(SALES) What Winning Account Executives Know

2-6-2013

The top-producing account executives we work with always know the answers to these 10 questions about every client:

1. Who is the real decision maker? Not to be confused with the decision-allocator. In the case of a car dealership, for example, the sales manager might decide which stations or what media they choose, but only the real decision maker, the dealer principal, can increase the budget. Top producers develop valid business reasons to connect with the ultimate decision maker. Organizational changes might displace the decision allocator, but the real decision maker will always be able to invest with you. Ad agencies are only decision allocators.

2. When is the planning cycle? Many know the buying cycle, or fiscal year end, but it?s more critical to know the planning cycle. The top account executives will be a sustaining resource prior to and during the planning process. If the plan is struck to the exclusion of radio, you have an uphill battle. But if the plan includes radio, you only have to fight for your share.

3. Who are the key influencers? With tough competition and pressures on profit margins, every decision is critical and seldom made unilaterally. The best owners and managers minimize their risk by consulting their staff, trusted advisors, and perhaps even industry gurus before making major decisions. Who are they and what can you do to win them over?

4. What is the value you deliver? What is it the advertiser really wants from you, and what do they believe it?s worth? Consulting? Creative? Reach? Traffic? Sales? It might be a combination of benefits. The top account executives know how much they will add to the bottom line and what that is worth to the client.

5. What is the budget? Budgets can always be increased with the right understanding of client needs and your value proposition. The best account executives know what the current budget is, and what share they capture.

6. How will they measure? Web hits? Gross sales? New faces? Mentions? Traffic? Sales? You need to know up front how you will be measured, and how to measure up.

7. Why would the advertiser cancel? What would be the most likely reason they would cancel or not renew? And what steps can we take to prevent that from happening?

8. What?s the next step? What is the next good thing or valid business reason we are preparing for our next call? Pre-call customer-focused planning is the hallmark of the best reps.

9. What is the advertiser?s competitive advantage?  Why should your audience abandon their current provider/supplier in favor of this client, and how can you validate that competitive advantage in your campaigns?

10.  Where does my client want his business to be five years from now? Rookie account executives only focus on short-term solutions-selling. The top reps know their clients? long-term dreams and visions and how to fit into those plans.

Wayne Ens is president of ENS Media Inc. ENS Media?s Selling in the New Media Economy sales training program trains radio salespeople how to position and sell radio as a relevant key player in the new media mix.

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Digital to Account For One in Five Ad Dollars

1-10-2013

The growth in digital continues and continues to become more mobile. eMarketer reports that worldwide, digital ad spending passed the $100-billion mark for the first time last year and will increase by to $118.4 billion, another 15.1% in 2013. That will put worldwide digital ad spending levels?including online and mobile advertising spending, other than messaging-based formats?at 21.7% of the total spent on ads in all media this year, and on track to account for more than one-quarter of all ad spending by 2016.

North America accounts for the greatest share of all digital ad spending, at 39% as of the end of 2012. As emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America up spending, however, North America and second-place Western Europe will lose share slightly throughout the forecast period. By 2016, 36.7% of spending will come from North America, and 23.7% from Western Europe. By the same year, Asia-Pacific will contribute 29.8% of all digital ad spend in the world.

Read more from eMarketer HERE
To learn more about how you can get a bigger piece of the Digital Advertising pie, join Radio Ink for Convergence 2013 in San Jose.

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Dial Global Adds Cohen as National Account Manager

Jacqueline Cohen joins Dial Global from Cumulus Media Networks where she held various sales positions since 2001. She said about her new position, "I am excited to join the team at Dial Global and for the opportunity to help advertisers meet their challenges through an impressive lineup of programming. March Madness, the Super Bowl, the many Talk radio superstars, digital integration? there is so much to offer.?

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Signs Of Life From Radio's Biggest Account

By Ed Ryan

No matter how much GM's wince when they see how much their monthly business is dependent on auto, they giggle with glee every time that order sits on their desk awaiting a signature. So what if three car dealers run  back to back to back in a stopset. So what if they only buy W-F and Saturday morning. So what if the rate is below what your expensive inventory management system spits out. And so what if the spot sounds so bad with screaming egomaniac car salesman turning off listeners. You need the business and you're signing that order.

