Category Archives: Sales

If You’re Waiting for Renewal Time, You’re Already Late

When do you start working on a client’s renewal?

If your answer is, “A couple weeks before the contract ends,” you may already be too late.

Especially if you want more dollars.

Waiting until the last minute usually creates one of two outcomes:

“Let’s just do what we did last year.”

Or…

“Can we talk about this in a few weeks?”

Congratulations. You’ve successfully scheduled another meeting. I’ve done it more than once – and kicked myself every time.

A renewal shouldn’t begin with a contract. It should begin with a conversation – preferably 60 to 90 days before the current agreement ends.

And don’t walk in saying, “It’s renewal time!” Nothing gets the blood pumping quite like those three words.

Instead, start talking about next year.

What does the client want to accomplish?
What could be working better?
What should you change?
What new idea could help them grow?

Then go back to work.

Create a better campaign. Bring them a promotion. Develop a new ad idea, slogan, testimonial campaign, sonic identity – something that gives them a reason to get excited about spending more money with you.

That’s the difference.

An advertiser rarely gets excited about paying more for the same thing.

But they might get very excited about a better idea.

Starting earlier also makes you less pushy, not more. There’s time to think, adjust, create, discuss budgets and get other decision-makers involved without the expiration date breathing down everyone’s neck.

So, pull up your account list. Who expires in December? January? February?

Don’t wait for the renewal date.

Start earning the renewal now.

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Your First Draft SHOULD Be Too Long

When I write a 60-second radio script, my first draft is sometimes closer to two minutes.

The first draft is where I dump out an idea, start writing, and see where it leads.

The next few drafts are where I decide which words deserve to survive.

Speaking and communications coach Phillip Humm calls a common communication mistake “spray and pray.” We give people every detail. Every feature. Every reason. Every teeny-tiny nugget we’re afraid to leave out.

Then we hope something sticks.

It happens in sales presentations too.

You’ve got 37 slides, research, coverage maps, ratings, demographics and enough charts to make your PowerPoint need a cigarette afterward.

But what’s the ONE thing you want the prospect to understand?

Humm recommends a great exercise: explain your idea in two minutes. Then one minute. Then 15 seconds.

You’re not practicing how to talk faster. You’re forcing yourself to decide what matters.

Try it with your next radio script.

Write everything you might want to say. Then start cutting.

Creative is too important to treat the first draft as the finished product. Kill the weak sentence. Lose the second-best benefit. Remove the clever line that doesn’t move the idea forward.

Keep the strongest words, images, emotions and specifics. Specific details give listeners something they can actually see, hear or feel – which makes them much harder to forget.

Great writing usually isn’t created by adding more. It’s uncovered by removing what doesn’t belong.

Most advertisers will happily give you 90 seconds of information they think absolutely has to be in the ad. Your job is to protect them from themselves (which should be a topic on its own).

Whether you have :60, :30, or :15… your job isn’t to fill the time…
Your job is to make the time matter.

By the way, this article was at least 25% longer when I started.

Would your sales team benefit from having a better reason to contact advertisers every single week? SoundADvice gives your entire radio sales team practical, advertiser-focused content designed to help open more doors, protect more clients, and create more revenue.

Email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the important details. It costs less than three lattes a week.

Don’t Sell 52 Weeks of Random Ads

If you’re asking an advertiser to commit to a long-term branding campaign, there should probably be a better creative strategy than:

“We’ll write you a new commercial every month or so.”

Otherwise, you may just be selling them 12 different commercials fighting for custody of the same brand.

Advertising trainer and BrandsFormation author Chuck Mefford teaches a a memorable way to build long-term campaigns: Bricks & Mortar.

The bricks change.

Stories. Humor. Customer problems. Situations. Seasonal angles. Different creative ways to earn the listener’s attention.

The mortar stays.

The positioning idea. Slogan. Jingle. Distinctive voice. Music. Sonic signature. Memorable phrases. The brandable pieces an advertiser can eventually own.

Here’s a completely made-up, rough example for our fake business, Northstar Appliance Repair.

Their main mortar is:

“Your appliance broke. Your day doesn’t have to.”

Now watch how we can build around it…

60-SECOND EXAMPLE

[BRICK]

SFX: Washing machine banging violently.

WOMAN: Okay. That’s new.

SFX: BANG. THUMP. BANG.

WOMAN: Honey?

MAN: Oh wow. If you’re wondering whether the washing machine is supposed to walk across the laundry room… I’m gonna say no.

ANNCR: Appliances have a way of breaking at the best times. Like Sunday night. The kids need clean clothes for school tomorrow, and the laundry basket looks like it reproduced overnight.

[MORTAR]

At Northstar Appliance Repair, we give you a realistic appointment window, let you know when we’re on the way, and explain what’s wrong before we start fixing it.

[BRICK]

SFX: Another loud THUMP.

MAN: Good news. It stopped moving.

WOMAN: Yeah, because it hit the wall.

MAN: Ah.

[MORTAR]

ANNCR: Washer. Dryer. Refrigerator. Range. Dishwasher. When one quits, you’ve already got enough aggravation. You don’t need your repair company becoming another problem.

