(SALES) A Simple Consumer Needs Analysis Clients Love

8-2-2013

Local direct decision-makers often find broadcast seller?s Customer Needs Analysis forms awkward, especially if you?re the third media rep this week that?s asked them to help fill one out. Many business owners would rather snack on wasps than help you fill out a lengthy form. The best way to get the information you need from local direct clients is by asking good questions and then listening very carefully to responses during the course of normal conversation.

Here are seven questions you can ask to get the information you need for a great custom proposal. Even though I may already know the answers to many of these questions, I like to hear the answers from the client?s lips. By listening carefully to their responses, I learn a lot about what they know (but maybe aren?t advertising) about their business?as well as what they know and don?t know about our business.

1.   Regarding advertising and marketing, what are you doing or what have you done in the past?
2.   Why are you doing it?
3.   Who are you trying to reach?
4.   What do those people you?re trying to reach know now about your business?
5.   What do you want those people to know?
6.   What is your average sale?
7.   What is your gross margin of profit?

Again, even if I believe I already know the answer to any of these questions, I ask it anyway. I ask so I can listen carefully to their responses and determine their level of ignorance or sophistication about marketing, advertising, and my station in particular. I am looking for holes in their perceptions. I?m looking for correctable untruths that they may have about advertising, or about my station. I?m also digging for the client?s true strengths and weaknesses, as well as her perceived notions of the strengths and weaknesses of her competitors. I will use this information to create commercials that will really get consumer?s attention.

When I ask about her average sale and her gross margin of profit, I?m getting information I can use to calculate return on advertising investment and show her that advertising on my station is a good calculated risk, not gambling. I?ll also use that same information to manage her expectations about results on my station.

Later, I?ll put what I?ve learned into a concise one- to two-page proposal that the client will understand and appreciate.

Here is an example of a conversation with a business owner. She owns a gardening center. 

Salesperson: Regarding marketing and advertising, what are you doing?
Client: We use the newspaper and the Yellow Pages.
Salesperson: Why are you using those mediums?
Client: Because they work. We?re doing couponing and the people come in with the coupons.
OBSERVATION: All media work. We?ll deal with that later. And, I wonder how much of her advertising is dedicated to price only? She can?t win long-term against her price-slashing national discount competitors. Maybe in the future we can focus her advertising on creating value for her products and services and less on cutting her prices.
Salesperson: Who are you trying to reach when you advertise?
Client: We?re trying to reach everybody we can.
OBSERVATION: No medium can reach everybody and we don?t have to. Just a percentage of those people who will buy plants and garden supplies this week.
Salesperson: Helen, those people you?re trying to reach?what do they know about your business now? [At this point the client usually begins to open up. I start to observe some of her frustrations.]
Client: We have a good reputation and we sell good stuff but we?re steadily losing business to Lowe?s, Home Depot, and Menard?s. And it?s hard to compete with all of their advertised low prices.
Salesperson: Helen, what do you want people to know about your business?
Client: Well, our soil in Southwestern Michigan is different. And, we don?t sell things that don?t grow in Southwestern Michigan. They sell a lot of stuff that just won?t do well here with our weather and our soil.
OBSERVATION: Here come some golden nuggets I can use later in commercials.
Client: And we have a horrible unemployment problem in Michigan. Whenever possible, I only buy from Michigan growers and Michigan vendors, so we can keep jobs here in Michigan.
OBSERVATION: What great commercials these statements are going to make. And, we can focus value propositions like these, instead of trolling for bottom-feeders that would only buy her because of price.
Client: And, we don?t have one of those great big parking lots. There?s plenty of free parking at the door and we even help load up your car for you.
Salesperson: What?s your average sale?
Client: Considering everything, about sixty dollars per customer.
Salesperson: What?s your gross margin of profit? Is it keystone (50 percent)?
Client: Actually, it?s a little higher than keystone, about 60 percent.

Great. Now I have the information I need to come up with a custom proposal. It will include a long-term creative strategy as well as a long-term schedule. My budget will be created from real numbers, which include her average sale figure and her gross margin of profit.

We?ll deal with how to write these proposals next time.

Paul Weyland is a broadcast sales trainer, author, and hired gun. Learn more about bringing Paul into your market by visiting www.paulweyland.com or by calling him at 512 236 1222.

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MIW Releases Gender Analysis Study

6-13-13

According to the latest MIW Gender Analysis Study released by the Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio Group, out of 11,253 stations, 1,936 or 17.7 percent had women holding the GM position in 2012. That number is up over a full percentage point from 2011 which was 16.6 percent and shows continued growth from 2004, eight years ago when the percentage was only 14.9 percent. The greatest challenge for women in radio management continues to be as programmers.

