Monthly Archives: August 2019

You’ve Been Lied To

Have you ever had a business owner tell you after you made your presentation that they don’t have the budget? Sure, you have.

If you are dealing with the true decision-maker, you have just been lied to!

It’s not a lie in the sense that it was meant to hurt you. It was more of an excuse because they would rather say that than, “I don’t like your idea”, “I don’t think your station is the right fit”, or one of several other excuses that would ultimately put the blame on you and potentially hurt your feelings!

There are several lessons to learn from this example:

  1. Make sure you are talking to the decision-maker from the very beginning.

  2. If they are absolutely the decision-maker and they use this objection, dig deeper and find out what the real objection is. You might reply with something like, “Mr./Mrs. Business Owner, with all due respect, you are the person that makes all budgeting decisions. If you really liked the idea I presented and felt it would help grow your business, you would find the budget, correct? So, can I respectfully ask why you don’t want to move forward with this plan? I can assure you I won’t be offended by doing so.”

  3. If you come up with a strong enough idea that they are convinced will give them a strong ROI, they’ll find the money. Side Note: Ask for what the idea is worth. Good ideas are worth Good money. Great ideas are worth Great money. If you have a GREAT idea, don’t be afraid to ask for a BIG budget!

Your job is to uncover the real reason why they said, “It’s not in the budget”. It’s then your job to tweak your plan accordingly, or if needed, re-load and come up with an altogether new proposal based on their feedback.

It’s not an easy question to ask, and it’s one you can and should practice prior to it ever happening. By not asking, you are simply prolonging them from ever buying from you.

Planning for 2020? To learn more about our TOMA Surveys and Seminars, SoundADvice e-Marketing Program, and our new Radio Recruitment Advertising Seminars, go to our website at www.ensmediausa.com.

They “Indeed” Get It!

If you missed it, Radio INK’s Radio Headlines reported that the mammoth online job site Indeed was radio’s largest advertiser for the week of August 5th.

Why does Indeed have so much faith in radio? I will suggest it’s for two reasons: 1) because it works and 2) because they have to. They have to? I’ll explain later.

Gallup, along with other polling companies, suggests that somewhere between 50-71% of the population would consider a new job if one was presented to them, and between 40-50% are actively searching for a new job or career.

Regardless of what part of the country you live in, if you ask a business owner today what the biggest challenge of running a business is, they will tell you, “finding good employees”.

Finding applicants isn’t necessarily the problem but finding “good applicants” can be! 10-plus years ago, this wasn’t the case. If you needed to add an employee, you simply ran a help-wanted ad in the classifieds and BOOM, you had more than enough qualified candidates. That quickly changed. Today, the classifieds are a ghost-town.

The current “go-to” source for employment is online job posting websites likeIndeed, ZipRecruiter, Monster, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, and many others.

Do they work? They certainly work better than the classifieds. The problem with job boards is that they primarily reach people that are actively looking. They are the “job hoppers”, and one can assume not as desirable of a candidate.

Radio has several strengths when it comes to recruitment. One is that it reaches the “passive job seeker”, the person not actively looking but would consider a different opportunity if presented with one. Another is that radio reaches their “center of influence”; the husband, wife, mom, dad, brother, sister, friend, or co-worker that knows they are potentially looking for a different opportunity.

So why does Indeed “have to use radio”? “Have to” is probably too strong of a statement, but they need to in order to reach the more attractive “passive job seeker”.

There are several key elements to selling and creating successful recruitment advertising. The most important is that the ads must be compelling; they CANNOT sound like a typical help-wanted ad. If you would like to know all 4 Elements to Effective Recruitment Advertising, and, the one question that your sales team should be asking every client, email me at[email protected].

In 2020, ENS Media will be offering “Recruitment Advertising Seminars”. These seminars are designed to 1) Generate additional revenue for your stations 2) Help solve the #1 concern most business owners have today – you’ll be the hero 3) Educate your clients and prospects on how to attract and hire better candidates, and 4) Train your sales team on how to sell more recruitment advertising in the future. If you’d like more information on these Recruitment Seminars, email Rick, [email protected] or call 605-310-2062.

To Call or Not to Call

Here’s the scenario. You have an appointment that you set up a week ago and it’s a healthy distance away from your office. Do you call them to confirm the appointment prior to leaving or do you not call and take a chance?

