“Without proper self-evaluation failure is inevitable.” – John Wooden
Hopefully, self-evaluation is something you do yourself or it’s a process your management team leads you through at least one time a year.
Do you self-evaluate every performance? Meaning, after every sales or service call that you make do you consciously ask yourself what you did well or what you could have done better?
If you are not doing this now, start! Conducting a quick self-evaluation immediately after a call will dramatically improve your overall performance.
Ask yourself, what did I do well? What things did I say, what facts, figures, or stats did I use that had a positive impact on the meeting? Did you complete your desired task for this call?
Likewise, was there any part of my performance that I wish I could undo? Did I spend too much time on small talk? Did I talk too much about our stations and not enough about his/her business? Did I cut him/her off? Did I talk too much, period?
Admitting to yourself that you did something wrong or that you have a flaw is never an easy thing. However, by doing so, it will help you to not repeat them.
There are hundreds of big and little things that we do on each call. By consciously asking yourself and conducting a self-evaluation after each and every call, it will help you better prepare for future meetings and ultimately make you a better salesperson.
How do you define hard work? How hard do you work?
As media reps and managers, we don’t typically describe what we do as “labor” in every sense of the word. Nonetheless, what we do is laborious.
One definition of labor is, “productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain”. If you’re in sales, we hope that you are doing it because of the great potential for economic gain.
Another definition is, “physical or mental work, especially of a hard or fatiguing kind; toil”. While you’re probably not getting blisters, and the work we do is not physically toiling on your body, the task we perform oftentimes leaves you mentally shot at the end of a day. These last five and a half months has certainly taken its toll on everyone in one form or another.
This weekend, celebrate yourself for what you do and what you do for your customers and the economy. But, also celebrate those that make it possible for us to do what we do; the first responders (our police, firemen and women), those that work in the factories and fields, in the offices, retail stores, truck drivers, linemen, service and medical professionals, the stay-at-home moms, and dads.
More importantly, this weekend and always, celebrate and appreciate everyone, regardless of their political party and views, regardless of the color of their skin or the religion they choose to believe in.
It’s one of the most common objections a salesperson receives… but when a customer or prospect poses this objection, is it true? The answer… maybe, or maybe not!
Recently, several media reps posed this question to us, “I’ve had a lot of people say to me lately that they don’t have the budget. How do I reply to that?”
You might try this, “O.K., Mrs./Mr. Business Owner. I appreciate your honesty in sharing that with me. But, let me ask you… If I had an idea that you felt would help grow your business, would you be interested in hearing it?”
Then… wait for their response.
They can either reply by saying, “Well yes, I guess I would.” Then you are free to either present your idea or get busy and come up with one. Or…
They can say no! If they do so, well… they simply aren’t a very good prospect and it’s time to move on to prospects with more potential. I would suggest saying thank you and asking if you could reach out to them from time to time to see if things might have changed.
If you’ve found success using another response to this objection, we’d love to hear it. Please click here and share your thoughts.
We hope that you enjoy our weekly ENS on Sales. If you would be open to sharing ways that you use ENS on Sales, or how you find it helpful, we’d love to hear your comments.
Additionally, if you have suggestions or ideas on topics that you would like to see us address in future ENS on Sales, please send us your thoughts at [email protected].
I’m sure that, like me, your dad at some point in life said to you, “I don’t care if you dig ditches for a living, just be the best ditch digger there is!”
At the time, I’m not sure that statement had a lot of impact on me, but much later in life a quote by Mark Twain did, “A man who can read but doesn’t isn’t any wiser than the man who can’t”.
Through unscientific research, that is observing people and doing self-analyzation of why some people are more successful than others, I can tell you that the most successful people in media sales are those that have the discipline to learn their trade and are either consciously or unconsciously focused and determined to get better every day. They have the knowledge, ability, and a deep-down desire to help others.
For some, this is a built-in personality trait. As managers, you’ll be lucky to have one or two of these “Type A” personalities on your team, but for the others, it needs to be taught. They need to be motivated to be better. They need someone to show them and prove to them that it is worth the effort.
This is where management comes in. Leaders Lead! Are you reading books and articles on marketing and advertising, business, leadership, motivation? Are you devoting part of your day to getting better? If not, Start! Make sure they know that you are doing what you ask them to do. Leaders lead by example.
Getting better every day doesn’t mean hours and hours of reading and research. Just 15-minutes a day can mean the difference between mediocrity and being Great!
If the radio industry could rewrite history, the main thing that it should do (or should have done) is train our sellers better. It starts with motivating them to be better. It starts with having the desire to Get Better Every Day!
P.S. Want to Get Better?I suggest reading the book, RESTORING the SOUL of BUSINESS: Staying HUMAN in the Age of Data, by Rishad Tobaccowala. (I gave it 5+ stars. One of, if not the best, books I have ever read on management, leadership, and business.)
If you or your team has the desire and is looking to get better, I’d like to visit with you about sharing the knowledge I’ve learned over my 30+ years of radio sales and management which helped me guide one of the largest billing small-market radio stations in America. Click here to arrange a call.
There are lots of little things that managers and sellers can do to improve their sales. One of the most overlooked things we do in sales and management is also one of the easiest things we can do to improve sales… yet it’s one of the hardest things for sellers to do.
I’m sure you’ve heard the old proverb, “It’s better to give than to receive”, and these…
“If you want something, give it.” – Deepak Chopra
“No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank
“Life is a boomerang. What you give you get.” – Anonymous
“Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.” – Jim Rohn
“Don’t expect to receive if you are not willing to give.” – Anonymous
Giving is a GREAT lesson in all walks of our lives, but today I am talking about giving up accounts on account lists. Seems like an easy enough thing to do, right? Wrong!
One of the hardest things to get a media rep to do is to give up an account that is on his or her account list.
There are two main reasons why account list management is overlooked: First, to some, it doesn’t seem important and they believe it offers little return for their effort. Secondly, it ruffles media reps’ feathers like no other. Giving up an account, regardless of the last time they were called on, can oftentimes seem like asking a child to give up their favorite toy; they tend to throw a fit, promise to call on them right away and offer up every other excuse they can think of as to why they should keep the account.
In truth, there is really only one reason reps don’t want to give up an account. They fear someone else will get that account on the air, which in turn, would make them look bad.
Show me a station that actively and regularly moves accounts around and does it for the right reasons, and I will show you a successful, strong billing station.
It takes a little prodding and pleading to get media reps accustomed to giving up accounts. The key to getting them to buy into moving accounts around is getting them to understand that if everyone in the building is willing to give up accounts, ultimately, everyone will have fresh accounts to call on.
Ask your reps to work with you on this experiment. Keep track of the results on an individual and team basis. Once you can show the positive results, the task of managing accounts will become much easier.
“Give and you shall receive!” Not only are these good words to live by, but they are good words to use when managing account lists. This way, EVERYONE wins!