(By Loyd Ford) You don’t need me to tell you that Covid isn’t over. Here is what’s important now:
- Variants are continuing, so is the potential impact on every listener and every client. So, now we have the omicron variant. The truth is that viruses have variants that often spread. This means we know this is with us for a while.
- You don’t win by doing what you’ve always done. Sellers and sales managers who didn’t develop a plan and were not nimble about being compassionate and helpful to clients in 2020 suffered. We have examples of how some managers thrived during that epic year and that at least gives us a starting point toward how to handle the future of potential struggles with the Covid world.
- Those that give up, slow down, accept excuses, excuse work will lose. When they ask successful people in the future how they overcame objections, slow-downs, shut-downs and more from Covid in the future, they won’t say, “We didn’t have any challenges.” They will say, “We didn’t give up.” If your clients are in business, there is one significant reason not to advertise: They believe the world is ending. If it isn’t, they need to have a significant presence with consumers and that is radio.
- You must zero your focus in on relationships; no relationships = sales will be more uphill battle and smaller. No explanation is necessary here. You already know that strong relationships help you sell more and a significant amount of your investment should be leveraged to help grow these. They will save you.
- You must innovate what radio does and maybe who radio is doing things for to elevate your future. We all know that innovation must come. It has to happen to all businesses to tilt up and regenerate across time. I want to encourage you to control what you can control: How do you innovate your sales? How do you look at your market differently? What new clients and opportunities can you uncover? These are almost as important as your most consistent and significant clients. The future is ahead of us – not behind. The future does not look like the past. It never did. It never will.
- Develop endorsements (since these talents are yours exclusively and come with listener relationships). This is well documented. Endorsements from your talent cannot be purchased anywhere else. Use all of your exclusives. Get with your sales team about what makes you powerful and unique in your local market and USE THOSE ASSETS heavily.
- Additional footprint is extraordinarily helpful for your future. We preach this all the time. Sellers don’t think enough about establishing a robust digital footprint as the go-to helpful connector of local, advertising, marketing and….the button to push to grab more market share. That’s what your clients want – more. Be more. Be top of mind as that go-to person in your market that always helps.
It’s time to encourage your team to be creative. It’s also time to go back to the “This is a football” speech. In other words, training on the basics will help pump up preparation, prospecting (and cold-calling), unique ‘revenue flair’ (getting into new areas of revenue) and giving your team confidence that – yes, Covid is a 21st Century reality – you can overcome like the other things that strong sellers face.
Think of it like this: When Osama bin Laden was roaming the Earth thinking up evil things to give our society fits, we knew in our heart we shouldn’t stop living. Like generations before, there are fearful things. How you face your trials and your attitude will help you grow. Yes, even in the Covid era.
Bonus: If you don’t manage staff and expectation around potential continuing Covid issues (variants), you are likely to pay a slow tax on revenue. A very smart person once said that proper management was staying positive in the face of crisis, challenges and potential headwinds so your team has more freedom to use their creativity and solve problems. In your life, that will mean more revenue for your 2022.
Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio with RPC. If you’re on the Clubhouse app, you can join Loyd’s radio pro encouragement group “The Encouragers.” Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
