While March 20^th was officially the first day of spring, in some parts of the country, it really doesn’t feel like spring until much later. That’s especially true this year for those of us in the north. It’s late April and we’re still not sure spring has sprung!

When you think of spring cleaning, you think of washing the windows, thatching the lawn, and picking up the sticks and leaves. Some go much deeper and include washing and cleaning the garage floors, vacuuming, dusting, and washing vents, baseboards, windowsills, blinds, light fixtures, and shades. They call that deep spring cleaning!

There are many reasons why we should do a spring cleanup both inside and out. Without going into specifics, spring cleanup prepares us for the next few months. Not only is your home clean, inside and out, but it’s also healthier and you and your lawn are better prepared for new growth.

That relates to you and your home. But what about your business?

In sales, it seems that more often than not we simply go about our days and only think about cleaning our office area and evaluating how we go about our profession at the very end or beginning of each year.

Springtime is a great time to stop, pause, and think about how your 2023 has started off, and it’s a great time to make necessary adjustments and get ready for growth.

Start by looking at your workspace; is it clean and fresh? Does it provide a positive, light, and creative space or is it drab, dark, cluttered, and uninspiring? Do the same thing with your clothing. Do you need to throw out some of the old and get a new clean, fresh, and professional look? Is your vehicle clean, inside and out? Remember, you are being judged by everyone around you. Your co-workers, your leaders, and your clients and prospects!

Next, does your workspace need a spring cleaning? Even if you are one of those people that believes you function better in clutter, the truth is, when we spruce up and organize our space, we feel better about ourselves, and we can’t help but function much better! This includes your desktop and your files, paper and digital. I have never once cleaned or spruced up anything, car, wardrobe, or workspace, and said to myself, “Man I wished I hadn’t done that. I was more productive when it was dirty and unorganized”. I doubt you have either!

Lastly, do a quick check to make sure all your tools are prepared and in place for the coming months. Are you prepared to keep everything in tip-top shape so that you can look, feel, and function at a maximum level so you can be as productive as possible?

A good spring cleaning is good for the Mind, Body, and Soul, in Life, and in Business!

While reading a story on customer satisfaction with products, it dawned on me that the reasons people stay loyal to certain products or brands are the same reasons that business owners stay loyal to their media reps and stations.

A story published in eMarketer.com quoted several surveys, all related to “Why we Buy: Consumer Behavior and Loyalty in the Age of Infinite Options”. One survey by Criteo stated the obvious, and that was that quality products or services at a good price are still the biggest drivers of brand loyalty.

More importantly, the article went on to quote a survey conducted by Epsilon that said, “Eighty percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences”. In our line of work as marketing reps, this is where we start to separate the GREAT reps from the good reps. What type of personalized experience(s) do you offer to your clients and prospects that make you stand out from the crowd? 

Yet, in another survey by Morning Consult, it said 88% of respondents agreed that well-priced products with matching quality are important. More significantly, 92% said reliability and durability were key in creating brand loyalty. Are you reliable and durable for your clients? Are you there when they need you, and are you continually bringing them ideas to help them grow their business? 

Finally, and here is where we really separate the GREAT from good, and good from average…The same survey from Morning Consult stated that the primary reason for abandoning a brand was that the quality had gone down. Never take your clients for granted. Always be doing things (personalized experiences) that make them appreciate you more and more every month and year.

Here’s the big question. As a media rep, what are you doing that separates you from your competitors?

ENS Media’s SoundADvice program can be the very thing that will start separating YOU from THEM!

Here’s what one satisfied sales manager has to say about SoundADvice:

“More Training? All well and good but how ‘bout actually changing the landscape to make it easier for your well-trained sellers to succeed?

We’ve found SoundADvice is far and away the easiest, turn-key way to position yourself and your team as the local “go-to” experts. It’s true. When it comes to marketing ourselves, we don’t practice what we preach AND we’ve got the stations!

I know you’re busy and more time-poor than ever. All the more reason to use SoundADvice. They do the heavy lifting. You reap the referrals.”                                           

Click here for more SoundADvice testimonials.

To find out how easy and affordable SoundADvice is and how effective it can be to help you keep and build better relationships with your prospects and clients, click here to arrange a call with Rick.

Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay!” 

What is the value of training your sales team? Is it a waste of time or is it time well spent? Study, after study, after study continues to show that most company meetings are unproductive and a waste of time… Harvard Business Review, 71% of senior managers said meetings are unproductive and inefficient; Inc. Magazine, 90 percent of employees feel meetings are “costly” and “unproductive; and the list goes on and on.

Let’s be honest. It’s rare when someone says they enjoy and look forward to regular sales or training meetings, including the person responsible for putting the meetings together. Creating good, productive training sessions, especially on a regular basis, is not easy.

There are a few key elements to conducting more productive meetings so that your employees get more out of them, and also to help you make them more enjoyable.

