Author Archives: ensonsales
Are You Too Busy?
Here is what I have noticed working with hundreds of sales managers and thousands of salespeople in more than 100 markets over the years; there is a marked difference between being busy and being productive.
On the “busy” scale, I feel your pain. Computers that were supposed to make our lives easier generate so much valuable data that it’s hard to keep up. You have more reports to fill out, and less resources to pursue sales, and more competition every year. I get it.
But here’s what I’ve noticed. Markets where managers or salespeople apologize for not implementing our revenue development systems to their full potential, always blame it on being too busy or having too much on their plates.
But the sales teams that pick up the ball and run with it always seem to find the time to do so…even if they are working for the same company as the “too busy” folks.
Part of the problem seems to be in losing sight of our goals. Paying attention to the merely urgent every day instead of what we know needs to be done to reach our goals is a recipe for disaster.
Roy Williams often poses the question, “Have you allowed the merely urgent to replace the truly important?”
So, before you start putting out fires or solving the merely urgent, accomplish one productive task each morning that focuses on your long-term goal. Doing so will turn a busy day into a productive one. The irony is that “busy” usually means you’re putting out fires, while “productive” often results in preventing those fires.
Why Advertise?
Ever since John Wannamaker coined his famous phrase, “I know half my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half,” bewildered business owners have welcomed the message from vendors suggesting they can cut their advertising budgets.
The list of “anti-advertising” salespeople is longer than you might think.
Sales trainers, for example, are telling business owners they do not need more traffic or awareness, they need sales training to capture higher closing ratios from their existing traffic. And mall leasing managers claim it’s more efficient to capture their mall traffic than to try to draw traffic to a stand-alone location…. they’re all persuading advertisers to cut their advertising in favor of other marketing tools.
And then there is the CRM (customer relations management) software folks telling the story that “It costs 20 times as much to attract a new customer with advertising as it costs to keep an old customer coming back using our software.”
So here is the thing. Are you taking for granted that your prospects and clients truly value advertising’s role in the marketing mix? Do your salespeople know how to sell advertising in the marketing mix, or are they focused on selling your media as the best advertising media to prospects who are increasingly skeptical of advertising?
You should not allow a written presentation to leave your office if it does not have a customer-focused “Why advertise?” proposition. To not continuously sell advertising in every radio presentation is doing a huge disservice to our industry, our clients, and ourselves.
Have you considered using our local TOMA, Top-of-Mind Awareness, surveys to validate how advertising on radio drives more online traffic for our advertisers?
Click here to arrange a free online overview of what TOMA surveys can do for you.
WOW! A Must-Read for 2018!
We have all seen the data from radio vested-interest groups like Nielsen or RAB about radio’s continued importance in the new media landscape and that’s great stuff.
That story is even more powerful when it comes from our competitors.
Yesterday’s ‘eMarketer Daily’ newsletter, described as “a daily briefing on digital marketing and media trends,” told two powerful stories for radio;
1.Consumers spend more time with non-digital radio than they do with social networks
2.They suggest that ad budgets should be allocated proportionate to time spent with media.
You have to copy, read and present their pro-radio stance from this link;
https://www.emarketer.com/content/six-surprising-facts-about-the-way-we-spend-our-time-with-media?ecid=NL1001
Your Most Valuable Radio Sales Lesson
This is a first! We don’t usually publish an ENS on Sales this time of year because of the low open rates during the holiday period. We’ve made an exception this week for two reasons:
1.) Roy Williams’ last Monday Morning Memo just before Christmas was so profound we wanted to bring it to your attention, and
2.) We’re assuming those who are picking up their emails during the holiday period are the industry’s movers and shakers.
So here is what Roy wrote in his final Monday Morning Memo just before Christmas:
“The thing that makes me look at the ground, shake my head and sigh is the dangerous myth of the Zero Moment of Truth. But then again, Google is the new Yellow Pages, so it shouldn’t surprise us that they’ve repackaged and renamed the old Yellow Pages scare tactic.The fundamental premise of the Zero Moment of Truth is that the customer is going to go online when they’re ready to purchase what you sell.I have no argument with that.But the dangerous, underlying assumption is that all contenders are equal during the Zero Moment of Truth. But that simply isn’t true.The company most likely to get the click, the call, and the sale is the company the customer has heard of and has good feelings about.The tortoise patiently wins the hearts of the people long before the race is begun. He says he’s ‘bonding with tomorrow’s customers’.‘Stupid tortoise,’ says the rabbit, ‘he still believes in branding.’Have you heard how that race turned out?
‘Knowledge is power’ is another dangerous myth.
It doesn’t matter what you know.
What matters is what you do with what you know.
So what are you going to do?”
-Roy Williams, Monday Morning Memo, December 18, 2017
You know Roy’s words of wisdom are true, but what are you doing to prove it to your local advertisers?
Our local TOMA, Top-of-Mind Awareness, surveys prove what you know to be true, and they open new advertisers’ doors and minds every week. Roy says, “I’ve long suggested that radio stations fund a TOMA study every two years. Few things are as valuable in the eyes of advertisers as these revealing market snapshots.”
Your local TOMA survey will:
1.) Prove your listeners prefer to click on the businesses they’ve heard of when they do their online search
2.) Prove the link between share of voice, share of mind and share of market
3.) Give your salespeople a powerful tool to capture new business appointments
But wait…there’s more! Click here to arrange an online demo of what our TOMA and SoundADvice radio e-marketing systems can do to increase your sales in the New Year.