SFX: Two-note appliance ding

Northstar Appliance Repair. Your appliance broke. Your day doesn’t have to.

Now next month, we don’t throw all of that away and start over.

We change the brick.

One more example. 30 seconds this time…

30-SECOND EXAMPLE

[BRICK]

MAN: Why is the milk warm?

WOMAN: Why is the freezer making soup?

SFX: Short stinger

MAN: I’m afraid to ask about the ice cream.

ANNCR: When your refrigerator quits, you don’t need a lecture about compressors. You need somebody to fix the refrigerator.

[MORTAR]

Northstar Appliance Repair gives you a realistic appointment window, lets you know when we’re coming, and explains the repair before the work begins.

SFX: Two-note appliance ding

Northstar Appliance Repair. Your appliance broke. Your day doesn’t have to.

Different problem. Different story. Different commercial.

Same advertiser. Same promise. Same “house”.

I’m pretty dang sure we could make this fake appliance repair business a household name!

One important note: Bricks and mortar is one very effective way to build a long-term branding campaign. It’s not the only way. Great advertising can take a lot of different forms. Don’t turn a good framework into another formula.

This also gives you a much better way to sell long-term Radio.

Just don’t rush the start date. Take the time to build something great for your new client. If you tell them it may take 3 or 4 weeks to get the strategy and creative right, that alone sends a message: you’re not just trying to get them on the air. You’re trying to make this work!

Keep the mortar. Change the bricks.

Build a campaign – not a pile of commercials.

Something that has a chance to (in the words of Chuck Mefford) turn a good small business into a great local brand!

Email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the important details. It costs less than three lattes a week.

Don’t Blow the Goodbye

A study about colonoscopies is about to make you better at sales.

Yes. Colonoscopies.

Researchers Daniel Kahneman and Donald Redelmeier studied how patients remembered unpleasant medical procedures. Interestingly, people’s memories weren’t simply an average of the entire experience.

They were heavily influenced by the most intense moment – and how the experience ended.

It became known as the Peak-End Rule. Later research even found that patients given a slightly less-unpleasant ending remembered the overall procedure more favorably.

No, I’m not suggesting your sales presentations resemble a colonoscopy.

Hopefully.

But think about how many good client meetings end like this:

You’ve spent 30 minutes asking questions. You uncovered something important. You shared a great idea. The client is engaged.

Then…

You start gathering your papers.

“Well, I’ll put something together and email it over.”

You shake hands.

And… scene.

Don’t waste the ending.

Before you leave, remind them of one important thing they told you, connect it to one idea you’re excited about, and establish one specific next step.

Something like:

“You told me getting more qualified applicants is probably your biggest problem right now. I’ve already got an idea rattling around in my head for that. I’ll work it up and bring it back Thursday.”

That feels different, doesn’t it?

It shows you listened. It creates anticipation. And it gives the meeting an ending worth remembering.

We spend a lot of time worrying about how to open a sales call. Maybe we should put a little more thought into the last 60 seconds, too.

Because apparently, the goodbye matters.

Even with a colonoscopy.

Email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the important details. It costs less than three lattes a week.

What Are You So Afraid Of?

Have you ever heard of a salesperson who had to go to therapy because they stopped into a business and asked to speak with the owner?

Neither have I.

Yet prospecting can feel strangely terrifying.

What if they’re busy?

What if I interrupt them?

What if they’re having a bad day?

What if they say NO?

What if they release the hounds?

Okay, that last one is probably unlikely.

But the fear is real. You’re definitely not alone. This fear causes a lot of salespeople to do everything except the thing that creates new business.

They organize their CRM. Send emails. Research prospects for 47 minutes. Tweak a proposal. Check LinkedIn. Refill their coffee.

All very productive-looking ways to avoid contacting another human being.

One thing that makes prospecting less intimidating is knowing what you’re going to say before you make the call or walk through the door.

Not memorizing a speech. Preparing.

And know your goal.

Your goal on that first contact probably isn’t to sell anything. It’s to get 20 or 30 minutes with them later.

On the phone, keep it simple:

“Hey Fred, can I steal a minute from you?”

That’s pretty honest. You are stealing a minute.

(I remember this from an audiobook I listened to years ago called “New Sales. Simplified.” By Mike Weinberg – and I really like it.)

Then get to the point:

“I’m hoping to visit with you for about 20 or 25 minutes next week. I’d like to bring you a couple of ideas, learn a little more about your business, and see if we might be a good fit.”

Then stop talking.

You don’t need a five-minute pitch. You need a reason for another conversation.

Preparation creates confidence. And confidence usually doesn’t come before taking action anyway.

It comes because of taking action.

Pick a few businesses. Know who you want to talk to. Know what you’re going to say. Know what your goal is.

Then make the call. Walk through the door.

Worst-case scenario?

They say no.

Five minutes later, your life looks remarkably similar to the way it did before the call.

Check your pulse. Still there?

Good! Call the next one.

Duane Christensen
Ens Media

If you’d like to learn how our SoundADvice program can help your entire Radio sales team open more doors, protect more clients, and create more revenue, email me at [email protected] to request more info. We’ll send you the important details ASAP. And it costs less than 3 lattes a week.