(By Rick Fink) There are lots of little things that managers and sellers can do to improve their sales. One of the most overlooked things we do to improve sales is also one of the easiest things we can do… yet it’s one of the hardest things for sellers to do.
You’ve heard the old proverb, “It’s better to give than to receive”.
Giving is a GREAT lesson in all walks of our lives, but today I am talking about managing account lists and why giving up accounts can actually improve business for the individual reps and overall sales.
Giving up accounts seems like an easy enough thing to do, right? Wrong!
One of the hardest things to get a media rep to do is to give up an account on her/his account list.
There are two main reasons why account list management is overlooked: First, to some, it doesn’t seem important, and they believe it offers little return for the effort. Secondly, it ruffles media reps’ feathers like no other. Giving up an account, regardless of the last time they were called on, can oftentimes seem like asking a child to give up their favorite toy; they tend to throw a fit, promise to call on them right away and offer up every other excuse they can think of as to why they should keep the account.
In truth, there is really only one reason reps don’t want to give up an account, and that’s because they fear someone else will get that account on the air and they will then look bad.
To be clear, I am not a proponent of taking current billing accounts from reps. When I speak of managing lists and moving accounts, it’s purely non-billing, in-active accounts!
Show me a station that actively and regularly moves accounts around and does it for the right reasons, and I will show you a successful, strong billing station.
It takes some prodding and pleading to get media reps accustomed to giving up accounts. The key to getting them to buy into moving accounts around is getting them to understand that if everyone in the building is willing to give up accounts, ultimately, everyone will have fresh accounts to call on.
Ask your reps to work with you on this experiment. Keep track of the results on an individual and team basis. Once you can show positive results, the task of managing accounts will become much easier.
Give and you shall receive! They are good words to live by and sell by.
Rick Fink from ENS Media can be reached at 605-310-2062 or [email protected]. Read Rick’s Radio Ink archives here.
