Author Archives: admin

Clients by Design

Clients by Design

          Over the last few weeks I’ve been reflecting on how ‘lucky’ I am to have such a progressive and honorable bunch of clients.

          Recently I had made a mistake and grossly under quoted a client on a project, but I was willing to live with my mistake. The client found out about my mistake and stepped up to the plate and offered to pay the proper rate.

          Other clients, even though they’ve been in ‘the biz’ for years, continue to surprise me with their willingness to change and grow.

          Upon further reflection, I‘ve come to the conclusion that all of us get the kinds of clients we deserve by design!

          If we’re hard selling, slick talking, or underhanded in our business practices, we’re going to attract low-life clients. If the only way we capture business is through self-interest packages or deep discounts, we’re probably attracting hard to please, low profit and slow pay clients.

          ENS Media Inc. has literally NO slow pay clients! And while I was thinking about my good fortune, my wife and business partner (who used to be a car salesperson J) said, “I’ve never met anyone in business with as much integrity as you.”

          Maybe we have great clients by design?

          Think about the kind of clients you enjoy doing business with and the way they do business. Then do business with the same ethics and principles your best clients exhibit. I’m betting you’ll attract the clients you deserve…clients by design! 

 

P.S. Thanks great clients!!

 

Randy Redden’s What If: What if instead of fighting about rate with your bottom feeders, you focused on super-service and a premium customer loyalty program that rewarded your best customers?

Momentum in Sales

Momentum in Sales

          Momentum is defined as, ‘an impelling force or strength’; i.e. “the car’s momentum shot it off the road”.

          In scientific terms, momentum is the product of mass and velocity (p=mv).

          At ENS Media Inc. we have made a science out of observing sales best practices and passing those practices on to our clients. One of the scientific formulas which dramatically affects sales is the science of ‘momentum’.

          In sales, ‘mass’ is the number of valid business contacts you make. And ‘velocity’ is the conviction, confidence, speed and proficiency with which you make those contacts.

          Momentum can be a very powerful self-perpetuating force!

Once you’ve made a great sale, resist the urge to take your foot off of the accelerator to bask in your victory. Instead, keep the petal to the metal while you have momentum on your side.

          The energy and confidence you exude with momentum on your side can be your impelling force or strength!

                    

Randy’s What If

            What if you made two more valid business contacts after every sale, instead of running back to the office or stopping to fill out the order?

Management Churn

Management Churn

            It’s that time of year. Old managers are retiring, up and comers seek to advance their careers, senior management changes strategies or consolidates and requires new managers.   Whatever the reason, both managers and employees are establishing new internal relationships. And often, managers tend to subconsciously favor those people they have hired themselves.

This may be because they have hired exactly the kinds of people they prefer to work with, they have past loyalties to previous employees, or they simply feel morally obligated to ensure their recruits succeed.  Whatever the reason, we’ve all seen it happen to varying degrees.

            So what’s the solution if you’re not one of the new manager’s personal recruits? Or for that matter, if you’re a manager who wants to ensure that you are working with the best people and are not prejudiced towards your hires?

            The solution, according to Priscilla Claman, President of Career Strategies, is for employees to ‘re-apply’ for their position with the new manager. Claman suggests, “If management churn occurs above you, don’t wait for the new boss to make the first move — or worse — go into hiding until the next change in management. Those who keep their heads down lose out, and those who take initiative survive. So take positive action, and get the closest you can to being hired; simulate it.”

            Here’s what we suggest. For New Managers; tell your ‘inherited employees’, you want to get to know them better and request an interview.

For Employees; be proactive and request an interview.

          In either case, take the following steps. Make an appointment for the interview. Update your resume, outlining the successes, achievements and contributions you have made and can make for the new leader. Always be positive and future focused.

Make it a 360 process. Managers should use the occasion to learn what people expect of them, and employees should use the interview to uncover what changes or expectations the new manager expects from them.

            The bottom line? New management is never ‘business as usual’ and it’s up to you to proactively be a part of the new regime and strategies, or suffer the consequences. Neither new bosses nor new employees can expect to rely on past achievements!

 

Randy’s What If’s 

What if you made an appointment for an interview every quarter…after all, conditions and strategies change quickly in the new economy?

