Tag Archives: prospects

Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid

When you were growing up, you may have heard the expression, “Some things are just better left unsaid”. It was another way of saying hold your tongue because if you say it out loud, it could land you in trouble, or it may cause unpleasantness.

In advertising sales, one of those “things” better left unsaid until the appropriate time is…rates!

However, oftentimes it’s one of the first things new prospects want to talk about. When this happens, how we reply can set the stage and determine what type of relationship we will have with this client far into the future.

So, while we are better off not talking about rates, especially early in the relationship, the topic, especially when asked, needs to be addressed.

When one of your prospect’s first questions is, “What are your rates?”, you must be prepared. Answering the question directly and with as much confidence as possible is extremely important. The worst possible thing you can do is try to skirt the question and give them a song and dance reply!

Here is a suggested reply: “Our rates are great. I can assure you of one thing, we don’t gouge people and we don’t give it away.” Our rates are determined by several factors that include what station and/or how many stations you are on, the time frame in which your ads air, how much frequency you choose to run, the length of the agreement, and the length of the message. With that said, your rates will be somewhere between $ and $.”

If you choose to use something like this, make sure the rates you provide are fairly broad, allowing you room to explain the rates you present based on the reasons stated above, i.e. a 30-sec ROS schedule compared to 60-sec drive- times on one or multiple stations.

What we don’t want to have happen is to get into a discussion about our rates vs. the other radio station(s), or comparing the cost of radio to other mediums. The deeper you go with your reply, the more rate will be an issue.

As quickly as possible you want the conversation to turn to how we can help them grow their business with strategies, ideas, solutions, and results!

The right time to discuss rates is after you have presented your ideas and proven that you are there to help them, not just sell them. Then, regardless of what your rates are, they will always appear lower.

Do you want to be known as the media rep with the best rates or the media rep with the best ideas? Having a pre-planned and rehearsed response to this question can determine what your relationship will look like far into the future.

Some things are better left unsaid, or at least said in the appropriate manner, at the appropriate time!

Just Listen

While interviewing prospective media sales reps and visiting with seasoned sales reps, every once in a while I meet people who proudly proclaim their strength to be, “I’ve got the gift of gab.” They say this as it’s a strength instead of a potential weakness.

In sales, the “gift of gab” can oftentimes be more aptly described as “the curse of chatter”, or more to the point as someone that “doesn’t know when to shut up”!

Successful sales professionals know that sales is really more about listening than it is about talking.

Those with the curse more often engage in product-feature speak than they do in providing customer-focused solutions or opportunities.

Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care….and caring is demonstrated by listening.

Listening is by far the most important skill a sales professional can learn and practice. The salespeople who annoy and alienate prospects the most are those who claim to be good listeners but follow every customer objection with a “yah, but…..“

There is no room for the word “but” in a good listener’s vocabulary. To be a professional listener you need to:

1.) Be Prepared. Earn the right to ask questions by learning something about the prospect’s business before you make a call.

2.) Ask open-ended questions that encourage the prospect to express their views and feelings.

3.) Demonstrate you are listening by taking notes. (Always ask permission to take notes, i.e. “Your input is important to me; do you mind if I take a few notes?”)

4.) Paraphrase and summarize what you hear. Don’t start a debate.

5.) Use the language and needs you hear the customer express when you make your presentation.

6.) Make certain that every benefit you present relates to a need you heard the prospect express.

There is a lot more money to be made being interested than there is in being interesting.

So, instead of proving that you have the “gift of gab”, shut up and… Just Listen!

Make America’s/Canada’s Payday Your Clients’ Payday

It’s really more of a pay “period”. January 27^th through April 15th for U.S. residents, and January 1st through April 30th for our Canadian friends, these are the days a majority of us will file our 2019 taxes. This graph (U.S. tax refund statistics) shows that a large percentage procrastinate and file during the last week. Now, and for the next 3 months and beyond, many checks will be pouring in.

In 2019, 95.7 million Americans received a tax refund, and the average refund was $2725.00. In Canada, 18.7 million receive a refund with the average being approximately $1740. 2020 is expected to be very much the same.

So, what does everyone do with all this money, and more importantly, are you prepared to help your clients capture their fair share of it? This graph shows that regardless of what type of business your clients own, they stand a decent chance of being on the receiving end of some of this refund bonanza.

After realizing how much money is available, we now understand why auto dealers, furniture, bedding, and appliances stores all run “Tax Refund” events. But nearly every category whether it’s retail, service, or professional can get a share of these monies. As simple as it may sound, telling and specifically asking for part or all of their refund is the best way to increase their chances of getting it!

