Selling the Right Stuff - interview with Mike Brunel in RADIO IN

    • 1373 posts
    April 30, 2013 10:18 AM PDT

     

     DEBORAH PARENTI

    DIALOGUE

    www.radioink.com April 22, 2013 | RADIO INK | 15

    Selling The Right Stuff

     

    Mike Brunel, director of NRS Media and author of The Desk Closest to the Door, has spent more than three decades establish­ing successful sales systems across all types of media. Here, he offers some provocative, common sense advice to share at your next sales meeting.

     

    What are reasons clients buy?

    Your clients buy for no other reason than to solve a problem they have. So: Stop selling your stuff and start selling their stuff.

    Every morning across America, millions of business owners open their doors, usually with these thoughts on their minds: “Can I make enough profit to pay the bills?” “Will my staff turn up today?” “Will my clients turn up today? “Do I really want to do this?”

    Hundreds of thoughts are going through their minds, and 99.9 percent of those are about themselves and their problems.

    What are you thinking? “Can I sell some more spots/ units/airtime today?”

    Instead of thinking you know what your advertiser wants, you have to ask. And listen very carefully, because when your client begins to talk, the sales process has begun to move forward. Our job is to listen for clues, learn to be patient, and not jump in and try and solve their problem straight away.

    We always have to remember when we call on adver­tisers that this business is their life, and they do not think about your problems. They don’t have time for that. Accept it, and figure out a way to be helpful.

     

    What are the most common objections, and how do you handle them?

    In my opinion, there are about three.

    “I want to think it over.”

    “I tried radio once. It didn’t work.”

    “You’re too expensive.”

    I cannot tell you the number of times that salespeople are actually surprised to hear these concerns from clients and don’t have any strategies to overcome them. These days our advertisers are often more savvy than we are. You are likely one of about 50 salespeople calling on them every week, and that’s not counting the phone calls and e-mails. Every objection, concern, or issue you hear is an opportunity to ask a question. Questions open up the dialogue and move your clients toward letting you in — a question at a time.

     

    What are the keys to out­standing customer service?

    There is no question in my mind that delivering superior customer service is the single most important element in a successful sales strategy. True customer service is not about satisfying the needs and wants of our customers — every good media company should do that as a matter of course.

    True customer service is about exceeding expectations, doing things that your custom­ers don’t expect you to do, going above and beyond the call of duty. Delivering it is like making love to a gorilla: You don’t stop when you’re satisfied. You stop when the gorilla is satisfied.

    Customer service is an attitude, one that every media company and its employees have to buy in to. It is also a daily, weekly, and monthly job, with no respite. All of the work you have done to build trust and a strong relation­ship can be undone instantly by bad customer service.

     

    Any thoughts on getting through electronic gatekeepers — e-mail and voice mail?

    Stop it!

    If radio is truly going to stick to its mantra of being local and getting closer to the community, face-to-face communication is the way to build a strong relation­ship quickly.

    One strategy I recommend is to identify the advertis­ers you want and prepare a plan before you pick up the phone. Leaving a message and then sending a thank you card is one simple strategy. Or, after the second unsuc­cessful call, sent an article you’ve found, then make another call. If unsuccessful, send a gift — even a simple voucher for a movie. They say six contacts with gifts or free information gets the CEO wanting to talk to you.

    Finally, one simple thing I learned, very early on in my broadcast career, to say to an advertiser on a phone call: “Wouldn’t you like your staff to be as enthusiastic as me?”

    In my opinion, media companies need to be in the marketing business — that is, finding out what their clients want and aligning their product with that want, or actively identifying clients to market their product to.

     

    Reach Mike Brunel at [email protected].

     

    Deborah Parenti is EVP/Radio for Radio Ink. E-mail: [email protected].