A Little Learning Goes A Long Way

(By Bob McCurdy) I met with an extremely capable and successful agency executive last week who had a soft spot in his heart for radio as he had worked in the business for two decades.

In our follow-up post-meeting email exchange, he wrote:

…I reward those that give me a solution for a client’s problem as they are focused on the right thing, and rarely if ever reward those that don’t.

Being on the agency and client side has opened my eyes to what salespeople need to do differently. They more often than not, are selling against their competitors and focused on their own individual needs rather than communicating how their stations can improve my client’s business.

Is it too much to ask to deal with salespeople who possess some marketing savvy, who can connect the dots, prescribing solutions that work and not just quoting statistics, whose media knowledge extends beyond radio, who’ve taken the time to understand my client’s business?

Our paths had crossed in his previous “radio life.” The man was a respected radio pro. His thoughts should cause us to pause and lead to some introspection.

What he is saying is that he simply would like to see us “up” our game. There were a couple of articles I came across recently, that if embraced, could help us do just that.

The first was titled, “5-Hour Rule: If You’re Not Spending 5 Hours Per Week Learning, You’re Being Irresponsible.” It can be found here.

…Why do the world’s smartest and busiest people find one hour a day for deliberate learning, while others make excuses about how busy they are?

What do they see that others don’t?

The answer is simple: Learning is the single best investment of our time that we can make. Or as Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

Salespeople that buy into this rule would hit it off famously with this agency executive and likely make a lot of money in the process.

The two key words in this excerpt is “deliberate learning,” the conscious setting aside of time for daily self-improvement.

Excluding family and family responsibilities, how many things can be more important than improving professionally?

We always make time for things we deem important. Maybe it is time we move professional improvement up the “time” ladder.

The second article was a New York Times piece that focused on one of golf’s all-time great players, Gary Player. The article, “Slowing Down Is Not Part of Gary Player’s Plan,” can be found here. Keep in mind while reading this that this man is 82 years old:

…Luck is the residue of hard work. I’m so inquisitive about so many things. I still want to learn. So many people seem to lose their desire to improve and grow as they get older, but I can’t say that has happened to me. The harder you practice, the luckier you get. My mentality was, why not make a part of the game others find difficult to be one of my strengths? I thrived in the sand. But it was because I spent many, many long hours perfecting this part of my game.

A couple of takeaways. First, we can’t allow ourselves to “grow old “in our jobs —  it is professional suicide. Continuous professional development needs to become second nature. Second, why not aggressively tackle aspects of our business others might be finding challenging and turn it into a competitive advantage. Digital expertise anyone?

If Gary Player sold radio, I’d want him on my team.

Ultimately, this agency executive is simply looking to deal with radio salespeople who are his professional equal, individuals who bring his client value and are deserving of his time. It is not too much to ask.

Bob McCurdy is The Vice President of Sales for The Beasley Media Group and can be reached at [email protected].