An interesting article from my friend Paul Weyland…
I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage. –Friedrich Nietzsche
For many stations local direct sales is now the only hope to make budget. But if broadcasters want to stimulate long-term local direct sales we’ve got to ditch the out-dated model and go back to good basic strategic selling tactics.
We’re our own worst enemy. Even now as local direct clients need us more than ever, we’re still not stepping up to the plate for them. Broadcast salespeople seem stuck in a late ’90s time warp, still offering clients the same old rankers and cheap packages. But in this financial climate local decision makers aren’t buying. The fact is they’re cutting back or canceling. Why? Because in a recession our old ’90s sales model of answering the phone and taking the order isn’t working for the clients anymore. From this point on we must earn our money the old-fashioned way by first earning the respect of local business owners. Earning client respect requires broadcast sellers to have two important skills:
1. The ability to convince decision makers that advertising is a necessary and measurable long-term investment, not a gamble or a luxury.
2. The ability to do the client’s advertising and marketing thinking for him. In other words the broadcast seller must learn how to come up with short and long-term rock-solid creative strategies that will capture the hearts and minds of the client’s potential customers without sacrificing the client’s price. We can’t leave it up to the client any more.
Let’s face it. Most local clients don’t have a long-term marketing and advertising plan. In fact, most local businesses don’t even have a short-term plan. It’s evident as they jump from radio to broadcast television to cable to print with no discernable creative strategy and then when times get tough they cancel. It’s not their fault that they’re ignorant about what broadcast advertising could do for them especially in a bad economy, it’s our fault. By properly educating local direct clients now we can stop the cancellations, get more appointments and close long-term business with big ideas.
Later in this article we’ll discuss how to come up with big creative ideas. But now we’ll cover three reasons local clients are canceling and how you should respond.
• Nobody has any money. Why throw our good money after bad? Intelligent business owners realize that even in a tough economy people are still buying. A recession economy simply means that we must fish deeper to catch your fair share of the consumers that still can and will buy what you’re selling from either you or your competitor some time this week. How can these consumers buy from you if they’re not even thinking about who you are, what you do or how to get in touch with you? For those not ready to buy this week we’re starting the branding process so that in the future when they are ready to purchase they will think about you rather than your competitors. And at the same time you’re investing in dominating your product/service category so that your share of the market will grow as the economy comes back. There you are, three great reasons to advertise with you all year long, especially in a tough economy.
• My competition isn’t advertising. Why should I? You just said it. Because your competition has cut back or isn’t advertising means you have a chance of a lifetime to steal some of their customers now, build your brand in the minds of consumers as your competitor’s brand is weakening and dominate your category. Studies from previous recessions concluded that businesses that continued to advertise did much better than those who didn’t.
• I don’t have the money right now to gamble on advertising. Gamble? Really?
You’re a divorce attorney. Your gross margin of profit is 60 percent after the cost of labor. Your average sale for a contested divorce with children is what? 15-20 thousand dollars? Per 5 thousand a week spent on advertising how many new customers would we have to bring you?
You’re a remodeler. Your average sale is 30 thousand dollars and your gross margin of profit is 30 percent after the cost of materials. Per 5 thousand a week spent on our station how many new customers would we have to bring you?
You’re a plumber. Your gross margin of profit is 40 percent after the cost of labor and your average sale is 300 dollars. Per five thousand per week spent on advertising how many new customers must we bring you?
You sell furniture. Your average sale is 900 dollars on a gross margin of profit of 44 percent after the cost of the merchandise. How many new customers would we have to bring you to justify a 5 thousand dollar weekly budget on our station?
You are an Internet service provider. Your average sale on a T-1 line is 575 dollars a month on a gross margin of profit of 70 percent after the cost of labor. But nobody buys just one month. So your average sale is really nearly 7 thousand dollars for an annual contract. How many new customers would we really have to bring you to justify our tiny little 10 thousand dollar weekly schedule on our station?
You run a body shop. Your average sale is 12 hundred dollars on a gross margin of profit of 45 percent after the cost of labor. How many new customers must we bring you in order to break even on our 5 thousand dollar weekly schedule?
