(Sales Management) The Myth of Relationship Selling

R.I.P. SELLING'S MOST MISUSED SALES TECHNIQUE: RELATIONSHIP SELLING
Blasphemy? No, building good client relationships is as important as ever. The misuse of Relationship Selling is a matter of logistics: when and how good client relationships should be constructed, putting the horse in front of the cart.

?The Results Lead Sell?

vs.

?Relationship Selling?

For over five decades I enjoyed some wonderful relationships with my clients, but not through Relationship Selling as practiced today; rather, through elevating each client?s Top Line and company Net Value?which in turn results in building good client relationships.

Face it, Radio does a pathetic job of investing in and educating its sellers. Today, in companies of all sizes, Radio sales departments are overloaded with poorly educated sellers managed by poorly educated sales managers (poorly educated as sellers as well) who continue to poorly educate new sellers.

Radio Sales? Death Cycle.

To Owners & CEO?s who take offense to that statement, I mean YOU! Unlike Radio Owners & CEO?s who excel in training their salespeople??true? Radio Broadcasters?YOU are Radio?s #1 Sales Problem!

Absent what Radio salespeople should be taught, the basic tenants and principles of advertising at the very least, and deceived by the hypothesis that ?the first law of selling is selling yourself?, no wonder so many salespeople take bloody forever to make a sale? salespeople I identify as SFRS: Sweetie Faced Relationship Sellers joined at the hip in fear of trying to make a sale before building good client relationships.

?But boss, it takes time to build relationships!?!  How unfortunate, because that speaks more about that sellers timidity, lack of self-confidence, incapability of being assertive (selling advertisers for their own good!), their unwillingness to take risks and irresponsible sales training, more than anything else. As a matter of course, super glued on a plateau, SFRS?

1.  Become complacent.

2.  Take clients for granted.

3.  Turn into SFRDS: Sweetie Faced Relationship Dependent Sellers.

4.  Lose accounts to competitors working unceasingly to add "value? to client relationships.  

5.  Live off depreciating account lists, and eventually?

6   Turn into SFRDCB: Sweetie Faced Relationship Dependent Cry Babies having stopped prospecting for New Business long ago.

No, I cannot feel their pain. Relationship Dependent Sellers??soft? sell to amarshmallow?s consistency as opposed to introverted salespeople who recognize when it is essential to sell assertively with enthusiasm and conviction?who fail to add ?value? to client relationships (new ideas and concepts for expanding each client?s customer base) get what they deserve.

Raise your hand if you?d like to learn the secret of how to build strong, long lasting, money making relationships with advertiser faster?  Here?s how?

Sell advertisers sooner, get results for advertisers sooner, and I guarantee you will build stronger, longer lasting, money making, relationships with more advertisers?faster!

Introducing?

The ?Results Lead? Sell

Strangers before we met, you just walked into my computer store without an appointment, my biggest pet peeve, I?m immersed in taking inventory?the single task retailers detest the most?I stopped advertising on radio long ago, and worse, Costco, a huge Box store that sells computers for less, just announced it?s opening a store in my town.

Regardless, in five minutes or less you walk out with an appointment to make a presentation to me next Tuesday at 2PM. How is that possible?

LIKE

TRUST

RESPECT
Obviously, it is to every seller's benefit to be liked, trusted and respected. Please select the single impulse (above) you think most likely prompted me to give you an appointment in five minutes or less: I liked you, I trusted you, or I respected you? Which one?

LIKE:  Call it chemistry or a spontaneous shared rapport, it happens doesn't it? What I characterize as a ?reciprocal transference", i.e., you like someone you meet for the first time and that emotion becomes a shared experience. Meet someone you instantly dislike, and that emotion comes swooping back at you like a boomerang. That is how many relationships begin. Thus explaining why most salespeople, taught from day one that the first rule of selling is selling yourself, select LIKE.

