We tell our customers that they need to be known before they are needed so when a consumer has a triggering event they think of the advertiser first.
What are you doing to be known before you are needed? How are you known before a local business owner has an advertising-triggering event?
Yes, the same psychology of consumer behavior is at work in the minds of advertisers too! When they have an advertising-triggering event, the vast majority of business owners will call the first advertising salesperson that comes to mind.
There used to be a saying that went, “It’s not what you know that is important in business, it is who you know that is important.” That was true years ago but in today’s world the saying goes, “It’s not who you know that is important in business today, it is who knows you that is important.”
If you want to be a forward thinker and prepare yourself for the business challenges of tomorrow, consider this: “It’s not who knows you that is so important, it is who knows you and what you do that is so important.”
In your crowded market place, it’s not enough to just be known before you are needed. It is essential to be known before you are needed as an expert, someone who can help solve a problem, not just an advertising salesperson.
Your prospect doesn’t see their business need as a TV problem or a radio problem, they see their problem as a business problem. Most of the time, these business problems can be solved if the business only had more new customers. If you are known as a business problem-solver first and a salesperson second, you are developing a significant and differentiated presence that will attract and help you retain new loyal customers.
Most of us have much more to sell than just radio commercials. We have events, publications, and digital just to mention a few. We have lots of ways to help a local business find new customers but chances are you’re known as a radio salesperson, not an expert at finding new customers.
We have a tendency to focus our efforts on the products of advertising like :60s, :30s, GRPs, CPPs and the like. The products of advertising can be very confusing for a local business owner who doesn’t have the time to learn what we’re talking about.
A far better approach is to focus on the process of advertising like my Four Keys to Advertising Success: consistency, reach, frequency, and emotionally engaging messages. These keys transcend the products of advertising because they are applicable to all advertising products, including your events, sponsorships, and digital offerings. Best of all, when you focus on the process of advertising instead of the product of advertising, you increase your opportunities to sell your prospect a complete solution to their business problems, a solution that includes one or more of your product offerings.
When you are known as an expert at finding new customers, your prospects will focus less on the methodology and pricing of your solution to their business problem and they will focus more on executing their part of the business equation, successfully turning your listener into a customer.
We have many opportunities to become known as an expert at finding new customers long before we are needed.
We can use station promotional announcements about advertising, your social media postings, and blogging, but it takes a personal commitment on your part to make it work.
One of my favorite salespeople, Jeremy Snider in Kansas City, produces a podcast called Two Minute Tuesdays. He goes into the studio and records a two-minute podcast about effective advertising and then posts it on SoundCloud and then links to it on his Facebook page. He has one of the DJs record a professional open and close to his podcast and it is professionally mixed down into the final product.
Just as we tell our advertisers that they need to be consistent, you need to be consistent in your personal efforts.
You can’t just try it for a little while and then stop when you don’t see any results. You can’t be the one that says, “I tried to establish myself as an expert once but it didn’t work.”
You need to reach as many prospects as you can and you must reach them consistently for your message to break through all of the clutter, noise, and distractions that consumers experience.
Finally, you need to hone your message, it must be emotionally engaging, just like an advertiser’s commercial. The secret to customer engagement is emotions, not facts and figures. You can’t stimulate the emotional decision-making center of the human brain with facts alone.
When we begin our own efforts to be known before we are needed, we need to practice what we preach to our clients: be consistent, build your reach and frequency, and present an emotionally engaging message.