Yesterday - and all week - while radio's public companies were reporting benign earnings, General Motors came out with great news and announcements of a price hike. Radio One's Barry Mayo said there are signs auto is coming back. Well, if the GM numbers are any indication of what "coming back" means, he may be right. GM posted a net profit of $2.5 billion for the second quarter, nearly double the $1.3 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue grew 19 percent to $39.4 billion. CEO Dan Akerson said "It was a good quarter and another step in our journey of sustained, profitable growth" during a conference call.
GM's Net income in North America rose 41 percent from the second quarter of 2010 to $2.2 billion. The automaker's struggling European unit posted a $102 million net profit, reversing a $160 million loss a year earlier. GM said it was the first time in many years that all of its regions posted a quarterly profit. And GM is planning price hikes in the near future. GM said today it will raise prices on 2012 models by 1 percent, the third increase this year. GM has hiked vehicle prices 1.9 percent this calendar year to counter rising commodity costs and other expenses. That contrasts a bit with what Saga's Ed Christian said about the auto industry on his conference call yesterday. "Consumers are waiting on the sidelines for deals." Well, if that's true they could be waiting a long time. Other automakers have also raised vehicle prices to offset rising costs.

Here are some numbers from Automotive News. Through the first 7 months of 2011, Chrysler is up 21% GM is up 16% and Ford is up 9%. Honda was off 3% and Toyota was down 7%. Toyota is often the company radio executives blame for weak auto advertising, having to do with the earthquake in Japan. Overall automotive sales are up 11% for the first 7 months in the United States. 7.3 million units have been sold compared to 6.6 units in 2010.

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Account Management 101

7/20/2011

I am often asked which is the preferred system for managing sales territories, the account-based method, or a method based on the sales rep? The correct answer is account-based management. At a recent training seminar, it became apparent to me that the return of the account-based system is long overdue.

Managing accounts by sales rep is convenient; it seems like the path of least resistance. But I'd like to outline a simple four-point account management system. Under this plan, a manager will have straightforward and specific guidelines for managing accounts, giving the sales reps and the manager the opportunity to operate at maximum potential.

Account Management Plan

1. Prepare an account analysis. A complete analysis requires identifying all current and potential accounts, with all accounts segmented by potential. For the sake of convenience, I am using a medium market as an example.

"A" accounts are the bread and butter. They are heavy on annuals and, in a medium market, will buy approximately $25,000 per year.
"B" accounts will purchase between $12,000 and $25,000 annually.
"C" accounts must have been active within the last 90 days and spend up to $12,000 a year.
"D" accounts are developmental accounts and are inactive, but there must be a specific plan for turning these accounts active.
"S" accounts are seasonal accounts, such as amusement parks, concerts, and events.
2. Time allocation. Each A and B account needs to have weekly activity. A sales rep, depending on experience, should have five A accounts and up to 10 B accounts. Since A and B accounts are the main target of the competition, these customers must get maximum service. The A and B accounts will also need to have new ideas brought to them on a regular basis.
C and D accounts will need bi-weekly activity. A C account list may have 20 customers, and D accounts are capped at a maximum of 30 customers. (Developing more than 30 accounts at one time is almost impossible for a rep.)
S accounts have a 60-day time period when activity increases, leading up to their scheduled run. Total accounts in this system range from 50 to 60 for a rep to the never-ending 100-plus accounts typically seen at a station.

3. Account list coverage. Weekly planners are the most productive system for tracking the reps' activity. Knowing in advance where the reps are going is essential to keeping them focused on the correct activities and preventing daily emergencies.

4. Account list control. This involves standards of performance the manager determines for each rep. Actual performance is constantly analyzed, so the manager is aware of whether the performance is on target. By tracking activity levels, a manager minimizes the need for call reports ? which tend to be largely fictitious.

Basic Account Guidelines
?
A, B, and C accounts must have been on the air in the past 90 days in order to stay on a rep's list. A rep should maintain as many A, B, and C accounts as possible.
?
If an account falls from an A, B, or C list, it may be temporarily placed on the D list. However, if the account has not regained its active status within 90 days, it will be removed from a rep's list and given to another rep.
?
D accounts are capped at 30 clients. No more than 90 days should be needed to develop and move accounts to active status.

An S account has no limit on days, and its active status is relative to market size and seasonality.
?
A rep may claim up to 25 new prospects monthly, but contact with the account must be established and the potential must be estimated within 30 days. After 30 days, these prospects will either be added to the current list or dropped for lack of potential. These new claims are in addition to the D accounts.
?
Accounts are not assigned on an agency basis; at the discretion of the manager, agency accounts may be serviced by one or more sales reps.
Using these basic account guidelines can provide the manager and the reps the needed procedures to manage more effectively.
Finally, true account management also involves daily field coaching of the reps. There is no substitute for customer relationships. It is imperative that the manager also have an established relationship at most A and B accounts.

