(By Loyd Ford) You are likely familiar with how great coaches can make adjustments during halftime and come out making their teams look completely different from what was seen in the first half. Ah! Perhaps there is a lesson in this for those who sell radio.
You’ve likely seen elite athletes literally willing their teams to victory in situations where they are behind on the scoreboard. This involves psychology: what you are willing to accept vs. what you are willing to do to “make it happen.”
The truth is that successful strategy in a wide variety of fields comes when people are willing and when they are disciplined to make adjustments whenever necessary. Even entrepreneurs often make adjustments when they begin a business chasing XYZ customers, make adjustments in their original business model, and can then end up with a totally different business that targets ABC customers. In fact, the most successful ones do just that over and over and over.
It doesn’t matter how you get there, but it does matter that you are willing to make adjustments, find, and go with the flow of success.
The bold truth is that your psychology impacts your ability to sell a little, a good amount, or a lot. And hear me: If you can sell a good amount, you might as well figure out the formula to sell a lot because that is where you will make the most money.
You’re in it for the money, right?
- Consider setting your mindset “to the daily reset.” Be willing to put yesterday behind you and see yesterday, today, and tomorrow as not attached to one another (because they are not). Today is always your best opportunity to maximize the leverage of your effort into more sales. Cherish every moment you can spend actually selling. Not paperwork. Not meetings. Face-to-face with advertiser clients solving their problems and giving them an “easy button” to push to create more success for themselves.
- Outcomes are not based on what has happened. Stay focused on the dry powder ahead. If you have a goal and you haven’t met it, constantly be willing to adjust your work product, your prospecting, and your offers to more consistently grow your opportunities for success in reaching your goal. It ain’t over til it’s over.
- Use black and white math. Want to reach your goal? Forget about the pressure to sell. Figure out how many people you have to see related to your personal closing ratio and let no one or no actual thing get in the way of hitting that number. Present, present, present.
- Constantly be willing to learn new ways. Self-education is a huge part of confidence selling. The more you know about your product, your potential client and their business and industry, and the latest trends that are working in their industry to produce higher results the more powerful you become to them. When you know more, you literally are creating more opportunities for yourself on every individual sales call.
- Be willing to constantly recalculate. That’s right. Not just a daily reset. Be willing to redial your math and your efforts at any moment if you feel you can create an advantage.
We are in the creativity business. We tell stories about successful businesses and show them how to attach their messages to more of their target customers to boost their success. Bring that creativity with your ideas, your messaging, and how you use the 5 things in this article to constantly create the next level of success you want for yourself.
I was watching comedian Dave Chappelle the other day and one of his bits is about how he “gets paid for the attempt.” A lot of salespeople and sales managers would disagree that this is similar in sales, but it is. If you don’t make enough attempts at any given time in your day, week, month, or year, you will not be likely to achieve success in sales you want for yourself.
You’ve heard it a million times, but it is as true today as it was when the first salesperson sold something: the more people you see, the more people you sell.
The double-bottom line is this: Whatever you can do to consistently go on the offensive, see your efforts as fresh daily, be curious about clients and show it, consistently adjust for success, and make your math work, these things will all positively impact your sales numbers.
Be nimble. Make friends with the reset (and with math) and watch your sales grow.
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.
