(SALES) What Size Russian Doll Are You Hiring?

10-29-2012 

When searching for a new sales rep in the pool of recruits, is there a list of magic-bullet interview questions to use when searching for the fire-breathing, won?t-take-no-for-an-answer over-achiever?

David Ogilvy, the advertising guru and founder of the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, Inc. took his managers in a conference room one day and handed them a set of Russian nesting dolls. The "matryoshkas," as the are called, are wooden, hand-painted dolls that have a number of dolls nested inside of them. Starting with a large doll, the wooden doll breaks in half and opens up with smaller dolls inside of each doll. By the end, the last doll is only one half inch in size.

Ogilvy?s managers were dumbfounded. What could possibly be the purpose of this exercise with the dolls? When they got to the smallest doll, Ogilvy explained, ?If you hire people smaller than yourself, we?ll be a company of dwarfs. If you hire people bigger and better than yourself, we?ll be a company of giants?.
Building a sales force of giants is easier said than done. If given the choice between a Harvard MBA who demonstrates paralysis by analysis or a street-smart fighting tiger, I will always choose the latter. Here are five questions that sales managers can ask during an interview to determine if the potential rep will have the head and heart to be one of the giants that constitute the successful sale team.
1) What is your favorite book? I want to know if potential hires are educating themselves. I consider continual self- improvement one of the most important characteristics that a sales rep can possess? I think that it is important to know if they are reading the latest sales and marketing books, studying the economy etc. If they are reading Charlie Sheen?s book of poetry, that tells me all that I need to know.

2) What trade magazines, websites, or blogs do you follow? This question closely follows question #1. I want to know if they read the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fortune, or Fast Company. I like to know that they are keeping up with current events and developments in the marketplace. In addition, a sales manager?s existing staff should be reading the same publications.

3)  Who is your favorite superhero? Is it Superman, Spiderman, or Daffy Duck? This answer could give a manager some insight into their psyche. Does the recruit see themselves as a street fighter or pacifist?

4)  What do you consider your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it? This question is not intended to be personal. If the interviewee volunteers a personal story, that is their prerogative. A manager can learn if the person was ever hand to mouth at some point in their life. Maybe they started their own business and failed. I would ask how they got back on their feet after the failure, and what was the driving motivation for them. I am also interested in how they paid for their education, and if they worked while studying for their diploma. The founder of Macy?s department stores said he never hired a manager unless they had failed miserably at least three times before they got to him.

5)  Do you listen? A former sales manager of mine always started an interview with this question, ?Do you know who won last year?s Stanley Cup?? (Find a sport that the interviewee is not familiar with.) The rep would say, ?No?, and he would tell them the answer. At the end of the interview, he would ask them about the Stanley Cup again. If they did not remember the answer, they were not considered for the position. If they did remember the answer, they were one step closer to getting the job. Being a good listener is probably the singlemost important trait of top performers.
These questions are not the final event in the decathlon for the Olympic gold medal in sales. However, these questions could help a sales manager understand what makes a potential rep tick. When looking for the giants to hire, do not be afraid to ask the tough questions. Based on the following resume would you hire a Eureka College graduate or a polished attorney? The American people chose the street smart Ronald Reagan to lead the country over the polished resume of Walter Mondale.
Sean Luce is the Head International instructor of the Luce Performance Group and can be reached sean@luceperformancegroup.com

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Sandy Will Help FM Chip Campaign

10-30-2012

Hurricane Sandy may prove to be another national episode that states the case that radio should be a permanent icon on every cell phone sold in America. When the director of FEMA admits cell phones and the Internet are not 100 percent reliable when a natural disaster strikes, and advises citizens to listen to radio, even the staunchest critic of the chip has to take note. Several factors could make this moment in time perfect for local radio to own a permanent position on the one item the American public just can't leave home without.

Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan has been working tirelessly on getting FM chips into all cell phones and he says his efforts are gaining momentum. In this  election year, Washington appears very willing to listen to broadcasters as they push the safety issue on Capital Hill to try to secure chips in all phones. The fact that consumers spend three billion hours a year listening to local radio through the data networks is also a factor. A lot of that would be eliminated if the chips were more common. Smulyans says, "The wireless networks understand that?s not the wisest allocation of their resources."

It's inevitable that once Sandy is a memory, reports will follow that power was out and some residents were unable to receive information about shelters, where to get water and gas, and when the lights would come back on. It's like living in a Third World country when modern technology is available. There's no debating that radio provides listeners with all of that vital information. There's also no debating that every year some natural disaster will occur, maybe several, somewhere in the United States. The debate is whether the wireless providers want to give up, or sell, some of that valuable cell phone real estate. Smulyan says, "It?s too important. It makes too much sense. We?re now starting to see this move very dramatically."

