Every year a bunch of us in Radio spend thousands of dollars going to conventions? The excuses as to why we go vary, but I can tell you the real secret. We are all looking for the Silver Bullet. The one sales promotion or technique that is going to turn it all around for all of our sales people and crush our competition. What will it be this year? The Blitz? The Auction? The Wheel of Meat?
I feel for sales people in businesses that are so structured and constantly under attack. There was a time that when a Xerox copier sales person walked into a building, you knew you were going to buy a copier from him, you just didn't know how much you were going to spend. Now of course you can buy “disposable” copiers from Costco for less than the maintenance fees on a Xerox copier for one standard quarter. How would you like to be selling computer equipment or even restaurant automation? The competition is incredible and your product is so constricted and you can only sell what your manufacturer delivers. Wanna sell health insurance these days? Pharmaceuticals? Lab equipment? Anything even remotely connected to medical is now under threat from politics.
Our business is so unique. If you can dream it, you can create it. And IF you actually create it, they will buy it! Oh sure we can hire the guy from 50 miles out of town with a briefcase to come in and talk to our staff or our prospects (I myself have filled that roll many times), but in the end, no matter the 'promotion” or “package” it all comes back down to one simple thing... the idea, and conveying the idea with words.
Think for a second about words... “Patio Paradise has the largest selection of outdoor furniture just right for any yard. Before the heat of summer hits, come see us in our spacious 30,000 square foot showroom and see back yard items from all over the world...”. Still with me or did I put you to sleep yet? Okay lets flip that: “The fully furnished vacation villa overlooking the ocean... a week sipping Mai Ties and cooking lobster on the Barbeque. Yes it is just as terrific as it sounds, and for the price of that 5 days in paradise, you can transform YOUR back yard, and enjoy it EVERY week and still have enough money left over for the lobsters and rum. All of this with no pat downs or full body scans! Patios Paradise, your back yard travel agent”. Now, which ad painted a better picture in your mind?
When you sit, and you THINK, you WILL come up with IDEAS that you can present. THEN if they buy into the copy, that is when you move forward on the package, or the annual or the avail or whatever you are trying to sell. It is also then your responsibility to follow that up with the NEXT great idea, so keep thinking.
MY Silver Bullet: When I need to write an ad... I just start writing sentences, no matter how smart or stupid. Then I cross out the ones that don't fit and end up with the ones left. These are the springboards to the new ad idea. If the idea does not fly, pack up and come back when you have a new one... and go sell THAT idea to the person's competitor!
The Silver Bullet for Radio Sales.... see LESS prospects and really work the ones you have. Don't add more until you have sold the ones you have. AND, don't give up on prospects so fast. When they reject your idea, YOU have the ability to generate a new one.
Chris,
Assigning more accounts and prospects than a salesperson can possibly serve WELL has been a stumbling block in our business for as long as I can remember. I haven't checked yet, but it seems to me we had a discussion here a year or so ago - maybe a Friday Poll - concerning the number of accounts salespeople thought they could handle. "Too many on my list" is a common complaint.
I'd like to get RSC member Blake Messer's take on this, too; recently he's been selling his services to stations, helping them set up or beef up their sales departments with a structured, blitz-like approach. Jim Williams always encouraged large sales departments (we were up to between 15 and 20 full- and part-time AE's in a town of 26,000 back in the middle/late '70's and kicking butt), with salespeople having no more than 40-50 accounts on their lists. I can't imagine this practice is very widespread today. If anything, it's worse than it was back then.
How do I win “Wheel of Meat!”?
Mr. Rollando is spot on. Ideas equal money whether you’re enticing your listener to connect with a cash register of your client with an effective commercial, or designing the perfect promotion for that “Hard to sell” prospect, it all comes down to getting creative. …when it comes to that; there are no rules.
Everyone talks about it being a “Numbers Game” and I agree but regarding a different set of numbers. I’ve found that it usually takes a number of calls on the same client before you can properly gain their trust or for the rep to fully understand the right kind of idea that will appeal to them or their target consumers.
Collect a few “No’s” from the same client and you’ll get to a “Yes” faster than if you get 99 “No’s” from 100 clients.
Chris/Rob/Blake,
Maybe you guys can help me out because I think I'm a little confused.
When it comes to prospecting new accounts are you saying that as an AE I should limit the number of prospects I'm calling on in order to "touch" them more often as opposed to having an umlimited database of prospects.
If that is what you're saying how many prospect should be on my list?
I work in Baltimore, MD which is the #22 market.
Thanks for clarifying.
This changes the way I look at things.
@Blake: Your observation on getting No's is a great application of Wizzo's axiom concerning reach vs. frequency and successful selling.
Hey Ed,
Think about the way effective ad schedules work. Most often, it’s about a good emotion driven campaign coupled with repetition and longevity.
