(By Loyd Ford) Everybody wants to be successful. In sales, that means everyone wants to increase revenue. Your bosses want it. Your company wants it. You want it. But there is only so much you can do to grow revenue, right? I don’t subscribe to that theory.
Like you, I do believe in the math. How much do you want to earn? Well, there are many advertising decision-makers you have to see and present legitimate opportunities to so you can reach that number for yourself.
Don’t see enough people, you lose.
Don’t present enough legitimate opportunities to the right decision-makers, you lose.
Of course, I also believe that creativity is our real often untapped opportunity to expand revenue and local radio is our excuse to do almost anything to create more revenue streams. But sellers have to think about creativity for themselves.
Start By Listening To The Right Voices, Ignoring The Wrong Voices
If you are only listening to the voice that talks about how challenging sales is today, you won’t be able to clear your mind for the creative solutions that will help elevate your sales game.
- If you can see it, you can do it.
- Salespeople can’t create their own leads, or can they?
Seeing Is Believing
I have long believed “If you can see it, you can sell it.”
Find a way to position yourself to see how you can elevate your sales. That means aligning yourself with overachievers in other markets, people who are showing how to seemingly unnaturally grow sales beyond their circumstances. These are the voices to listen to today. Get to know people who are achieving above their weight class. See it and join them yourself because “If you can see it, you can sell it.”
How Do Sellers Create Their Own Leads?
We all know that the company and your sales management will push you to sell more. That may not be enough. Don’t forget that in sales you work for yourself. We are in the “find a way” business. Believe me, it is time for you to break out.
If you psychologically find ways to create leads for yourself and pursue those leads to generate a variety of new business, you will see growth on the margins and – eventually – core revenue growth as a seller.
- Keep up with what is happening in the news and apply it to consumer behavior, business category opportunities, and what is not being called on by your sales team. By constantly looking for openings, opportunities, and things that slip through the cracks, you can find new business no one is looking at and convert it into opportunities to help people capture more customers. Do that enough and you will grow revenue.
- Get your ear to the ground on what is happening behind the scenes in your market. Believe it or not, business networking groups are happening around you where key players meet and share information about what is happening with commercial real estate, who is opening new businesses, and what sectors are on the move. Make it your business to find and engage this networking for your own lead generation. Finding out who the players are putting new business in place can help you expose new opportunities to grow revenue.
- With today’s social media connectivity, you can find out so much about almost anyone in business. But, if that doesn’t work for you, almost everyone has a digital footprint. Get busy researching your potential client before you ever make contact. Try to get to know them through their social media behaviors. After all, their social media is their own impression management designed to show you how they want to be seen.
Those who are more prepared win more. Look it up.
I say it a lot because it’s true: “When is the battle often won? Before the first shot is fired.”
Find a way to know more than anyone else. Not just in radio sales. In all sales. Not just in all sales. In all business. All sports. All competitive landscapes.
Ask yourself: What is my level of commitment to manifesting my future sales?
Hey, the end of the year is in sight, but there is plenty of time on the clock to start using these tricks to grow your sales. Go get em and good luck.
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). They help local radio with ratings and revenue. Reach him anytime at 864.448.4169 or [email protected]. Read Loyd’s Radio Ink archives here.
