(DIGITAL) 7 Habits of Highly Successful Digital Sellers

8-19-2013

There are a handful of radio sales reps that are incredibly successful at selling digital advertising. I?ve met them. Ever wonder what makes them tick? 

Inspired by Stephen Covey?s ?7 Habits of Highly Effective People,? I have distilled my observations of these special sales reps into the ?7 Habits of Highly Successful Digital Sellers.?

1. Constantly Learning

They devour as much information as they can about digital advertising and marketing. It?s almost as if they were pursuing a graduate degree in digital marketing. They read books like The Long Tail, The Cluetrain Manifesto, The Innovator?s Dilemma, and Rework. Their guru?s are Seth Godin, Faith Popcorn, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Guy Kawasaki. Mashable, eMarkater, ClickZ, and NetNewCheck are their daily reads.

2. Share and Teach

They understand sharing is no longer to be feared in sales. They embrace it. They understand sharing ideas is the new currency to grab the attention of busy prospects. Teaching their colleagues and clients about new digital media tools or how to respond to the latest digital media trends is second nature to them.

3. Experiment

Failure IS an option for them because they understand the power of learning from their mistakes. The low cost of digital media tools also virtually erases the financial cost of any of their missteps.

4. Focused

They keep distractions to a minimum and only focus on what they have control over.

5. Know Their Numbers

The rest of your sales team might know how many unique visitors come to your website each month, but a successful digital seller knows the traffic spikes, the average conversion rate on your social media promotions, and the redemption rates on mobile coupons. They also take the time to research their client?s cost per lead, average sale, and customer acquisition cost.

6. Always Connecting

Instead of observing the old ABC sales mantra of ?Always Be Closing,? they practice a new one, ?Always Be Connecting.? They have made a regular habit of connecting with clients and prospects on LinkedIn. There?s never a shortage of new prospects coming into the beginning of their sales pipeline.

7. Sell Local

Most local broadcast websites and mobile apps will never have big enough numbers to interest advertising agencies or national advertisers. Successful digital sellers know their time is better spent reaching out directly to local advertisers who need help with their digital marketing.

As you think about recruiting new sales reps for your station going forward, give extra consideration to some of the above sales habits. After all, these habits are the local advertising sales skills of the future that are desperately needed in radio right now!

Stephen Warley is the founder of inboundarts.com, a research and training firm dedicated to helping radio broadcasters use digital tools to generate more qualified sales leads. He is also the founded of LocalBroadcastSales.com in 2008. Have a question for Stephen?  Email him at stephen@inboundarts.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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(TALENT) 6 Habits Of Memorable People

7-30-2012

By Angela Perelli

SPOILER ALERT: The #6 habit in Jeff Haden's "Inc." magazine article is to "get over yourself." That gem and five other tips on how to succeed in business are good reminders for all of us, and especially relevant for morning show personalities, who by nature of their job, should be interesting and memorable.

Here are the points from his article with my comments on how to relate them to radio. Read the original article here.

1. Don't see. Do.

"What you say isn't interesting; what you do is interesting. Spend your life doing instead of watching. Cool things will happen. Cool things are a lot more interesting and a lot more memorable."

In morning radio, some of your show will be about pop culture and topical news stories, and you do need to be informed. Yet, you have to be more than an entertainment correspondent. You have to have stories, and stories happen when you do stuff.

2. Do something unusual.

Personal stories don't come from going to work, going to the gym, doing a little show prep, and then watching TV. Stories come from living life with passion and with curiosity.

"Draw a circle and put all your 'stuff' in it. Your circle will look a lot like everyone else's: Everyone works, everyone has a family, everyone has homes and cars and clothes...."

"We like to think we're unique, but roughly speaking we're all the same, and similar isn't memorable."

"So occasionally do something different. Backpack to the next town just to see how many people stop to offer you a ride. Compete with your daughter to see who can swim the most laps in three hours. Or work from a coffee shop one day just to see what you learn about other people... and about yourself.

"Whatever you do, the less productive and sensible it is, the better. Your goal isn't to accomplish something worthwhile; the goal is to collect experiences.

"Experiences, especially unusual experiences, make your life a lot richer and way more interesting. You can even..."

3. Embark on a worthless mission.

"Remember when you were young and followed stupid ideas to their illogical conclusions? Road trips, failing the cinnamon challenge, trying to eat six saltine crackers in one minute without water... you dined out on those stories for years."

"So do something, just once, that adults no longer do."

We call them "quests" -- which give morning shows serial content, drama, viral content, and more. A quest can be a mission to find someone or something...or it can be a personal quest. A timely idea: Think about creating summer "bucket lists" for each show player as a "worthless mission" to create content for the summer ratings period.

4. Embrace a cause.

When we craft your character profile, we look for your endearing qualities as well as your flaws. Endearing qualities can include passion toward a charity. It shows you have compassion and heart.

"People care about -- and remember -- people who care. When you stand for something you stand apart. But..."

5. Let other people spread the word.

"People who brag are not remembered for what they've done; they're remembered for the fact they brag. Do good things and other people will find out. The less you say, the more people remember."