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Radio A Dangerous Job In Bolivia

10-30-2012

70-year-old Fenando Vidal was attacked by three masked men who barged into his radio studio and set it on fire while he was interviewing two women. Vidal was interviewing the women about alleged corruption within the ranks of the customs police. The men have been arrested and Vidal is in stable condition at the hospital.

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How One New Jersey Station Battled Hurricane Sandy

10-31-2012

Denis Brown (pictured here with morning man Mark Hunter) is News Director (among other things) at Coastal Broadcasting's WCZT-FM in Rio Grande New Jersey, which is located in Middle Township just off the Garden State Parkway. WCZT is another shining example of what radio does for its local communities when a killer storm like Hurricane Sandy pays a visit. Brown has been preparing for a monster like Sandy ever since Irene hit the area last year. Brown tells Radio Ink how bad the storm was, how his team prepared and what listeners are saying about WCZT's coverage.

Brown says he had lunch with management at the beginning of 2012 because he believed his station could do more with hurricane/storm coverage. "I suggested allowing someone from the station to be placed inside of the headquarters for emergency management so that we could get the updates on the air as soon as they get them. He agreed and for the first time ever in our region, we had a reporter stationed inside on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Also, the station's owner, Bob Maschio, invested in generators at both our tower site and at the physical studios, so in the event of the power going out, we could remain on the air and continue the public service that a radio station should provide in the event of a storm such as this. We learned from one of the big blizzards a few years ago the importance of having a back up system and now we can remain on the air, while other stations were off."

WCZT, which is a Top-40 music station went wall-to-wall storm coverage according to Brown. "We went live on Saturday morning with interviews with local mayors and state lawmakers, and followed it up by carrying a live press conference by Gov. Chris Christie out of North Wildwood. We continued it with 16 hours of live coverage beginning at 6 a.m. on Sunday and Monday that I anchored both days along with our Morning Show host Mark Hunter on Monday. Both of us covered the storm on Tuesday through 5 p.m. when many of the last updates had come out for the day. Phil Pizzi was our reporter on scene at the OEM office, who also hosts the morning show and is a news anchor."

Brown says listeners were kept informed in a number of ways. "There is the old fashioned way of those listening on the radio. But we can do so much more. We flooded our facebook page with information and pictures throughout the days of the storm. Any key piece of information was posted to our

facebook page. Bigger updates were on our main website, but people interact with facebook. They shared photos and videos with us and

we with them. We also provided text alerts. We do breaking news texts throughout the year but ramp it up significantly during the storm. Facebook and texting is huge because many of our listeners evacuated. But they were able to know what was going on at the shore via these two means. We also had a number of vacationers and second home owners check in on facebook to share their well wishes for a place they love to come in the summer."

Brown emphasized how important a role social media plays in the lives of consumers these days. "Social media was huge. We started the storm with roughly 1,700 likes and ended the storm just shy on 3,000. All within three or four days. People were responding to our coverage by sharing photos and commenting on their experiences during the storm. It created great content online and kept many of those who were far away connected to the events at the Jersey Shore. Especially with a storm whose eye passed right over Cape May County and brought so much flooding with it...people were dying to know how their home or business held up. We had so many people requesting if anyone had a photo of specific street or home."

At the end of all the hard work, there's a certain satisfaction with that live and local radio family. "I was really touched by the way people responded to our stations during the storm. So many people said thank you on facebook and calling. One woman who was up in Mount Holly during the storm who lived in Wildwood said she wanted to do something for us. They know we were locked in the station and sleeping here for multiple days. I tried to let them know that we were one of them. I was a person who evacuated my home. I didn't know if it flooded. I was sleeping on an air mattress and posted the photo online before I went to bed...only to find out it had a slow leak and I was on the flood by 2:30 a.m. and on facebook updating the station site. Also, I was eating oreos and drinking soda at 9:30 a.m. Stupid stuff, but people respond because they know we are riding it out with them and bring a great public service. Here are a few of the posts we received on facebook after the storm."

Reach out to Denis HERE
Visit the station Facebook HERE

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Another Life Taken Too Early

10-30-2012

Cancer doesn't discriminate. Your lot in life has no meaning to this deadly disease and how hard you fight it doesn't guarantee you will beat it. The radio industry has lost another young life to cancer. 49-year-old Cumulus Market Manager Greg Jessen has died after a courageous battle with cancer. Jessen had more than 30 years in the business including on the air, in sales, and as a Market Manager. Jessen has two young sons, Kyle (13) and Andrew (11).

