Ten Ways to Sell Effectively in a Soft Economy

Here are 10 ways to improve your attitude and work more logically in a softer economy.

1. Avoid negative self-talk. Teach yourself to recognize that little voice inside your head that tells you that you will fail. Refuse to dwell on guilt from the past or worry about the future. You have no control over events from the past. You can't accurately predict the future. All you really have control over is "right now". So logically, anguishing about something from the past or fearing the future is a complete waste of time. You must stay focused in the present moment, which is really the essence of your life.

2. Discipline yourself to make more calls. Take a look at the white business pages of your phone book and get a good idea of how many businesses there are in your market. Keep in mind that in an average month a typical radio station will have fewer than 50 direct accounts on the air. This means that most of the businesses in your area have never been called on properly, or have never been called on at all and that means tremendous opportunities for those who bother to just make the calls.

3. Distance yourself from negative people, office gossip and any other negative conversation. Refuse to participate. Negativity spreads like a virus. Practice The Three C's...Try not to CRITICIZE, CONDEMN OR COMPLAIN. Remember that you can change your internal "operating system". You can choose to replace your negative thought with a positive one. When you catch yourself thinking negatively, consciously bring yourself back into the present moment and focus on something positive.

4. Change the way you think about your closing ratio. I always believed that the old adage, "Call on ten...get three appointments...close one sale" seemed bleak. So I changed my closing ratio to NINE OUT OF TEN. Here's what I mean. If I believe that I can help a client and that the client has the resources to allow me to help, I'll close that client EVENTUALLY. Maybe not today...maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this quarter. But sooner or later, sometime this year I'll close that sale.

5. Stop selling spots and start educating clients. Educated clients buy more than uneducated clients. Most direct clients know very little about the overall marketing process and much less about advertising, the strengths and weaknesses of different media, the difference between a good spot and a bad spot or how to calculate return on investment from a media campaign. (See MBR article, "The 10 Essential Things You Must Do To Sell More Direct Business in a Recession").

6. Instead of "ganging up" on the same direct clients everybody else in town is calling on, go out into neighborhoods you rarely frequent and call on clients who are unlikely to have been contacted by other stations and other media.

7. Always ask for long-term contracts every time you close a sale. Otherwise, your client will have the impression that you are always trying to "sell" him. Get the selling over with as quickly as possible and then you can move on to properly building and maintaining a long-term relationship with your client. Remember...if you don't ask for a long-term commitment from your client, you won't get one.

8. Remind clients that every time rumors of a recession develop, big publicly traded companies tend to cut back on advertising. These are excellent times for smaller clients to really start building brand awareness. There is more available inventory and less market "clutter". And remind the client that provided he does not have marketing problems, even in softer economies X% of any market population will be buying your client's product or service from somebody this week.

9. If you come up with a brilliant campaign for a client and he doesn't buy it, don't just shelve the idea. Pitch a similar idea to everybody else in that product category until you sell it.

10. To get a meeting with a prospective client, use a headline to break through the clutter. "I just wanted to take a few minutes to talk about your advertising" just doesn't cut it any more. A better way would be to use an immediate attention-getting device, just like we do when we write a spot. Here are some headlines you might try.

A. "I think I've figured out a way that you haven't thought about yet to get more qualified traffic into your store." Is there a good time this week when I could show you what I've discovered?" B. "I have a great idea for a commercial for you. I've sketched it out and I'd love to show it to you. When would be a good time for me to come by?" C. "I've learned a logical way to calculate return on investment (Paul Weyland RBR article from Volume 18, Issue 15, April 9th, 2001) on any advertising you do. It will make it much easier for you to track your newspaper, direct mail, any advertising you do. When would be a good time to meet so I can show it to you?" D. "I've been studying your business and I think I've discovered a marketing problem with your store and a way to overcome it. But perhaps I'm overlooking something important. Could I come by and show you what I've found?"





Paul Weyland: 5450 Bee Cave Road, Suite 1-C, Austin, Texas 78746, 512-236-1222, paul@paulweyland.com
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