I?m ruling Like out at the outset. Hitting it off with someone on a first call does not a ?relationship? make. What are you selling, your charismatic personality?  What should you be selling? H-E-L-P! That is what you should be selling! Besides, most prospects don?t get up in the morning to make a new ?friend?.

TRUST:  The second most selected impulse. Hmmm. How  quick are you to trust a total stranger? How about a total stranger trying to sell you something? The fact is it takes time to earn trust, real trust, true or false? To be ?trusted?, Rule #1 is keep your mouth shut; what a client shares with you is proprietary, confidential, ?company? information.

RESPECTED: During a first-time-ever "Opportunity Call", what most sellers disparagingly refer to as "cold" calls, how many times in your sales career have you earned a Buyer's "respect" in five minutes or less, especially during challenging times like today? It takes time to earn respect, as well as trust, does it not?

What impulse would I select?

Respected! You better earn the Buyer's respect in five minutes or less, or your first impression will be the advertisers? last impression?why, spending time with you is a waste of time. What follows is the most ?basic? opening statement to make to a single location retailer.

"Mr. Garcia, my name is Dave Gifford, I?m a Retail Brand Manager at Results Radio. I don?t know if you recognize me or not, but yesterday?after checking out Costco?s website?I  made the Grand Tour up-and-down every isle of your store?and whereas we both know you can?t match Costco price-for-price?you have a tremendous local branding opportunity when it comes to?well?here, take a look at this? (handing Mr. Garcia the following 5? x 7? list)

YOUR STORE ADVANTAGES:                     COSTO?S DISADVANTAGES:

1.   Fully staffed Service Department!             1-866-861-0450

2.   Parts stock: Extensive!                               None

3.   Apple ? Sony ? Dell ? hp ? Customized!      Acer? ? Alienware? ? Dell ? hp ? Leveno                                                                  

4.   Outstanding Expandability!                         Poor

5.   Extensive Accessories!                              Very limited

6.   All Major Credit Cards including Amex!     Amex only

7.   90 days same as cash!                               No way

8.   Lease with option to Buy!                            No way

9.   Recognized Community Involvement          None!

10. Local business Local people support           National Chain Box Store

VALUE!                                                                 PRICE ONLY!

Mr. Garcia, this is what I do. I help local, independent retailers increase their store traffic, turn over their inventories faster, and increase their cash flow?and last night I  came up with a Media-Mix marketing plan?not just radio?that will help you, one, ensure continued loyalty to your store after Costco arrives, and two, drive more store traffic to your store at the same time. All I need to prove how it will work for you is sixty minutes of your time sometime next week?which is most convenient for you, Monday at nine or, uh?Tuesday afternoons at two, any preference?  

Excluding the time it takes to cover that list, the above wording takes only 75-seconds. In five (5) minutes or less, my approach would earn RESPECT for The Elephant Man.

Suggestion: During your next sales meeting, instruct your sellers (not a group assignment) to write down the specifics as to why they believe the above approach makes sense. For

example, identifying yourself as a Retail Brand Manager who works for Results Radio?in   addition to positioning yourself as a retail specialist?invites the ?What?s Results Radio?? question, thereby providing you an opportunity to expound on your company?s advertising philosophy and commitment to help local retailers get results (?The Results Led Sell?).

Next, in reminding them that salespeople have only one sales tool to work with: their native language, the words they choose, the order in which they place those words, and how they say and express those words, give your sellers a homework challenge requiring them to come back the next morning with the wording they would choose to improve my approach. It?s my wording, but I can see room for improvement. Note: should your sellers miss anything, there are some very telling subtleties you would be wise to point out.

When I was a Sales Exec I made it a priority to find out which of my competitors, and not just in radio, called on which accounts, i.e., which accounts were ripe for the taking because, rather than adding value to their client relationships (being a constant resource for solving sales problems and ideas to help grow their companies) my competitors were living off their lists; Consequently, their Account Lists became my Target Lists.