Now, your only job is to come up with an idea and present it to your prospects and clients. By doing so, you can turn America’s/Canada’s payday into YOUR payday!

If you would like help in creating a successful “Tax Refund” event for your clients, click here and we’ll send you our “14-Tips to a More Successful Tax Refund Sales Event”.

Remember When?

Remember the days when getting a first appointment with your new prospects was relatively easy, and more calls meant more appointments? You simply picked up the phone and said things like:

I have a great idea I would like to share with you.
I’d like to ask a few questions to learn more about your business.
I have a new station package or special offer I’d like to drop off.

Today, your prospects and clients are bombarded with many new media and traditional media sales amateurs claiming they want to learn more about their business. Business owners today don’t have time to teach you about their business. They want to work with salespeople who have put in the extra effort to learn about their business BEFORE they call.

The skeptical business owner is saying to themselves; “I don’t know you, I don’t know what you stand for, I don’t know your company, and what do you know about my business or any business for that matter?”

Effort breeds psychological reciprocity; that deep-rooted subconscious need to do something for someone who has done something for you. Provide your prospects with usable knowledge about their business over a period of time, and you might just peak their interest – IN YOU!

You can begin building your brand and demonstrating your knowledge and effort by sending a few helpful marketing tips like those in our SoundADvice e-marketing system BEFORE you ask for the appointment.

Once you have presold who you are, what company you’re with, and what you stand for, securing an appointment will become much easier. Better yet, they”ll just call you for that appointment!

The bottom line? The most important thing you have to sell is trust. And trust is built over time, not with just one phone call or one cold call.

Busy decision makers today don’t have time for typical salespeople or old school sales tactics. But they will make time to talk to professionals who have branded themselves as marketing experts who know something about their particular business category, and who appear willing and able to help them grow their business.

Want to learn more about how the SoundADvice e-marketing system can pre-sell your media reps’ qualifications? Click here to set up a time to talk with Rick.

Why Advertise?

Ever since John Wannamaker coined his famous phrase, “I know half my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half,” bewildered business owners have welcomed the message from vendors suggesting they can cut their advertising budgets.

The list of “anti-advertising” salespeople is longer than you might think.

Sales trainers, for example, are telling business owners they do not need more traffic or awareness, they need sales training to capture higher closing ratios from their existing traffic. And mall leasing managers claim it’s more efficient to capture their mall traffic than to try to draw traffic to a stand-alone location…. they’re all persuading advertisers to cut their advertising in favor of other marketing tools.

And then there is the CRM (customer relations management) software folks telling the story that “It costs 20 times as much to attract a new customer with advertising as it costs to keep an old customer coming back using our software.”

So here is the thing. Are you taking for granted that your prospects and clients truly value advertising’s role in the marketing mix? Do your salespeople know how to sell advertising in the marketing mix, or are they focused on selling your media as the best advertising media to prospects who are increasingly skeptical of advertising?

You should not allow a written presentation to leave your office if it does not have a customer-focused “Why advertise?” proposition. To not continuously sell advertising in every radio presentation is doing a huge disservice to our industry, our clients, and ourselves.

Have you considered using our local TOMA, Top-of-Mind Awareness, surveys to validate how advertising on radio drives more online traffic for our advertisers?

Click here to arrange a free online overview of what TOMA surveys can do for you.

When you were growing up, you may have heard the expression, “Some things are just better left unsaid”. It was another way of saying hold your tongue because if you say it out loud, it could land you in trouble, or it may cause unpleasantness.

In advertising sales, one of those “things” better left unsaid until the appropriate time is…rates!

However, oftentimes it’s one of the first things new prospects want to talk about. When this happens, how we reply can set the stage and determine what type of relationship we will have with this client far into the future.

So, while we are better off not talking about rates, especially early in the relationship, the topic, especially when asked, needs to be addressed.

When one of your prospect’s first questions is, “What are your rates?”, you must be prepared. Answering the question directly and with as much confidence as possible is extremely important. The worst possible thing you can do is try to skirt the question and give them a song and dance reply!

If you choose to use something like this, make sure the rates you provide are fairly broad, allowing you room to explain the rates you present based on the reasons stated above, i.e. a 30-sec ROS schedule compared to 60-sec drive- times on one or multiple stations.

What we don’t want to have happen is to get into a discussion about our rates vs. the other radio station(s), or comparing the cost of radio to other mediums. The deeper you go with your reply, the more rate will be an issue.

