Yearly Archives: 2020

The Greatest Gift

“The more one knows, the luckier he is, for knowledge is the greatest gift in life.”

– L. Frank Baum (author of Wizard of Oz)

Many years ago, I was given one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. I am not sure I completely understood it at the time, but eventually and thankfully I did.

The gift that I received was in the form of a quote and message. The quote was by Mark Twain, “The man who can read but doesn’t is no wiser than the man who can’t”.

The message was, “It doesn’t matter what you read, just read. If you are reading, you are learning”.

Both the quote and the message were given to me by my mentor. Since that time, he has also given me many books and has suggested many others. Thanks Jake!

If your goal is to become a better media rep, a better manager, a better mother or father, a better spouse, a better friend, a better leader, or just an overall better, happier, and wiser person, here is a list of recommended reading that will help:

Nelson Mandela, Portrait of An Extraordinary Man – Richard Stengel (Leadership and Life)

Restoring the Soul of Business, Staying Human in the Age of Data – Rashid Tobaccowala (Business Leadership)

Mind Gym, An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence – Gary Mack (Mind over matter – Good for business too)

Boys in The Boat, Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics – Daniel James Brown (Motivation, Tenacity, Endurance)

Game Plan for Life, Your Personal Playbook for Success – Joe Gibbs (Faith-Based, a guide for success in business and life)

Whale Done – The Power of Positive Leadership – Ken Blanchard (Leadership for work and home)

The Difference, When Good Isn’t Good Enough – Subir Chowdhury (Business Management and Leadership)

Mr. Jenkins Told Me… Forgotten Principles That Will Grow Any Business – Jonathan Bancroft (Business and Leadership)

Onward – How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul – Howard Schultz (Business)

Marketing Outrageously Redux – How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts! – Jon Spoelstra (Marketing – Advertising – Business)

The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus, How to Get Big Things Done in YOUR Workshop All Year Long – Eric Harvey, David Cottrell, Al Lucia, Mike Hourigan (Leadership – Setting Goals – Business)

Remember, the person who can read but doesn’t isn’t any wiser than the person who can’t read!

We wish you a very Blessed and Merry Christmas, and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2021!

Increase Your Approval Ratings

In the political world, politicians are rated two ways, by approval ratings while serving their term, and then ultimately at election time when their constituents either vote to keep them in office or send them packing.

In our world, advertising sales, we too are rated by our constituents, better known as our clients and prospects. How they perceive you will ultimately determine whether they choose to do business with you in the future, continue to do business with you, or increase the amount of business they do with you.

So, what’s your approval rating with your clients and prospects, and what are you doing to ensure that it’s not only strong now, but growing stronger?

If the only things your clients ever receive from you are proposals and invoices, your approval rating is probably low. If so, at some point, they’ll use their voting power by saying “no” to you!

The key to creating and maintaining a strong approval rating is by being something more than just another media sales rep. Are you educating them? Are you a resource for them and their business? Do you bring value to their business? Do you care only about their advertising or do you show concern for their overall business?

When you walk through their doors, do they make excuses to not see you, try to hide, or try to put you off? Or do they stand up and greet you warmly knowing that you are there to help them and not just sell them?

One of the products that we offer at ENS Media is called SoundADvice. SoundADvice is designed to do exactly what we are talking about today. It’s a four-part e-Marketing program sent each week to your clients and prospects on your behalf. It includes the media rep’s photo and the station logos, positioning them and your stations as the “advertising experts” in your market.

SoundADvice covers a wide range of topics related to running a business. Topics such as employee motivation, hiring and firing, customer relations, promotions, sales, all forms of marketing and advertising, and everything else related to running a business. Nearly all issues have a well-disguised spin on radio and advertising that provides an opportunity for you to start a conversation with your clients and prospects.

If you are interested to learn how the SoundADvice program can help you and/or your sales team increase your approval ratings with your clients and prospects, and ultimately increase your sales, click here to see samples with brief explanations of each part.

To see the true test of how effective SoundADvice is and how it can help you, click here to see testimonials from sellers and managers.

For a more detailed explanation of the SoundADvice program, additional examples, and pricing, call (605) 310-2062 or email [email protected].

Keep Fighting the Good Fight

The definition of fight the good fight, besides the biblical version, means, “Do your best. Do what is morally right.”

“I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.” -Lou Holtz

If you have been a reader of ENS on Sales, you know that one of the things I feel very strongly about and am willing to stand up and fight for is that of our local businesses, and the battle they have with out-of-town e-commerce companies that do not support our communities in any way.

In a little over one week, the holiday shopping season begins. For many of your local retailers, this holiday season will be much more than fighting the good fight; it will be a battle of either staying in business or shutting the doors.

