Building the Revenues You Deserve

Building the Revenues You Deserve

          I’m a believer that we get what we deserve in life. And in sales, we get the kinds of revenues we deserve.
          I recently read an article in a trade magazine where the contributing writer suggested the way to increase sales was to offer, “buy two spots, get one free.”
          Wow, why didn’t I think of that?  We just walk up to a prospect who is cutting expenses and desperate for more sales and tell them if they buy spots they don’t want, we’ll give them more spots they don’t want, for free.
          Clients who don’t see advertising as a solution to soft sales and who are looking for ways to cut costs or increase sales are not going to be enticed to buy unless you offer a solution to their problems.  
          Admittedly, businesses that are already planning to buy advertising would like to see you diminish the value of your product. But those who have decided to cut back won’t reverse that decision simply because we’ve offered more of what they don’t want, for less.
          We do get the revenues we deserve. Peddling station inventory, station promotions, station features and station specials will not generate the revenues you deserve. Focusing on building campaigns to solve the customer’s problems will generate the revenues you deserve.
          ‘Spots’ or online offerings are not your most valuable inventory. Customer focused ideas are your most valuable inventory. Spots and websites are merely a medium for carrying messages, and contrary to what Marshall McLuhan might have said, the message is more important than the medium.
          It’s what you say in your spots or online features that creates value for your clients.
          I do admit there are some sales people who are not capable of developing advertising solutions to client problems, but who can sell station packages and features. More often than not, your package peddlers are leaving money on the table. And with their focus on your pricing or packages instead of the client’s campaigns, their attrition rates will be higher.
          Some advice for the managers of those sales people who are not capable of building customer focused solutions:
          1.) Don’t hire any more of them. Look for people who can develop profitable marketing ideas. They won’t need to ‘sell’ their ideas because clients will buy them. Clients prefer buying to being sold.
          2.) Keep your package sellers focused on transactional customers who only buy packages. Don’t let high revenue-potential prospects who want solutions to their problems end up on the account lists of these people.
          3.) Don’t give up! Keep training and coaching your package peddlers to  develop customer focused solutions. Eventually the light will come on and they will become customer focused account executives who will start generating the revenues you deserve.         
 
Bag More Sales
It’s hard to come up with new ways to promote a sale these days. But advertisers must stand out from the crowd to make their events a success.
I recently saw a newspaper campaign for Office Max where instead of running the usual flyers or coupons with everyone else, they inserted a plain brown bag with this message printed on it, “Bring this bag to our store from January 4-10 and save 15% on everything that fits in it.”
The bag certainly stood out from all of the look-alike colored flyers and coupons that fell out of the paper.
This would be the perfect idea for a radio station remote, and a lot less costly than printing and inserting a bag in the paper.
Simply run a remote inviting everyone to come to your broadcast booth to get their free bag with all the savings your listeners can carry!
Your advertiser will credit you for every ‘bag’ sale, whether the ‘bag people’ were attracted by you or not, and the idea is unusual enough to stand out.
There are some added benefits:
1.) Your listeners will feel like they got something for nothing (the bag) PLUS the savings, courtesy of you.
2.) Shoppers get to choose which merchandise they want to save on.
3.) Your advertiser has the flexibility to choose the size of bag you distribute
  
Got a hot idea you’d like to share with other stations? Send it to [email protected].  If we use your idea in ENS on Sales, we’ll send you a free copy of my book, 101 Ways to Get Luckier (in ad sales).

Search Engine Optimization

Do You Have an SEO Package?

 
            Local marketers today have a dizzying menu of new and traditional media to choose from.
            The new media bandwagon is a trendy and exciting place to be. Virtually every business has a website today. Websites can post more up to date information and they are cheaper and more accessible than old-fashioned print ads or brochures.
            Many businesses hire Search Engine Optimizers, consultants who try to get their webpage to come up on the first page of an online search. Others invest in expensive new software or try to manipulate search engine preference through carefully selected words or phrases to help them appear among the first in their category on Google or Yahoo.    
            Search Engine Optimization (SEO) takes many forms, but is based upon the premise that the earlier a site is presented in search results, or the higher it
‘ranks’, the more searchers will visit that site.
            The problem with SEO, is that while a business is trying to get their webpage to come up in the top ten, so are their competitors…it’s a never ending battle.
            Amidst all of the glamour and hype for new media, we need to step back for a moment and help our advertisers exercise a little common sense.
            Although the technology may be more glamorous, or bewildering, than old yellow directories, or static brochures, the basic human interaction with online directories, websites, searches and ads is really no different.
            Like the old yellow directories in the phone book, people search the web for three basic reasons:
1.) To look up a business they already have in mind to learn more about them or find their contact information or address.
or
2.) To find a business in a category where no marketer has effectively established their brand and the consumer could not think of a business in that category.
or
3.) To ‘shop’ the sites in search of the cheapest price or more information.
           