As quickly as possible you want the conversation to turn to how we can help them grow their business with strategies, ideas, solutions, and results!

The right time to discuss rates is after you have presented your ideas and proven that you are there to help them, not just sell them. Then, regardless of what your rates are, they will always appear lower.

Do you want to be known as the media rep with the best rates or the media rep with the best ideas? Having a pre-planned and rehearsed response to this question can determine what your relationship will look like far into the future.

Some things are better left unsaid, or at least said in the appropriate manner, at the appropriate time!

While interviewing prospective media sales reps and visiting with seasoned sales reps, every once in a while I meet people who proudly proclaim their strength to be, “I’ve got the gift of gab.” They say this as it’s a strength instead of a potential weakness.

In sales, the “gift of gab” can oftentimes be more aptly described as “the curse of chatter”, or more to the point as someone that “doesn’t know when to shut up”!

Successful sales professionals know that sales is really more about listening than it is about talking.

Those with the curse more often engage in product-feature speak than they do in providing customer-focused solutions or opportunities.

Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care….and caring is demonstrated by listening.

Listening is by far the most important skill a sales professional can learn and practice. The salespeople who annoy and alienate prospects the most are those who claim to be good listeners but follow every customer objection with a “yah, but…..“

There is no room for the word “but” in a good listener’s vocabulary. To be a professional listener you need to:

1.) Be Prepared. Earn the right to ask questions by learning something about the prospect’s business before you make a call.

2.) Ask open-ended questions that encourage the prospect to express their views and feelings.

3.) Demonstrate you are listening by taking notes. (Always ask permission to take notes, i.e. “Your input is important to me; do you mind if I take a few notes?”)

4.) Paraphrase and summarize what you hear. Don’t start a debate.

5.) Use the language and needs you hear the customer express when you make your presentation.

6.) Make certain that every benefit you present relates to a need you heard the prospect express.

There is a lot more money to be made being interested than there is in being interesting.

So, instead of proving that you have the “gift of gab”, shut up and… Just Listen!

In 2019, 95.7 million Americans received a tax refund, and the average refund was $2725.00. In Canada, 18.7 million receive a refund with the average being approximately $1740. 2020 is expected to be very much the same.

Now, your only job is to come up with an idea and present it to your prospects and clients. By doing so, you can turn America’s/Canada’s payday into YOUR payday!

If you would like help in creating a successful “Tax Refund” event for your clients, click here and we’ll send you our “14-Tips to a More Successful Tax Refund Sales Event”.

Remember the days when getting a first appointment with your new prospects was relatively easy, and more calls meant more appointments? You simply picked up the phone and said things like:

I have a great idea I would like to share with you.

I’d like to ask a few questions to learn more about your business.

I have a new station package or special offer I’d like to drop off.

The skeptical business owner is saying to themselves; “I don’t know you, I don’t know what you stand for, I don’t know your company, and what do you know about my business or any business for that matter?”

Effort breeds psychological reciprocity; that deep-rooted subconscious need to do something for someone who has done something for you. Provide your prospects with usable knowledge about their business over a period of time, and you might just peak their interest – IN YOU!

You can begin building your brand and demonstrating your knowledge and effort by sending a few helpful marketing tips like those in our SoundADvice e-marketing system BEFORE you ask for the appointment.

Once you have presold who you are, what company you’re with, and what you stand for, securing an appointment will become much easier. Better yet, they”ll just call you for that appointment!

The bottom line? The most important thing you have to sell is trust. And trust is built over time, not with just one phone call or one cold call.

Want to learn more about how the SoundADvice e-marketing system can pre-sell your media reps’ qualifications? Click here to set up a time to talk with Rick.

Ever since John Wannamaker coined his famous phrase, “I know half my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half,” bewildered business owners have welcomed the message from vendors suggesting they can cut their advertising budgets.

The list of “anti-advertising” salespeople is longer than you might think.

And then there is the CRM (customer relations management) software folks telling the story that “It costs 20 times as much to attract a new customer with advertising as it costs to keep an old customer coming back using our software.”

You should not allow a written presentation to leave your office if it does not have a customer-focused “Why advertise?” proposition. To not continuously sell advertising in every radio presentation is doing a huge disservice to our industry, our clients, and ourselves.

Have you considered using our local TOMA, Top-of-Mind Awareness, surveys to validate how advertising on radio drives more online traffic for our advertisers?

Click here to arrange a free online overview of what TOMA surveys can do for you.