11-26-2014
What does it cost you if you fail to screen out the poor performer or the non-performer? We try to bury this hard cold fact every time we look for a new employee. Our wonderful optimism takes hold and we say to ourselves: "This time it will be different." Yet, we continue to use the same process don't we?
First we either like or dislike their looks, their tone of voice, their smile, their sense of humor, their experience, their education, or who they know. So why doesn't it work?
Let's face it: Every time you use the same processes and make a bad decision, it costs you real money. First, your hiring time, onboarding time, training time, and let's see?. Oh yes, you are paying them for all of this time. We all know time is money, but we just forget when we are trying to pull this new individual on board. Some say it costs a minimum of $10,000 while SHRM says it can cost the equivalent of one year's pay.
I'd say it costs even more with these hidden costs we often fail to admit.
Note: The first part of this article/blog was written by Jon Morse, recruiting coordinator for Luce Performance Group. Jon has been working with potential sales reps for 14 years with our company. I always say you can't train a non-salesperson to be a salesperson no matter what. I've tried many times and it just doesn't work. You have to have the right fit and you have to match up these sales reps profiles of great sales reps that you either currently have on your staff or have had profile assessments done on successful sales reps at your disposal. The following bullet points came from Jon. I will answer them based on what I see in the field. I'm sure you will have your own thoughts on these statements.
? Consider what the impact is on your other customers.
This is probably the biggest cost to your organization. It's also the biggest loss of credibility when you are turning over sales reps. I've gone into markets where the real loss of money easily would total over six figures annually on constant turnover of sales reps. I've also gone into markets where it's been a seamless transition where management has had a full bench to choose from and, in some cases, upgraded list distribution across sales reps and following the basics of account management which is putting your best reps in front of your best potential accounts. Seamless transitions mean hiring reps that are going to be the best possible fit for the job. Just hiring people for the sake of hiring them to fill a position is dangerous and they usually don't last very long. Therefore the loss of lots of money and credibility for your company.
? Consider yours and other's time lost.
In my experience, it typically takes two years to get our return on investment from the training and money we put into new hires. Two years seems to be the break-even point. If they blow out before that we lose money proportionate to that timeline. If they stick for for years or more we tend to get quite a return on our investment from our sales reps.
? Consider the emotional drain it has on you and your other team members.
It makes everybody look bad when you constantly have turnover. Some management-induced turnover from time to time is good and sets the bar for increasing performance standards. Sometimes it's good when a sales rep leaves for new ventures, as long as they have been there for more than your two-year break-even point. Other reps like reaping the harvest of ones who leave, and that in itself can prove disastrous if reps are provoking a non-team atmosphere. Cannibalism of reps and accounts occur and this leads to emotional drain, especially on management. Again, it comes back to hiring the right fit and right people for your sales job. Seems like the "right fit" is a constant here.
? Consider all of those missed sales.
Here's where the competition cleans up. They wait for you to keep turning over your staff so they can pick off the new clients your new, though short-tenured, reps put up on your website, radio/TV stations -- loss of sales and high attrition for you and your company. In some cases, when you don't have strong management to train your new reps, the competition, if they are good, wait for your new reps to become dissatisfied and they pick off your new reps because you don't train them.
Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor for the Luce Performance Group International and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com
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11-25-14
11-24-14Podcast One has gone public, demanding Stitcher remove all of its shows, while Stitcher is saying that has already been done. Stitcher specializes in spoken word format, including news, sports, talk, and entertainment radio with over 25,000 radio shows, live radio stations and podcasts. The company was recently purchased by Deezer. Podcast One says it has made reasonable efforts to settle the issue but Stitcher continues to sell and distribute programming without the proper rights, consent and compensation. Podcast One CEO Norm Pattiz says the company is stealing content without permission. We received this statement from Deezer last night: "The content in question was removed a few weeks ago when the PodcastOne team reached out. We hope to find a solution with PodcastOne quickly, so the Stitcher audience can enjoy the great shows that are affected."Pattiz says, ?In some cases, Stitcher has absolutely no rights to carry our programs, and in others, no rights to sell or monetize our exclusively represented content in any way. This has been an ongoing problem, and enough is enough. You can't just steal content without permission. Podcasting is breaking through big time, not only with consumers but with advertisers as well. I see new players coming into the market, all touting technology that will allow them to grab podcasts for their subscribers. Let this be a message -- make sure you have secured the rights from content suppliers before you distribute programming you don't have the rights to.? 
11-21-14
11-21-14By now you've probably heard that Tribune Media pulled the plug on "87.7 The Game in Chicago." In fact, you may have even heard about it before some of the on-air staff did. Ben Finfer and Alex Quigley learned they were fired while they were on the air. According to The Sporting News, Finfer said, "We're doing a live show here. And to be told this way, it's really a letdown. We're getting screwed on this one ... We just found out on Twitter a half hour ago that the station is being taken off the air. We were not told about this ahead of time. We didn't know anything about it. We were coming back from a break and saw on Twitter from Robert Feder that the station is being taken off the air. Can you believe that? A lot of really talented people were hired to work at this station and found out through Twitter they were fired. Nothing from the bosses."Tribune Media launched The Game 87.7 last February on a low-power television frequency that doubles as an FM radio signal. Also out are Jonathon Brandmeier and Garry Meier. Brandmeier's morning show aired on The Game 87.7 and the online streaming site wgn.fm. Meier's afternoon show aired only on wgn.fm. Robert Feder broke the story.Finfer added, "You would assume you tell the employees before the media. You assume they have the common courtesy to let some hosts on the air know that something might be coming so you don't find out when you're coming back from a commercial break. I've never heard of such a thing. I've heard of of some pretty crappy things in this business. You talk to radio people and you'll hear awful stories about the way they've been treated. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything like this. Who would have though Marc Trestman would make it past mid-season and not us?" 
11-20-14In a perfect world advertisers would know exactly how many listeners your radio station has, whether they?re listening over-the-air, on their computers at work or on their phone walking down the street. The radio industry acknowledges listeners are migrating to digital devices, and the industry also knows how vital it is to measure those listeners as companies like Pandora chip away at their revenue. Nielsen is working toward making online measurement happen. Nielsen?s EVP & Managing Director of Local Media, Matt O?Grady told the Forecast crowd on Thursday that a new software development kit, that will measure digital listening, is being tested with several radio groups.The software is installed on the radio station?s streaming player and/or app. And, through a partnership with Facebook, Nielsen collects demographics to provide overnight numbers. When the system becomes widely available to radio, stations will be able to provide reach, demos, duration of listening and location of online listening to advertisers. O?Grady says even if the money is not there yet, the audience is there and there?s enormous value in front of radio.?