Monthly Archives: November 2020

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 ChristmasClick 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!

Getting a “YES” to Renewals with an Upsell

Continuing from last week where we discussed “when” to start the renewal process, today we are discussing the process on “how” to prepare for an upsell at renewal time.

Let me first say that upselling should not only be limited to renewal time. At any point when you uncover a need or the client has given you buying signs, you should prepare and present your plan that includes the upsell.

As we suggested last week, the renewal process should begin two to three months before your current agreement ends.

First, ask your client to set up a time to discuss “their” coming year. When requesting this meeting, choose your words so that the meeting is about them and their business, not about you and your advertising proposal.  Say something like, “Mr./Mrs. Client, before we talk about your advertising plans for next year, I would like to set up a time to visit with you about what you think your business will look like in the next 12 months, what your plans are, what your goals are, and look more closely than ever on how to achieve those goals.”

After you have conducted this meeting, and any subsequent planning meetings, you then need to come up with a plan, including the “ideas” that will make your client consider investing more dollars with you and your station(s). Simply asking for an additional investment with no reasoning other than that you’re a rock-star media rep, and radio is a great medium, will generally fall on deaf ears and get you a NO to your proposed upsell.

I said generally. This doesn’t mean that if your client is receiving tremendous success from their current plan that they might not consider adding to their current program. They might!  We’re only suggesting that if you have “ideas” it will make it far more enticing to say YES!

Here’s the icing on the cake that will impress nearly every business owner. Create an “Annual Re-cap” of their advertising agreement with you and your stations. This should be done just as you would with a formal multi-page proposal to include a cover page, their prior-year agreement/contract, the total number of ads they received, any promotional support and the value, copies of any photos or media coverage from events or promotions they held, and every script they ran throughout the year.

When you finally get to sit down with your client and make the renewal presentation, start with the annual re-cap. Then, under a separate proposal, move on to your recommendations with the upsell for the new year.

Showing your clients that you are interested in their success by preparing and presenting in a professional manner, and going the distance that most other media reps are not willing to go, will greatly increase your chances of getting your client to say YES to your upsell!