Intrusive media, like radio or TV, can be the most effective SEO in all three cases:
1.) Creative intrusive campaigns will create an awareness and preference for a particular business and negate the need for a generic search long before a need arises.
 
2.) Open categories, categories where most consumers have no awareness of or preference for a particular business, are prime categories where intrusive media can easily and inexpensively create a dominant share of mind and share of market for businesses which aim to be that category’s leader.
 
3.) When prices are virtually comparable, intrusive branding and awareness can be the tie-breaker for your advertisers over their competitors.   
 
            Advertisers who rely upon ‘the luck of the draw’ or the premise of first up is first bought are tickling themselves to hear themselves laugh.
            Even if a search ranks your site early today, it is a very simple matter for surfers to find and click on your competitor’s sites as well. And generic category searches inevitably reveal a long list of competitors to the web surfer.
            Smart marketers today use an integrated media approach, rather than putting all of their eggs in the passive media or online basket.
            You need to present your SEO package to every business in your market. Your Search Engine Optimization campaign will persuade consumers to:
1.) Not surf the category, i.e. ‘furniture stores’ , but rather search a particular business name, like NameTown Furniture Mart, thereby minimizing the risk of a search revealing your advertisers’ competitors.
2.) Have a conscious or subconscious preference for your advertisers’ businesses if they do search the category and find a list of competitors.

Re-Invent Yourself

Re-Invent Yourself!

            When competition gets tough, everyone looks for alternative new ways to make sales. Unfortunately, some of your clients will seriously consider cutting you in a desperate search to find new and improved ways to increase sales.
(Please see, ‘There Are No Surprises’ Ens on Sales on how to prevent cancellations)
            But here is the good news!  All of the businesses who don’t use you are also looking for alternative new ways to solve their sales problems.
            Do the math! There are approximately 63 registered businesses per one-thousand population in your market. We estimate that approximately 50 out of those 63 could benefit from radio advertising.  That means in a market of 150,000 people, you have approximately 7,500 prospects.
            But wait, there’s more good news. Less than 10% of the businesses in your market currently use radio or TV…..and what’s even more exciting, 75% of the businesses in your market have never seen a radio or TV rep!
            Why….because we think they ‘don’t advertise’ so we don’t call them. But it’s really chicken and egg syndrome.  They don’t advertise because we don’t know how to sell them.
Here will be the secret to your success in 2009;
1.) Forget about seeking growth by influencing the strategies of national decision makers you can’t even reach.
2.) Fire your ‘retail’ sales people.  Traditional retail is shrinking under increased competition from big box stores, online marketers, and discount chains and are feeling increased pressure in the emerging economy.
3.) Rehire your retail people as local advertising people.  The 75% of businesses who have never seen a radio rep aren’t in retail, they are in the service sector.
            The service sector is the largest and fastest growing sector in our economy, far outpacing our manufacturing, agriculture and retail sectors.
            So why don’t we call on cosmetic surgeons, roofers, plumbers, educational institutions and a long list of other service providers. Some would say “because they don’t advertise”.
            For years our ‘friends’ at yellow pages have been taking more money from our markets than all of the radio and TV stations combined because they do call on these services and professions.
            But lawyers, doctors, roofers and electricians don’t speak ‘retail’. Talking about traffic and awareness to them is meaningless.
            In this economy everyone wants more business. It’s time to re-invent yourself. Learn how to get out of retail and generate business for the services and professions and you will not be affected by a diminished retail sector.
            And here is some more good news.
1.) This sector has not been bombarded with rankers and ratings.
2.) They are looking for new ways to grow their businesses in this economy.
3.) The first one in with a customer-focused idea wins!
4.) They all think we’re more expensive than we are, and are pleasantly surprised at how little it costs to capture new business with radio and TV.
5.) Your competitors will call on about 5% of these prospects and give up.
6.) Because your listeners aren’t bombarded with ads from well drilling companies or chimney cleaning companies, their share of voice with you will be strong and their campaigns will work.
7.) Sheep syndrome will kick in. Once one aluminum siding installer experiences success with you, their competitors will all follow like sheep and advertise too!
 
