Templates and Robots

Templates and Robots

          How do you feel when someone is giving you an obviously canned pitch or presentation that does not appear to be tailored specifically to you?
          I’m often asked for standard presentation ‘templates’ or for pre-scripted answers to objections. Those who are looking for magic templates and processes are simply looking for the easy way to make a sale.
          My father taught me, “anything worth getting is worth working for”. When you are in pursuit of a major sale, robotic processes and template systems just don’t cut it. They’re fine for the rookie who hasn’t learned how to approach prospects strategically, or for small ‘quick hit’ sales.
          We have all seen the sales training that says, “this is the way (implying the only way) to get an appointment” or “when your prospect poses an objection, use this standard, snappy comeback”.
          There are a number of problems with trying to train your sales people in robotic selling or to use down and dirty templates.
1.)   Templates and robotic pitches make no allowance for buyer style and assume the same approach works for everyone.
     Custom tailoring your approach to suit your prospect’s buyer style does     take more research and effort, but pays off handsomely.
2.)    Templates and scripts don’t allow you to benefit from experience. When you custom tailor your presentations for continuous improvement, each presentation becomes better than the last one.
3.)    The average local business owner hears from 16 sales people a week trying to sell them one form of advertising or another. The odds are they’ve already seen the template or heard the script you’re using from one of your competitors. You know enough about marketing and branding to know the winner is always the one who differentiates themselves from their competition.
4.)    Custom tailoring every major presentation to be relevant to your client has the added advantage of giving you time to mentally rehearse your presentation as you write it.
         
          You’ve told your clients that marketing today is all about ‘engaging’ or ‘being relevant’. So it’s time for you to walk the talk. Robots who say the same thing to everyone are NOT engaging and I’ve yet to see the template that’s relevant to every buyer style and situation.
 
Randy’s ‘What If’
What if you gave every major presentation the time it deserves. Calculate what your time is worth per hour, then calculate the commission you will make on this sale. Putting time and effort into preparing a well thought out customer-focused presentation will always result in larger orders than, one size fits all scripts and templates.
 
Don’t know how to write customer-focused presentations? Contact [email protected] to discuss our Customer-Focused Communication sales training to help you capture larger 52-week orders.

No One Can Sell Like you

No One Can Sell You Like YOU!

          So your prospect says they like your presentation, but they want to present it to a board, partner or solicit a co-sponsor. Don’t let that happen!
·        No one knows your product, or has the passion for your product, like you.
·        There may be questions the board/partner/sponsor has that your contact can’t answer….further stalling the sale.
·        A camel is a horse, made by a committee; your presentation can really be compromised or get bogged down when others are involved.
·        If there are objections, you need to be there to handle them.
 
          When you encounter someone who is trying to sell your proposal to others, simply suggest, “Great idea! Can I arrange to be there to help you and to answer any questions that may come up that you might not be able to answer?”
          If they say “yes”, get the names/titles/positions of those you’ll be presenting to. Check out their websites, do your home work, and revise the presentation to address any needs or concerns you discover during your research. Don’t hesitate to ask permission to call each of the participants to ask them a few pre-presentation questions.
          At the presentation, make sure you make eye contact with every individual, and give everyone the opportunity to ask questions and present ideas. And give everyone in attendance a copy of your presentation.
          If the others to be presented to are not in your market, offer to do the presentation for them online via services like GoToMeeting.
 
          Odds are if your client says “no” to you helping, they weren’t really going to present your presentation at all, and they were going to use the other parties as their scapegoat when they say “no” to you.
          No one can sell your ideas as well as you!
 
Randy’s What If 
What if you met with every partner, board member and sponsor and kept your eyes open for additional sales opportunities from each of them?
 