One of the most important rules to follow regardless of whether it’s in person or via video is to lighten up. Make them fun, informative, and entertaining! The main reason meetings are so unpopular is that they are no fun, they’re boring, redundant and unfortunately, most reps will say, they are a waste of time.

The irony is that properly planned and focused training meetings can be one of the most productive, unifying, and motivating uses of everyone’s time in your organization.

Your people are one of the most valuable marketing assets you have, yet many businesses treat employee meetings with these resources as necessary evils rather than opportunities to enhance productivity.

Properly planned training will achieve four major objectives for you:

1.) Communication

Planning to always communicate something new, or re-profiling old subjects to make them appear new at every meeting, dramatically reduces staff boredom and encourages enthusiastic attendance.

2.) Knowledge

Your best people are hungry for knowledge and your investment in their education makes their jobs more rewarding. Better-trained people generate more sales and contribute to higher customer satisfaction levels. 

3.) Motivation

Your regular employee meeting is also the ideal place to consistently reinforce and promote your company’s vision or mission.

4.) Entertainment…. yes, that’s right. Entertainment!

Entertainment, or a “Fun Factor”, is the secret ingredient to making sure the attendees are engaged.

Planning and executing effective training/sales meetings is a very difficult task to do on a regular ongoing basis. If your meetings are productive and effective, congratulations! If not and you would like some free tips, ENS Media has a list of “Do’s and Don’ts of Employee Meetings” which offers tips to help make your meetings more productive and entertaining.

The litmus test is to ask your staff how they feel about sales meetings. If they say you have too many or they are too long, they are in the 70 to 90% that think meetings are “usually a waste of time”!

If you would like to see our 9 Do’s and Don’ts for Productive Employee Meetings, click here to let us know and we will send it to you.

Train them and create a culture where they never want to leave.

Better Training = Better Sales!

When selling a new prospect advertising on your station, how long should it take to make the sale?

The correct answer is… as long as it takes, to do it right! Too fast or too slow can both have adverse effects. But in most cases, moving too fast can have greater long-term adverse effects than moving too slow. Patience, more often than not, is a virtue!

Keep in mind that media sales are different from automotive, furniture, or insurance sales. Advertising sales are business-to-business sales; if we lose the sale to a competitor or don’t make the sale today, there will nearly always be another opportunity in the near future. The automotive, furniture, insurance, and other like categories are business-to-consumer sales and the urgency is much greater. They understand that if they don’t get the sale today, the prospect may well be out of the market tomorrow. However, even with that said, the best salespeople, regardless of what they are selling, nearly always have patience.

In media sales, two factors determine how long you should take:

1)   The value of the client. Is it a long-term client or a short-term client? The more potential value the client has, the more patience you should have. Don’t rush in with ideas and plans that aren’t well-thought-out. Make sure you play your cards correctly. 

2)   How much time does the client/prospect need to trust you? Building “trust” takes time, and if they trust you at the point when they say yes to your plan, the chances are much greater that they will give your plan the time it needs to work. 

Even if they don’t trust you, they may buy from you once or twice, but without trust, the chances of them becoming long-term clients are very slim.

In our experience, a majority of the medium to large long-term contracts our team wrote took at least 3 months to close, and some took 6 months or more. The key is, once they bought into the ideas and plans that we had taken our time to create for them, they were committed and stayed with the program. 

18^th-century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said it best, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet”. It takes time to reap the rewards. 

When you find a potential client that has value, be patient with them. Take the time to come up with great ideas. Ask deeper questions. Show a keener interest in their business and use that time to build trust and rapport. Once they say yes, you’ll have them for a lifetime.

Patience is a virtue and patience pays!

We’ve all been there before. You’re out prospecting, walk into a business and there sits the “office gatekeeper”. Their job is to protect the decision-maker and to make it hard, if not impossible, for you to get through to them. Your job is to find out who the decision-maker is and if possible, meet them!

Let the game begin!

Having a specific and proven way to advance can be key to moving the process forward. Stumble your way through it, and the tenacious gatekeep wins.

You have three strategic alternatives to getting past these sales preventers:

1.) Go around them.

2.) Wait until they die or leave the company.

3.) Win them over.

In reality, option three, winning them over, is your only viable option. The process of winning over the gatekeeper begins with respect.

Before you even introduce yourself, say these words…“I hope that you can help me”, then pause … and wait for them to reply. Once they commit to helping, you’re halfway there. See, people love to help other people, and if you ask for their help, chances are they will do what they can. You’ve just softened the gatekeeper!

The gatekeeper can actually be a great supporter of you. Depending upon how well you treat them, they can play a major factor in determining if you get to see the decision-maker. They can also answer many questions for you, and you are more apt to get an answer if you ask for their help.  

Show them respect, ask their opinion, and above all ask … “I’m hopeful that you can help me?”

One last thing… on your way out, ALWAYS say to the gatekeeper, “Thank you for your HELP”!