This is trickier for on-air personalities. Some ways around it:

A.     Air a call from someone your work has helped. You can be humble and even embarrassed by the attention.

B.     Twitter, too, can help by allowing people to thank you publicly without you tooting (or tweeting) your own horn.

C.     Keep the focus on the cause or on the listeners who helped the cause rather than on your own good deed(s).

6. Get over yourself.

"Stop trying to seem perfect. Accept your faults. Make mistakes. Hang yourself out there. Try and fail."

"And when you do fail, people will remember you because people who are willing to fail are rare... and because people who display grace and humility, especially in the face of defeat, are incredibly rare."

Think for a moment about those Facebook friends whose lives appear perfect. (Ugh.) Now think back on a post from someone admitting a character flaw, mistake, or faux-pas. (More likable and memorable, right?)

While you may not be as interesting as the guy in the Dos Equis ads, The Most Interesting Man in the World, think about what your ad would look like. Let me know at angela@randylane.net or on Twitter @AngelaPerelli .

Angela Perelli is a SVP at the The Randy Lane Company (www.randylane.net). She can be reached at angela@randylane.net  www.facebook.com/TheRandyLaneCompany  www.twitter.com/TheRandyLaneCo

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SALES - Breaking Old Habits

12-12-11

With 2011 drawing to a close, I like to do an inventory and take out the old and bring in the new which translates to setting goals for the upcoming year. I have had an affinity for sports since childhood. I often use the correlation between sports and sales in my training. I have observed that there is not much difference in the way the best athletes prepare to win, and the way the super achievers in sales become successful. The little things are the primary difference between a good and a great athlete. The same holds true for sales professionals.

I recently ran across the following article on Aaron Rogers who is the quarterback for the world champion Green Bay Packers. The article emphasizes what I feel are some of the correlations between sports and sales. After reading the article, I know why Rogers is the best at his profession. He was interviewed by David Fleming of ESPN?s The Magazine. I will highlight Mr. Rogers? responses to Fleming?s questions and make the translation to sales and career success. I think Rogers is a sales person, also!
Fleming: Jim Zorn once told me that each year a quarterback's motion should become simpler, shorter and smoother. Is that happening with you?

Rogers: When I first got into the league, I held the ball really high. That was the standard in college, and it messed up my timing a little bit -- the draw, bringing it back, then the release. Even in my seventh year, I'm still trying to break old habits I learned as a kid.

Translation: A majority of media reps find the path of least resistance and become commercial visitors or package peddlers. Such bad habits like pitching only features of a product are difficult to change. Try instead to take the time to research the business before the call. In addition, qualify and do a thorough Customer Marketing Profile (CMP) to find out the needs of the customer. These steps will make the delivery smooth, precise and garner great results for the client.

Fleming: Once that happens, is that when you're free to start perfecting all the other little things about the position?

Rogers: That's 100 percent accurate. First, the fundamentals, then you have to become an expert in your own offense. Then you can get to a point where you're attacking instead of reacting.

Translation: Most reps do not retain the basics of training if they are trained at all. A sales rep needs detailed product knowledge as well a clear picture of the competition. They need to understand how to prospect versus just dropping in on the client. A trained sales rep knows how to perfect the ?needs analysis? and initiate great creative ideas with proper scheduling. These fundamentals are lacking in many of the media reps of today.

Fleming: You do all this stuff and some of it takes years to develop, just to get a defender to take one wrong step?

Rogers: Not even a step. Just to shift his weight the wrong way, to lean one way or the other. It's all about windows. Creating windows. Moving guys to create windows to throw into. The windows are so much smaller in the pros than in college.

Translation: Mastering sales takes experience and practice. Sales is about creating windows or the emotional connection between a rep and the client. Sales is not about showing up and expecting the client to buy something. The rep must create ?the want? which is the window of desire.

Fleming: Another little thing you've improved is your body language on play-action fakes.

Rogers: That was one thing I really worked on in the off-season a couple of years ago. I had the pleasure of playing golf with Tom Brady and got to pick his brain a little bit. One of the things I took away from that was that he is very critical of himself from the previous year, and he uses that to find one, two or three things that he wants to improve on each off-season. For me, that was my ballhandling.

Translation: The best reps are sponges for knowledge. They have mentors, books that they read and DVD?s for training. They practice their presentations in the mirror.
Fleming: You're talking about visualization?

Rogers: I don't know whether other quarterbacks use it, but visualization has been very important to me. When I have a lot of confidence in a play, as soon as the huddle breaks it's immediately flashing in my head -- a picture in my mind for just a millisecond. "Oh, hey, three Wednesdays ago we ran this play in practice against the scout team, and I hit Greg on this route." I can see it.

Translation: The best reps constantly visualize success. They see the successful outcome of the sales call before they ever make it. Visualization is an acquired skill. Sales meetings are vital for role playing and acquiring these skills. Don?t ever stop visualizing!

Fleming: What does it look like?

Rogers: It's a picture of a play, a successful play, flashing through my mind each time I walk to the line of scrimmage.

Translation: A sale.

The old adage holds true. Inch by inch is a cinch. Yard by yard is hard. Aaron Rogers would probably agree that an inch one way or the other could have caused a different outcome of the 2011 Super Bowl. Rogers? attention to detail helped his team win the NFL Championship.  As of this writing, the Packers are still undefeated. Perfect practice makes perfect play. Make 2012 your Super Bowl!

Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor for the Luce Performance Group and can be reached at Sean@luceperformancegroup.com.

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