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The 10 Essential Things You Must Do to Sell More Direct Business in a Recession
For the past several years we've had the LUXURY of leaning on agency business "the way drunks lean on lampposts".
But with a worsening economy agency revenues are down (substantially in some markets) and everyone is now scrambling
to sell more direct business.
The problem is that most of our sellers are not prepared to handle a shift
in their working habits...from hanging out in the office, on the computer and on the telephone with media buyers...
to going back out on the street with good, logical pitches for new direct clients.
In this exclusive MBR series,
DIRECT SALES TRAINER PAUL WEYLAND will discuss the 10 things you must teach your salespeople so that they can better
EDUCATE direct clients in order to close and keep their business, especially in a recession.
The reason we are
not selling more direct business is definitely not for a lack of clients to call on. Count the number of
businesses in the white pages of the phone book. Divide that number into the number of DIRECT accounts your
staff has running on your station in a single month and calculate how successful your sales staff is at
effectively reaching out to your neighboring businesses. Are you coming up with a number like .01 percent or worse?
Most stations do. If you think that most of those businesses don't advertise, you're wrong. Next try
calculating the percentage of the businesses in your area who are paying the YELLOW PAGES every month. Plenty
of direct businesses are advertising. They're just not advertising with YOU.
The biggest reason we're not
selling more direct business is because our pitches are poor. Our salespeople know less about advertising
and marketing than some of our clients. It's a case of the "blind leading the blind". Radio looks hard to
buy because we make it look hard. We can't manage our client's expectations and keep them on long-term because
we don't know how to teach them how to calculate return on investment. We can't get appointments because
instead of looking like resources with expertise in advertising and marketing, we look like pests looking
for a monthly handout. We can't even explain the difference between a good spot and a bad spot.
There is no
question that an educated client is more likely to buy than an uneducated client. Unfortunately, a majority of our
salespeople have very little real advertising or marketing training and are not qualified to properly advise
direct clients. Consequently, media salespeople encounter a lot of rejection. Rejection is painful and
we tend to avoid unpleasant things.
If you tell a joke and everybody laughs, it's easy to tell that
story again. But if you tell a story and the response is not good, you would be reluctant to repeat it.
Same with sales pitches.
Over many years, I have worked on better ways to sell direct business both here
and overseas. Through this process I have developed a very logical and cohesive story designed to educate
salespeople and clients. When a client understands the logic of marketing and advertising and when he is
familiar with the correct way to use a radio station, he is much more likely to buy.
Here are 10 things
your salespeople must know and be able to get across to direct clients if they want to earn that client's
business and then correctly manage that client's expectations.
- TEACH YOUR CLIENT THAT OUR JOB IS EASY.
As radio reps all we have to do is teach our listeners WHO the client is, WHAT the client does and HOW to get
in touch with the client. For the most part, we have made the radio process look very difficult to understand
and buy. We distribute complicated rate cards. We have introduced direct clients to complicated ratings
information. We have badmouthed our fellow radio stations. We make it look hard to do business with us.
We must make our industry look easy to work with, not complicated...because it is.
- TEACH THE CLIENT
HOW IMPORTANT ADVERTISING IS TO THE SUCCESS OF HIS BUSINESS. The easiest way I have found to do this is to
draw a PYRAMID on a piece of paper. On one side write PRODUCT/SERVICE. On the next side write SALESFORCE.
On the bottom write ADVERTISING. Explain that this is a model of a perfect business. Explain that if a
client had a good product or service and good advertising, but a poor sales force, wouldn't the business
be in trouble? Or if a company had a good sales force and good advertising but the product or service
was overpriced, hard to get or poorly conceived or packaged, that the business would also be in trouble.
And what if the product or service and the sales force were both fine but there was no advertising? How
would people know who the client was, what the client did, or how to get in touch with the client? Ask
the client what his business pyramid looks like. A witch hat? Usually the weakest side of the pyramid
is advertising. This is also a good way to bring up the fact that even the best conceived advertising
program in the world cannot help a client with marketing problems (bad product or service).
- EXPLAIN TO THE CLIENT THAT THE AVERAGE PERSON IS EXPOSED TO A MINIMUM OF 2500 COMMERCIAL IMPRESSIONS
PER DAY. Marketing gurus Trout and Ries said it something like this. The first thing you experience
when you awaken is a radio station on your alarm clock. You hear a few spots. Then you look to see
the time and see the word SONY. You get out of bed and use a coffee machine that says MR. COFFEE
and pour FOLGERS in it. You pour your coffee into a mug with a logo on it. You use a certain brand
of milk. You make breakfast with KELLOGG'S. You look at the local newspaper and see many ads. You
watch TV and see more ads. You use a certain brand of shampoo and hand soap. You use certain
brands of other personal products and wear a shirt that says RALPH LAUREN. You get into a
certain brand of automobile with a dealer name on it. You read signs and billboards. You notice
people drinking COKES, etc. You get the idea. By the end of the day, the average person has been
exposed to a minimum of 2500 commercial impressions. Tell your client that advertising clutter
is getting WORSE every year, not better. What is your client doing to break through the clutter?
- EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT OF PRODUCT OR SERVICE BRANDING. Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Draw
little Xs in the circle. Say that this circle represents the inside of one of your listener's heads.
Each X represents a product or service that that listener is familiar with. For example, if I say
toothpaste, what brand comes to your mind? If I say safe automobile, what brand comes to mind? If
I say local jeweler, what company do you think about? How about great local restaurant? Bar? Brand
of watch? Movie theatre? Furniture company? Mobile phone? Insurance company? Now draw a little
"X" outside of the big circle. Explain that this represents your client's business. How hard is your
client making it for your listeners to do business with him?
- EXPLAIN THAT IT IS LOGICAL
THAT PROVIDED THERE ARE NO MARKETING PROBLEMS, "X" PERCENT OF ANY MARKETPLACE WILL BY "X" PRODUCT
OR SERVICE FROM SOMEBODY THIS WEEK. Even in a recession. And if your station is in line with the
client's demographic then it is logical and statistical that "X" percent of those persons are
listening to your station. But again, how can your listeners know to buy from your client if they
don't know who he is, what he does or how to get in touch with him?
- TELL YOUR CLIENT HOW PEOPLE REALLY LISTEN TO THE RADIO. Let's face it. Most people listen in their
cars for 20-30 minutes at a time. Maybe longer if the traffic is bad. They are using the radio for
background or environment. But even if you are having a conversation with a friend or a relative,
what do you do when your favorite song comes on the radio? That's right. You TURN IT UP. So we
listen to the radio SELECTIVELY. We hear what we want to hear. You know how you feel for example,
when you know that you are going to buy a new car this week. If you're buying a green Toyota, you
start noticing every green Toyota on the road. And if I begin a commercial with, "Green Toyotas
are the most beautiful cars on the road", you're much more likely to hear that spot.
- EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF A UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION FOR EVERY CLIENT. Clients must be able to
associate themselves with one unique thing that their competitors cannot claim. Something that
sets your client apart from his competitors. It must stand out and it cannot be cliché.
- EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD SPOT AND A BAD SPOT. Every commercial must do the
following three things or it will not work. First, get the immediate attention of those people who
WILL buy "X" product or service from somebody this week. You will have to use a great headline to
get their attention. Then you must explain benefits and results without clichés to your listeners.
Exactly why should our listener choose your client's business? Finally, the call to action must be
crystal clear. Precisely what does the client want the listeners to do? Hold up a sheet of white paper.
Explain to the client "If I were trying to sell this sheet of paper, would it be more logical to hold
it up to a white background or a dark background? Get your client to agree that in order to break
through the clutter, you must not use a spot that sounds like a "spot". Tell your client that
nowadays, if a spot is not outstanding it will not stand out at all.
- EXPLAIN THE ADVANTAGE OF OWNING A DAY ON YOUR STATION. One of the greatest things about the radio as
an advertising medium is that your client could be KING FOR A DAY. On radio, your biggest client can
only run spots that are 60 seconds or less. So can your smaller client. On radio, the biggest client
is only allowed to run a spot an hour. Same with your smaller client. If your average Wednesday spot
cost say, $100, then you could OWN a Wednesday on your station for about $1,000-$1500. Incidentally,
that would be difficult to do in the newspaper. Also explain that national advertisers typically cut
back on their advertising in a recession. There is typically less clutter. Logically, it would be far
easier for a direct client to build market share while his big competitors are losing theirs.
- EXPLAIN HOW TO CALCULATE RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Ask your client what his average sale is. Determine
how many average sales it would take for your client to pay for the advertising schedule you are
recommending. Do the math and show the client what a small percentage of your total 12+ CUME audience
he'd have to reach in order to break even. The number is usually ridiculously small. By teaching
the client to calculate return on investment, you better manage his expectations. And you determine
how much the client should actually be spending instead of just pulling a number out of thin air.
If you teach these 10 things to your clients you will look like an advertising and marketing resource instead
of just another pesky media salesperson. You'll have clients who pay a higher average rate, who cancel less
frequently and pay more quickly. Your business could actually increase during a recession rather than decrease.
Your client will feel that he is being educated rather than sold. You will find that you don't have to
talk about your format any more. You don't even have to sell against your competition.
The only real
issue is that your client now understands the importance of advertising and marketing. He realizes that radio
advertising is not a complicated or difficult process. He now sees the value of reaching your audience. He understands
the difference between a good radio spot and a bad one. He better understands his position in the marketplace. He
knows how to calculate his risk. And you look like a hero because you were able to tell a good, cohesive and
logical story. Please feel free to call me if your station needs help with selling direct business.
Paul Weyland: 5450 Bee Cave Road, Suite 1-C, Austin, Texas 78746, 512-236-1222,
paul@paulweyland.com
©Copyright 2004 Paul Weyland Sales & Marketing. Web development: Stylefish. |
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