Selling in the business-to-business environment has changed dramatically from the old days when we were trained in the ABC’s of selling….Always Be Closing. Today, the ABC’s of selling are “Always Be Connecting”.
Remember when we were trained to not allow the prospect any escape hatches? We were to “always be closing!”  I can’t believe that ever really worked. Intelligent business owners can’t be manipulated.
Nowhere is the “always be connecting” mantra more important than on the phone. In old school sales training, we were trained to introduce ourselves and jump into our “elevator pitch”, not allowing any escape for our would-be prospect.
Today, our goal is to always get permission to continue by asking, “Is this a good time to connect?”
The old ABC closers would never allow such an escape, believing that as long as they didn’t hear “click…bzzzz” in their receiver, the prospect was listening to their blah, blah, blah. Are you kidding me?
When you don’t get permission or determine if this is an appropriate time for your call, your prospect may not hang up on you physically, but they certainly have mentally.
There is no point in trying to connect with someone who is preoccupied with other problems or who is texting or reading their emails while you’re babbling. Be courteous, be professional, and get permission to deliver your message. If you don’t get permission to continue, don’t think for a minute that just because you delivered your message, that it was received.
Busy business owners appreciate it when you respect their time enough to ask permission to talk to them.

P.S. don’t forget to ask when it would be an appropriate time to connect and make an appointment to do so.

Most of us have used a version of the marketing funnel to explain to our clients that buying decisions begin at an emotional or subconscious level, and as consumers get closer to the purchase end of the funnel they become conscious of the process and begin to search for facts which validates their emotional choice.
Even though we tell our prospects buying begins in the heart and is only rationalized in the head, we use an upside down funnel in our own marketing.
Most media account executives try to open the door with logic….rankers, ratings, research before winning the prospect emotionally.
Developing a strategy for each account that opens the door with laughter, tears or entertainment also works for selling your prospects.
YouTube can be one of your best tools for reaching your prospects at an emotional level.
With a little time and effort, you can find a short video that makes the point emotionally, that you’ve been trying to make with statistics and logic.
If you want to persuade a yellow pages advertiser that yellow pages are dead, for example, sending this link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtrdhEog73w   to the video of Ellen DeGeneres slamming Yellow Pages will make your prospect laugh, and open the door for your logical follow up.
If you want to persuade a client they need better copy to make their advertising work, this link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgi0t2ap-us  to a video that demonstrates the importance of choosing the right words in your ads will bring a tear to their eye, touching them emotionally.
Over the years I have built an old paper file full of jokes and stories I use in sales training workshops or send to prospects to make my points emotionally. Over the last few years I’ve started to build the same types of files with online stories, jokes and videos.
Each story, joke and video is filed by the point they make. They touch prospects emotionally, opening the door for my logical appeals.
Finding ways to use the same marketing funnel we tell our clients to use, with emotions at the beginning and logic at the end, can also serve you well.
This is just one of the strategies we use to open new prospects’ doors. You can contact [email protected] to inquire about our sales workshop for your broadcast association or annual corporate sales meeting to help increase your sales in 2014 and beyond.

A good friend of mine was “restructured” out of a job last week. While he was upset, I reminded him of my own good fortune in being “restructured”.
I’ve learned that the cream always rises to the top.
When someone I respect has been a victim of amalgamation, conglomeration or technological advances, I mark it in my calendar to call them 18 months later. In every case, when I make the 18-month call, they declare it’s the best thing that could have happened to them.
Every termination is merely an opportunity for career advancement!
In my case, I started ENS Media Inc. and went from “What am I going to do now?” following my restructuring, to “There is nothing I cannot do now!”
I have the proud heritage of having built three separate radio properties to unheard of new revenue and profit heights prior to starting my own business. In each case those rising stars I created became prime targets for corporate takeovers.
Of course, in each case the guy at the top, me, was downsized. The last time was the turning point in my career.
So if you’re thinking you are the “victim” of a rapidly changing world, rethink your position. You are not the victim of change; you are the beneficiary of change. Embrace the ride and you will never look back!

P.S. if you’re experiencing a career move, we want to stay in touch. Please forward your new contact information with each move.

The pace of change in the world accelerates every day. The top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
Yet as rapidly as our world is changing, certain tried and proven principals stand the test of time and are more relevant today than ever.
Dale Carnegie wrote the first best-selling book on salesmanship, How to Win Friends and Influence People, back in 1936. It still sells today and has sold over 15 million copies world-wide.
In 1936, he said, “This is the day of dramatization. Merely stating the truth isn’t enough. The truth has to be made vivid, interesting and dramatic. Movies based upon true stories do it, and radio does it. And you will have to do it if you want attention.”
Advertising is merely multiplied salesmanship, allowing you to tell your story to hundreds or thousands of people all at the same time.
Consumers have all of the facts, figures and research about your products and services at the click of a mouse today. But it’s drama that makes those statistics memorable and drives your prospects to learn more about you.
When Krazy Glue launched their historic campaign in 1980, they could have talked about how many pounds per square inch Krazy Glue could hold or quoted other research and statistics about the glue’s adhesive ability. But they chose to dramatize Krazy Glue’s strength by gluing a man’s hard hat to a steel beam and suspending him in mid air, held only by the glue. The rest is history.
(You can view a clip of this classic commercial here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?SXZv2KZKCCo
The best marketers today use the captivating power of drama to showcase their strengths, and they use their web sites and social media pages to validate the stories they have told.
 Click here to arrange an appointment to discuss how we can use drama to make everything you do online much more successful.

Marketing guru and author of 15 best selling books, Seth Godin says “It’s nice to be found, but essential to be sought.”
Your prospects are hearing a lot of noise about the importance of being “found” online through various key words, search engine optimization and more. Most of this hype is because the ability to search for businesses on line is relatively new and the technology is changing daily.
But Seth is right. Being “sought” is much more valuable than being “found.”
The internet has changed the way consumers buy today. It is imperative that a business has a website that is useful and helpful to them when they establish a need to buy. It’s equally imperative that businesses establish a pre-need awareness and preference for their name so that their website is sought rather than hoping it is found in a list with their competitors.
If someone seeks a business name, they are already predisposed to buying from that business. If they merely find a business name from a list of competitors, the uphill battle to win in that crowd has just begun!
The basic marketing principal is simple: If you owned Peter’s Landscaping, would you rather your prospects search “landscaping” to find a list of landscapers, or would you rather they sought you by searching “Peter’s Landscaping?”
Of course, you want prospects to search for your business name!
By the way, if your clients are gambling on being “found” there are a lot of players in that race to the top of a search engine page. There is only one player in the search for a business by name.
Only intrusive media like radio and TV can create pre-need awareness and preference for a business. New media strategy is very simple today.  It’s “Broadcast inspires, internet informs” and there is no need for old printed media any longer.
When you learn to tell the new media strategy story effectively, you will attract more 52 week business, and your clients will get more hits on their web sites.
Our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system brands and trains your account executives to tell the new media mix story effectively to increase your local direct sales.
PS...I’m speaking at the NAB/RAB Radio Show in Orlando next week and I’m eager to meet as many of our ENSonSales readers as possible.  If you’d like to meet, please contact me at [email protected]  and I’ll have Angela set us up.