Greg's radio family in Green Bay has set up a fund for the kids called the "Kyle and Andrew Jessen" fund as a way to honor Greg's memory and provide for his sons. Checks made payable to the fund can be mailed to:
Cheryl Bellin
810 Victoria Street 
Green Bay, Wisconsin (54301).

Funeral services will be held on Friday at 10:30 a.m. in Malcore West Funeral Home on West Mason Street in Green Bay. For more information about the fund contact Jeff Schmidt at jeff.schmidt@cumulus.com

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(MOBILE) Consumer Products, Mobile, Radio And You

10-29-2012

For just around a year now, I?ve been contributing this ?Mobile Column? to RadioInk. And most of the pieces I?ve submitted have been offering up suggestions on how our industry can better use the medium to help our own medium not just survive, but thrive.

I?m taking a bit of a departure for this one and turning to a totally different industry for inspiration: consumer packaged goods. More specifically, ones from Clorox.

There?s a broadly-quoted statistic from the Chief Marketing Officer Council: just 16 percent of companies have a strategy for using mobile for meaningful customer engagement. Well, if you?ve read this column for the past year, you probably know what I?m going to say next: this is way, way too low, but also characterizes the huge potential still untapped for you and your sponsors to reach your listeners on a device that?s always at arm?s length.

Recently, one of the 16 percent?Sarah Ortman, the senior group manager, customer and shopper promotions for The Clorox Company (and, in the spirit of full disclosure, a Hipcricket client)?spoke at the Shopper Marketing Expo and outlined the case for mobile marketing through a discussion of mobile shopping at Clorox, the ?mobile path to purchase.? Now, clearly, I?m not trying to draw a straight line between radio, bleach, and other consumer products; but there are some common truths from her talk I?d like to share with you, ones to keep in mind when trying to figure out how to bring mobile into your marketing mix.

In order to create the ultimate mobile experience, brands need to focus on four key benefits: utility, relevance, location, and convenience. And I believe these hold true for us in the radio industry:

? Utility: Enhance your audience via services and tools on their mobile devices, and provide multiple touch points. For radio, this could mean mobile loyalty clubs, special content on mobile websites, news alerts via SMS, branded content with your sponsors?ultimately, finding as many ways as possible to interact meaningfully  with them on their mobile devices.

? Relevance: Make certain your content is highly contextual and personal?and mobile is a medium that allows for this more than almost any other. Your listeners will opt in for content that is meaningful to them?and you, and your sponsors, should keep that in mind. The minute you start making them feel like they are being ?marketed to? rather than ?engaged,? you?ve lost them.

? Location: Use the location-based technologies of mobile to your advantage. Precise location data allows for highly-effective targeting?of content, of advertisements, and of means by which you can engage. For example, a local sponsor could end their spots with a call-to-action to register for a mobile loyalty club that utilizes ?geofencing? capabilities?the opted-in listener receives, say, a 20-percent-off coupon every time they are near the sponsor.

? Convenience: Mobile is an always-accessible channel?both in hours (24/7/365) and reach (it?s as far away as your listeners? phones, which means, typically, arm?s length. For your retail sponsors, it?s important to recognize that studies show a whopping 97 percent of consumers have their devices turned on when they are in a retail setting. There are tremendous opportunities here to reach an always-on audience well beyond the realm of traditional radio and spots.

There?s a great deal we can learn by taking some cues from the world?s leader in consumer products?by using mobile for the benefit of our listeners, our sponsors, and our medium.

Ivan Braiker is the president of mobile marketing company Hipcricket. He can be reached at ivan@hipcricket.com.
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Judge Rules Against Cumulus in Syracuse

10-31-2012

Scott and Hunter had been doing mornings in Syracuse for Cumulus' 95X for two years. They resigned on October 16th and were hired by Ed Levine's Galaxy Communications two days later. New York State Supreme Court Justice Deborah Karalunas decided not to issue a temporary restraining order that would have taken them off the air. Cumulus requested the temporary restraining order.

According to Syracuse.com the judge listened to arguments in chambers from attorneys representing both sides and issued a decision 15 minutes later. Karalunas said the two radio hosts cannot use three phrases she said they coined on the air at 95X: Beer Friday, The Show and Chalk Dust. She also said they cannot solicit other employees of Cumulus.

Syracuse.com says a copy of the lawsuit says the morning team violated their former employers' contractual right of first refusal as well as non-solicitation and "other post-employment obligations." The morning hosts have said, in local media, that their contract expired and no offer was made to them. Another court date was set for November 21st.

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