(By Rick Fink) Back-to-school shopping has ended, and the Fall season begins in just a few weeks. If you have visited a big-box or department store in the last few weeks, you probably noticed the stores have been reimaged and restocked! Holiday merchandise now occupy the shelves as quickly as the blink of an eye. When it comes to retail, thoughts of ghosts, goblins, turkeys, snowflakes, and sugarplums are already dancing in their heads.
If you have annual contracts with your clients, you are in good shape. But, we all have clients and prospects that buy advertising on an “as needed” basis. In these cases, the old analogy, “the early bird gets the worm” couldn’t be truer. Is now too early? Not at all. In fact, if you’re thinking about Halloween, you had better hurry.
We all know that one of the worst feelings in the world is coming back to the station and having to tell your manager that your client placed the buy with your competition. Retailers are planning earlier, so it only makes sense for us to start to plan earlier as well. While your salespeople are still enjoying the summer, as sales managers, it’s our job to give them the tools and the gentle reminders that there is no time like the present!
We suggest presenting your seasonal packages earlier. Make them fun, make them special, make them early! If you haven’t done this before, it’ll be a refreshing surprise. Go BIG and dress up in a Halloween Costume (A little research showed that Barbie, Ursula, and Ariel of The Little Mermaid are popular costumes for ladies, and for men, a horror theme will rule with Ghostface, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger leading the way), or have Santa Claus come to the meeting bearing gifts.
You may get some pushback from the reps saying it’s too early, but really, wouldn’t you rather be a bit early than too late?
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Rick Fink from ENS Media can be reached at 605-310-2062 or at [email protected]. Read Rick’s Radio Ink archives here.
