There are also good conversations in the Discussion Forum about dealing with underperforming salespeople, tackling call reluctance, and more.
TV Sales Cafe is the new online discussion site where television/digital sales professionals can ask questions, trade ideas, and make connection.
If you’re an Account Executive, Sales Manager/DOS, General Manager, or a consultant who works with TV stations, you’ll find great opportunities to talk with like-minded people dealing with the same challenges.
Since 2009, radio salespeople have been able to go to Radio Sales Cafe to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from each other. I’m working on something similar for television sales pros.
Launch target: January, 2016.
Photo by Robert Kneschke/dpc
Thank you to my friend and colleague Rod Schwartz for the inspiration.
As long as we’re resolving to lose weight, learn a new language and stop staring at our phones, why not make some New Year’s Sales Resolutions?
Here are three that will make a huge difference in your billing… if you implement them.
photo by Gajus/dpc
3 Sales Resolutions You Can Keep
Resolve to read more. Read books that will help you get better at your craft. The top sales professionals — at your company and everywhere — are constantly reading. No matter your situation, you can do the same.
If you want to provide your clients the most for their money, you need to:
1. Educate yourself to the point where you do have genuine expertise in radio advertising.
2. Make that expertise clear to the client at the beginning of and throughout your entire relationship.
If you work in a different medium, insert the name of your medium in place of “radio”, and it will apply perfectly to you.
What to read?
Business books to understand the challenges your customers face every day. Marketing books to understand how advertising works, and how to create an effective ad. Sales books to learn better ways to find more customers.
Book recommendations can be found on my Recommended Reading page. Buy ’em if you have the money, and get them at your public library if you don’t.
Resolve to schedule time to go after new business every single week. In a good year, if you’re good at your job, 25-30% of your account list will disappear through no fault of your own. You need to be actively filling your pipeline every week just to stay even. Growing your business requires even more focused effort.
If you’re looking for a method to do that, I’ll recommend…yes…a book! Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount is the best new sales book I read in 2015. And if you’re thinking your pipeline is full enough, you may be wrong. My post Pipeline Math: How Many Active Prospects Do You Need?may be an eye-opener.
Resolve to get back to your customers more consistently, and faster. This won’t necessarily bring you new customers, but it will help you keep the ones you have. In my TV advertising consulting practice, I call on about 200 local businesses every year. When I talk to advertisers who’ve switched stations, among the most common reasons I hear is one that has nothing to do with programming or ratings on the station — it’s that they felt ignored by their previous station. Amazon and Google have trained your customers to expect instant responses to all of their inquiries. You’re a person, not an always-on algorithm, so they will give you some slack on the issue, but response-time standards are still higher.
In 2016, resolve to respond to all customer emails the same day — even if you have to write back after hours. Your competition isn’t doing this.
In 2016, resolve to listen to your voice mails and respond to customer messages the same day. Your competition isn’t doing this.
In 2016, resolve to get back to every one of your clients with an answer on the day you said you would or before. If you promised an answer on Thursday and you don’t have the information you need on Thursday, don’t hide — an email or call saying “I promised to call you today with an answer, but I don’t have it yet — I should know by Monday,” goes a long way.
There you go — three sales resolutions that will bring you more new customers and help you keep the ones you have in 2016.
[reminder]What will you do better in 2016?[/reminder]
“They seemed interested at the time. You were certain they were going to buy. But when you leave a message for them, all you hear is ‘crickets.’” Jeffrey Gitomer offers some look-in-the-mirror reasons why customers stop responding to you in “I Can’t Find the Buyer Anymore!” Here’s Why…
Another possible reason why prospects don’t return your voice mails: you may be leaving bad voice mails. If you’re wondering how you sound when you leave a message, Paul Castain’s got a great way to find out, and get better, in three minutes a day. Enjoy The 3 Minute A Day Phone Workout.
“For thousands of salespeople, picking up the phone and calling a prospect is the most stressful part of their life… Any excuse—and I mean any excuse—to do something else takes priority.” Once you’ve got your voice mail technique honed, here’s a question to ask yourself: are you calling enough people, often enough? Jeb Blount, author of the compelling new sales book Fanatical Prospecting, points out that Nobody Answers a Phone That Doesn’t Ring.
