Author Archives: ensonsales

Beating the ‘New’ Radio Competitors

Rapidly changing technology means that everyone from Pandora to Facebook and from SiriusXM to YouTube will be increasing their efforts to cultivate terrestrial radio’s biggest revenue source, local advertising.

In a recent Citi Global Technology Conference in New York, Pandora’s Tim Westergren, admitted the one thing Pandora will never be able to do, is to be live and local and part of the fabric of every community. “Their kids play on the softball team with the local radio rep. It’s an insular industry, and we’ve got to crack into that,” said Westergren.

Are you taking those live local connections for granted or are your people held accountable for strategically managing their local networks?

Are you winning local loyalties by default, or do you have a strategic plan for people on your team to become the go-to marketing expert for each and every club, association, network and clique in town?

Never has networking, online and in person, been as important to your sales as it is today.

Our SoundADvice membership includes access to a new nine-minute training video every two weeks for one full year, including one on The Four Keys to Effective Networking.

Click here to arrange an online overview of how a SoundADvice radio e-marketing membership can help you solidify your local profile and increase your local direct revenues.

How to Sell More

In last week’s ENS on Sales we discussed the fact that you don’t have to represent the number one station to be number one in sales.

We used the example of Fucillo KIA in Cape Coral Florida who sells more than 1,000 cars a month, even though KIA is not the number one brand car in North America.

Many of our readers asked “How does he do it?”

Those of you who know me, know that I’m a big believer in having the right creative as the key to advertising success, so I would like to tell you that Fucillo KIA has great creative. But they don’t.

Most people in Cape Coral will tell you they hate Fucillo KIA’s commercials. Therein lies part of the secret of his success. I said ‘most people’ because he advertises so heavily that virtually everyone in the market is aware of Fucillo KIA, where it is, and what they sell… Top-of-Mind awareness.

In a field as competitive as automotive sales, with tons of dealer ads, it’s almost impossible to come up with creative that stands out from the crowd. So, much to my chagrin, Fucillo’s two-part success formula is a formula any car dealer can benefit from:

1.) Share of Voice, equals share of mind, which equals share of market. Fucillo’s commercials are, in my opinion, annoying, but there is no disputing that out-shouting the competition works. It would be virtually impossible to be in the Cape for a week and not have heard a Fucillo ad.

2.) Consistent creative. Fucillo squeezes the word ‘huge’ into every spot… even when it doesn’t make sense. So much so, that if you use the word ‘huge’ in a sentence while in Cape Coral, someone will inevitably make a Fucillo KIA joke.

Your car dealers need to be told about the role of radio in creating share of mind and share of market.

P.S. Click here to arrange an online overview of how our local TOMA (Top-of-Mind Awareness) surveys can help you sell radio’s role in the new media environment.

You Can Be Number One

You don’t have to represent “number one” to be number one.

There are more than 200 car brands being sold in North America. So it’s fair to say that auto sales are a very competitive market.

And KIA certainly is not the number one selling brand.

Yet Fuccillo KIA in Cape Coral, Florida sells more than 1,000 cars a month!

Fuccillo is the largest KIA dealer in the world, even though they don’t sell the most popular brand, and the city of Cape Coral’s population doesn’t rank in the top 200 markets in the U.S.

So you don’t have to have the number one brand or number one market to be number one in sales.

Where you do have to be number one to be the sales leader is in your prospect’s mind. Mr. Fuccillo is a brilliant marketer.

How do you market yourself so that local advertisers always think of you when making their advertising plans? Is your brand simply that of a spot sales person, or are you recognized as a sustaining resource to successful advertisers.

The sales go to the best marketer.

P.S. Our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system is building the brand, and the sales, for its members every week. Click here to learn how your cluster can become the exclusive SoundADvice member in your market.

Every Dog Has Its’ Day

It seems the glimmer is already beginning to dim on the early front runners in digital media.

Once the fore-runner in ‘new’ media advertising, online display advertising’s share of digital ad spend is predicted to decline by 12.4% over the next four years, according to a recent Ad Buyer Survey conducted by Cowan and Company.

And the runner up, Search, is forecast to post a .4% decline in digital spend share.

Both of these early digital stars are giving way to the latest ‘new’ media. Social media’s share of digital spend is forecast to grow by 14.9% and online video, is predicted to increase their share by 11.2% over the same four year window.

‘New’ continues to be a powerful word in the media sales business. For advertisers not using radio, radio can be ‘new’. Positioning radio as a new way for local businesses to reach their prospects can be appealing. Radio as their ‘new media’ can be easier to buy and understand than the increasingly complicated and fragmented digital options.

Contact [email protected] to learn how our TOMA Surveys and SoundADvice radio e-marketing system can sell your prospects on the strategic role radio should play in the new media landscape.

Job One For Sales Managers

As a sales manager, the list of activities, tasks, and paperwork you face everyday is daunting.

But there is only one job, your toughest job, that will dictate your success.

That job is selling your sellers.

They’re beat up on the street every day. They’re being told everything from your rates are too high, to nobody listens to radio anymore, and from the economy is tough to radio doesn’t work. And you know repetition sells.

Over time, your account executives can begin to believe all of the advertiser excuses for not investing with them and lose confidence in radio.

It’s your job to counter balance all of those negatives and never quit selling your sellers.

You had to sell them on a career in radio sales, and the merits of your company when you recruited them, and you have to keep selling them every day.

A few things you can do to sell your sellers:

Create internal systems and venues, online, in sales meetings and more, to share sales success stories.
Celebrate EVERY order… without exception.
Capture and use advertiser testimonials on air, online, in sales meetings and in presentations.
Actively search for and distribute good news on the economy, business, your market and radio.
Recognize the contributions to your success from every department… not just sales.
Negatives should be shared one on one, behind closed doors, positives need to be shouted throughout the building.
Last, but not least, when launching new systems, packages, programs or initiatives, focus on the benefits from your customers’ point of view, not just from the station’s vantage point.

My favorite Henry Ford quote is, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right!”

The best sales managers have cultivated the art of helping their sales people ‘think they can’ every day.

All of the training, systems and tactics in the world will not produce more than the enthusiasm and confidence you can build.