How to SHOW Instead of Tell…and Why It Matters

Most people don’t want to go first.

Salespeople should show others climbing the mountain

  Photo by Alphaspirit
 
Dave Trott recently recounted  the launch of world’s first underground railway — and the “mechanical staircase” that would bring people up and down. It was 1911 in London.
Today everyone knows what an escalator is. You’ve probably ridden one in the last few days. But in 1911 this was a scary new concept for most people…and they didn’t want to ride it.
 
The railway operators posted signs promising that the ride would be safe, but nobody believed the signs.
 
So the authorities decided to show people how safe it was.
 
William ‘Bumper’ Harris was an employee who’d lost a leg in an accident.
 
He was told to come to Earls Court station and ride up and down on the escalator.
 
Just that, ride up and down, nothing else.
 
People at the bottom would see a one-legged man with crutches nonchalantly hop onto the escalator and ride it to the top.
 
Then he’d turn around, and people at the top would see a one-legged man with crutches nonchalantly hop onto the other escalator and ride it to the bottom.
 
‘Bumper’ Harris just did that all day.
When frightened passengers saw him do it they were reassured and ashamed.
 
Reassured that if a one-legged man could do it anyone could.
 
And ashamed that they were ever frightened in the first place.
 
So they stopped worrying and hopped on.
 
After a day of ‘Bumper’ riding up and down, everyone was using the escalator as if it was the most normal thing.
 
And once that happened, the problem disappeared.”
 
When you call on a new prospect — one who’s never used your medium before — you’re selling an escalator. The client is wondering:
 
  • If I advertise with you, what’s it going to look like? What’s it going to sound like?
  • How do I know it’s going to work?

You can answer those questions with words… or you can show ’em.

Sales advice: put the prospect behind the wheel

Photo by Africa Studio

If they’re wondering whether it’ll work, the best thing to show them is a success story — the story of someone like them who’s advertised with you (or your company) and made money.

Your prospect won’t be the first advertiser your station’s ever had — it’s been on the air a long time. Even if you’ve only been there a few months, your station’s got a track record.

There are lots of happy advertisers — “Bumpers” —  getting good results right now. 

  • A Good Idea: tell the stories.
  • Better: Let your clients tell the stories, with letters or emails.
  • Best: Let your clients tell the story on video.

Your production department may be able to do the recording and editing, but it’s not necessary. All you need is a smartphone, and you’re a videographer.

For a little extra money, you can improve the video quality with an inexpensive tripod  and an external microphone . If you work in radio or TV, you might be able to borrow a mic from the production department or the newsroom. I travel with this one.

I’ve got dozens of advertiser testimonials from all over the country in my library — car dealers, attorneys, doctors, home improvement contractors, and more — talking about how broadcast and digital advertising, using the right creative and high frequency, has helped them grow their business. 

These videos are usually two to three minutes in length, and they go a long way in convincing a prospect it’s both safe and beneficial to follow my advice.

I recently put three of them together on a “testimonial reel” — three advertisers I’ve worked with who have gotten great results. It looks like this:

How will the ad look or sound? You can answer that with a spec ad. After a solid needs analysis meeting, write a script and have your production department produce a basic version of the commercial.
 

Why do spec ads work so well? One of the best explanations comes from an old radio sales training recording by Jim Williams*:

What we’re doing is a thing called demonstration selling… it ranges from the tiny nibble of peach at your outdoor farmers market by the peach vendor to the one-ounce tube of shampoo they hang on your doorknob to the showy exhibition of all the uses from slicing and dicing of those famous knives on TV.
When you test drive a car, slip on new shoes and walk about or study the floor plan of an unbuilt home, you are involved in one of the many forms of demonstration selling.
 
When you enter your client’s office and play a cassette tape as part of your presentation you are doing demonstration selling. The words and sound that come from your tape recorder, regardless of content, are a demonstration of how radio works.
 
Thoughts come out of a small electric box and into the brain of the listener. That is the essence of radio. You are using radio to sell radio.
The tools have changed since Williams recorded those words. Cassettes are gone, replaced by digital files you can play for your client on an iPhone.
 
While the technology is different, human nature is not. Show your prospects what’ll happen, and they’re much more likely to get on your escalator.
 
* A tip of the hat to my friend Rod Schwartz for introducing me to Jim Williams, whose work has held up quite well in the decades since it was recorded. Rod has digitized some of Williams’ material, and you can listen to it here.
 

You can leave a comment by clicking here.

 
LIKE THIS POST?

Sign up for my blog updates and never miss a post. I'll send you the first two chapters of my new book, Breakthrough Prospecting, as a thank-you.