Page 4 – Phil Bernstein's Advertising, Marketing, and Sales Training Blog

What You Say Online Will Haunt You

It used to be difficult to express your unvarnished opinions to the world. Now it’s easy. And because it’s so easy, Jamie Allman has lost his job.

Allman, a TV and radio commentator in St. Louis, fired up his Twitter account the other day and sent out a tweet about Parkland high school shooting survivor David Hogg. I won’t quote the tweet in this space. If you’d like to know what he said (it ain’t pretty), feel free to read about it here.

Soon after the tweet became public, Allman locked down his Twitter account. But it was too late. Within days, KDNL-TV canceled his show and fired him. He’s not currently appearing on his own radio show; it’s not clear when, or if, he’ll be back.

[UPDATE 4/11/18: Esther-Mireya Tejeda of Entercom Communications, Allman’s radio employer, told the Riverfront Times this on Tuesday: “I can tell you on the record KFTK has parted ways with Mr. Allman and that his show is canceled effective immediately”].

It Used to Be Inconvenient…
That Was a Good Thing

There’s nothing new in the opinion Allman expressed — people have been saying dumb and destructive things in the privacy of their own homes for centuries.

But it used to be much tougher to put those views into public circulation.

If a story in your local paper got you worked up, you had to get out your typewriter and write a letter to the editor. You had to look up the paper’s address and write it on an envelope.

You had to put a stamp on the envelope and schlep it to a mailbox.

It took a day or two for your opinion to arrive at the newspaper’s office. An editor would then read your missive and decide whether it merited inclusion in the “Letters” section.

And that’s where it stopped. Most letters were never printed in the paper.

In fact, a lot of them were never even sent. In the time it took to write a letter, print it, stuff it, and find a mailbox, many people cooled off.

Now It’s Easy and Fast

Thumb-type your 280 characters, press a button, and your unfiltered opinion is on the Internet for everyone to see.

No envelope. No stamp. No editor.

No time to think about what you just wrote before the world sees it.

Here’s the Problem With That

Companies don’t like it when their employees make them look bad.

Everything you say online – your tweets, Facebook status updates, Instagram photos, blog comments – is a reflection on you, and a reflection on your employer.

In 2013, a woman named Justine Sacco sent out a tweet and then boarded a plane from London to Cape Town, South Africa. The tweet was a silly joke – her attempt to be ironic. Outside of her family, friends, and 170 Twitter followers, nobody knew who she was at the moment she tweeted.

By the time she landed in Cape Town eleven hours later, she had become an internationally known villain. She’d lost her job – her mortified employers decided to fire her while she was still in the air.

The full story is in this New York Times article.

I’ve had my own issues with Facebook posts in the past. I’m now much more careful in discussing professional interactions, and I don’t post about Donald Trump anymore. It’s not worth the grief.

Baseball analyst Curt Schilling learned about the perils of social media the hard way when ESPN fired him for a Facebook post.

Jamie Allman’s learning the lesson now.

A while back one of my readers left a comment on this blog. The comment expressed a very negative opinion of the owner of his station. The reader’s identity and the name of his station were readily apparent.

Comments on my blog are held for moderation, and this one made me nervous. Rather than approving it, I took a screen shot and emailed it to the salesperson with a note: “Just wanted to make sure. Do you really want this comment on the Internet?”

The next day he wrote back and said, “Though it is true, he is quick to call his lawyer. Please don’t publish it.”

He is lucky that comments on my blog don’t post automatically, and even luckier that I gave him a chance to retract his screed before it went “live”. Because as Justine Sacco found out in a more extreme case, the Internet is forever, and it’s everywhere.

Three people can keep a secret, as long as two of them are dead.” – Benjamin Franklin.

Your emails aren’t private, either. They can be forwarded. You can Reply All by mistake. As senior executives at Sony Corporation and the Democratic National Committee have found out, private servers can be hacked.

What does this mean for you? It means you should think before you tweet, post, update, submit, or send. It may be helpful to put a delay on your outgoing email.

Would you want what you wrote to appear on the front page of the New York Times?

