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That’s A Lot Of Poop!

 

            Thomas Szaky shocked his parents a few years ago when he decided to drop out of Princeton University to start a business making organic plant food. To their dismay, he explained that the product came from worm poop and would be packaged in recycled pop bottles.
            But today the 23-year-old Canadian is having the last laugh. His fledgling firm has landed the Wal-Mart account, one of the most prized in retailing, and expects to do more than $15 million in sales next year.
            Each week, thousands of inventors and sales people try unsuccessfully to get their products stocked on Wal-Mart shelves.
            So how did a young Mr. Szaky nab the business at mighty Wal-Mart?
            “I don’t know” he says.  “I made sixty one phone calls and one of them worked. I guess it was just sheer persistence.”
            Virtually every successful sales person, sales manager and sales trainer knows the value of persistence. Share this story in your next sales meeting, then ask your sales people to examine their own commitment to persistence.
            Do they believe enough in their product to call a prospect 61 times?
            What is it about each account executive’s approach that makes them stand out from the other dozen or so advertising sales people whom the average business will get a call from this week?
            From a customer’s perspective, why should a prospect accept their phone call or read their letter?
            Having the right answers to these three questions will help your people sell more poop, instead of just being full of poop.
 
Planning a sales or management conference? Talk to Wayne at ENSMedia Inc. about having him or one of the professional trainers from Noll & Associates facilitate a memorable event for you.

Turning Cold Calls Into Warm Calls.

            As most of you know by now, I’m not a big fan of “cold calls”. With time at a premium, for both buyers and sellers, it is unrealistic, not to mention unprofessional, to expect prospects to drop what they are doing every time a fly-by-night sales person drops into their offices un-announced. As my friend Dan Gittings of Cherry Creek Radio puts it, “Decision-makers are caught between a clock and a hard place”.
            Previous ENS on Sales tips have explored several ways to make key decision makers more receptive to making an appointment with you, but one of the most over-looked tools for gaining acceptance, credibility and appointments is the use of referrals.
            Other professions such as life insurance, lawyers, or financial planners, uncover up to 70% of their new business leads from this tried and proven method, yet broadcast sales people seldom ask for referrals.
            The next time a client acknowledges how pleased she is with your services, don’t hesitate to ask, “Do you know any other people who could benefit from advertising with us?” In one such encounter, you might run down a category list to jog your client’s memory of contacts they have who would benefit from advertising with you.
            You can also review a list of the client’s suppliers, (accountants, landscapers, security services, shippers, sign painters etc.) and get permission to use your clients name when you call these companies.
            When you call a supplier suggesting their customer said you should meet, the door will generally open. Not only that, when you can offer a testimonial from that client, your credibility for that first call will be pre-established.
            So when you are planning your week, make a point of asking one client per day for a referral. The Law of Psychological Reciprocity states “when you exert extraordinary effort for someone, they have a deep-rooted subconscious need to return that effort to you”. Assuming you’ve done a superior job for your client, psychological reciprocity will kick in, and your client will be more than happy to help you with your quest for new business.
P.S. One of the best times to ask for a referral is while completing one of the Post Campaign Analysis forms I introduced you to in last week’s ENS on Sales.  You can also get the Post Campaign Analysis for our website at www.wensmedia.com.

Managing the Customer Experience

Last week we discussed that value is perceived, and how to manage the customer expectations side of the value equation.

 Managing both the Expectation and the Experience sides of the Value Equation results in more sales, better customer satisfaction levels and more repeat business.

            Managing the experience, however, takes more intestinal fortitude than most media reps have.  It involves being confident enough to ask how a campaign measured up to the expectation you built.
            Most media reps are afraid to uncover how the client feels about their campaign.
            And when the clients report “disappointing sales”, most reps retort, “It’s only our job to bring them to your door…you have to sell them.”
            It’s this kind of thinking that results in us running a “promotion” to win a free trip for everyone who comes to a men’s wear store. The “traffic” we generate wants trips, not suits!  Shouldn’t we be giving away a free suit and building the brand for the men’s wear store instead of selling “traffic” comprised of unqualified prospects?
            If you’ve managed the expectation, explained lifetime customer value and manage the experience with a customer-focused post campaign analysis, you will build customers for life…..for your client and your station.
            The best way to manage the experience, and to improve each campaign, is to do a complete post campaign analysis at regularly agreed-to intervals. Your clients will respect the confidence you have in your product, and you will learn how to make each campaign better than the last.

