Hola Chiquitas, Salespeople, Managers and Owners...

With agency business cooling down, local direct has never looked better. But as much as we want new local direct business, getting appointments with local direct decision makers seems harder than ever. What a shame. The first words that come out of your mouth are critically important when trying to get an appointment with a local business owner. Although getting a client appointment is not necessarily "rocket surgery", many broadcast salespeople just never seem to get it right.

Let's discuss that problem at length. First, keep in mind that I deal with hundreds of local direct clients. I work with several on a one-on-one basis and I meet many others in seminars. Local direct business owners all say the same thing. Every day most of them are inundated with calls from media salespeople. A furniture store owner in Dallas gets at least six calls a day. An automotive garage owner in Denmark says he gets at least eight calls a day. A restaurant owner in Austin says he gets at least that many calls each day from radio, television, cable, print, billboard, coupon, magazine, Yellow Pages and Internet salespeople.

These media salespeople generally say the same thing to business owners. "Hi, my name is ____________ with station ____________ and I just wanted to talk to you about your advertising." This approach is cliché. Most businesses have heard this same opening line over and over. Their response is usually, "Well, we're not doing anything right now but it you send me some information on your station I'll get right back to you." So the media salesperson runs back to the station, gets on the computer and cranks out some mumbo-jumbo numbers that it would take an actuary to understand and sends it to the client. Does the client ever call you back? No. "Send me some info and I'll get right back to you," is their way of getting rid of us. Get it? So why keep on using that same old, worn out cliché opener?

Just as bad is the cliché, "Hi, my name is __________ with station __________ and I just wanted to introduce myself and see if I could find out a little more about your business." I used that opener exactly once, to precisely the wrong client who responded, "If one more media salesperson says he wants to learn more about my business I'll KILL MYSELF. If you don't know anything about my business then I don't have time to talk to you." And he kicked me out.

Okay, then what can you say to increase your chances of getting an appointment? USE BETTER BAIT. USE A GOOD HEADLINE. Think about it. Why do newspapers use headlines? To get your attention, right? Why do fishermen use bait on their hooks? To get the attention of the fish, of course. We in broadcast sales need to use better bait (i.e.,better headlines), if we want to get appointments with potential clients. For example, If you realize that most every business in a particular product/service category is only using one advertising medium, for example, electricians, attorneys or plumbers advertising almost exclusively in the Yellow Pages, you might say something like, "I've discovered a glaring hole in your competitor's marketing and advertising strategy that you should take immediate advantage of. Would today or tomorrow be good for me to show you what I've discovered?" When you get the appointment you then explain that while all media are good, in this particular case his business and all of his competitors are essentially fishing on the same Yellow Pages lake. Meanwhile, you have another perfectly good lake with lots of fish in it and not one single electrician is fishing in your lake. Your prospect would have practically a monopoly fishing on your lake, without getting his line all tangled up with the lines of every other business in his category, as he's currently doing in the Yellow Pages.

If you notice that your prospective client is wasting his money by advertising with cliché scripts in print or broadcast, you might use this headline. "I saw your ad/spot in (cable, Yellow Pages, newspaper, etc.). That medium is fine. But in about twenty minutes I could show you a way that you could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the advertising you're already doing, whether you advertise on my station or not." With a claim like that, many potential clients will be ready to listen to what you have to say. Most clients fold their arms, look at me skeptically and say, "Okay...then SHOW ME."

Then all I have to do is use the "Best Friend Test" (read the client's copy out-loud as though you were talking to your best friend. If you wouldn't say those exact same words to your best friend, you know it's cliché). Use this test on your client's copy, remove all of the clichés and replace them with language that identifies a problem that a percentage of your listeners or viewers might be having. Then teach that viewer or listener how your client can easily solve their problem, again without clichés.

You can't help a client if you can't meet with him first. You will stand out from all of the other media salespeople your client is inundated with in the course of a normal day by thinking up a good non-cliché headline. Identify and solve a problem your potential client may be experiencing with regard to marketing and advertising, much as I did with the plumber. Then come up with good bait in the form of a headline that a business owner would find irresistible. If your headline doesn't work with the first client, call his competitors until you get a meeting with someone in that product or service category.

Remember that any opening line is probably better than, "Hi, my name is _______________ and I just wanted to talk to you about your AAAAAAADDDDVERTISING!"

For more information on better headlines to get appointments, go to the website at www.paulweyland.com and purchase the CD, Sales Basics...How to Make Broadcast Sales Logical, Natural and Fun. Then, get your butts out of your chairs, away from the computers and out on the street where you belong so you can make some real money.