Women currently only program 11.3 percent of all stations which compares to 10.7 percent seven years ago. In the top 100 markets women have made some real improvement, programming 11.8 percent of all stations which compares to only 9.6 percent in 2011.
The disappointing news in the top 100 markets is it is showing some downward movement. In 2012, 16.8 percent of stations in these markets were managed by women, compared to 17.4 percent in 2011. Overall, the best management opportunities for women continue to be in sales management although there's been essentially only a minor change for the last eight years. In 2012, 31 percent of all stations had women SMs, up a half a percentage point from last year. And in the top 100 markets 30.3 percent of the stations had women SMs, down slightly from last year.

You can read the study HERE

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SALES - 7 Steps To An Effective Client Needs Analysis

by Theresa Merrill

Years ago I was sought out by a media firm for a consultative sales position. During the interview process, I was to demo present to a team of managers my follow-up to a ?Client Needs Analysis? I conducted for a prospect. While summarizing the client?s needs and problems my manager to-be shouted out ?What does this have to do with why they should buy time on our network???he didn?t get it. I got the job though and went on to demonstrate how my success was directly linked to a consultative sales approach.

Consultative selling is a term that is often used, but are you executing the Client Needs Analysis properly? In my mind it is the distinction between being customer-focused or being product-focused, and it can?t be faked. These are the seven steps to conducting a successful Client Needs Analysis.  

Questions should enhance your credibility. A good lawyer never asks a question she doesn?t have the answer to. When you meet with a prospect to conduct a CNA (Customer Needs Analysis) always prepare for the call like a lawyer would prepare to question his witness.  You don?t presume to know their business better than they do, but that doesn?t mean you can?t research their business so you can ask intelligent questions. ?Congratulations on achieving your fourth quarter revenue goals, how will this success impact your business model for 2012?? 

Ask open-ended questions that allow for a large number of potential replies. In a CNA you should be talking only 20% of the time, while the prospect should be talking 80%. Questions should be easy to answer and non-threatening. Your goal is to engage them in a conversation, not stump them.  Don?t ask about their margin of profit. Something as benign as ?So, how did you get started in the restaurant business?? works. Be flexible; allow the client to take the conversation into their areas of interest.

Be empathetic. Harvard Business Review studied successful salespeople and one of the most important qualities they possessed was their ability to gain feedback from their clients through empathy.

Adapt to their behavioral style. Are they open/direct or closed/indirect? If you?re talking to Bill Bottom-Line adjust your questioning tempo to his style or risk losing him. Studies show that you establish rapport with people when you mirror their body language. Don?t sit on the edge of your seat, if the client is leaning back in his. 

Don?t talk about your product. You?re gathering information; refrain from talking about your product during the CNA. If you contracted for the meeting correctly, explaining your desire to understand their needs and challenges, this shouldn?t be an issue for the client. Also resist providing a solution on the spot, this goes against the very nature of an effective CNA, which is to provide customized solutions to fit their specific needs. Your solution will appear as one-size fits all.

Listen effectively. Often we are so fixated on our questions, that we don?t focus on what is being said.  Concentrate and listen for ideas, not facts. You?re listening to gain insight into what the prospect perceives as value. Don?t jump to conclusions. Repeat what you think you heard and clarify. Clients like you to tell them what they said. Ask good follow-up questions to demonstrate this.

Write down your questions and answers. If you show up without a notebook, or iPad, you?ll not be effective. You?re conducting an interview, have your questions written down and be prepared to jot down their comments. Clients note this and mention other salespeople don?t do this; again this is not a veiled attempt to learn about their business. Upon closing ask if you missed anything, if there was something they would like to share, that you neglected to touch upon. This is also valuable for when you make your follow-up presentation, in case of any discrepancy in communication you can reference your notes.

Lastly, don?t leave without scheduling a time to come back and present your findings.  If you?ve genuinely demonstrated interest in the client during the CNA, they will be more anxious to buy than you are to sell at this point.  Get back to them with your marketing plan, as soon as possible.

Theresa Merrill is the Director of Business Development for Anovick Associates. She has more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in NY, Boston and Atlanta working for Katz Communications, CBS, Tribune and Cablevision and can be reached at 201.444.2991 or by e-mail merrill.theresa@gmail.com
For more article from Theresa GO HERE

(1/10/2012 7:20:53 AM)
love your article. this is the kind of information sellers should read every time they prepare for a CNA. we're all so proud of our product, that we often forget our job is to help our clients. if not for their success, we've got no job; and that all begins with finding out as much as we can about what they need from us to succeed.

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