What About Your Staff?

What About Your Staff?

 
            Chapter 13 in my book suggests that ‘95% of all cancellations are predictable, and thus preventable’.
            It further explains that one of the key tools in cancellation prevention is using our Four Questions for every key account, every month.
 
Q1.) What is the last good thing we did for the account?
Q2.) When?
Q.3.) What is the next good thing we’re planning to do for the account?
Q.4.) When?
 
            A “good thing” is described as a Valid Business Contact, or a contact that your customer benefits from.
            The book explains that if the answers to questions 2 and 4 are longer than 30 days, your budget might be coming under the knife when your advertisers begin to look for ways to cut expenses.
            But I’ve come to recognize you have to ask those same four questions with your most important and highest leverage customers…your internal customers.
            Substitute the phrase ‘for my customer’ with the phrase ‘for my staff’ in questions 1 and 3. What is the last good thing you did for your staff and what is the next good thing you are going to do for them, and when?
            In the case of your internal customers, giving them a job, or an earned bonus or incentive, is NOT enough. What do you do over and above what is expected or earned to keep your staff from canceling or tuning you out?
            I recall one instance with Scott, one of my sales people, when his car broke down heading into a weekend when garages were closed and he had promised to take his kids to an important outing.
            I flipped him the keys to my new car for the weekend.  That simple gesture earned more loyalty, respect and sales from him than I did with any of the financial incentives he earned.
            To this day I think Scott would walk over broken glass for me.      

Hare Krishna Strategy

 

Hare Krishna Strategy
 
In his book, The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini identifies psychological reciprocity; ‘the deep-rooted subconscious need to return effort to those who put forth effort for us’, as one of the six most powerful influences on human buying behavior.
Psychological reciprocity is one of the most powerful sales levers radio sales professionals can develop.
Even Hare Krishna, the unusual 1970’s group with shaved heads and ill-fitting robes, capitalized on people’s deep-rooted subconscious need to return something to those who give you something.
They discovered their likelihood of receiving a donation from unwilling travelers at the airport increased dramatically, if they first gave the passersby a rose.
They also learned it didn’t matter if their target donors wanted the rose or not.  In fact, the robed team always had one member scurrying about the airport collecting the roses travelers threw in garbage bins, to give them away to another unsuspecting traveler.

Obama vs Clinton

Why Obama Has Raised More Money Than Clinton

 
            There really are only two motivators in life and in buying decisions….fear of loss or hope of gain.
            Hillary Clinton’s campaign clearly focuses on solving problems and minimizing pain while Barrack Obama clearly focuses on selling hope and a brighter future.
            While Clinton offers the ‘experience’ to solve problems, Obama holds the torch for a new and brighter future seldom talked about by traditional politicians who focus on solving problems.
            It remains to be seen which strategy will win, but it is interesting to note that a recently ‘unknown’ has been able to raise considerably more funds than the established Clinton.
            Those of us in sales need to recognize that both ends of the scale, fear and euphoria, hold opportunities for us as well.
            Most solution-oriented sales training or traditional consultative selling often focuses only on the pain side of the questioning continuum.
            The moniker of some of these courses is; “When the price of the pain exceeds the cost of your cure, you have a sale.” While this is true, it is a mistake to under-estimate how much wider the purse strings open when your presentation appeals to advertisers’ visions, hopes and dreams, rather than focusing on solutions to short-term problems.
            Our Becoming a Master Questioner Workshop can help your account executives master the skill of opening doors through problem solving, then building relationships by uncovering your prospects’ dreams and long term-goals.

Morning Head

Morning Head
 
          Have you ever heard the expression “Things will look better in the morning?”
          It’s not just an expression, it’s true!
          God sent us this wonderful thing called sleep that erases all of the unimportant crap that our brains absorb during the day.
          If you want to sell more 52-week business, make your presentations when
‘Things look better’ to your clients.
          According to our records, 75-80% of all major media sales are made between 8 AM and 11:15 AM.
          It appears that by the time afternoon roles around, busy decision-makers have had staff problems to deal with, their show rooms are busy, and their brains are full…too full to consider exciting new ideas or directions with an open mind.
          Educators have also proven that the human mind captures and retains new concepts better in the light of a new day than during a late afternoon seminar.
          Want to make more major sales?
Then make sure your weekly planner is packed full with face-to-face pro-active presentations every morning. Do the stuff that makes you “busy”, although not necessarily productive, later each day.  
 
P.S. Want to make an important uninterrupted presentation in the morning? Try scheduling an off-premise breakfast meeting.

Top Of Mind Awareness is NOT Enough

          I hate to burst your bubble, but your clients and prospects do not want top of mind awareness, they do not want a better image, they do not want more traffic….and here’s what might be a real shocker, they do not even want more sales……..

          Your clients know they cannot send their kids to college with ‘awareness’, they can not pay their mortgage with ‘traffic’ and the can not build their retirement plans based upon ‘sales’.  They can only achieve their goals with PROFITS.

          It’s strange that we seem to understand the difference between selling features versus selling benefits, but yet somehow over the years we’ve come to think that features like awareness and traffic are benefits. Frankly, they are the features which can deliver the benefit, that benefit being profit.

          Many media are frightened to take responsibility for profits, and claim their only job is to deliver traffic. Clients have grown weary of that message. They want media partners who are courageous enough to discuss increasing profits.

          Morris Saffer built a hugely successful retail advertising agency on the premise “It does not take a genius to increase sales. Just drop your prices in half and they’ll beat a path to your door. The genius,” said Morris, “is in increasing your sales at a profit!”

          Here’s the good news. The features which we deliver, like awareness, image, traffic and branding can achieve the profit benefit.

          Many of our passive media competitors, like coupon envelopes, can only deliver sales with discounts or inventory clearances at a huge cost to the bottom line.

          Do you have the guts to sell the profit benefit?  More importantly, has your sales staff been trained to dodge responsibility for profits? Do they default to selling features like awareness or branding?

Or have they been trained to partner in profits?

 NOTE: Selling to the profit motive is one of the key differences of the ENS Media Inc. training and consulting program. If your stations want to experience  percentage sales increases consistently double and triple the industry average, let’s talk!  (All ENS Media radio clients have increases in excess of 20% this year.)