 

How Did You Do It?

 

How Did You Do It?

 

          If you are a sales manager, you probably started in this business as a sales rep. And it was all about the math of selling. The number of cold calls and the number of ‘packages’ you presented became part of your success formula.

          Now as a sales manager, with probably very little management training, you’re expected to train the troops. Your idea of ‘training’ might go something like this; “When I was on the street I …”.

          Stop it! No one cares how you did it ‘in the old days’.

You know there have been dramatic changes in the world; changing technologies, changing station ownership, changing economies, changing, changing, changing.

          What is it that makes you think the marketing and sales arena is the only thing that hasn’t changed from ‘When I was on the street’?

          Let’s look at old world cold calling as an example.

How do you feel when a telemarketer interrupts your dinner to sell you something you haven’t felt a need for? How do you think your prospects feel when you embark upon a door to door coldcall campaign to sell them a one-size-fits-all package of the week? Most sales people don’t like making cold calls, and certainly most clients view these interruptions to doing business as rude! So why do we do it?

          I’ve focused on cold calls, because traditionally, that’s the beginning of the sales process, but frankly every step in modern strategic selling has changed today. And sales training has changed as well. Training is no longer a manager’s ‘show and tell’.

          Like with all other aspects of your business, you can either embrace the changing world of sales and sales training, or continue doing the same thing over and over. I’m sure you’ve heard what Einstein has called doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

          In the new media world, there is a better way of training and selling. It involves creating warm calls rather than cold calls, using technology to build stronger customer relationships, and it’s been proven to grow your long-term revenues. 

          Business guru Jack Welch says, “There is always a better way. Find it!”. Click here if you would like to discuss implementing our ‘better way’ for 2011.

You Are Not Selling Cars

            You Are NOT Selling Cars

           It never ceases to amaze me how many of the major broadcasters think business to business sales is like business to consumer sales. It’s not. We’re not selling cars. There’s a huge difference between selling cars and selling advertising.

          You see, consumers can only drive one car. So selling cars is a dog eat dog world. If I buy the Ford instead of the Chevy this week, the Chevy dealer doesn’t get another kick at the can for four years.

          But advertising is different. Advertising generates customers. And as long as the advertising is working, businesses can always use more…. more customers and more advertising. 

          Perhaps that’s our problem. We don’t believe our medium works. It’s a question of confidence in radio or TV advertising that causes us to combat other stations rather than combat other media.

          Do you believe a radio ad campaign works better with more stations, more reach and more frequency? Or would you rather be the only station in town on the buy, and see the rest of the ad budget go to other media?

          There are those who believe that radio ad budgets are a finite number, and they have to kill their radio competition to get their ‘share’ of radio budgets.

          But here’s the question; Who creates that radio budget?

If we’re doing our jobs, the person who creates that budget is the person we are calling on!

          And who can make the radio share of the total ad budget larger? That same person!

          To my way of thinking, we must do what’s best for our clients. What is best for the client? To see them dabble in a wide range of different media from an ever-growing list of web malls and social media, to buying every dwindling circulation paper, OR…to see them put a larger share of the budget into one media, radio or TV, with more stations or heavier schedules for better reach and frequency?

          I tell advertisers that a typical station has a reach of at least six radio reps. And every one of them will call and tell the client they bought the wrong station or they have a ‘better deal’ (i.e. car dealer mentality) when they hear them on another station.

          Harassed advertises will find it much less confusing to buy any media but radio as long as we keep telling them the other stations suck or we have a better deal!

          Late in 2010, we embarked upon a campaign to get radio stations to work together in 2011 to improve the profile, image, understanding and revenue for local radio.

          It’s been challenging to say the least. The car dealer mentality has limited our success so far, but I’m not ready to give up.

          I, for one, believe that more radio works! It works for clients, and certainly works for radio.  

          Admittedly, we’re a for-profit organization and our quest to get stations to work together in markets could turn a small profit. But the health of my business depends upon the health of the radio and TV business.

          I believe the broadcast industry’s health is reliant upon radio and TV capturing larger ‘shares’ for the broadcast industry in the face of increasingly fragmented digital competition and over-valued print competition.