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Fresh Set of Eyes

Time for a Fresh Set of Eyes?

Henry Ford is renowned for looking outside of his own industry for creative new solutions to business problems. At a time when the industry was building cars from the ground up, one at a time, Mr. Ford designed the first-ever automotive assembly line after touring a Chicago meat packing plant. He noticed the efficiency of their ‘disassembly’ line as a steer entered at one end, and became various components, like steaks and roasts, at the other.

And a young Bill Gates wasn’t close enough to the big players to have tunnel vision when he captured the opportunities overlooked by the historic giant, IBM.

          It’s easy to get tunnel vision, chasing the same opportunities your competitors are chasing, and missing the same opportunities your competitors are missing.

          After all, you go to the same industry conferences and trade shows, read the same publications, and have similar experiences to your competitors.

          And yet in advertising, we know it’s all about promoting what is different about your business….why should a customer drive past four of your competitors to do business with you?

The most important question for marketers today is, “What opportunities can I uncover that the competition is missing?”

          More often than not, a fresh set of eyes can help you see the opportunities missed by you and your competitors.

          Could the ‘fresh set of eyes’ at ENS Media Inc. help you uncover new opportunities?  Click here if you would like to arrange an appointment to discuss what we might be able to do for you.

 

Pre-Selling Works!

SoundADvice works beyond everyone’s expectations!  Look what one account executive wrote to us last week.

“I have to say I have lately been really appreciating Sound Advice – I have prospects that after time I give up on or let too much time elapse between visits and 3 times in the last two weeks, when I fully expected to have to work on them from scratch I was thrilled when they greeted me (by name) and talked to me about the articles!!!

It keeps me in their face constantly and the ground work is almost completely laid and I can walk in and ask for the sale (even if I was a bit later than I should have been following up)!”  C.Best Giant FM

 

Who Controls Your Rates?

Who Controls Your Rates?

  Who controls your rates?  You, your competitors or your customers?
   Many floundering managers try to convince me their low rates are a result of competitive pressures….they think their competitors control their rates.
   Ultimately, your customers control your rates, which really means YOU can control your rates…Huh?
   Contrary to what you might think, your customers don’t want the cheapest rate, they want the best value for their investment.
  YOU are in control of, and can manage the value you deliver.
Value = customer expectations + or – the customer experience
        The good news is that you, not your competitors, can manage both ends of this equation!
 
Managing Expectations: Do your presentations make wild and exaggerated claims like ‘this package value is regularly $10000, now only $500?” Or do you create realistic customer-focused expectations on which you can over-achieve? Do you get agreement on what your clients can expect as a realistic return on investment?
Managing the Experience: Do you ‘take the order and run’, never to see the customer again until it’s time for another sale? Or do you monitor and manage the entire process from start to finish to ensure, and take credit for, over-delivery on your promises?
 
The weekly SoundADvice client newsletter we send to advertisers for our clients, often point out that there are too many variables in the marketing mix for any advertiser to blame or credit your campaign alone for their failure or success. Many uncontrollable variables from weather, to competitive events, to sales staff attitudes and more, all play a role in the actual sales generated from your campaign.
   Therefore, clients do not receive value as much as they perceive value, and it is up to you to manage that perception. You control the value perception which means YOU control what a client is willing to pay for your services.
 
P.S. If your sales people find it easier to persuade management to match a competitor’s low rate than it is to sell your clients on the value you deliver, they will always follow the least line of resistance.
 
Our Making Radio Tangible workshop helps account executives manage both ends of the Value Equation. Wayne says, “If the only thing tangible an advertiser receives from you after the sale is an invoice, you are headed for trouble!”
Click here to request more information about our Making Radio Tangible sales training workshops. 
 

