Jimmy Durante probably said it best when he said “Be careful! You meet the same people on the way down that you stepped on, on your way up.”
          Job interviews can be an un-nerving experience for job applicants.
            As the interviewer, you have a professional and moral obligation to follow-up on every interview you conduct in a timely fashion….. even if the follow-up is a rejection.
          If the person made it past your initial screening to the interview stage, I have to assume they have something going for them. Using Durante’s wisdom, the person you interviewed may be a future client, the daughter of an existing client, or might even be your boss some day! Your interviewee might even be participating in ratings.
          Don’t leave your candidate waiting in the lobby for your appointment. Be prompt and courteous.
          At the conclusion of every interview it is imperative that you let the applicant know exactly what to expect next, and when to expect it. Whether the next step be an offer, a second interview or a rejection, it should be made perfectly clear when the applicant should expect to hear from you.  
            If the next step is a rejection, have the intestinal fortitude to talk directly to the candidate. Do not send an email, leave voice-mail or mail a form letter.
            If the applicant is rejected, be honest and forthcoming as to why you selected another candidate. Your candor about the interview or the candidate could be a positive and life-changing experience for the applicant.
            Remember, you meet the same people on the way down that you met on the way up, and your observations might be a positive life-changing force for the person you just rejected.

Steve McGavran, the COO of TOMA Research, is often heard asking sales people “Do you know what the most important thing is about making a sales call?”
            After a brief pause, his thought-provoking answer is “Making a sales call.”
          Call reluctance is the biggest barrier to sales success I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen many a great presenter and creative thinker out-sold by sales people of lesser competence simply because of their fear of rejection.
          Here are a few tips to help you over-come call reluctance;
1. Sell yourself first. When you believe in what you are selling you will make every call confident in the knowledge that if the client rejects what you are selling they are the losers, NOT you.
2. Be customer-focused. Have a strategic purpose for every call, from the customer’s point of view. Be able to clearly and confidently answer the question “What is in it for the prospect to spend a few moments with me today?”
3. Pace yourself. Five new-business calls a day for twenty days, for example, is much more realistic and manageable than setting a goal of making one hundred new-business calls this week.
4. Warm up your cold calls. Use referrals, gain some knowledge about the client’s category that you can share with them, bring some research about them, not your station, which will benefit their business.
5. Have integrity. The purpose of every call should be to help the prospect….NOT to sell them something they don’t need. But know that if you don’t sell them someone else will, and that competitor might not work as hard for the client as you will.
6. Don’t “visit”. Many salespeople who suffer from call reluctance find themselves pretending they are busy by “touching base” with clients they are comfortable with. To avoid this, make certain that EVERY call you make has a customer-focused purpose and is of benefit to the client.
7. Sell the big idea. When you present a customer-focused idea, the client does not reject you or your station, but rather they are only rejecting that particular idea or proposal. This leaves the door open for future big ideas, and prevents you from taking the rejection personally.
8. Plan, prepare, and mentally rehearse. Roy Williams says “Where the mind has repeatedly journeyed, the body will surely follow”. Picture the call, your approach, and getting the order and you will make the call.
            Winston Churchill once said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Nowhere is this more true than in selling. Like my friend Steve McGavran says, “The most important thing about making a sales call is making a sales call”.   

I’m going to share a powerful secret with you which I discovered by observing  successful businesses across North America.
          If your customers don’t like their customers, your advertising campaign won’t work!
          In today’s increasingly fragmented media world, your customers can NOT get a profitable return on their advertising investment if they do not generate happy customers, repeat business, word of mouth promotion and referrals from every customer your campaign generates.
          After studying literally thousands of proprietorships over the span of my career I came to an amazing realization……if the proprietor does not like his or her customers, their customers probably won’t like them!
          If your customers don’t genuinely like their customers and have a passion for serving them they won’t go the extra mile that it takes to make your advertising pay off.
          Ray Crock, of McDonalds Restaurants fame, once said, “You can tell how a business feels about their customers by the way they take care of their customer restrooms”.
          It’s true, everything from a businesses return policies to their staff incentive programs, and from store cleanliness to management access, speaks volumes about the way they feel about their customers. And if they don’t like their customers, they won’t have the patience nor the passion to super-serve them.
          For example, if staff incentives revolve around one-time sales and give no recognition or reward for high customer-satisfaction levels, then the culture the business establishes will be one of high-pressure sales. And as I’ve pointed out before, customer satisfaction levels are decreased directly proportionate to sales pressure levels.
          So what does all of this have to do with selling media?
          The average media rep needs less than twenty-five consistent fifty-two week clients to make a very good living. You don’t need the businesses that don’t care about keeping your audience happy!
            Not only is it more enjoyable and rewarding helping customers who sincerely care about their customers, your campaign will give these businesses a higher return on investment. When the customers you bring to the counter return often and help you spread the word about the business, your campaign will work.
             When you hear a prospect who conveys the attitude that his or her customers are not valued assets to the business, walk away. When you hear expressions like “buyers are liars” or “most of my customers are  _ _ _ holes”…. walk away!
            Your customer’s attitude towards your audience, their customers, should become one of your pre-qualifying criteria.

Lately there has been much written in the trades and in various newsletters about the importance of spec creative. But I haven’t seen or heard much about the other “spec”…..spec calendars.
            One of the reasons spec commercials are so important is that clients need to see and hear what they are buying and what they are saying.
            In my seminar, Making Radio Tangible, I demonstrate that the same holds true for spec calendars. Many clients can’t envision what they would do or say if they did invest in a 52-week schedule. Often when we say “consistency” or “long term” they believe we are only trying to sell them on a long term bill or consistent invoice.
            The spec calendar gives them week-by-week sample objectives for their creative. A car dealer, for example, can’t imagine what she might be saying in her commercials next June. When you outline back-to-back strategic objectives for her, she has the opportunity to revise or agree to the campaigns you are proposing.

Many programmers are against client-voiced commercials.
And…for good reason. Clients are not professional broadcasters and most cannot read a script to save their lives.
          But in today’s quest to be unique in your commercial approach, nothing is more “unique” than a client’s voice. It might be bad, good, or indifferent, but there is no disputing that no one else has your client’s voice.
          In selling, nothing is more compelling than the human voice.
Ask your insurance agent or real estate agent this question. “If you had the chance to send a letter to a prospect or to talk to them on the phone, which approach is more likely to result in an appointment?”
            They will always tell you that voice contact is more powerful and persuasive than a printed letter.
            So how do we utilize your client’s voice to persuade your audience to do business with them without it sounding like an amateur reading a script?  Simple. Don’t give them a script!  Instead, bring the client into your studio for a half-hour interview and make them sell you. Ask the hard questions; “Why should I drive past three of your competitors to do business with you?” or “Everyone claims to give good service. Prove to me you do.”
At the end of the interview you should have some very compelling, natural and believable sound-bites around which you can build an effective spot.
            NOTE: If the client can’t sell you during this interview, she probably won’t be in business two years from now.
            A unique client-voiced quote in your commercial can be more compelling and memorable than the most expensive jingle in the world.
            Remember Chrysler’s, Lee Iacocca or Wendy’s, Dave Thomas? As long as you are choosing client voice for sound strategic reasons, and not just to satisfy the client’s ego, it can be a huge branding tool.
            Acquiring sound bites with passion and sincerity during a casual interview in the acoustics of a professional sound studio should alleviate any concerns your program director has.   Surrounding these bites with professional announcers or jingles should help your cause even more.