Category Archives: Uncategorized

Your Most Valuable ‘Customers’

 

Your Most Valuable ‘Customers’
Most businesses define a ‘customer’ as someone who spends money with the company. At ENS media Inc., we define a customer as anyone who has impact or influence on the spending with the company. And media companies have three distinct customer groups under our definition.
Audience is our largest customer group. Even though they never spend a nickel on our stations, the size and demographics of our audiences certainly impacts what our second largest customer group; advertisers, is willing to spend with us.
And the most successful stations certainly pursue audiences and advertisers with vigor.
But our most valuable customer is our internal customer…..our staff. Each and every one on your staff, from your traffic manager to your front desk, and from the account executives to your producer, have enormous impact on what advertisers are prepared to invest with your station.
Why do I describe your staff as ‘your most valuable customer group?’ It’s simple. Do the math; divide your total annual revenue by your total audience, and you’ll find the value of your average listener/viewer. Dividing that same annual revenue figure by your total number of advertisers, will also tell you the value of your average client.
But when you divide your total annual revenue by your total staff, you quickly discover your average staff member is more valuable than your average advertiser, and in most cases, even more valuable than your largest advertiser!
You undoubtedly have a marketing plan to attract and maintain an audience, and you certainly have a marketing plan to attract and maintain your advertisers. But do you pursue your marketing plan to attract and maintain your staff with the same vigor that you pursue the other two less valuable customer groups?
Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
 

Lead the Movement

Lead the Movement

You may have heard about the coordinated national effort between advertisers like Staples, Guess, American Eagle Outfitters, Cover Girl and more in an effort to create a new back-to-school shopping event on the marketing calendar.
They plan to create a national event to rival the now-popular Cyber Monday or Black Friday for back-to-schoolers, and more importantly, for their parents who foot the growing back-to-school bills.
They will be promoting Saturday, August 11th, as Back to School Saturday with special sales and events in posters and in Teen Vogue Magazine.
You have the opportunity to take the bull by the horns and take local ownership of what could become an annual revenue builder for your stations and own Back to School Saturday in your market.
Typically, the back-to-school selling season begins slowly in June, peaks during the second and third weeks of August, and tapers off to a close the third week of September.
You can bet your local newspaper people will try to publish a ‘special section’ or have a web-based flyer promoting Back-to-School Saturday in hopes of seeing it grow into an annual cash cow.
But he who hits the streets first can win that battle. Create your own 9 to 12 week program now that peaks with special sales, contests, free samples, demonstrations and events cumulating around the date of August 11th.
Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
 

Ellen Trashes Yellow Pages

 

You have to see Ellen DeGeneres trash Yellow Pages on this link…it’s a hoot!
 
 
But don’t fool yourself! After you’ve viewed the Ellen Yellow Pages video, see how they’re converting advertisers to their new online products by clicking here:
 
 
Yes, ‘the book’ is getting smaller, but our Selling Against Online and Printed Directories system will stop the migration from their printed products to their online products in its tracks and increase your revenues substantially! Click here to arrange an online presentation of how it works.
P.S. Thanks to my friend, Mebi Haddox at West Virginia Radio for bringing the Ellen video to my attention. We always appreciate our readers’ input!
Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
 

Shampoo on Your Toothbrush

 

Shampoo on Your Toothbrush
                I was in the middle of working on a very thought-intensive project when I had to stop and hurry to get ready to catch a flight. While getting ready I nearly put toothpaste on my razor, and caught myself putting shampoo on my toothbrush.
          No, I’m not going senile! My mind was still on my project instead of brushing my teeth.
          While human hands and bodies appear to be capable of ‘multi-tasking’ the mind functions at its peak when focused on one task. That’s why your old ‘open door policy’ doesn’t work. Invariably someone will come into your office, interrupt your concentration on an important project and you’ll feel obligated to answer their seemingly mundane question in a misguided attempt to make them feel important.
          While your intentions are good, your open door policy is not fair to you or them.
          The once-held sacred belief in the value of the ‘open door policy’ was established when all of us had assistants, more staff, and less tasks to complete in a given day.
          Inevitably, while in the midst of another thought process, you’ll put shampoo on your toothbrush….giving the person who came through your ‘open door’ an off the cuff answer because your mind did not have time to switch gears.
          We’ve all said to ourselves in hindsight “There was a much better answer to that question had I had the time to focus on it.” And then, to make the interruption worse, it takes you ten minutes to get your head back into what you were working on! (Actually the neurological research reveals you will waste between 2 and 11 minutes trying to refocus properly).
          But your people, and their questions, are important. So here’s the solution to help you not lose focus on your important projects, and to give the questions you are asked the attention they deserve.
          Have, and stick to, regularly scheduled one-on-ones when you can focus on the questions you are asked. Then regularly practice the ENS Media Inc magic phrase when someone interrupts you; “This is important to me. Can it wait until our regularly scheduled one-on-one so I can give it the attention it deserves?”
          This process will create one of three results;
1.) Your people will learn to expect you to ask if their question can wait, and they’ll eventually have a lot fewer ‘urgent’ questions, placing them on the agenda for your one-on-one.
2.) More often than not, empowered people will find the answers on their own without interrupting you.
3.) You will give your people, and their questions, the full attention they deserve
          There is probably a better solution than putting shampoo on your toothbrush.
 Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.
 

Confidence Scheme

 

 

Confidence Scheme

            How long would Starbucks maintain their profits if they advertised coffee on sale for less than Dunkin Donuts? And how many Lexus, made by Toyota, would sell at their current profit margins if they replaced the Lexus logo with the parent company logo?
            You know that when a prospect sees a media proposal which claims to have a value of $50,000 but is being offered at $10,000, advertisers do not really believe the stated $50,000 value.
            But have you stopped to think of the role pricing has on the confidence level of your salespeople?  When we bonus or give away spots, what is the perceived real value of a spot in your sellers’ minds?
            Most sales professionals grow their sales by developing strong customer relationships based upon trust. Can they confidently build that trust if they know another seller in your organization is selling for less?
            Many managers use AMI, Average Monthly Invoice, to estimate what the marketplace perceives their station to be worth. We use AMI per account executive to determine what each account executive believes your station to be worth!
            When you calculate each of your seller’s AMI’s, you’ll quickly discover what THEY think your station is worth.
            Selling has often been described as ‘a transference in confidence.’ Your pricing policies reflect directly upon the confidence your account executives will have in your station.
            If you are giving it away, that’s what it’s perceived to be worth in the minds of your seller’s. And only the crooks on your team will try to sell something for more than they believe it to be worth.
             Crooks seldom build lasting and trusting relationships with their victims. Is your pricing policy a confidence scheme, or a confidence-builder?
 Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.