Cheaper is NOT Better

Cheaper is Not Better

 
          When competition increases or times get tough, many marketers default to competing through lower prices or adding tons of ‘added value’.
          Much has been written and documented about the effect of pricing on customer attitudes and perceptions. Thanks to my friend, Kennen Williams at Noll and Associates, for forwarding this recent article to me;
 
CHICAGO (AFP) — Antonio Rangel, associate professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology, led a team to test how pricing shapes consumers’ perceptions and whether it also enhances their enjoyment of a product.
They asked volunteers to sample five different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and rate their taste preferences.
The taste test was blind except for information on the price of the wine.  Without telling the volunteers, the researchers passed off a 90 dollar bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a 10 dollar bottle, and presented a five dollar bottle as one worth 45 dollars.
The researchers scanned their brains to monitor the neural activity in the medial orbit frontal cortex — an area of the brain which to encodes pleasure related to taste, odors and sound.
They found that inflating the price of a bottle of wine enhanced a person’s experience of drinking it, as shown by the neural activity.
The volunteers consistently gave higher ratings to the more "expensive" wines.
Brain scans also showed greater neural activity in the pleasure center when they were sampling those "pricey" wines, indicating that the increased pleasure they reported was a real effect in the brain.
Professor Rangel concluded, "People’s beliefs about the quality of a wine affect how well it tastes for the brain,"
          How well does your station ‘taste’ in your clients’ brains?  At ENS Media Inc., we have countless media success stories by creating a sales culture where Account Executives believe, “We’re more expensive, proud of it, and worth every penny!”
 Maybe this research explains why our stations experience higher sales than the industry norm and above average renewal rates. 
*The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Power of the Paper Trail

Harness the Power of the Paper Trail

          The value equation is simple;
Value = Your Customer’s Expectation + or – Your Customer’s Actual Experience.
          Here is the good news. YOU control both ends of this important equation. Value is a perception rather than a reality, and you have the tools to create realistic expectations and take credit for over-delivery on those expectations.
          Many sales people, however, in a frantic effort to capture a sale, make promises and build expectations they can not possibly exceed. And just meeting the customer’s expectation does not deliver the positive value perception you need to build strong customer relationships.
          What is even sadder, some sales people who do deliver an experience greater than the expectation, do not take credit for doing so!
          Do you deliver an impressive written wrap up report after each of your major campaigns, complete with photos of customer traffic and outlines of what you did over and above what was contracted for? Do you conduct a post campaign analysis to make each campaign better than the last? Do you ALWAYS under promise and over deliver and have a paper trail to prove it?
          Radio has often been defined as an ‘intangible’. The dictionary defines tangible as ‘able to be perceived by a sense of touch’.
          Delivering comprehensive wrap up reports to your clients, with scripts, schedules, photos and more, can actually make their radio investment tangible!
          If the only ‘paper’ from you in your customer’s file is your attempt to get an order (your presentation) and an invoice, you are missing the boat.
           Account executives who deliver tangible evidence of their over-delivery in the form of a written wrap up report soon find themselves immune to pressure from competitors who do not manage the experience side of the value equation.  
         
Budgeting for next year?  Consider including our Making Radio Tangible sales seminar for your team!  
 

The Nicest Lie

The Nicest Lie

          If you are working with the real decision-maker in an organization and they turn down your proposal because “it’s not in the budget”, you’ve just been lied to!
          Business owners often find it easier to turn you down by blaming their budget rather than your station, your idea, your audience or your price.
          You often use the same escape tactic.  When a clerk approaches you in a furniture store and asks, “Can I help you?” you’ve learned it’s easy to get rid of them by simply saying “No thank you, we’re just looking.”
          ‘Just looking’ is a nice lie.  No one takes time out of their busy schedule to ‘just look’ at furniture if they have no intent or money to buy.
          Here is how I know that “it’s not in the budget" is a courteous lie if you are dealing with the real decision maker:
1.) Who makes the budget? The real decision maker!  It is their budget and they can change or add to that budget whenever they want to.
2.) Business owners by definition, make investments with the expectation of getting a return on their investment….that’s what they do for a living.  When you are told “it’s not in the budget” they’re really telling you, “You have not convinced me I will get a significant return on my investment.”
          Your job is to uncover the reason they feel that way and return with a better customer-focused presentation that does convince the business owner she will get a return on her investment.    
NOTE: If the person you are presenting to really cannot change or increase the ad budget, they are not the decision-maker, only the budget-allocator.