One of the things I like best about marketing is the way what works, changes so rapidly. Remember when a furniture store in your market advertised, ‘Nothing to pay for thirty days?’ It worked!
          But then someone else countered with, ‘nothing to pay for ninety days’ and then, ‘don’t pay till next year.’
          I’m still waiting for the campaign that says, ‘Never pay a dime! Leave the darn debt to your heirs!’
          But seriously, our business is no different. The old consultative opening sales line, “I’d like to make an appointment to learn about your business………” used to actually get us in the door.
         Today the receiver of that over-used door opener is thinking, “My time is too valuable to teach you about my business” or “You want me to teach you in an hour what it took me twenty years to learn?” or “Yeah, yeah, I took that consultative selling course too.” Or worse still, “The last guy who told me that just asked questions until he saw an opening to sell his package of the month.”
          Recently I had one client say to me, “If one more media rep asks me ‘who is your target demographic’, I’m going to scream!”
          In his ground breaking book, Selling to VITO (Very Important Top Officer), Anthony Parinello proclaims that today we must ‘Earn the right to ask questions.’
          VITO wants to deal with business equals, not opportunistic sales people. VITO wants you to know more about his target demographic than he does, before you make the call.
          In his book, What Clients Love, Harry Beckwith suggests account executives need to “touch” the client in a meaningful way seven times before the client will trust you enough to give you honest and candid answers to the important questions about his goals and objectives.
           Isn’t it time you went beyond old-fashioned consultative selling techniques and developed a “seven touches” plan to build customer trust and loyalty? Or do you still want to use the same tired approaches as you competitors? 

Contact [email protected] to inquire how your sales team can learn how to take their client relationships to the next level. We guarantee a minimum 5 to 1 return on your consulting and training investment.

        In broadcasting, we have three primary customer groups upon whom we depend for our success…..we have external customers in the form of audiences and clients, and we have internal customers in the form of staff.
        If you do the math, you will soon recognize that on a per capita basis, your staff members are by far your most valuable customers. In fact, isolating your sales staff as an example, your bottom-billing sales person probably delivers more revenue for your station than your top-billing client.
        And if you divide your annual revenue by your cumulative audience, you’ll see that in order, your staff members are your most valuable customers, clients are the second most valuable, and your audience ranks third on a per capita basis.
        While each customer segment is hugely inter-dependent upon the other, it is our internal customer whom often is under-sold.
        What are you doing to sell your staff on: your company, your market, and your target audience?
        One of the best sales tools to reach and influence your staff is professional development training. Studies have proven that career professionals respect and appreciate companies who make an investment in their professional development and they respond with higher productivity levels.
        The poorest excuse I’ve heard for not investing in training and career development is staff turnover. We have audience turnover and client attrition, yet we continue to cater to and sell these customer groups. Why not make a similar investment for our most valuable customers… our internal customers.
        Investing in your staff can actually reduce turn-over levels!
        As you budget for a successful 2007, I recommend you plan to invest 2.5-4.5% of your revenue target in training and development.
        I can almost guarantee it will be the most high-leverage investment you can make. 

          Are you looking for a way to add a little spark to your sales team? Try this. 
At your next sales meeting, start a round table discussion on, “What I like most about my career in advertising sales.”
          Keep gathering input and documenting the answers on a flip chart or dry-erase board until you come up with the Top Ten Reasons why we enjoy our careers.
          In the day to day grind of trying to make budget, hearing clients who say advertising doesn’t work, and getting bogged down in paper work, we often forget about the buzz we got from our first day on the job.
You’ll inevitably get answers like:
Helping clients succeed
The opportunity to be creative
Working with interesting people
Being my own boss or managing my own account list
Not tied to a desk
Prestige in the community
Unlimited earning potential
Continuous learning curve
The thrill of making the sale
Never get bored
          It is common to take our blessings for granted after a while, and developing a Top Ten Reasons Why We Have a Great Career helps everyone to reflect upon how fortunate we are to be in this exciting and stimulating business.

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitudes and actions.” – Harold Geneen, Chairman, ITT Corp.

          I have never directly discussed the role of attitude in the more than 500 SOUNDManagement tips I have written. That’s because it is so painfully obvious that the phrase, “positive attitude” has almost become cliché.
          Sitting on the plane on my way back to Lagoon City last week, I was pondering what creates my most successful clients, in an effort to replicate those successes.
          Is it the amount of time I dedicate to them? Certain concepts, ideas or programs we initiate? Or is it systems, procedures or discipline? Do external factors, ratings or other market conditions play an over-whelming role in success or failure?
          I would like to tell you that I concluded it is ENS Media Inc.’s consulting and training that was the single most powerful contributor to my clients’ success, but that’s not magic the answer either.
          I have studied enough success cases that I can state unequivocally that the single largest contributing factor to any of my clients’ successes is positive mental attitude.
          I have always taken pride in being a glass-half-full kind of guy, but even I was shocked to re-discover the over-powering role that attitude plays in the success of my clients.
          All of the other things I do as a consultant, from achieving buy-in, to implementing training, and from introducing systems to having more fun on the job, only happen if my clients consistently encourage positive attitudes from their staffs.
          I sincerely hope I have not bored you by stating this obvious and common observation, but it has made such an overwhelming contribution to my clients’ successes that I felt compelled to remind you about the power of positive thinking. (After all, who knows better than us that repetition sells!)
          We know about this powerful phenomenon, but in the face of increased competition, you need a plan that helps you to focus on the positives every day. I’m going to suggest that you mark four things to do in your palm-pilot or day-timer every day;
1. Uncover and promote a positive about your company.
2. Uncover and utilize a positive about yourself.
3. Uncover and promote a positive about your market. 
4. Uncover and promote a positive about your staff or peers.
         Henry Ford probably said it best when he said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right!”

One of the most self-serving things you can do is to educate someone else.
In the process of educating someone else, here is what you will achieve for yourself:
1.     You will learn more about the subject matter. As you research and prepare to pass on your knowledge, you will actually update and enhance your knowledge of the topic.
2.     You will improve your self-confidence. Inevitably, you will surprise yourself at how much you already know as you teach someone else.
3.     You will elevate your image as a professional. There is a certain amount of respect and recognition that is given to anyone who teaches us something.
4.     Everyone you teach will either become a client or give you a referral.
Two of the most effective teaching platforms will actually help you to market yourself:
1.     Write a regular column or news letter about your areas of expertise.
2.     Speak to business groups and schools about your areas of expertise.
Both speaking and writing require a great deal of discipline and up-front effort…….. researching, designing, personalizing and creating your material takes more time than actually delivering it. 
But you will never regret the effort. 
As you plan your career path, make room to aggressively seek out writing or speaking platforms to help you grow from helping others grow.
“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater”
                                                                                                                   -Gail Godwin-