{"id":155,"date":"2010-02-08T17:23:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T17:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wensmedia.com\/\/salesarchive\/permalink\/2010\/2\/8\/122319.html"},"modified":"2010-02-08T17:23:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T17:23:19","slug":"commodity-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/uncategorized\/commodity-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"Commodity Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; text-align: center\" align=\"center\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 20pt; font-family: Arial\">The Commodity Trap<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; line-height: 13.5pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 9pt; color: gray; font-family: Arial\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">In his book, Beating the Commodity Trap, Tuck professor Richard A. D&rsquo;Aveni warns that commoditization has never posed a greater threat to business than it does today.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While many companies claim they are customer<span style=\"color: red\"> <\/span>focused<span style=\"color: black\">,<\/span> they consistently fall victim to competitive pressures and buying tactics rather than deliver solutions to their customers<span style=\"color: black\">&rsquo; <\/span>problems. <br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A new rep at a station we work with recently showed us a competitor&rsquo;s discount package and insisted he needed a similar package to sell.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The station he had just joined has experienced a dramatic turn-around in sales recently by utilizing our customer<span style=\"color: red\"> <\/span>centric approach to selling<span style=\"color: black\">. B<\/span>ut the new kid had not yet drank our Kool-aid.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The successful reps at that station have learned what it means to be truly customer centric. Instead of asking<span style=\"color: black\">, <\/span>&ldquo;How can I compete with our competitor&rsquo;s packages?&rdquo;<span style=\"color: black\">, <\/span>they ask questions like; <br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; line-height: 13.5pt\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial\">&ldquo;What is it my customer really wants?&rdquo;<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; margin-left: 40.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt; line-height: 13.5pt\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial\">Hint: it&rsquo;s not spots and rates.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; color: black; line-height: 13.5pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">&ldquo;What solutions can I deliver to solve their most pressing problem?&rdquo;<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; color: black; line-height: 13.5pt\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">&ldquo;What&rsquo;s my &lsquo;big customer focused idea?&rdquo;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background: white; line-height: 13.5pt\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There are many media reps that were<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> sucked into the trap of thinking advertisers only cared about prices and commodities when the selling got tough.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But now, more than ever, your clients need solutions to their problems and a reasonable return on their investment. There are many media and non-media vendors who are winning bigger orders today by helping their clients achieve their goals and solve their problems.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Are you a solutions seller or a commodities broker? Commodities brokers seldom build lasting customer relationships because there is always a broker who will sell for less.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The sad part is, advertisers who jump from broker to broker never achieve the consistency and strategy necessary to get a return on their investment. Many who bought that way when times got tough, have learned the hard way that a return on investment is much more important than the cheapest commodity.&nbsp; <br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If you tried the commodity broker route in reaction to your competitors, I have to play Dr. Phil and ask<span style=\"color: black\">, <\/span>&ldquo;How&rsquo;s that working for you?&rdquo;<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maybe it&rsquo;s time to sharpen your skills as a customer<span style=\"color: red\"> <\/span>focused marketing expert and break away from that downward spiral in 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commodity Trap &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In his book, Beating the Commodity Trap, Tuck professor Richard A. D&rsquo;Aveni warns that commoditization has never posed a greater threat to business than it does today. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While many companies claim they are customer focused, they consistently fall victim to competitive pressures and buying tactics rather than deliver solutions to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Commodity Trap - ENS on Sales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/uncategorized\/commodity-trap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commodity Trap - ENS on Sales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Commodity Trap &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In his book, Beating the Commodity Trap, Tuck professor Richard A. 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