“Despite how it seems, busy people do not have an impenetrable force field separating them from the ‘normal people.’ But they are more selective about how they spend their time ” If you’ve been wondering How to Connect With Busy People, Ramit Sethi has some actionable strategies to deploy.
In case you’re thinking that you can safely talk and text while driving if you use one of those new hands-free systems, think again. AAA’s recent study shows us that Hands-Free Car Systems Still Distract Drivers.The data is scary. My advice? Shut up and drive.
As I write these words, my iPhone can do nothing except make telephone calls and send texts. This is a good thing.
Photo by Focus Pocus LTD/dpc
Product Review: Freedom Web Blocking Software
I’m using the newest version of an app called Freedom, and for the next 59 minutes it has cut me off from the Internet.
In my time management war, the Web is my ISIS. If I can get to Facebook, I’m going to Facebook. Then Deadspin. Then Gawker. On too many days, I’ve looked up and realized that two hours has gone by and I’ve accomplished nothing.
Lacking the intestinal fortitude to just stay away, I’ve turned to technological aids to assist with the battle.
The best of them were 80pct Solutions’ original Freedom and Anti-Social apps. They’ve been helpful, but had crucial limitations. Now, the company has come out with a new combined version that does a very good job of addressing those limitations.
The idea: sometimes you need to get off the web entirely, and sometimes you need some access but need to block out the most distracting sites.
The original Freedom blocked the internet in its entirety. Download the app onto your Windows or Mac computer, engage it, set the timer, and your desktop or laptop was an internet-free zone.
It’s an awfully blunt instrument — either you’re completly connected or completely blocked. The same company made another product called Anti-Social to block specific sites while preserving access to the sites you needed.
This approach worked reasonably well for me, but had two downsides:
1. I have different “anti-social” needs at different times. For example, when I am researching a client’s marketing, I need to have access to Facebook and YouTube. Once the research is done, I need to stay as far away from those sites as I can. This meant that I had to re-set the “block list” every time I engaged Anti-Social.
2. Neither app worked on iOS devices, which meant that I had to stash my iPad and iPhone on another floor to keep myself in check. This may say more about me than it does about the product, but I yearned for something that would block sites on my i-Devices.
The new version, which is sold on a cloud-based “freemium” subscription model, tackles both of those issues.
The company has now combined Freedom and Anti-Social into a single program. The basic free version allows you to block two sites on one device. There’s a middle version middle version ($24 per year at this writing) with more functionality, and a Premium level ($45/year) that has a mobile app and, for the first time, works on iOS and Android.
Needing all the help I can get, I went for the Premium version. (Note: My mobile devices are Apple products. I have not tested the Android version.)
Once you’ve signed up and downloaded the apps onto your devices, you create Blocklists — listing the sites that you want to block yourself from. So far, I’ve made two:
“Working” blocks pretty much every site I can think of that I enjoy. Facebook, YouTube, Deadspin, ESPN.com, NYDailyNews.com — so far I’ve put 14 sites on the list.
My other list is called “Research”, and it allows me to get to Facebook and YouTube when I need them for work reasons.
There’s also a third option: “Block Everything”. Engage that option and the entire Internet goes away.
The big news here is that I can set it to block the sites on my desktop computer, laptop, and my iPhone and iPad simultaneously. When I set that option on a mobile device, my smartphone becomes a dumbphone.
There are still a few minor downsides:
1. On iOS devices, the effect is not quite immediate. It takes around 5 minutes for the block to show up.
2. For security reasons, I use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when I’m on public wifi. Freedom uses its own VPN to block sites on iOS devices, which means that my regular VPN is turned off when Freedom is on. So I have to switch to cellular data for the duration. Not a huge deal, but a pain.
3. At the time of this writing, it doesn’t work properly with iOS 8. Their tech support tells me that they’re aware of this issue and are trying to fix it. It’s fine on iOS 9.
4. The process of putting mobile apps on a blocklist is a bit cumbersome, and I have not yet figured out how to make it block the iOS Facebook app. I will update this when I hear back from their tech support.
5. At $45 a year for the full meal deal, it’s a little spendy.
If you have the self-discipline to stay off those sites (I don’t), you can save the money. As Dirty Harry Callahan put it so well, a man’s got to know his limitations.
The new Freedom helps me work with my limitations, and is a huge step forward.
[reminder]How to you keep yourself on track?[/reminder]
