I’m going to share a powerful secret with you which I discovered by observing  successful businesses across North America.
          If your customers don’t like their customers, your advertising campaign won’t work!
          In today’s increasingly fragmented media world, your customers can NOT get a profitable return on their advertising investment if they do not generate happy customers, repeat business, word of mouth promotion and referrals from every customer your campaign generates.
          After studying literally thousands of proprietorships over the span of my career I came to an amazing realization……if the proprietor does not like his or her customers, their customers probably won’t like them!
          If your customers don’t genuinely like their customers and have a passion for serving them they won’t go the extra mile that it takes to make your advertising pay off.
          Ray Crock, of McDonalds Restaurants fame, once said, “You can tell how a business feels about their customers by the way they take care of their customer restrooms”.
          It’s true, everything from a businesses return policies to their staff incentive programs, and from store cleanliness to management access, speaks volumes about the way they feel about their customers. And if they don’t like their customers, they won’t have the patience nor the passion to super-serve them.
          For example, if staff incentives revolve around one-time sales and give no recognition or reward for high customer-satisfaction levels, then the culture the business establishes will be one of high-pressure sales. And as I’ve pointed out before, customer satisfaction levels are decreased directly proportionate to sales pressure levels.
          So what does all of this have to do with selling media?
          The average media rep needs less than twenty-five consistent fifty-two week clients to make a very good living. You don’t need the businesses that don’t care about keeping your audience happy!
            Not only is it more enjoyable and rewarding helping customers who sincerely care about their customers, your campaign will give these businesses a higher return on investment. When the customers you bring to the counter return often and help you spread the word about the business, your campaign will work.
             When you hear a prospect who conveys the attitude that his or her customers are not valued assets to the business, walk away. When you hear expressions like “buyers are liars” or “most of my customers are  _ _ _ holes”…. walk away!
            Your customer’s attitude towards your audience, their customers, should become one of your pre-qualifying criteria.