Monthly Archives: October 2019

How Do You Reply?

It happens nearly every day. You meet someone for the first time and the common question asked is, “What do you do for a living?”

How do you reply?

Do you offer the common boring response, “I sell advertising”, or, “I sell advertising for (your station/group name)”? Or, do you give a much more profound, creative, and exciting answer?

We are in a creative profession so start with a creative response to this mundane question. While this little reply (your “elevator speech”) isn’t necessarily going to make or break you, it can mean the world of difference in how the person asking perceives you.  We only get so many chances to tell the world what we do, and this is one of those opportunities. Be prepared to take advantage of it!

So, what do you do?

As a media rep, I would say, “I work with small to medium-sized businesses helping them create strategies and ideas so they get a better return on their advertising dollar”.

As a manager, it would be something like, “I manage a group of media reps and help train them, give them ideas, and keep them motivated so they can, in turn, help their clients get a better return on their advertising dollar”.

As a media and sales consultant, I say, “We work with small to medium-sized media markets, mostly radio, helping train their managers and media reps so they can help their clients get a better return on their advertising dollar. In return, they ultimately generate more local revenue”.

Each of these statements is just the beginning of the conversation and hopefully it leads to more discussion.

Whether a sales rep or a manager, draft a short, creative statement that you are comfortable with, that will make the person asking the question say, “Wow, that’s interesting!”

Write it down, memorize it, and be prepared to use it the next time someone asks, “What do you do?”

One Time a Year

Whether you are a media rep or in management, we appreciate you reading ENS on Sales each week. We hope that you find the articles helpful.

From our years in management, we know this is the time of year that you start making plans for 2020. With that in mind, one time a year we take the opportunity to present to you a complete lineup of ENS Media’s products and services. This is that week.

If you’re considering any outside training, revenue-generating programs, or workshops, give me a call anytime. Of course, no obligation. We can simply visit about your situation and what you’d like to accomplish.

Here is a line-up of our products and services. Click here to read some of our testimonials.

TOMA Surveys and Seminars: These local market surveys and seminars provide your clients and prospects, along with your sales team, valuable knowledge on the power of radio combined with the new digital media. Following the seminar, Rick stays in the market and meets 1-on-1 with clients and reps. This entire program is designed to generate new annual revenue and provide your media reps with hundreds of new prospects and information on how to sell in the new media world.

SoundADvice: Our 4-part weekly E-marketing system is designed to brand your media reps and stations as the advertising “experts” in your market. This completely self-sufficient system keeps your media reps in weekly contact with clients and prospects by providing valuable bits of information on running a business. Every true marketing professional should use SoundADvice. It is market exclusive when purchased as a group, but is also offered on an individual rep basis.

Recruitment Advertising Seminars: New in 2020. These 45-minute mini-seminars (suggest 3-4 per market visit) will conquer 3 things: 1) Answer and provide a solution to your clients’ and prospects’ biggest concern… how to attract, hire, and retain “good” employees 2) Increase your sales and revenue with this proven system 3) Train your reps to sell more Recruitment Advertising in the future and further position them as true advertising experts with their prospects and clients.

Workshops and Presentations*: We create and conduct workshops that cover nearly every area of the radio sales cycle. Here are individual topics on which we do 1 or 2-hour presentations/workshops, or combined, ½ day or full-day workshops:

·      Prospecting / Cold Calling: Main Street is Shrinking

·      1st Meeting / CNA: Ask Better Questions to Get Better Answers

·      Creating Presentations/Proposals

·      How to Create Strategies and Why Strategy Wins!

·      20 Tips for Creating Better Ads

·      Customer Lifetime Value

·      Selling Radio vs Digital (How to embrace digital)

·      How to Sell Radio “MORE Better”

·      7-Criteria for Effective Advertising

·      How to Create TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness)

·      Marketing Funnel: Passive Media vs Intrusive Media

*We can and will create specific workshops to match your unique needs.

If you would like to talk, contact me and provide the best day and time to call, or, simply call me anytime at the number below.

Again, thank you for reading ENS on Sales, and thank you for allowing me to present our company.

A Different Route… to Prospecting

Prospecting is a never-ending process in sales and it’s the one step, for several reasons, that it often gets moved to the back-burner.

Here is an easy way to make prospecting part of your daily commute to and from the office… Simply take a different route!

If you are like most, the route you take to work is the same, day after day, week after week. It’s easy, you know exactly how long it will take, and unless a new business sprouts up, the view is the same.

Starting this week, dedicate yourself to finding a few different routes to or from work and take these routes once a week now through the end of the year. Travel it in both directions. You’ll see things differently.

On your new journey, you’ll potentially see a variety of things that may land you a new suspect or prospect. You’ll see businesses that you may have never heard of before. In addition, you may notice things like Grand-Openings, Going Out of Business signs, Open to the Public on Saturdays, Factory Liquidation, New Store Hours, Special Events, Help Wanted, etc.

As Robert Frost so eloquently wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”.

By taking a “different route” to the office, and to your prospecting, you may just stumble onto someone who has passion for their business, and it could make all the difference!

If you’re planning on taking a different direction to achieving success in 2020 and beyond, we would like to visit with you about our revenue-generating programs and services that will brand your stations and your media reps as “THE” advertising professionals in your market.

Contact me to arrange a time to visit.

A Second Chance

You’ve heard the expression that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. While that may be true when it comes to meeting people, it’s not necessarily the case when it comes to B2B (business to business) sales. In fact, in the B2B sales world, if you play your cards right, not only may you get a second chance, but you could get a third, fourth, fifth, and even beyond.

There is a reason that those selling vehicles, appliances, furniture, and other B2C (business to consumer) products come off a bit pushy, and by doing so, often lose the opportunity for a second chance. It’s because once the customer has made the purchase, they are out of the market for an extended period of time. It’s Risk versus Reward. They push because they know that it may be years before those customers are in the market to purchase again.

In media sales, if you make a presentation to a prospect or client today and they say no, you can always reload and present again tomorrow or in the very near future, IF…

The “IF” is… If, you play your cards right and take the “no” professionally. No pouting, no arguing, no trying to make them feel guilty or stupid because they didn’t accept your ideas or didn’t want to do business with you.

Accept the “no” politely and professionally and be ready to reply with a few well-prepared statements and questions, such as, “Mr./Mrs. Prospect, I really appreciate your time and consideration of our proposal or plan. Can I ask you a question or two? Is there a specific reason that you have decided not to move forward with this plan? If I were to re-tool this plan or go back to the drawing board, what changes, things added or subtracted, would you like to see?”

Find out what the possible reasons may be and re-think your proposal. A warning though; business owners do lie and how they respond to these questions may not necessarily be the truth. Be prepared to dig a little deeper to uncover the real reasons.

By being professional, you will always leave the door open to present again. Anything less is unacceptable. In media sales, there is always a second, third, fourth chance to make that first time sale.