Encouraging Sellers Part II

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(By Loyd Ford) Here are 9 ways to encourage sellers (or yourself) if you are selling in today’s tough local business owner environment in your market. Hopefully, you will find something that encourages you here. Please share this with other sellers you want to encourage. This is part 2 of Encouraging Sellers. Click here if you missed Part I last week from Radio Ink.

  1. What if you didn’t see your job as selling? What if you looked at selling as detective work to ask questions, listen, identify closing questions or buyer tells and to close when the client wants to buy?
  2. Our most important job is to take care of our existing clients first with tender loving care and consistent resources that can help them be successful in reaching their goals, including (but absolutely not limited to) our offerings. When they see you care more about them than money you can get from selling them, your visits become more meaningful and their trust factor goes way up with you. This further separates you from every other seller they see.
  3. Our critical job is to consistently know what is happening in our market and to both clients and potential clients, look for local businesses that could benefit from local advertising and regularly set up new appointments to go see and visit with the important decision-makers in these businesses. Work to be a constantly helpful resource to clients and potential clients on every visit or contact. Not to only sell them when you visit.
  4. Each week your goal should be aggressively setting appointments. Each appointment should have a purpose to increase your trust, be helpful and – when appropriate – present a custom strategy designed to showcase the value of working with you and purchasing your product. Always work to have your focus on their needs, their thoughts and especially their worries to be the real sales influencer in your market.
  5. Realize that one, two, three or even five appointments may not be enough to sell anything. Don’t let that get you down. Think of it as information you have that separates you from every Tom, Dick and Harry seller local business owners only see a few times. In 2021, that number is more likely to be 8 – 11 visits to close your clients. It’s worth the visits you will need to fully develop a new client and it is even more valuable putting the time in with existing clients. These are the new engines of money coming to your bank account and every visit is a builder of your reputation in the business community as a real partner. That’s also a key to referrals.
  6. With existing clients and new potential clients focus should be on value you offer and ROI to clients. Bring well thought out custom creative offers that place your radio station or specific products in the future success story of individual clients.
  7. People buy from people they like. What does this mean to a local sales person? You’ve heard this so much. Consideration should be made in your planning of visits with clients and potential clients so you always bring fun elements with you. Make this part of your prep for client and potential client visits. If they make time for you, you SHOULDN’T ever waste their time and you should not be boring. Have a plan and make sure you include both value and fun. Great sellers often start with stories.
  8. Listening is powerful and most of us don’t do it well because we are too busy trying to talk, but we are encouraging you to be focused as a seller on letting or getting your potential clients to talk and listening more. The more you master this philosophy, the more your clients will sell themselves. If you discipline yourself to listen more, my bet is YOU WILL SELL MORE.
  9. While we should always force ourselves to learn how to be a better listener (even if you are already good at this now), you should also always have closing in the back of your mind. Consistently look for ways to improve the recognition of signs someone wants to buy. We all know there are four basic closes: The Assumptive Close (using language that assumes the close…that the deal is done), The Option Close (have strategies or presentations that offer choices for the potential client to choose and ask questions that lead to a close like, (“Do you want to hear your commercial before it goes on the air Friday?”), The Urgency Close (this places pressure on the potential client and often involves a faster timing turnaround or offers something that will expire rapidly) and The Suggestion Close (this is where it is important to build trust and build yourself up as an expert. Then….you can use something like “Based on what you told me about your schedule, would you like for your schedule to start on Tuesday?”).

Do Clients Really Sell Themselves?

Your clients can and do often close themselves.  The best sellers either know this or somehow feel it. That is also why it is so hard to sell your way into consistently higher numbers. People want buying to be their idea. The more skilled you get at listening to their cues and guiding them to their own purchase point, and once you prove to yourself, you can refine this skill, the more your sales will grow.

Sellers Are Special, Important In Radio Today

Everyone in our business today should be interested in encouraging and supporting sellers and the sales teams in our business. It’s never been more important. Hopefully, you will get some elements in this article that help you improve your success rate and use it to climb to the top or elevate your lead as a top radio sales person in your market. Here’s to improving your income this year.  Of course, always being open to trying new ideas or old ideas again can create more opportunity for you. Grab Part I of this Encouraging Sellers Series. Have a great week being a detective, preparing, listening and always moving ahead.

 

Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio that propel ratings (and revenue) with RPC. Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].

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