Many of us can remember, for example, when there were no lawyers advertising, they all just used the directory of ineffective markets, the yellow directory. But once one grew with a media ad campaign, others followed suit. (In case you haven’t heard, advertising does work!)
 
P.S. Don’t know how to re-invent yourself and get out of retail? contact [email protected] 

There are No Surprises

There Are No Surprises

Are you hearing the dreaded “c” words; ‘cancellations’ and ‘cutbacks’?
 
If you are surprised by a cutback or a cancellation, I’m sorry, but you have NOT been doing your job!
 
Account executives who truly know and super-serve their accounts are NEVER surprised buy cancellations and cutbacks. Their intimate knowledge of their accounts actually gives them warning signs before the client even considers cutting back.
 
I recently had an account executive call me to ask how to handle a ‘surprise cancellation’ for a chain of restaurants. 
 
My first question was, “Are their stores corporately owned or are they franchises?”
 
The account executive didn’t know! (I happened to know they were franchises)
But the question revealed that the A/E didn’t know who the corporation’s most important customers were. Their most important customers are NOT the people eating in the restaurants. Their most important customers are the ones who send them checks every month….their franchisees. Unhappy franchisees don’t make good customers and will demand cutbacks, cancellations and changes from head office.
 
This was a classic case of not knowing the customer, not serving the customer, and not earning their business.   I have seldom seen a professional account executive who is surprised by the ‘c’ word if they have been super-serving their clients.
 
In fact, most are able to prevent the ‘c’ word.
Here is the ENS Media Inc. two step approach to preventing the ‘c’ word.
Step One:   Answer these four questions every month;
 
1.) What wasthe last valid business contact I had with the client?
2.) When?
3.) What is the next valid business contact I’m preparing for?
4.) When?
A valid business contact is defined as a contact which benefits the client in some measurable way. It may be providing them with valuable market trend data for their business category, a great new idea or a lead for a new sale. But it MUST benefit the client, and validate you as a valuable sustaining resource.
If your answer to questions 2 or 4 are ‘longer than 30 days’, be prepared to hear the ‘c’ word, and don’t act surprised…..you’ve got it coming.
 
Step Two: Learn who the Three D’sare and answer our four questions for all three:
A.) The Real Decision Maker. There is only one real decision maker. They sign the checks and are the only ones who can increase the total ad budget.
B.) The ‘Decision Allocator’. Theymight be some middle managers or agency buyers or planners.
C.) The Decision Influencers. Every decision maker has advisors and key influencers in their decision making process. It may be franchisees, sales managers, sometimes even spouses. But you need to know who they are, and you need to have a plan to get them on your side.
 
Some of your clients may be considering cutbacks or cancellations right now. Use this two-step ENS Media formula to ensure it is your competition, not you, who gets the dreaded ‘c’ phone call.
 
PS: If the franchisees in your market don’t even know they are on the air with you, they sure aren’t going to come to your defense at cutback time. And don’t think they noticed the ad schedule head office sent them amongst all of the other memos and emails they received from head office.  
 
PPS: The ENS Media Inc. Guided Discovery Selling training package includes 22 different valid business contact tactics. Email Wayne.

Off the Street

OFF THE STREET

Formula One racers often make two to three pit stops of up to ten seconds each to fit fresh tires, make minor performance adjustments, refuel or make emergency repairs.
In total they can ‘waste’ up to thirty seconds ‘off the street’ in the pits, even though races are often won or lost  by a mere fraction of a second.
Occasionally I have managers tell me they can’t invest in training, new revenue initiatives, or take time for coaching because their team ‘can’t afford that much time off the street’.
In virtually every field, from football to motor racing, and from law to medicine, the top practitioners make regular ‘pit stops’ for training, for coaching, to tweak their performance or to refuel and re-energize.
If taking your team off the street for a few hours of training or coaching does not improve their performance and revenues, you have the wrong trainers, coaches and new revenue initiatives.
Time and money invested in the pits is designed to help winners win and should never cause you to lose the race.
 
P.S. Some sales people will complain to management that they can’t afford the time off the street to refresh their tires, improve their performance or learn new revenue development systems. These people are generally only ‘in’ the race, and are not serious about doing whatever it takes to win the race.