Obviously, ?The Results Lead Sell? is the antithesis to Woody Allen's admonition, "Eighty percent of success is to show up". Show up for what? There is a huge difference between OVER servicing clients and OUT servicing your competitors. "You win with Solutions, not Smiles!"?Giff 

BOTTOM LINE:  STOP TAKING SO LONG TO TAKE ?YES!? FOR AN ANSWER!

Dave Gifford has been helping salespeople and sales managers improve their skills for decades. Visit his website www.saleshowto.net or send a message to Giff at talkgiff@earthlink.net

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(SALES) Focus Follows Fun!

11-5-2012

In our crazy deadline-oriented world, we often forget to have some fun. I like to remind the sales managers that I work with that focus follows fun. Creating a fun work environment can be accomplished in various ways. One of the best that I have found to establish a fun atmosphere is to specifically design an event that challenges the group in an enjoyable way. When people arrive at work every day loving what they do, their attitudes become contagious.

Starting this summer, I had an opportunity to be involved in three specific fun events at media companies where Luce Performance Group consults.

Each company took the concept and put their spin on it. Below are some examples of the fun events that were created by each media company. The employees who participated told me that their event was hands down the best day that they have ever had working at their media company. Many said that it will be something they will not soon forget. Events like these can go a long way towards retaining employees since they can transform individuals into a team.

Example #1:  The Fifth Annual KCAL and KOLA Challenge:

The KOLA & KCAL Challenge was divided into two parts. The sales staffs of each station were pitted against one another in a full day of contests. The team events started that morning with a limo ride from the station to an indoor arena in nearby Upland, California. The teams had two types of challenges: mental and physical. The mental challenges centered on selling techniques. Each team had prepared for the mental challenge beforehand. They had studied such things as the seven steps of an opening call, the seven steps of a closing call, and calculating ROI. The physical challenges consisted of:
?        Blind Man?s Soccer
?        Shark Attack
?        Try Your Luck at the Puck
?        Hoop Dreams
?        Valerie Volleyball
?        Next Pizza Star
?        Beer Pongo-Bongo

All of the physical challenges were done as teams. In Blind Man?s Soccer, for example, a blindfold was put on one person while another team member coached them down the soccer field to attempt a goal. Basketball was a game of Pig, and Beer Pong was well, Beer Pong. After each physical event, the teams gathered for their mental challenges. The Challenge was a great teambuilding event for both staffs.
Example #2: 2012 Castanet Olympics:

The Castanet Olympics II was played outside by Okanagan Lake on a picture perfect day. Castanet is a hyper-local pure-play website which is the largest revenue per capita local website in the world.

Castanet included their entire staff for the event. The teams competed at the beach with basketball courts and soccer fields at their disposal. The Olympics was also an all-day event with physical and mental challenges. Castanet?s Olympics concluded with a competitive best-of-three on the sand volleyball court, and the winner took all. Until the volleyball game, points were awarded to each team for winning the physical challenge as well as the mental challenge portions of the event. Just as they did at KCAL/KOLA, an awards ceremony concluded the event with the winning team receiving gold medals and the other team silver medals. The winning team also shared a monetary prize.
Example #3: the Amazing Ricky Race:

The Amazing Ricky Race was the final event that I participated in this fall. It was the icing on the cake, or should I say the antlers on the deer. The Race also had both physical and mental challenges, but followed the theme of the TV show The Amazing Race.

The Amazing Ricky Race was an event organized by The Ozark Radio Network and The Ozark Horse Trader. The events centered on the Ozarks where farming and hunting are popular pastimes.

The sales reps from each group competed for bragging rights, a trophy, and a cash prize. This challenge had a twist from the others in that the mental challenges were done as a scavenger hunt to local client?s businesses. The teams had to answer various questions regarding sales and product information in order to get the clue for their next destination. The unexpected fun from the scavenger hunt was seeing how excited the customers were to participate in the event.