If not, delete it. Your career will be glad you did.

[reminder] But you may want to think about it first.

When You Lose a Sale to the Competition

The sale was in the bag.

From the first contact through the presentation, the customer was engaged, animated, and receptive to your ideas. All signs pointed to a signed agreement.

Instead, the client handed the business to your competition.

sales lessons from skeptical businesspeople — photo by Kurhan/dpc

Sales Advice: What’s your next move?

Your first impulse may be to argue. Resist it, even if you think the customer’s making a mistake. You won’t win the argument; going into attack mode guarantees you’ll never have a chance to win the account back.

[shareable]Never blame your customers when they don’t buy from you. [/shareable]

It’s your responsibility to convince them. You didn’t. So learn something.

What can you do differently next time?

You need to ask some questions, starting with this one: “Is the decision final?”

If it’s final, accept it. You’ve lost this round. Your job now is to gather enough information so you know what went wrong, and can position yourself more effectively the next time an opportunity arises.

What can you change to generate a different result?

Say this:

Thanks for considering us. I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but my competitor’s going to do a great job for you.

It will be painful to say this. Say it anyway.

I respect your decision, and I won’t try to change your mind. Could I ask you a couple of questions?”

Asking permission first lowers resistance.

Once they grant permission, the client is obligated to answer. Here are your questions:

1. “What made you decide to go with the other guys?”

2. “If we had offered the same thing, would you have gone with us?”

No matter what the answer is, don’t try to reopen the sale—you promised.

After the conversation’s over, review the whole sales process in your mind. What did you miss? What questions can you add to your process to make sure you won’t miss it again?

A lost sale stings. Make sure you learn something from each one. Turn lost income into tuition on your sales education.

[reminder]What’s the toughest sales defeat you’ve faced? How did you handle it?[/reminder]

The One Thing Your Prospects Can’t Ignore

You’ve got a great idea for a prospect. What’s the best way to communicate it?

I know. You’re crazy busy.

Between prospecting, internal paperwork, make-goods, and that new initiative corporate just dumped on you, there aren’t enough hours in the day.

So when you’ve got something big to propose to a client, email looks awfully tempting.

You could meet in person with them. But that means getting in the car, driving across town, and cooling your heels in the reception room before you get 15-20 minutes to explain the whole thing.

The other option: email. Attach the Powerpoint to the message, press “Send”, and call them later to make sure they got it. Email’s fast, it’s easy, and you don’t have to pay for gas or parking.

Think twice before you hit “Send.”

A study by Professors Mahdi Roghanizad (Western University) and Vanessa K. Bohns (Cornell) found that an in-person appeal was 34 times as persuasive as an email.

The researchers instructed 45 participants to each ask 10 people to complete a brief survey. There were 450 requests in all.

One group made the request by email, and the other group made the “ask” face-to-face. They used identical scripts.

Both groups were asked to predict in advance how successful they’d be. Both groups expected to persuade about half their prospects to complete the task.

The Results

The “face to face” group had a 71.5% “close” rate.

The emailers were…let’s just say overestimated their abilities when they made their predictions. In real life they persuaded only 2.1% of their prospects to complete the task.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdv2Wp9MzY0

[shareable]The one thing your prospect can’t ignore is a human body in their office. [/shareable]

To review:

“Face to face” persuaded seven out of ten. Email converted less than one.

As Vanessa Bohns put it in Harvard Business Review,

You need to ask six people in person to equal the power of a 200-recipient email blast.

It’s interesting that the emailers expected to do much better. Bohns has this explanation:

Why do people think of email as being equally effective when it is so clearly not? In our studies, participants were highly attuned to their own trustworthiness and the legitimacy of the action they were asking others to take when they sent their emails. Anchored on this information, they failed to anticipate what the recipients of their emails were likely to see: an untrustworthy email asking them to click on a suspicious link.

Indeed, when we replicated our results in a second study we found the nonverbal cues requesters conveyed during a face-to-face interaction made all the difference in how people viewed the legitimacy of their requests, but requesters were oblivious to this fact.

