It’s that time of year. Time for setting budgets and goals for 2020.
Let’s start with the difference between budgets and goals. Budgets are what you think you will do for sales in 2020. Goals are what you want. There’s a huge difference between what you think and what you want!
The budgeting process is fairly easy. You did this much last year, and you plan on or think you can do this much next year. OK, there’s a little more to it than that, but in a nutshell, that is budgeting.
Goal setting should be much more in-depth on a professional AND personal level.
Setting goals is the time when you reflect on what you accomplished last year and what you want to accomplish next year. Goals are more than just your sales and money. Equally important, or even more so, goals should be about what you want and how you will grow professionally, and what you want personally for yourself and your family.
Goals are the fuel for your fire!
While statistics vary, most professionals agree that by committing your goals to paper, you increase your chances of reaching them by 42%.
Here are some things to include in your goal-setting process:
· List 5 new clients you want to have on the air by July 1st (the number of accounts/clients can vary)
· List 10 clients that you want to increase in 2020 by July 1st
· List 10 clients that you want to add/upsell, i.e. add a station, add digital, add streaming, etc.
· List 5 things you accomplished in 2019 that you are most proud of
· List 5 areas of the sales process you need to improve on in 2020, i.e. prospecting, upselling, CNAs, etc.
· List 5 things you will do to help improve yourself, i.e. read books, attend seminars, be more organized, become healthier, affirmations, etc.
· List 5 things you want to accomplish for your family in 2020, i.e. new home, car, vacation, savings account, reduce debt, motorcycle, healthier lifestyle, etc.
By consciously thinking about what you want to achieve and then writing it down, you will be on the path to achieving your goals.
Many people have been quoted as saying, “Goals not written down are just dreams”. While there is nothing wrong with dreaming, you’re much more likely to fulfill your goals than you are your dreams!
Prospecting is a never-ending process in sales and it’s the one step, for several reasons, that it often gets moved to the back-burner.
Here is an easy way to make prospecting part of your daily commute to and from the office… Simply take a different route!
If you are like most, the route you take to work is the same, day after day, week after week. It’s easy, you know exactly how long it will take, and unless a new business sprouts up, the view is the same.
Starting this week, dedicate yourself to finding a few different routes to or from work and take these routes once a week now through the end of the year. Travel it in both directions. You’ll see things differently.
On your new journey, you’ll potentially see a variety of things that may land you a new suspect or prospect. You’ll see businesses that you may have never heard of before. In addition, you may notice things like Grand-Openings, Going Out of Business signs, Open to the Public on Saturdays, Factory Liquidation, New Store Hours, Special Events, Help Wanted, etc.
As Robert Frost so eloquently wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”.
By taking a “different route” to the office, and to your prospecting, you may just stumble onto someone who has passion for their business, and it could make all the difference!
If you’re planning on taking a different direction to achieving success in 2020 and beyond, we would like to visit with you about our revenue-generating programs and services that will brand your stations and your media reps as “THE” advertising professionals in your market.
You’ve heard the expression that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. While that may be true when it comes to meeting people, it’s not necessarily the case when it comes to B2B (business to business) sales. In fact, in the B2B sales world, if you play your cards right, not only may you get a second chance, but you could get a third, fourth, fifth, and even beyond.
There is a reason that those selling vehicles, appliances, furniture, and other B2C (business to consumer) products come off a bit pushy, and by doing so, often lose the opportunity for a second chance. It’s because once the customer has made the purchase, they are out of the market for an extended period of time. It’s Risk versus Reward. They push because they know that it may be years before those customers are in the market to purchase again.
In media sales, if you make a presentation to a prospect or client today and they say no, you can always reload and present again tomorrow or in the very near future, IF…
The “IF” is… If, you play your cards right and take the “no” professionally. No pouting, no arguing, no trying to make them feel guilty or stupid because they didn’t accept your ideas or didn’t want to do business with you.
Accept the “no” politely and professionally and be ready to reply with a few well-prepared statements and questions, such as, “Mr./Mrs. Prospect, I really appreciate your time and consideration of our proposal or plan. Can I ask you a question or two? Is there a specific reason that you have decided not to move forward with this plan? If I were to re-tool this plan or go back to the drawing board, what changes, things added or subtracted, would you like to see?”
Find out what the possible reasons may be and re-think your proposal. A warning though; business owners do lie and how they respond to these questions may not necessarily be the truth. Be prepared to dig a little deeper to uncover the real reasons.
By being professional, you will always leave the door open to present again. Anything less is unacceptable. In media sales, there is always a second, third, fourth chance to make that first time sale.
Here’s the scenario. You have an appointment that you set up a week ago and it’s a healthy distance away from your office. Do you call them to confirm the appointment prior to leaving or do you not call and take a chance?
Knowing how busy business owners and managers can be, there is no question that if you choose to call to confirm there is a decent chance that they will reschedule. That’s the chance you take.
An aggressive sales trainer would tell you to take the chance, show up and work your way in. Their logic is that it’s much harder to tell someone “no” in person than it is over the phone and you may not get another chance.
The professional media rep that not only respects the time of others, but their own, would call to confirm. Especially in this circumstance where travel time is an issue, we suggest that when you initially set the appointment inform them that you will call the morning of or the day before to confirm.
There are five primary reasons why confirming appointments make sense:
1) Time management – Don’t waste your time.
2) It helps establish you as a professional.
3) It shows that you respect their time.
4) It helps prepare the client and puts them in the right frame of mind, ready for your appointment.
5) If in fact they do cancel, they will be more obligated to reschedule.
Professional media sales are built on long term relationships and being respectful of your client’s time is a good way to ensure they will say “yes” to future appointments.
This little point may seem obvious, but I can assure you it happens on a regular basis. Before it happens to you or one of your reps, do the right thing and make the call to confirm the appointment.
When selling a new prospect advertising on your station, how long should it take to make the sale?
The correct answer is… as long as it takes, to do it right! Too fast or too slow can both have negative effects. But in most cases, moving too fast can have greater long-term negative effects than moving too slow. Patience, more often than not, is a virtue!
Keep in mind that media sales are different than automotive, furniture, or insurance sales. In advertising sales, if we lose the sale to a competitor or don’t make the sale today, there will nearly always be another opportunity tomorrow or in the very near future. In the automotive, insurance and other like categories, the urgency is much greater. They know if they don’t get the sale today, that person may well be out of the market tomorrow. However, even with that said, the best salespeople regardless of what they are selling, nearly always have patience.
In media sales, there are two factors that determine how long you should take:
1) The value of the client. Is it a long-term client or short-term? The more potential value the client has, the more patience you should have. Don’t rush in with ideas and plans that aren’t well-thought-out. Make sure you play your cards correctly.
2) How much time does the client/prospect need to trust you? Trust, takes time and if they trust you at the point when they say yes to your plan, the chances are much greater that they will give your plan the time it needs to work.
Even if they don’t trust you, they may buy from you once or twice, but without trust, the chances of them being with you long-term are very slim.
In my experience, most of the medium to large, long-term contracts my team wrote took a minimum of 3 months to close, and more often than not it took 6 months or more. But once they bought into the ideas and plans that we had taken our time to create for them, they were committed and stayed with the program.
18th-century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said it best, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet”. It takes time to reap the rewards.
When you find a potential client that has value, be patient with them. Take the time to come up with great ideas. Ask deeper questions. Show a keener interest in their business and use that time to build trust and rapport. Once they say yes, you’ll have them for a lifetime.