Gamble? No. Looks like a good calculated risk to me. Once the client understands that it is in his best interest to advertise consistently, even in tough times and that advertising is not gambling but a good calculated risk he will be much more likely to buy your station on a long-term basis and your rate will be the last thing on his mind.
The Big Idea
One of the biggest reasons clients say, “I tried radio/television once and it didn’t work,” is because the commercial does not sell. A vast majority of local business owners are not qualified to handle their own marketing and advertising. So why do so many clients dictate the creative? They think that their account executive doesn’t know any more about the difference between good and bad copy than they do (correct most of the time). And when you combine stingy budgets with bad commercials you’ve got yourself a train wreck.
It is our job to come up with a five-year marketing and advertising strategy for the client and it’s not that hard to do. We’ll use pure logic to help the client come up with a specific Identifiable Difference (what makes our client’s business identifiably different from his competitors in language that would solve a consumer’s problem). Then we’ll stick with that idea for five years. A good long-term idea is worth gold to a local businessperson and he’ll gladly reward the person who brings him that good idea. . As I’ve said before, when the client fully understands that our idea for his success is better than his, he will open his wallet and let us take the creative lead.
Here are a few great long-term ideas. I’m not interested in hard-sell or soft-sell, only deep sell. When sell deep in our commercials and identify and solve problems that keep consumers awake at night, it’s no longer a pesky spot…it’s a public service announcement.
Divorce attorney- This approach works. If you’ve been threatened with divorce you are in no emotional condition to make financial decisions that might affect the rest of your life. At _______ Law Firm we protect our clients like a big, big brother. We’ll make sure you get exactly what you’ve got coming to you. And your disloyal spouse? We’ll make sure they get what’s coming to them as well. Call us at ____________.
Do you think we might catch a few fish with that bait?
Remodeler- Fact…People are less likely to be moving to a new home in this economy. Fact… Because of more than a few bad apples people are wary of the remodeling industry. So for five years we’ll run a series of testimonials by the client’s happy customers. Additionally your client will educate your audience on the benefits of remodeling by telling stories of how he changed lives by changing homes to fit the people who live in them. He’ll remind spouses that good cooks deserve nice kitchens. He’ll remind the elderly that by refitting their present home with railings, ramps and wider halls and entry ways they won’t have to move to an assisted living facility, etc. Reward is a powerful sell. Remind women that their spouse deserves a cool new garage. Remind men that their wives deserve a new kitchen or garden bath.
Plumber-If the plumber doesn’t already have an easy to remember telephone help him get one. Plumbing problem? Call 777 POOP. If we’re not there within the hour the service call is free. Why would a plumber give anybody any reason to have to play Russian roulette in the Yellow Pages when they need to call a plumber? For at least five years we’ll burn the number into the heads of our listeners or viewers.
Furniture-When home sales are down that means the furniture business is down. Smart furniture store owners remind your audience that new furniture might be the least expensive remodeling they could do. Sell one piece per commercial, the same as you would if the customer was on the showroom floor.
Computer services- Data backup and storage, disaster relief, T-1 lines. Scare the living Hell out of people. Constantly remind your audience of what could happen if their computer files were compromised by weather, fire, hackers, thieves or breakdown. What’s on your computer? Your client’s confidential data? All of your photographs? All of your music? Your daughter’s wedding video?
Body Shop or automotive repair- Ask any group of women if they have ever felt intimidated or ripped off by an automotive repair place. Nearly 100 percent will raise their hands. There is a huge opportunity in every market for one auto repair facility with a good reputation with women to run dozens of testimonials with woman after woman telling their stories and saying, “I totally trust him.”
Media sales is a thinking person’s game. Coming up with great ideas is part of the fun. To be successful in this business we need to take control of the budget and the creative. If your station needs help getting sellers to come up with and sell big ideas hire a good trainer.
When you present big ideas to your clients and convince them that their calculated risk is low they will buy you long-term at rate card, regardless of your ratings, your geography or your programming.
NEED A VOICEOVER? Choose Chicago Voice Actor Justin Kaiser when making your next casting decision. Call me at (815) 401-4632.
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