Other reasons email may be less effective:

Those who read it may not read it closely. Busy clients may glance at the screen while multitasking, misinterpreting or completely missing important points you tried to convey.
Your personality is missing. Text on the page can never convey the thought, enthusiasm and passion you put into your proposal.
It’s easily ignored. Prospects get dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of emails every day. It’s easy for them to scroll past yours or delete it without reading it.

There may be times in-person just won’t work — not enough time, lack of client availability, or distance.

In those cases, you can try be “face-to-face” through the power of online video.

You can present your proposal online with a service like Zoom. With a webcam and a little bit of practice, you can let your client see your face and hear your voice…and have some control over the way they consume the content.
Record a screencast of your presentation, upload it to YouTube, and email them a link. This is less effective than a “live” web presentation because you lose the ability to have a real-time conversation. But it does transmit some of your enthusiasm and personality.One way to make this a bit more effective is to call the client on the phone after sending the email. Tell them you just want to make sure the link is working properly, and ask them to click on it while you’re on the phone. This way, you know they at least watched the beginning.
Use video email to cut through the email clutter and deliver your message with your face and your voice. There are several paid video email services out there — I am partial to BombBomb.

All three of these options will give you better results than a text-only email.

But if you can carve out the time and have the access, nothing beats the persuasive power of an in-person conversation. The one thing your prospect can’t ignore is a human body in their office — your body.

If you need to persuade… really persuade…a face-to-face presentation beats email 34 to 1.

Get your fingers off the keyboard and your butt behind the wheel.

[reminder]

How to Think Like a Rookie — And Why You Should

A question for veterans: When you were brand-new to media sales, what did you do when someone gave you a new idea?

You tried it, because you didn’t know any better.

What do you do with new ideas now?

The Day I Made $3600 Because
I Didn’t Know Any Better

In 1995 I was a rookie sales rep for 1190 KEX Radio in Portland. I had no account list. I was hungry. I was willing to talk to anyone who’d talk to me.

One day I was driving through the Portland suburb of Tigard, and noticed a store on Highway 99 called The Furniture Barn. I walked in and introduced myself to the owner.

I asked him about the Oregon State University football helmet on the wall behind the counter. It turned out the owner was a huge Oregon State athletics fan…and my station carried OSU Beaver football and basketball.

The next day I came back with an OSU radio sponsorship package, and the owner signed a contract for $15,000.

When I got back to the station with my signed contract, my more-experienced co-workers greeted me with a combination of congratulations and envy.

Congratulations on a big sale. Envy because they had all passed on the opportunity to visit Furniture Barn. They all knew what I didn’t:

It was the fifth store in seven years to move into that space. The other four had gone out of business.

Everyone knew they’d never buy…except me.

The other AE’s shook their heads. “We all drove by Furniture Barn and ignored it. Phil didn’t know any better, so he just walked in and got the money!”

Furniture Barn went out of business the following year, but not before paying for their football sponsorship in full.

My commission on this didn’t know-any-better sale: $3600.

A few years later one of those co-workers reminded me of that sale and asked me… “If you’d known about that building’s history when you drove by, would you have walked in?”

My reply: “No way.”

Experience Changes Us
And Not Always For the Better

When we were brand-new, we’d try anything somebody suggested.

If we encountered an interesting sales approach in a book or a podcast, we’d use it to see what might happen.

If we saw a store that looked interesting we’d walk in.

If a sales trainer suggested rewriting a proposal, we’d rewrite it.

We had nothing to lose.

My favorite word in the English language is YouNeverKnow.” — Former St. Louis Cardinals Pitcher Joaquin Andujar.

After a while, we gained some experience. We’re more cautious now. We’re a little cynical. We have The Curse of Knowledge:

“I’m not calling that store. There’s no way they’ve got enough money to advertise.”
“That idea will never work in this market.”
“We don’t do it that way here.”

We stop trying new things because we’re comfortable with our current approach. We skip calling on businesses because of the way their building looks from the outside. We ignore advice because we’ve heard it all before.

Then some rookie who doesn’t know any better comes along and takes our money.