For the past three years, we have asked and suggested that you stand up and fight for your local businesses in the battle against online, out-of-town, e-commerce companies. Are we winning the battle? The answer for most is No! Due to the COVID pandemic, both Amazon and Wayfair posted huge profits in both Q2 and Q3 of 2020.

So, the question is… Do you sit back and let them continue to pick away at our local retailers, or do you keep fighting the good fight?

I can assure you that regardless of how the local businesses fair during the holiday shopping season, they will remember who stood up and fought for them.

“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker

We hope that you choose to do the right thing and air ads in support of your local business community. To help, we have written a new “Buy Local” script titled, ‘Twas Just Weeks Before Christmas. Click here to receive a FREE copy of the script.

Keep Fighting the Good Fight!

Dump Nielsen NOW!

I don’t mean to be rude, but, if you subscribe to Nielsen ratings service, DUMP them now!

I’m not saying this because of their recent decision to go to a “subscribers first” policy. In fact, I agree with their decision and frankly, I am not sure why this hasn’t always been their policy. It never made sense to me that stations not paying for the service had access to it, even if it was in a roundabout way.

Here are the main reasons I have always been a staunch opponent of Nielsen or any other ratings service. Simply put, they make your sales efforts weaker and have caused far more campaigns to fail than they have ever helped.

In nearly every study conducted about how and what makes advertising campaigns successful, research shows that Creative is the most important element in determining whether a campaign is successful or not. Even Nielsen’s own study suggests that Creative, at 47%, is the most important element attributed to the success of a campaign. That study also stated that Creative is more important than Reach at 22%, Brand Strength 15%, Targeting 9%, Recency 5%, and Context 2%. Of these, only Reach and Targeting ( 31% combined) have anything to do with the success of an ad campaign. (I apologize for using Nielsen’s information for which I did not pay.)

Just imagine how strong radio would be today if instead of spending money on “ratings”, station owners invested the money on training their media reps and on-air talent how to sell and use radio correctly, and how to create, write, and produce great ads and ad campaigns.

Let’s be clear, the reason we have heard this statement, “I’ve tried radio once and it didn’t work”, far too often is not because of the number of listeners the station had or didn’t have, or whether or not they were reaching the “right” demographic. In most cases, it didn’t work because the ad or Creative SUCKED and/or they didn’t have enough frequency or consistency to give it a chance to work. It had nothing to do with ratings or rankings!

Continually spending money, year after year, on information that is reliable for only a matter of months or one year seems silly. Dump Nielsen NOW and invest that money into training your sellers and on-air team to sell radio correctly, and create, write, and produce GREAT radio ads.

We can help, and I can assure you that our fees are far, far, less than paying for ratings, and, we will deliver a much higher ROI than Nielsen or any other ratings service.

And… the knowledge you and your team will learn will certainly last longer than a year!

If you would like to visit about our approach, our fees, and our results, click here or give me a call.

A Lesson from the Cows

Today, I voted for…America!

…and if you’re from the US, I know you did too, regardless of which way or for whom you voted, even if it was different than I.

I ran across this Facebook post that a preacher friend of mine shared with me and I thought it was worth sharing with our readers. Several messages can be taken from this story, but for me, it was about being kind to everyone.

“Today was a hard day. A cow I call Rosie (brindle – red cow) had been in labor for too long and was in trouble. I left for the cow pasture before dawn to check on her and the whole way there I prayed. I asked God to give her a live calf. A few hours and a trailer ride later, God said no to my prayer. Even though his answer was no, he taught me a lot today. Loss is something that is inevitably going to happen if you own livestock. Our grief teaches us to appreciate the good. When I returned to the pasture with Rosie, something really extraordinary happened. I opened the trailer doors and she just stood there, head hung low and defeated. She was mourning. The other cows came to us and as many as would fit quietly loaded themselves in the trailer and stood there with her. Mind you, these are not tame pets, this was very unusual. They stood there silently with her on that trailer until she was ready to get off. She walked to the shade under a big oak, and every cow took turns laying their heads over her back, her neck, touching her nose with theirs. They grieved with her. I witnessed compassion between the animals I have come to know and love. Animals that some would say are not smart enough to know what happened. But they knew. So today God’s answer was no, but I have faith that his plan is good.”

Regardless of what part of the world you are from, this message is a lesson we all should embrace. It doesn’t matter what color skin we have, what economic background we grew up in or are in now, that we may have different beliefs and ideologies, whether I believe in the same God as you, and certainly not whether I have the same political preference as you. Kindness should be something that has no boundaries or prejudice.

When I was younger, I use to herd cows and more than once I would say, “come on you dumb cows”. Was I ever wrong!

I hope however the election ends up, that we ALL are as kind to one another as the cows were in this story!

Spread the word!