How To Grade a Website: Will It Flunk “The Mom Test”?

Have you ever gone to a client’s website and gotten lost? What did you do about it? If you’re a media advertising salesperson, it’s your responsibility.  Photo by iQoncept/dpc I spent last week on the West Coast meeting with advertisers in partnership with a television station sales department. Preparing for the week, I spent time looking […]

radio advertising sales tip: radio salespeople should look at client websites

My #PDXCarpet Moment on NBC Nightly News

How a spur-of-the-moment selfie created a chance encounter that put me on national television. I travel a lot on business, training advertising salespeople at television stations across the United States. This means I spend a lot of time at Portland International Airport (PDX), standing and walking on the airport’s carpet. For reasons difficult to explain […]

How a radio advertising sales trainer got on TV

The Best Cold Call I Ever Got

“Hi, could I speak to Phil Bernstein?” I braced myself for the sales pitch.   The caller identified himself as Dan from Oregon Premier Real Estate*, and the call took a quick left turn: Phil, I’m kind of embarrassed here. I have your name and phone number written on a sheet of paper. I know […]

A Sales Prospecting Parable: Phone Beats Keyboard

If you’ve been selling for any length of time, you’ve been tempted to contact your prospects by digital means — email or text — instead of the phone. Phil Bernstein is here to tell you that the phone still beats the keyboard. One evening not long ago I boarded a flight from El Paso to […]

Worst Sales Call Ever: My Ace Greenberg Story

I’ve made thousands of sales calls in my career, and not all of them went well. Reading of the death of Alan “Ace” Greenberg brought back memories of the worst call I ever had. It was in the early 90’s. I working for the New York Mets, in charge of the Diamond View Suites, the […]