When placing a schedule, I’d rather a client buy a repetitious annual schedule on a station that has a consistent audience of 2,000 listeners and have that client communicate with that audience over the span of a year INSTEAD of a client buying 10 ads in one month on a station that has 200,000 listeners. Why? Because repetition drives recall and recall drives decisions. You’re more apt to convert a stronger portion of the 2,000 listeners into customers with repetition and longevity than you are to get even a fraction of the 200,000 listeners with 10 ads.
It’s the same thing with seeing clients. If you visit a client over and over, eventually you’ll gain their trust by not deviating from telling them what you know will work for their business, looking and acting like a professional and showing a true willingness to help their business thrive. Why? Because repetition drives recall and recall drives decisions.
Conversely, If you see 100 new prospects a week, every week and never revisit them after they’ve told you “No” yes the law of averages say you will sell a small fraction of them, but that fraction won’t have your trust at the same degree as those hard won clients that you have built a relationship with.
Blake
Ed:
How many individual clients can you serve effectively?
Hypothetical math:
You work 40 hours a week.
You need to spend an average 30 minutes per week with each client in order to maintain an effective relationship.
You need some time for research, copywriting, travel, and meals.
Limiting your "face time" (however you define that) to the hours of 9am to 12 noon and 1-4 pm, you're looking at 6 hours/day.
6 hours = 12 half-hours x 5 days = 60 half-hours that you can spend with clients.
If you accept these figures, then 60 clients is the maximum you can serve effectively.
Now, these figures aren't hard-and-fast. Some salespeople will work more hours. Some will find a way to accomplish more in less time. Highly talented and/or disciplined individuals may outperform the norm. All other factors being equal, the more time you devote to super-serving a client, the more business that client will do with you. I prefer to work with fewer clients, with whom I have stronger relationships, and whose businesses I can help grow on the basis of the work I do for them.
This much is certain: having a list of 100-150 "clients" is a recipe for underserving most of them.
Wow... Baltimore. I feel for you!
There are so many schools of thought on this as to make a book that will leave you confused forever. I also know that because you are in a major, you have a sales manager who has been tried and tested and knows his/her stuff. Yet there are still universals...
Even in a market where the CPP rules, buyers seem to make buys based upon rate and Value Added. Most media buyers think of Value Added only as Free Stuff... ie Free mentions... Free bonus ads (in prime of course) and whatever else they can throw into the sheet to get the CPP under market level and look like a hero. Unfortunately you have another hurdle too... that is that the buyer and the creative people are rarely from the same place, and if they are one has NOTHING to do with the other. Getting depressed yet?
Still and all, someone is making decisions. Someone is the unifying force between the buyer and the talent. That person is the agency rep that sold the client on their agency. Now, what can you do to make that person's life easier without wasting their time. This then circles back to one and only one thing... and idea that you can give this person, that they will make their own... and make them look good to their customer.
In 1995 I was working with a major Casino (a name brand you'd know). I was dealing with the agency guy who had more on his mind than a radio buy in some small little market. Here is what our team came up with: We traded with a rent to own store, one recliner and one tv for every Sunday of the season. These were all delivered to the Casino with a note that simply said "call Chris". We basically handed him a ready made promotion. Each week a recliner and TV were given away on Sunday. They used it as a casino promotion. Guess who got a nice slice of the buy... and all buys that followed for years. Later this marketing director was made the General Manager of a Las Vegas casino. When I called, I got in to see him.
My point is simple: Someone in the food chain needs an idea to make this thing work. Step one is to find that person. Step two is to, without being too much of a pest, keep researching and feeding ideas to this person. Then once they agree, make damn sure it works. This means working less people, but working them better. THEN, when you have taught yourself how to be an expert in say Dentistry, stay on that account type until there are none left!
I hope this helps!
Rob.
I think in your answer above you were assuming I was talking about clients.
Actually I was asking about prospects, which I define as people who are not doing business with me now.
So that being said how many prospects do you think I should be working on at a time?
As an example lets say I have 100-300 people on a list that I think are good prospects. Instead of adding any new prospects to my list I just keep going back to the same 100-300 with seeds, specs, and new ideas to try to bring them on board.
As Blake stated it, using the same concepts of frequency and repitition on our prospects just like we use these concepts in radio schedules.
Do you agree with this method of prospecting?
If so, how many prospects do you think an AE should be trying to cultivate at a time?
By the way.
Thank you to both of you for your help!!!
Thanks Chris!
Your advice is very helpful.
By the way, I really only work with directs (long story) here in Baltimore.
I assume your advice is the same.
If not, feel free to comment.
Thanks again to all who answered.
Please feel free to keep the advice coming.
It's valuable to me!