Opportunity

An Opportunity

In yesterday’s ENS on Sales, Social Confusion or Turnkey Solutions, we discussed your clients and prospects being overwhelmed by the number of media choices today. Several of our readers pointed out that I didn’t make it clear that including your digital offerings in your ‘turnkey solutions’ will make it easier for the client to buy! Sorry if I didn’t make that clear. Here is yesterday’s ENS on Sales in case you missed it.
Your clients and prospects have never been so overwhelmed by media choices!
          As of December 2010, there were more than 266 million websites fighting for the attention of internet users in your market! It makes the half dozen or so radio stations vying for your target audience seem pretty impressive.
          And who knows what the social media flavor of the week will be next week? In a few short months it’s changed from MySpace to Twitter, and from YouTube to Facebook. By the time you read this,the darling might be Foursquare, Flickr or Friendster.
          In the August 9 issue of Social Media Today; touted as publishing ‘the world’s best thinkers in social media’, the author said, “social media is a complex and evolving medium that many businesses struggle to figure out. Few find quantifiable success with it, many have failed, and most have yet to truly form a social media strategy”.
When a local business owner gets caught up in the hype of social media, they have more questions than answers;
  • Which social media do I participate in?
  • Where do I find the time?
  • Why would a follower find our post valuable?
  • Content is king, where do I get content?
  • Who will be our social media steward/evangelist?
  • How will I train them to handle the dialogue appropriately?
  • How often do I have to update my post?
  • What should I have on my profile page?
          Print is being killed by the internet and digital media platforms are evolving so rapidly that even the ‘experts’ can’t keep up.
          Familiar, proven and comfortable radio can be a safe haven for local advertisers who want to minimize risk and grow their business. Seriously, is there any web page or social media post that can influence as many local consumers in a single day as a 30 second commercial adjacent to your prime time news?
          Broadcast account executives who present turnkey 52-week solutions to shell shocked advertisers can make some serious dough.
          When you present a 52-week marketing plan complete with a well crafted strategy, schedule and regular creative changes, all the busy bewildered advertiser has to do is say “Book ‘em Danno”.
 
P.S. If you need help creating better turnkey solutions contact [email protected] to inquire about our Making Radio Tangible sales training

Social Confusion or Turnkey Solutions

Social Confusion or Turnkey Solutions

           Your clients and prospects have never been so overwhelmed by media choices!
          As of December 2010, there were more than 266 million websites fighting for the attention of internet users in your market! It makes the half dozen or so radio stations vying for your target audience seem pretty impressive.
          And who knows what the social media flavor of the week will be next week? In a few short months it’s changed from MySpace to Twitter, and from YouTube to Facebook. By the time you read this,the darling might be Foursquare, Flickr or Friendster.
          In the August 9 issue of Social Media Today; touted as publishing ‘the world’s best thinkers in social media’, the author said, “social media is a complex and evolving medium that many businesses struggle to figure out. Few find quantifiable success with it, many have failed, and most have yet to truly form a social media strategy”.
When a local business owner gets caught up in the hype of social media, they have more questions than answers;
  • Which social media do I participate in?
  • Where do I find the time?
  • Why would a follower find our post valuable?
  • Content is king, where do I get content?
  • Who will be our social media steward/evangelist?
  • How will I train them to handle the dialogue appropriately?
  • How often do I have to update my post?
  • What should I have on my profile page?
          Print is being killed by the internet and digital media platforms are evolving so rapidly that even the ‘experts’ can’t keep up.
          Familiar, proven and comfortable radio can be a safe haven for local advertisers who want to minimize risk and grow their business. Seriously, is there any web page or social media post that can influence as many local consumers in a single day as a 30 second commercial adjacent to your prime time news?
          Broadcast account executives who present turnkey 52-week solutions to shell shocked advertisers can make some serious dough.
          When you present a 52-week marketing plan complete with a well crafted strategy, schedule and regular creative changes, all the busy bewildered advertiser has to do is say “Book ‘em Danno”.
 
Randy’s ‘What If’

What if your sales team participated in our Making Radio Tangible live workshop to give them the tools they need to present turnkey solutions to your prospects? Interested?

What’s all the Talk about?

 

What’s All This Talk About ‘Value’?
 
          World renowned sales trainer, Jeffrey Gitomer, says the secret to selling against fierce competition is to “Differentiate with value or die with price.”
          You’ve heard the ‘sell on value’ story before, but what exactly is your ‘value’?
          Success coach Anthony Robbins often tells the story about a major shopping center that experienced a failure in their elevators.
          It was costing them thousands of dollars a minute in lost sales.
          The mall manager was panicking. She had called several service companies, but none of them seemed to be able to fix the problem.
          Finally, she called someone who was able to fix the problem in 60 seconds flat by simply pressing a few buttons…. Then he invoiced her a whopping $10,000 fee “for services rendered” !
          The outraged mall manager asked the service man “How can you charge $10,000 for pushing a couple of buttons and one minute’s work?”
          The service man replied by re-writing the invoice to say;
                   “Service charge for pressing buttons = $1.00
                   Investment for knowing which buttons to press = $9,999.00”
          Your clients can purchase quantifiable spots, space, reach and frequency, cost per point or cost per thousand from an ever growing list of cheaper suppliers today. It’s the marketing knowledge you bring to the table in your total value bundle that will separate you from your low-price competitors.
          Your only competitive advantage is to learn the latest best practices to increase your advertisers’ return on investment faster than your competitors.
 
 
Randy’s What If
What if you became one of our SoundADvice members and learned a new marketing best practice every week that you could deliver to your advertisers?