You Can Think Like a Rookie

If you’ve been at this for years, and you’re not making the money you want to make, it’s time to shake things up.

Declare yourself a Rookie for a Month. For the next four weeks:

When you read a strange idea in a sales book, and you think it’d never work… try it at least three times.
If a sales trainer shows you a new approach, and it’s radically different from the way you normally do things, use it. Do it quickly, before you have time to talk yourself out of it.
If you drive by an interesting new business, pull over and walk in. Even if it looks too small and shabby to advertise on your station.

Suspend your disbelief for just a little while, and you just might make some money.

I mean, hey…YouNeverKnow.

[reminder]What’s the most unusual new business client you ever called on?[/reminder]

Your Clients’ Competitors Are Your Leads

Are you avoiding a great source of new business?

If you’re not talking to your clients’ competitors, you’re wasting a big opportunity.

Competitors are a great sales opportunity — Photo by Andy Dean

It’s One You May Have Created

About a year ago, a Midwest optometry practice started a television and digital advertising campaign, using a creative idea my company gave them. It worked really well — their practice grew by over 30% over the next year.

Where did that business come from?

Recently, I met with one of that practice’s rivals. As the meeting progressed, it became clear he was in pain — his business was down almost 40% over the same period .

He constantly saw his competition — our partner station’s client — on the air, taking money out of his pocket. He wanted to start his own television and digital campaign.

Your Customers’ Competitors
Are Great Sales Leads

When you put a new advertiser on the air, and the campaign works, it affects the rest of the market.

Advertising ripples through the water of the marketplace — Photo by Mark Ross

Sometimes advertising creates new demand for a product or service, but in many cases existing demand shifts from one vendor to another.

When your client gains revenue, some of that money would have otherwise gone to a competitor down the street.

The guys down the street now need help. You can help them.

Should you call?

Yes.

Is It Ethical to Work With
Competing Businesses?

[shareable]If advertisers can work with your competitors, you can work with theirs. It’s only fair.[/shareable]

If you’re doing your job right, you’re building good relationships with your clients. They may share confidential business information with you. You get to know the office staff, and sometimes their families.

Would it be right to start working with their enemies?

Yes, it would. Here’s why:

Every day, your customers are talking with your competitors.

They meet with radio reps, TV reps, billboard salespeople, advertising agencies — the people trying to take money out of your pocket.

Every day, your clients share their information with these people, and review proposals from them.

They have every right to do this. And here’s the corollary:

If they can work with your competitors, you can work with theirs.

Fair is fair.

But You Have to Do It Ethically

Never lie about what you’re doing. There’s no need to volunteer the information, but if an auto dealer asks you if you’re working with any other auto dealers, answer honestly. If you lie, they’ll find out eventually.

Keep everything you learn confidential. Your customers trust you, and will share proprietary information with you — revenue figures, business challenges, promotional plans.

If they know that you’re working with the other guys, they may ask about the other guys’ plans. Never give that information up. The correct answer to the question is, “I’d never tell them anything about you, and I can’t tell you anything about them.”

Don’t give the same creative or promotional idea to both of them. If two competitors run identical ads on your station, it will not turn out well for you.

If one of them turns the idea down, feel free to bring it to the other one. Before you do, give the first one a final chance with this line:

This is a great idea, and that’s why we gave you an exclusive first shot at it. Just so you know… now that you’ve turned it down, we’re going to be showing it to the competition. It’s too good to go to waste.”

Sometimes You Just Can’t

In the vast majority of cases, it’s your right and your responsibility — to your company and to your own bank account — to work with anyone you choose.

There are, however, a few exceptions:

When you’ve spent a great deal of time and energy on specific strategies to go after a particular competitor, it may not feel right to work with that company, too.
When you’ve built an exceedingly close relationship with one major client, and that company represents a major part of your income, the opportunity may not be worth the risk.

If you just can’t bring yourself to call on the competitor, don’t let the opportunity evaporate. Pass the lead to a co-worker, along with any information you can ethically give them.

You’ll be making a deposit in the Karma Bank, and one of these days it’ll pay you back with interest.