Tag Archives: businesses
Set, Ready, Grow!
There are a lot of great things about being in media sales; every day is different, you’re not stuck behind a desk, you work with many different types of businesses and people, outside sales offer a level of flexibility, and for the most part YOU are responsible for what you earn. But my favorite is that you get to experience the satisfaction of helping businesses grow with creative strategies, ideas, and solutions!
The downside, if there is one, is that the pressure is always on! Ten times out of ten, ownership and management expect you to grow from one year to the next. The old expression, “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying”, is as true in sales as it is in any other walk of life.
2020 is here! Are you Set, and Ready to Grow?
What are you going to do in 2020 to be better than you were in 2019?
Are you going to work harder? You really shouldn’t have to unless you didn’t work very hard in 2019. Work smarter instead!
Are you going to read more? Just 15 minutes a day will change your world. Become more educated on advertising and marketing. Exercise your brain every day!
Will you be a better resource to your prospects and clients than you have been in the past? Bringing more knowledge and value to your clients is one sure way to get them to spend more with you.
Today, business owners want to work with media reps that are cutting edge; reps that offer ideas and solutions to their needs. Whether you are in sales or management, are you Set and Ready to Grow in 2020?
We look forward to bringing you weekly topics that will help stimulate your brain and offer ideas to help you have a great year!
If you are looking for ways to grow revenue, build better relationships with your clients, or you would like outside help in training yourself or your team, send an email to [email protected]. We would love to visit with you.
How Do You Reply?
It happens nearly every day. You meet someone for the first time and the common question asked is, “What do you do for a living?”
How do you reply?
Do you offer the common boring response, “I sell advertising”, or, “I sell advertising for (your station/group name)”? Or, do you give a much more profound, creative, and exciting answer?
We are in a creative profession so start with a creative response to this mundane question. While this little reply (your “elevator speech”) isn’t necessarily going to make or break you, it can mean the world of difference in how the person asking perceives you. We only get so many chances to tell the world what we do, and this is one of those opportunities. Be prepared to take advantage of it!
So, what do you do?
As a media rep, I would say, “I work with small to medium-sized businesses helping them create strategies and ideas so they get a better return on their advertising dollar”.
As a manager, it would be something like, “I manage a group of media reps and help train them, give them ideas, and keep them motivated so they can, in turn, help their clients get a better return on their advertising dollar”.
As a media and sales consultant, I say, “We work with small to medium-sized media markets, mostly radio, helping train their managers and media reps so they can help their clients get a better return on their advertising dollar. In return, they ultimately generate more local revenue”.
Each of these statements is just the beginning of the conversation and hopefully it leads to more discussion.
Whether a sales rep or a manager, draft a short, creative statement that you are comfortable with, that will make the person asking the question say, “Wow, that’s interesting!”
Write it down, memorize it, and be prepared to use it the next time someone asks, “What do you do?”
SEO vs SOM
Internet guru, Seth Godin, says, “The last click someone clicks on before they buy something isn’t the moment they made up their mind”.
With most purchases, the mind has been compressing logical information and the heart has been building an emotional connection with the business or product long before the purchase was about to be made.
So, who gets credit for creating the relationship between your listeners and your clients, and who gets credit for the sale?
Broadcast INSPIRES and the internet INFORMS. In today’s new media world, the way we shop has changed. Businesses and products that are marketed and advertised correctly use both mediums in tandem to make sure they have the best chance of being considered by the consumer.
Our TOMA research of over 160 markets and nearly 30,000 people suggests that 72.5% will click on a business name that they are familiar with. Only 4% will click on the name at the top of the page and 23.5% will click on both. An article in Search Engine Journal confirms this by stating that “nearly 70% of U.S consumers said they look for a ‘known retailer’ when deciding what search result to click on”. They go on to say, “Branding is our only hope for conducting better SEO”.
The conclusion is, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) does very little unless they have GREAT SOM (Share of Mind) or TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness).
While the digital mediums are used closer to the actual purchases to gather information, they may get most of the credit, but it’s the traditional media (radio/TV) that inspires the consumer and creates the emotional relationship.
Does your sales staff know how to position radio’s powerful role in the marketing or buying funnel?
The secret to creating more revenue for your stations is to train your team how to position the strategic role of intrusive radio advertising to create a pre-need pre-search preference for your advertisers in the minds of your listeners.
To learn how our ENS Media TOMA Surveys and Seminars can help train your sales team and educate your clients and prospects, click here and I’ll gladly give you more information.
What a Way to Make a Living!
Have you ever noticed how negatives seem to jump out at you and smack you in the forehead, and the positives can go unnoticed or taken for granted?
Your sales reps hear the negatives every day, “No one listens to radio anymore”, No one listens to your stations”, “Your prices are too high”, “I’m cutting my budget”, “I tried radio once and it didn’t work”. They get beat up every day on the streets.
Part of a Sales Manager’s job is to motivate the troops. At your next sales meeting, open a discussion about what it is that they like about their career. (Use the word “career”, not “job”.)
You’ll get an amazing array of answers like, “helping businesses succeed”, “the creative aspect”, “it’s different every day”, “working with a variety of different people and businesses”, “not having to sit behind a desk every day”.
This exercise will achieve three different objectives for you:
1) It will remind them about the positives of their daily lives.
2) Some of their peers will present positives others never thought of.
3) You’ll gain valuable information into each individual’s motivation to help you in your coaching sessions.
Note: You may have to prime the well and start the conversation by sharing why you enjoy your career and/or company.