How to Change Your Mindset and Increase Billing

(By Paul Weyland)  “A mindset is a belief that orients the way we handle situations—the way we sort out what is going on and what we should do. Our mindsets help us spot opportunities, but they can also trap us in self-defeating cycles.” -Gary B. Kline, Ph. D

Veteran broadcast salespeople in all-sized markets are failing, many for the first time in their careers. Local direct prospects and even clients they know personally will not return their calls, emails or text messages. But at the same time, others seem to be thriving, even in this pandemic. So, what’s the difference? I believe it’s something called “Mindset.” Think of Mindset as the Operating System for your brain.

In my career, I have known many broadcast salespeople who up until recently, got along just fine on what researchers call a “Fixed” mindset. They tended to follow formulas with regard to how they prospected for new business, how they got appointments, the pitch they delivered to clients, how much they asked their clients to spend, etc. By not deviating much from the norm, everything worked just fine for them, until it didn’t. When the Disease came along and everything shut down, the rules changed, but many of the “fixed” mindset salespeople did not, or just felt they could not.

But at the same time, I saw something phenomenal. Old pros with a different mindset the researchers call, “Growth,” pounced. They were the first to look at products and categories that would immediately be of interest to listeners and viewers in light of recent events. They were the first to learn to use Zoom to get face-to-face client meetings when clients and many broadcast stations refused to allow actual face-to-face meetings. They were the first to realize that clients with suddenly frozen budgets were no longer responding to cliché openers to get appointments and started using real headlines instead. They were the ones who devised brilliant and innovative new creative ideas that would engage listeners and viewers and cause local client’s registers to ring again, instead of just trying to sell tired old packages.

Feeling stuck and unappreciated will not help your billing. The good news is that if you are willing, you can change your Operating System from “Fixed” to “Growth.” It’s never too late to start. Because as we all know at this point, everything changes, nothing stays the same. I say it’s time to Live It or Live With It.

Paul Weyland can be reached at 512-236-1222 or visit paulweyland.com.