Knowing how busy business owners and managers can be, there is no question that if you choose to call to confirm there is a decent chance that they will reschedule. That’s the chance you take.

An aggressive sales trainer would tell you to take the chance, show up and work your way in. Their logic is that it’s much harder to tell someone “no” in person than it is over the phone and you may not get another chance.

The professional media rep that not only respects the time of others, but their own, would call to confirm. Especially in this circumstance where travel time is an issue, we suggest that when you initially set the appointment inform them that you will call the morning of or the day before to confirm.

There are five primary reasons why confirming appointments make sense:

1)   Time management – Don’t waste your time.

2)   It helps establish you as a professional.

3)   It shows that you respect their time.

4)   It helps prepare the client and puts them in the right frame of mind, ready for your appointment.

5)   If in fact they do cancel, they will be more obligated to reschedule.

Professional media sales are built on long term relationships and being respectful of your client’s time is a good way to ensure they will say “yes” to future appointments.

This little point may seem obvious, but I can assure you it happens on a regular basis. Before it happens to you or one of your reps, do the right thing and make the call to confirm the appointment.

Deadlines

Procrastination on your part doesn’t necessarily constitute

an emergency on my part”

This quote hangs on the walls at many repair and service centers and it would be very appropriate hanging in most radio station Production Departments.

Every radio station has deadlines or cut-offs for turning in production. The question is, are the deadlines being enforced?

Pushing deadlines on a regular basis or ignoring them altogether can have serious effects on an operation. Tempers flare! When the deadline is breached, who’s to blame and how do you fix it?

Regardless of whether it was the media rep or the business owner, the onus falls on the media rep. When the business owner procrastinates, it then becomes the media rep’s job to either make sure the client is timelier, or it’s their job to inform them that they cannot get the ads on as planned. If it’s poor planning on the media rep, then shame on them! Worse yet, if it’s a manager or owner, double shame on them!!! You MUST lead by example!

As a manager, when someone abuses the policy, the fix is easy. Simply tell the rep that their client will not be getting on the air as planned. One time will do the trick.

To ensure it doesn’t become a problem with new clients and new media reps, train them in advance. Missing or abusing production deadlines are self-created when we don’t educate the client about the necessity of our deadlines. Having this conversation with the client at the time of the sale will go a long way.

Having a written production deadline policy that is firm and fair and is adhered to is a must. Not only will it produce better internal relationships, which in turn produces better campaigns and better results, but it will also create happier weeknights, weekends, and holidays for everyone… especially our Production Departments!

SEO vs SOM

Internet guru, Seth Godin, says, “The last click someone clicks on before they buy something isn’t the moment they made up their mind”.

With most purchases, the mind has been compressing logical information and the heart has been building an emotional connection with the business or product long before the purchase was about to be made.

So, who gets credit for creating the relationship between your listeners and your clients, and who gets credit for the sale?

Broadcast INSPIRES and the internet INFORMS. In today’s new media world, the way we shop has changed. Businesses and products that are marketed and advertised correctly use both mediums in tandem to make sure they have the best chance of being considered by the consumer.

Our TOMA research of over 160 markets and nearly 30,000 people suggests that 72.5% will click on a business name that they are familiar with. Only 4% will click on the name at the top of the page and 23.5% will click on both. An article in Search Engine Journal confirms this by stating that “nearly 70% of U.S consumers said they look for a ‘known retailer’ when deciding what search result to click on”. They go on to say, “Branding is our only hope for conducting better SEO”.

The conclusion is, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) does very little unless they have GREAT SOM (Share of Mind) or TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness).

While the digital mediums are used closer to the actual purchases to gather information, they may get most of the credit, but it’s the traditional media (radio/TV) that inspires the consumer and creates the emotional relationship.

Does your sales staff know how to position radio’s powerful role in the marketing or buying funnel?

The secret to creating more revenue for your stations is to train your team how to position the strategic role of intrusive radio advertising to create a pre-need pre-search preference for your advertisers in the minds of your listeners.

To learn how our ENS Media TOMA Surveys and Seminars can help train your sales team and educate your clients and prospects, click here and I’ll gladly give you more information.