In the afternoon, physical challenges took over at the local pumpkin farm, including a  Pig Scramble. I had the ?privilege? of participating on one of the teams. Let?s just say this Nebraska boy held his own, pinning down the oinker while my teammate kissed the pig on the snout for 100 extra points. Finding clues in the corn field maze was quite the test not to mention the target practice using an air gun loaded with black walnuts. The Race concluded with a set of tiebreaker questions on selling techniques.

For all three locations, the events were certainly a day the participants will always remember. The positive energy and attitude bring back the ?loving what you do? part of work. One of my mantras has always been education is entertainment, and entertainment is education. These events epitomized that mantra.

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

Note: The success of these events was in direct correlation to their planning and execution. If you are interested in more information on these events, please contact me at the above email address.

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CBS Radio Assembles Big Names For Storm Relief

11-7-2012

CBS radio has teamed up with the American Red Cross and an impressive list of recording artists to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The artists can be heard on CBS radio stations across the country and online asking for donations which will provide meals, supplies, and shelter for those adversely affected by the storm. Listen to an example of the announcement being aired HERE by Usher. The artists participating in this CBS initiative are:

Katy Perry
Usher
Steven Tyler
Alicia Keys
Enrique Iglesias
Pat Monahan from Train
Martina McBride
Carrie Underwood
Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls
Kenny Chesney
Keith Urban
Carly Rae Jepsen
Gavin DeGraw
Dierks Bentley
One Direction
One Republic
The Script
Ciara
Adam Lambert
The Game
Reba McIntyre
Counting Crows

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Cumulus Misses Political Projection By A Mile

11-5-2012

Cumulus had given Wall Street guidance that it would see a 20 percent increase in political spending for the third quarter of 2012. Monday, the company reported a 10 percent decline for the quarter, compared to the 2010 political spending season. Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey blamed the miss on the economy that allowed television to pull in more political dollars. "The general softness in the economy reached a crescendo in September helping TV clear more political, a lot more than they normally would have. Political was an excellent windfall for our friends in television." Dickey also said digital -- especially social media -- took a share of the political dollars this year. "We assumed we would maintain our share. In reality radio's share declined."

(11/6/2012 5:21:51 PM)
HD Radio losers!
(11/5/2012 1:01:08 PM)
He didnt go after it.

His staff was too worried about forcing everyone to focus on CSOS and cold calls to small businesses that have no radio dollars.

He focused his staff on crap that didnt matter and missed the elephant in the room.

Brutal miscalcuations continue for Senior Dickey and Pinch (BTW When is he retiring...alot of Cumulus problems are caused by Jon Pinch)

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Dial Global To Carry Carrier Classic

11-7-2012

College basketball on the water returns in 2012 and Dial Global will be there to cover it all. DG has announced it will broadcast exclusive audio coverage of the Second Annual Carrier Classic -- featuring a doubleheader -- this Friday. Last year, North Carolina took on Michigan State on the USS Carl Vinson. This year, the host ship is the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina. The 2012 Carrier Classic will feature a women?s game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes, followed by a men?s game featuring the Ohio State Buckeyes taking on the Marquette Golden Eagles. 

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Now, Pandora Sues ASCAP

11-6-2012

The dispute over how much money Internet broadcasters should pay to play music took another turn yesterday as Bloomberg reported that Pandora filed a lawsuit against ASCAP. ASCAP represents 435,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. They pay those groups from a pool of money collected from radio stations - or any other organization that plays the music. In the suit, Pandora is asking a federal court in New York to set "reasonable" license fees from ASCAP. This fee is separate from the royalty issue which Pandora, and others, are also fighting.

The Internet pure-play broadcaster is asking for a blanket licensing fee that would cover all songs in the ASCAP library (435,000). Back in 2005 Pandora and ASCAP reached a 5-year experimental agreement. Bloomberg says in the court filing Pandora says, ?The license rates and other material terms of the 2005 license agreement were presented to Pandora by ASCAP as being effectively non-negotiable. The experimental license agreement was ill-suited and not reasonable.?

