(By Loyd Ford) What happens when summer arrives? The kids get out of school, people drop back and span out thoughts of escape.
Advertisers do it, too. Clients look around and see that many go on vacation, there is disruption in regular dependable behavior, and you can begin to hear, “Let’s talk in the fall.”
What can you do to jump over that excuse and jump-start your summer sales moving past the tide of summer?
- Go on the offensive. Create ideas that seize the seasonal opportunities that come with summer months. Prep your visits before you appear in front of clients. Look at their business, their customers and the summer months. Bring ideas that create FOMO for them and close more deals.
- When there is more light, you can find the most aggressive business owners and managers working earlier. Get up earlier, call, engage and connect in unusual times, especially early in the day. They don’t say ‘the early bird catches the worm’ for nothing. Be open to changing normal patterns and making your engagement more fun and energetic, but never forget to bring value with every interaction. This will help you matter more to your clients and potential clients in summer and all year long.
- Don’t hide the crisis of taking months off from advertising (and the risks) from your clients and potential clients. Smart business owners know that if they can take market share, they can grow their business. Even in summer, clients need new customers and they need more return visits to stay healthy and grow. While many will try to pull the plug, you are responsible to help advertisers. Highlight the risks associated with time off from marketing in everything that you do along with the value of advertising to the most active listeners of the year.
- Create and sell ideas that match the mood of summer and customers. People don’t get excited about buying unless they see the passion associated with a real opportunity to win for their business. Give that to them by coming with ideas they don’t want to miss out on this summer. More creative ideas from you = more sales.
- Be more social with clients and potential clients. I used to have a market manager who specialized in ‘management by walking around.’ This was very productive, and I recommend you do it with your clients more than only when you want something. Go social with them (in real life, not just Facebook). People buy from people they like. Get to being likable outside of sales presentations pronto. Summer is a great time to amp this activity up.
- Think ahead and alert customers to upcoming opportunities. Sales in no way is only about right now. The smartest advertisers plan ahead and even smarter sellers are consistently sharing opportunities coming up along with current priorities. When you do an excellent job consistently giving your clients upcoming opportunities before others, it’s just another way you are showing them you take care of them.
- Be more limitless. Summer is energy, it’s being on the move. Crank up the energy of what you can do with advertising for them. Shake up your presentations. Do something different with them. Create exciting contagion. Don’t limit your activities – crank up your prospecting machine and use summer to get ahead of the competition
There are other things you can do to enhance summer selling. Did you read number 7. Be more limitless. You are in the radio business. We connect with local listeners better than anyone on Earth. We must communicate this effectively to advertisers. Radio is the on-the-move resource for reaching new customers on the move with their summer plans.
Do your clients and potential clients need less new customers? Do they have less problems in the summer? You know the answer is no and you are the problem-solver. Go get ‘em.
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). Reach Loyd at 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
