My website sucks, my Facebook and LinkedIn pages are dated and an embarrassment and my attempts at mobile marketing are non-existent.

We are marketing experts and we certainly recognize the value of websites, social media, videos and mobile media. So why don’t we practice what we preach?

We’ve been trying to upgrade our web site since June, 2012. Alysia Taylor, our Integrated Media Specialist, has been working on a social media strategy for us since late last summer. We still have no new web site or productive social media strategy.

Why am I exposing our marketing weaknesses?

Because ENS Media Inc. is a small business, I can certainly empathise with the challenges of other small businesses. We’re so busy just doing a kick-ass job for our clients that our own marketing goes to the bottom of the pile every day.

And I’m sure most of your clients and prospects are in the same boat. Just running their businesses and serving their customers is a full time job. And keeping up with the ever-increasing and fragmented media choices is downright bewildering.

This exploding new media syndrome creates a huge opportunity for broadcast marketing professionals….creative marketing experts who know how to help increase their advertisers’ sales.

Your biggest competitive advantage isn’t your media, your format, your signal or your ratings. It’s your expertise and turn-key solutions. All a local business needs to do to increase their sales through you is say, "yes".

You will conduct the needs analysis, create the strategy, write and produce the campaigns, schedule the ads and increase your clients’ sales. All they have to do is run their business, deliver the advertised promises and make more money. You’re a God-send!

Never under-estimate the value you deliver beyond the "spots" you sell. Turn-key one-stop marketing solutions for harried business owners are worth their weight in gold!

The top-producing account executives we work with always know the answers to these ten questions about every client:

1. Who is the real decision maker? Not to be confused with the decision-allocator. In the case of a car dealership for example, the sales manager might decide which stations or what media they choose, but only the real decision maker, the dealer principal, can increase the budget. Top producers develop valid business reasons to connect with the ultimate decision maker. Organizational changes might displace the decision allocator, but the real decision maker will always be able to invest with you. Ad agencies are only decision allocators.
2. When is the planning cycle? Many know the buying cycle, or fiscal year end, but it’s more critical to know the planning cycle. The top account executives will be a sustaining resource prior to and during the planning process. If the plan is struck to the exclusion of radio, you have an uphill battle. But if the plan includes radio, you only have to fight for your share.
3. Who are the key influencers? With tough competition and pressures on profit margins, every decision is critical and seldom made unilaterally. The best owners and managers minimize their risk by consulting their staff, trusted advisors, and perhaps even industry gurus before making major decisions. Who are they and what can you do to win them over?
4. What is the value you deliver? What is it the advertiser really wants from you, and what do they believe it’s worth? Consulting? Creative? Reach? Traffic? Sales? It might be a combination of benefits. The top account executives know how much they will add to the bottom line and what that is worth to the client.
5. What is the budget? Budgets can always be increased with the right understanding of client needs and your value proposition. The best account executives know what the current budget is, and what share they capture.
6. How will they measure? Web hits? Gross sales? New faces? Mentions? Traffic? Sales? You need to know up front how you will be measured, and how to measure-up.
7. Why would the advertiser cancel? What would be the most likely reason they would cancel or not renew? And what steps can we take to prevent that from happening?
8. What’s the next step? What is the next good thing or valid business reason we are preparing for our next call? Pre-call customer-focused planning is the hallmark of the best reps.
9. What is the advertiser’s competitive advantage? Why should your audience abandon their current provider/supplier in favour of this client, and how can you validate that competitive advantage in your campaigns?
10. Where does my client want his business to be five years from now? Rookie account executives only focus on short-term solutions-selling. The top reps know their clients’ long term dreams and visions and how to fit into those plans.

Advertising has always been simply ‘multiplied salesmanship’; telling your selling message repeatedly to mass audiences. In the modern selling world, we know that advertising must engage or be engaging.

‘Engage’ means to draw into or involve. Telling is no longer selling, and just as your advertising must engage an audience, it’s even more important that your one-on-one sales presentation engage your prospect in an interactive manner.

To draw your prospect into or involve them in your presentation, it must be interactive. You need to ask, rather than tell.

For example, rather than telling your prospect about the power of top of mind awareness, you can help your prospect discover the link between awareness and sales by asking questions. You might ask "What’s the first brand you think of when I ask you to name a brand of soup you would expect to find in a super market." They will invariably get involved and answer.

When they answer "Campbell’s’, you can follow up with another question, you might say "That’s interesting. Did you know that a study done by ENS media found that 80% of consumers named Campbell’s just like you did? And more importantly, did you know that 80% of the super market soups are sold by Campbell’s? Do you think there is a link between awareness levels and sales levels?"

There is a simple magic to asking rather than telling.

First, when a prospect is answering your question they have no time to think about their objections.

Secondly, when they discover for themselves the answer you want, they take ownership of that answer and buy into the point you have just helped them discover. We call it Guided Discovery Selling.

When you have a point to make, there is always a way to ask questions to help your prospect discover and agree with your point. For example, when a prospect tells you they tried radio on another station and "radio doesn’t work" resist the temptation to tell them why your station is better than the station that didn’t work.

Instead craft a question. You might ask "Have you ever had a bad meal at a restaurant?" Of course they will say, "Yes". If you engage them further with a follow-up question like "Did you quit going to restaurants, or did you quit going to THAT restaurant?" they discover not all suppliers are equal. Now, you have opened the door for a discussion about why your station is different!

In today’s confusing and evolving new media landscape, selling is teaching. The most effective teachers don’t preach or pontificate. They ask questions, initiate experiments, take field trips and use various engaging and interactive methods to help students discover the answers for themselves, rather than telling them what they need to know. In academic circles it’s called the Guided Discovery Teaching method.

Click here to inquire how our copyrighted Guided Discovery Selling method can increase your sales.