ASCAP has negotiated a fee agreement with the Radio Music Licensing Committee, which represents broadcasters. They will pay 1.7 percent of gross revenue minus deductions based on advertising commissions. The lawsuit claims ASCAP has refused make the same offer to Pandora. Pandora also claims, according to Bloomberg, that it?s entitled to lower rates because some large music publishers have announced they are withdrawing new media rights from ASCAP and negotiating licensing fees directly with Web radio services.

(ERIC'S TAKE)
"Rates for online providers should be identical to broadcast...Pandora and terrestrial radio. There is no reason to penalize online media just because of their delivery method. The economics are difficult and we need to set online radio up to succeed."

Read the entire Bloomberg story HERE

(11/6/2012 1:53:48 PM)
"Terrestrial radio, too, recently made a similar move. The Radio Music Licensing Committee negotiated a better rate for traditional radio, however the RMLC recently sued SESAC on behalf of broadcasters in an effort to get better terms."
(11/6/2012 7:04:43 AM)
A reasoned fairness demands equivalencies across all platform - AM, FM, Sat, Internet. All same-same.
What ownership does with testing commercial load acceptance of an audience is up to them.
(11/6/2012 6:04:08 AM)
Pandora's position seems unreasonable. Pandora by choice limits its revenue by selling considerably fewer advertising units than over the air RADIO. Why would ASCAP give them the same percentage as RADIO? If Pandora can't make money with their flawed business model they can increase AD inventory or subscription fees.

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(LEGAL) Keeping Your Rates Straight

11-2-2012

It's election time and that means a boon for advertising. But be careful with those rates. Sometimes, even when you act with all good intentions, things can go awry and you're faced with a moral decision. Fortunately, we have our resident legal expert John Garziglia to help you sort through just such dilemmas.

Radio Ink asks:  We just discovered we did not charge the lowest unit rate to a candidate running for local mayor. We did charge lowest unit rate to the incumbent mayor who won the election. Neither candidate knows. What should we do?

John Garziglia says:  If a candidate was entitled to the lowest unit charge for a class of time and was overcharged, the overcharge must be promptly refunded. 

 The FCC requires that stations periodically review their political time buys during the election season to determine whether refunds are required, and to issue any refunds promptly. The FCC expects stations to issue refunds to candidates before the election in order to allow candidates to maximize their campaign funds.

While a candidate may not be aware of an overcharge, the FCC requires broadcast stations to keep political files for two years. Therefore, anyone reviewing a station?s political file may see that one candidate was charged one rate for a particular class of time, and the opposing candidate was charged a different rate for the same class of time.

No station should wish to take the risk that an inspection of its local public file, by a member of the public or by an FCC inspector, would reveal an apparent lowest unit charge violation. The dollar amount of the overcharge to be refunded likely pales in comparison to what the station might spend defending itself at the FCC for failing to review political time buys and refund any overcharges.

With the election being just days away, now is the time for stations to review their political files for any overcharges. Charges in excess of the lowest unit charge can and do happen for a variety of reasons. For stations that sell broadcast time on an auction or quasi-auction basis, the lowest unit charge for a particular class of time will always be a moving target. Even for stations that try to hold rates, there is always the possibility of a particular class of time clearing at a lower rate than anticipated.

The FCC will take a dim view of any radio station that waits until after the election to identify and refund charges in excess of the lowest unit charge. Conversely, a station that does its review of political charges now, prior to the election, and immediately rebates or refunds overcharges will be doing exactly what the FCC expects of stations. 
Overcharges will happen. Radio stations are required to periodically review political time buys and immediately issue refunds for overcharges where required.

John F. Garziglia is a Communications Law Attorney with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Washington, DC and can be reached at (202) 857-4455 or jgarziglia@wcsr.com. Have a question for our "Ask The Attorney" feature? Send to edryan@radioink.com.

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