also doing these same basics, where is your competitive advantage?
What are you willing to do for your prospects that your competitors say is, “Too much work”?

When you’re ready to go the extra mile to increase your sales, contact  [email protected] to discuss the various proven revenue development processes we have at ENS Media Inc.

Did you hear the huge click of radios and TVs around the world being turned off forever?
It happened on August 6, 1991, when the World Wide Web became a publicly available service on the internet.
If you didn’t hear that resounding “click” that signalled the end of broadcasting, you’re not alone….I didn’t hear it either!
But the total absence of any discussion about broadcast’s role in the new media landscape is leading some advertisers to think that’s exactly what happened causing them to shift their advertising dollars accordingly.
The last time I checked, well over 90% of consumers are exposed to broadcast messages every week.
The problem lies in the business-to-business world’s appetite for news, or the latest shiny new thing. The root word of news is “new”; stories have to be new to make news at your clients’ annual conventions, in the blogs being read and in the articles chosen by the trade publications.
Frankly, TV and radio aren’t new enough to make headlines.
The problem with broadcast’s profile in the ad community is compounded by so-called “surveys”.  I read one such survey this morning that asked businesses: “What are the most effective SEO Tactics your company uses?”
The multiple choice questionnaire revealed that:
57% chose quality content
46% chose key word management
34% chose frequent website updates
34% chose social media integration
28% chose blogging
25% link building
17% local search optimization
9% chose mobile search
(The reason the total is more than 100% is that respondents could choose more than one tactic.)
Your clients are seeing information like this which leads them to believe that radio and TV play no role in optimizing traffic to their websites or in creating a preference for their business over their competitors.
But these surveys typically leave out the option where respondents may choose the power of branding to drive better search results.
Even internet gurus like Seth Godin admit that it is “Better to be sought on line than it is to be found.”  Our surveys in 126 markets across North America validate Seth’s wisdom.
We asked more than 25,000 consumers, “When you search for a business on line, are you more likely to click on the first business your search engine reveals if you have not heard of it, or are you more likely to click on the first business you have heard of or are familiar with?”
The overwhelming majority will prefer the business they’ve heard of, with some choosing to click on the first name and the one they recognize. Less than 6% go exclusively to the first name revealed by the search engine if they’ve never heard of it.
But who is telling the story to your clients about the powerful role radio and TV play in creating awareness, business preference and search engine optimization?
We have been letting all things digital bask in the limelight to the exclusion of radio and TV. It’s time your clients and prospects were exposed to the truth and the synergistic power of a broadcast and online media mix.
It’s the age of electronic media; anything that’s on-air or on-line is electronic media. In this electronic age, it is ludicrous to incur the high production and delivery costs of cutting down trees, paying for lumberjacks, pulp and paper mills, truck drivers, and printing press operators to deliver your marketing message!
Next week’s ENS on Sales will reveal an action plan you can engage to ensure broadcasting claims its rightful role in the new media landscape. Don’t miss the plan that will help you increase your broadcast revenues.