Ten years ago, I would have said that 5 percent of radio stations were using an account management system. Today, I would speculate 20 percent of radio stations have an account management system in place. That is progress, but we still have a long way to go.

Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor at the Luce Performance Group in Houston and can be reached at

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Persistence Key To Landing That Big Account

July 6, 2011

by Sean Luce

As a sales rep in today's world, there are more options than ever before available to help you be your best. Where would we be without our smart phones, email or Facebook and Twitter accounts? Our current hardware and applications offer a wealth of information and ways to connect with clients. Yet all of those innovative ways will never replace the consistent and persistent approach you should take communicating with clients and prospects.
The following journal is from a rep in Vancouver, British Columbia.  With a strong desire to land a client and some real creativity using today's technology, Christina Armstrong had a huge success story.  

Dear Sean:

I'm sure you are familiar with Five Hour Energy drink. Joe is responsible for advertising Five Hour Energy Drink throughout Canada. He is based in Toronto. Since he lives on the other side of Canada, I called and emailed him but with no response. My challenge was to start the communication channels moving.

I looked Joe up on Facebook.  I asked him to please accept my friend request as he may be pleasantly surprised. I changed my profile picture to a bottle of Five Hour Energy. To my delight, he accepted and responded. He said that I was a nut! I felt victorious as he already had an accurate description of who I was!

This was the fall of 2009. I had opened the channels of communication. I continued to correspond with Joe. We even had a couple of conference calls, but I was getting turned down when I asked for the order. It is now February 2010, and Vancouver is hosting the Olympics. I am sitting at my desk thinking about getting Joe?s attention today. I decided to compose another email:

Subject: It's a dreary day in Vancouver

Good morning Joe,

Today is a rainy day in Vancouver and the temptation to go out and enjoy the weather has now passed. Did I ever share with you a fable called "The Roger's Ogre"? Craig is my sales manager. He creeps down the hallway with a slight limp and roars his displeasure regarding sales numbers. Yesterday, I had a disturbing encounter with this creature regarding you. I could only tell him that "he's still thinking about it". Gawd?the venom that spewed from his mouth. He asked me what I had done to try and move you off the "thinking seat?. I replied, "I asked him, and he never responded". Again, I had to turn my head and close my eyes.

Please Joe?help me to not encounter this horrible "Roger's Ogre". PLEASE...help me! His response: Tell the boss I am golfing for a few days, will touch base on Monday.   Have a wonderful balance of the games.
Joe eventually turned down my proposal. I would wake up  thinking how am I going to get this man to say "Yes" instead of "No"? Spring had now arrived, and I had planned a trip to Paris. I was just about to leave when the idea hit me. I decided to buy two bottles of Five Hour Energy drink.

I ran back to the office and put my plan into action. I sent Joe another email that was entitled: "The first day of work for the twins". In it were pictures of the Twins (the two bottles of Five Hour Energy) in various states around our radio station. The first photo showed the twins getting their security passes. The second photo was of them doing the morning show. I told him that I was leaving for my trip, and I would like to have the proposal put to bed.  His response was, "Enjoy the trip, and we will touch base when you return".

"Damn Joe!!!"

The Twins came with me to Paris. I took a beautiful picture of the boys in front of the Eiffel Tower and sent Joe an email postcard telling him how much fun the boys were having in Paris. One of the first things I did when I returned was to call Joe. He said he had $30,000 for a five month campaign. I had been pitching Joe far more than the $30,000. I was disappointed! I told him we should wait until we could add more money to the budget. I wanted to give him a good campaign and for both stations that would not cut it.

My birthday arrived, and I decided to send Joe a Happy Birthday to Me email. I asked him for a birthday present. I wanted him to confirm the proposal that I had sent the prior week which was for 65 grand over five months. He finally sent me the email that I had been waiting 9 months to read. Please move forward!!  VICTORY!! This was the best birthday present ever!! Nothing is more satisfying than working this hard for a final conclusion that comes to fruition.

He sent my sales manager an email saying how much he enjoyed this entire process. I told the Ogre that I had mastered the art of successfully stalking a client without annoying him. Five Hour Energy drink has committed over $100,000 in the last ten months. Obviously, this approach cannot be used with everyone. The moral of this tale is Be fearless. What do you have to lose??? The sale??
Christina Armstrong
Jack FM/Fun FM
Vancouver, B.C.

Sean Note: Persistence pays off. I like it that Christina didn?t undersell the prospect. She actually turned down the initial money that was offered back to hold out for a schedule that she thought would work for the client. How often does this happen? Good selling Christina!

Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor for the Luce Performance Group in Houston, Texas and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com.

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here