Creating Value

“Value” is a perception, not a reality.

             If the expectation your sales people create is too high, or unrealistic, or the experience of advertising with your station is disappointing, your clients will not perceive that your station delivered value.
            The good news is that you can manage both the expectation, and the experience.
            To manage the expectation, explore “lifetime customer value” with your client, rather than promising to “reach 100,000 people”. (unless your prospect has 100,000 sales people, they can’t handle 100,000 customers tomorrow morning).
            With planned strategic questioning, you can actually create realistic expectations for your prospects and customers in any business category.
            Let’s take the case of a men’s wear store which invests $3,000. in a campaign to sell suits.
            Ask your men’s wear account, “How much profit is in the suit you are advertising?” They might say, “$150”. Then ask “And how much profit is it reasonable to assume you would make from any add-on sales such as ties, belts or shirts?” They may add $20, bringing each customer value to $170. Now ask them to consider how many times that customer might return each year over the next ten years if the sales person does a good job. Maybe it’s twice per year for a total of 20 times, for a lifetime customer value of $3,400.
            Then explore how many people could a typical customer refer to that store based upon their excellent service. They might allow you to multiply that figure by five referrals, resulting in one customer being worth $3,400 per customer, times 5 referrals, or $17,000.  (Don’t you wish the stock market gave you a return of 5.6 to one?) 
            Helping your clients understand lifetime customer value and the power of word of mouth advertising, will create much more realistic expectations than promising them that thousands of customers will flock to their door when they come on the air.
            In this case, one customer from a $3,000 investment returns a profit (not just sales) of $17,000 over time. 
            Next week, we’ll talk about managing the Experience portion of the Value Equation.
 
 Look what people are saying about  Wayne’s Power of Radio R.O.I. Seminar:
“I’ll buy the tape so I can re-visit every word!” –  Baldwinsville NY
“The best workshop I’ve seen so far” –  Atlanta GA
“This makes more sense than any ROI training I’ve ever had” –  Champaign IL
“It was so good he left me wanting more!” –  St. George UT
“Loved the anti yellow pages ammunition” –  Geneva NY
Contact [email protected] to bring his Power of Radio ROI workshop to your team.

Catch ‘Em Doing Something Right!

 

            There has been much written and debated about the proverbial carrot versus the stick, motivational methods.  The truth is, you don’t have to plan to manage with the stick….it just happens.  Every time someone makes a mistake or misses a goal it is human nature to focus on the problem rather than the cure.
            In my book, 101 Ways to Get Luckier (In Advertising Sales) I explain it this way. “When you give your kids a curfew and they miss it, you will intuitively reprimand them. And yet when they arrive on time, that’s probably taken for granted and not acknowledged.”
            I’m not suggesting your staff should not be reprimanded when commitments are not met. But, you need to systematically plan for regular carrot occasions if you want the desired behaviors and results.
Behaviors that get rewarded get repeated!
            So here are four tips to insure that the carrot does become a routine part of your motivational strategy;
1.         Mark it in your day-timer or palm pilot to “catch someone doing something right” every day! Even if it something as simple as writing a great presentation, helping a newer team mate make a sale or completing an assignment on time.
 
 2.         Make sure all of your compliments and commendations are sincere and well-deserved. Kind words for kind words sake, quickly become meaningless.
 
 3.         Publicly recognize achievements and behaviors you want to encourage. Save your reprimands for behind closed doors.  (There is no room for leaders or coaches to be sarcastic or to take shots at people in the hall ways.)
 
 4.         Sales department bulletin board announcements and regular awards are great methods of publicly recognizing achievements, but don’t forget it is behaviors and actions that result in achievement. Don’t be afraid to reward actions and behaviors that you know will pay off in the long run, rather than always rewarding the end result. (Your commission or bonus structure already recognizes results)
 
             In summary, we do not have total control over results. What we can control are behaviors and habits, and it’s those behaviors and habits which good leaders are always on the look-out to recognize and reward.
            Having a corporate management conference? Contact Wayne if you would like one of the professional trainers from Noll & Associates, Sausalito CA, to speak to your managers about best practices in leadership and coaching skills.  Check out the Noll & Associates link at www.wensmedia.com.