
(By Loyd Ford) We love to think we’re in control. Some of us have big goals and ideas that we think will propel us to the top, while others are just floating along with life. I would like to present an alternative to consider so you can multiply your success naturally.
That alternative begins with this idea: There are between 2% and 10% elite professionals in any profession, including sales.
If that is true, where does that leave us? Most of us are not in the 2-10%. How are we supposed to achieve our goals, climb to the top, and excel in our chosen profession? Well, just because you are not in the top 2% to 10% of elite sellers does not mean you can’t be in the top 2% of your sales team and in your market selling radio, digital, and other products important to solving problems for clients in your market.
Here’s what I want you to consider as an alternative activity to elevate your sales in 2025.
- No one is in control of anything. Control is an illusion. But being prepared isn’t ambiguous. Being prepared isn’t an illusion. Being prepared is often the difference between people who win across time and those who get lucky but then lose it.
- The universal idea that creates the most opportunities for us involves math. I’m sorry. Don’t hate the messenger. There is a special advantage you can take here if you listen to me. You and I may not be in control. We may be just like the other billions of people on the planet. However, in our sales world we can create more opportunities for ourselves by using math. Math as activities. Instead of focusing on the goal for your sales outcomes only, focus on the process and the journey. Focus on producing a goal where you have to reach for to achieve a certain number of CNAs each week starting this week and all year. Focus on producing a goal where you have to reach to achieve a certain number of active presentations each week starting this week. Make sure you elevate to make these selling activities to be the highest of each on your team.
- Finally, focus on being a true consultative leader in your market. This is about customer experiences. Not your experiences. Consistently focus on what makes advertisers worry, what makes them feel successful, and what data shows them the path to their own success. Be the extra and consistently unexpected resource for clients and potential clients this year. Work to make people feel safe. They will buy that.
- Create “leads” for yourself. I’m going to ask the question you are thinking and give you very real answers to the question: “Where are these magic leads going to come from?
Consider generating your own “leads” by using these strategies:
- Consider using ChatGPT (free) to generate 5 businesses in four different potentially hot categories each week. That’s 20 businesses.
- Consider a review of active businesses in local digital/social.
- Get a list of the clients who have “fallen off” or paused their advertising in the last 12 to 18 months and use those as leads; go see them and be curious, interested in why they have chosen what they have chosen and what has gone right and wrong.
- Consider monitoring of other radio stations in the market (if your team is not already doing this). Look for advertising activities your team doesn’t have and go find out what’s up.
- Monitor local TV and use those as leads. TV has its own trouble right now, but that only means you have even more opportunity to lure advertisers to the power of local radio.
- Monitor local print and use those as leads. Free-falling print still has revenue. Go get those accounts your team doesn’t have.
- Do a Google search for businesses in specific categories, break the category results up into groups of three (3) each, and use them as “leads” for yourself.
Some of these activities are “old school.” And they work. If you use these strategies to create “leads” and you go visit, do CNAs and begin presenting some of these clients, you will get lucky. Your sales will rise this year.
As my daddy used to say, “Luck is being prepared, having a strategy and creating the activity that makes you fortune.” You may not be in control of the world, but you can control much of your own activity and creativity using math. Push this activity consistently and only growth can occur.
These four (4) elements can give you purpose, energy, momentum and a path to help you create real bubbling, growing success that grows. That’s real power.
Let’s Elevate Things Again For Free Right Here
You can access and listen to our Q1 Radio Sales Event right now in between sales calls this week, at lunch, or after work on-demand. Why? To give yourself another edge this quarter.
Remember: You choose. You may not in charge of all the circumstances and situations that happen in sales this week, but you can choose and you can plan to have the greatest sales year of your life.
Start right now.
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.