Author Archives: admin

Radio Marketing Franchise

A Radio Marketing Franchise

Does your sales staff appreciate their FREE radio marketing franchise…that’s right, they have a free franchise!

Think about it, what do you get when you buy a franchise?

A recognized name and trade mark…..like your call letters.
A protected territory….like an account list.
Continuous product or service improvement…like your format and your audience.
Training…..like the training you offer your sales people.
Proven systems and procedures….like your traffic, ordering and billing systems
Advertising and Promotion….like the on-air listener contests you run.
Market Research …..like Arbitron, TOMA and other research you pay for.

I have had the privilege of consulting several national franchise organizations and their franchisees, and can tell you that many franchisees pay $50,000 to $100,000 or more just to buy the franchise, then pay for real estate, equipment, support staff and ongoing royalties for life, only to earn LESS than the top biller at your station!

One of the main selling benefits franchisors promote is “You get to be in business for yourself but not by yourself.” Don’t we offer the same benefits?

WOW! A free franchise with all of the benefits, none of the upfront costs or ongoing royalties, and an income potential that is greater than the average small business or franchise! Just knowing this makes the commissioned sales person feel a whole lot better about prospecting and developing new business for THEIR franchise!

Gift of Gab

The ‘Gift’ of Gab

Every once in a while I meet a sales person who proudly proclaims, “I’ve got the gift of gab.” In sales, that ‘gift’ is more aptly described as ‘the curse of chatter.’

Successful sales professionals know that sales is really more about listening than it is about talking.

Those with the curse more often engage in product feature speak than they do in providing customer-focused solutions or opportunities.

Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care….and caring is demonstrated by listening.

Listening is by far the most important and difficult skill a sales professional can learn and practice. The sales people who annoy and alienate prospects the most are those who claim to be good listeners but follow every customer objection with a “yah, but…..”

There is no room for the word ‘but’ in a good listener’s vocabulary.

To be a professional listener you need to;

1.) Earn the right to ask questions by learning something about the prospects business before you make a call.

2.) Prepare with open ended questions that encourage the prospect to express their views and feelings.

3.) Demonstrate you are listening by taking notes. (Always ask permission to take notes. “Your input is important to me, do you mind if I take a few notes?”)

4.) Paraphrase and summarize what you hear. Don’t start a debate.

5.) Use the language and needs you hear the customer express when you make your presentation.

6.) Make certain that every benefit you present relates to a need you heard the prospect express.

There is a lot more money to be made being interested than there is in being interesting. So why not shut up and make some money!

SELLING IN A TOUGH ECONOMY: Have you considered having Wayne Ens facilitate this enlightening workshop for your sellers?

Cross Examination or Celebration?

Cross-Examination or Celebration?

Walking past a sales manager’s office last week, I overheard this conversation;

Sales rep with enthusiasm, “I’ve got some orders here for you to sign.”
Manager nonchalantly, “I’m busy right now. Just leave them on my desk and I’ll sign them later.”
Sales rep, under her breath in the hall, “I wanted the satisfaction of seeing you sign them.”

Foot note: the rep pretended to be joking, but you know where there is smoke, there is fire.
This really happened!

Every order needs to be a celebration….that’s what all of the training, prospecting, spec spots, presentations and rejections we encounter are all about. To see the outcome of our efforts become anti-climactic is unacceptable.

What does it feel like to your sales people when they bring an order into your office? Is it a cross-examination or a celebration?

Is your first reaction, “Couldn’t you get a better rate?” or, “Why didn’t you sell all of our stations?”
or is it, “WOW! Congratulations, I know you worked hard on this one”?

Sales people face grinding on the streets every day. You should not compound that discomfort. That’s not to say you can’t take the opportunity to coach them on how to get better and bigger orders, but the celebration should ALWAYS come first.

&tt;div style=”margin: 0in 0in 0pt”>The next time, and every time, a rep comes in with an order, smile, stand up, shake their hand and congratulate them!

Robust Future of Radio

The Robust Future of Radio and TV

The more I study ‘new’ media, the more excited I become about the role of traditional broadcast in the new media mix.

Advertisers have always been in love with ‘word of mouth’ advertising, in part because recommendations made by a friend are perceived as more credible than paid advertising, and in part because word of mouth is free!

The various new social media are merely world word of mouth on steroids….happy customers that might have told two or three friends about a business can now tell two or three hundred friends with the push of a button.

But a new study released just last week quickly points out why advertisers can NOT put all of their eggs in the social media basket and must still use radio and TV to reach out to the masses.

The new study by Cone, a division of the Omnicom Group, reveals that becoming one of the businesses that attract followers or friends on social media is no easy feat.

In the press release that introduced the study, Cone said, “Even as new media adoption explodes – up 48 percent from 2009 – loyal followers can be hard to come by for companies trying to reach consumers online. With millions of the world’s brands a click of the mouse away, new media users still choose to demonstrate affinity (e.g., “like” on Facebook, “follow” on Twitter or subscribe to an RSS feed) for an average of only 4.6 companies online, making this club one of the most difficult to which a company can hope to gain access.”

In our Electronic Age Media Mix advertiser seminars, we encourage media companies and advertisers to embrace new media because they are all free or cheap.

But we also reveal new evidence every week that the clutter, fragmentation, and evolving new platforms make it impossible to replace traditional media with new media. New media can enhance a broadcast campaign in a low cost and measurable way, which is attractive to advertisers.

With the evolving demise of Yellow Pages and newspaper readership, radio and TV are becoming an even more important marketing communications tool for local advertisers who find it difficult to be one of the 4.6 businesses followed online.

An Idea you Can Sell

An Idea You Can Sell!

Here is an idea you can sell to any government or institution that needs to be positioned as saving the planet and saving the public’s money.

Local hospitals, colleges, governments and other institutions can be persuaded of the folly of printing and distributing mass quantities of their programs or annual reports in this age of electronic media…..broadcasters and websites can achieve their communications objectives without killing trees!

Our advertiser seminars are consistently converting former heavy print advertisers to a radio/TV/web alternative. Look at this email I received from one station sales manager this week.

Hi, Wayne; Do you remember a gentleman from your seminar from city hall’s Parks and Recreation Department, that you talked to about moving towards a paperless catalogue of their programs? He spoke to you after the seminar about your thoughts and you followed up with me in an email on how I could help.

Friday he called and told me that the municipality has bought into youridea of not sending out the programs in the weekly rag. They’re going to print one third the usual run and push the public via radio to the program on their website.

He has asked me to coordinate four buys per year with the other stations here. I love it when a plan comes together!

Additional Revenue

We have counselled many stations in not only converting these institutions to a broadcast/web combo, but in selling a sponsorship for the limited print distribution to a fast food restaurant chain that wants traffic. These organizations always want to print a few copies for that small portion of the public that does not have internet connections and there is always a sponsor who is happy to co-promote the distribution because it drives traffic to their stores.

Notice the progressive broadcaster that sent me that email is also working with his competitors to the benefit of all of the stations in his market and to the benefit of the client.

Our Electronic Age Media Mix advertiser seminar is converting more and more print advertisers every week, and we now have a program that reduces your costs and pulls every station in your market together to the benefit of all!!

Contact Wayne to arrange a free online demo!!

ENS on Sales

Marketing & Motivational Consultants