Success in advertising sales comes with having a full pipeline. That takes new prospects to call on, developing clients who may spend with you once a quarter or semi-annually, and working with established clients to grow their digital spend and terrestrial buys.
When meeting with clients and prospects alike, it’s important to keep a few things at the forefront of the conversation: Be honest and direct, and set realistic expectations.
Of course, one must first get the appointment to have that conversation. It’s done by giving your prospect a Valid Business Reason to meet with you. This must always be given from your prospective client’s perspective and never from yours.
I’ll repeat that: Your VBR has everything to do with your client and nothing to do with your station, cluster, platforms, or audience(s) because, as I’ve said here previously: you do not choose your audience, your audience chooses you!
Let’s say you’re going after a realtor. Every VBR starts with research, which means you have to use the internet.
While online, keep in mind the words of Abe Lincoln, who told us, “Everything on the internet must be true.’ Therefore, be sure to verify it on at least three sites. Put together a VBR; however, like an ad you create, realize the VBR is flexible and written in pencil. Edit it, change it, until you set 10 appointments with it. Something like this, for example:
I noticed our state is among the fastest growing in the country, and that the residential real estate market is starting to shift to a buyer’s market. With so few agents seemingly selling a majority of homes in our area, how are you capturing new residents looking to move to our area with the available inventory of homes for sale given the diverse and ever-evolving digital universe in consumer’s pockets?
Looking to bring on new personal injury attorneys?
There are over 400 personal injury lawyers in our metropolitan area, yet only a handful seem to advertise, and all of them seem to run the same commercial, making it difficult for consumers to differentiate one from the other. How important is it for you to stand out from your colleagues in a crowded market so that the next time someone is injure,d they think of your practice before one of the others dominating the airwaves?
Looking to add a “contractor corner” as part of the morning show?
Data show that over half of contractors go out of business within the first three years, making consumers skeptical about who they can trust to complete their projects and be there in the future when another need arises. With consumers needing to be reassured that the contractor they choose will be there today, tomorrow, and beyond, how important would it be for you to be known as the go-to contractor and subject matter expert in the community?
I make digital a part of every presentation. There is too much money to be made and the audience is too vast to ignore the platform.
Of course, the joke (read: truth) with digital is: what’s relevant today can be obsolete in a week! Which means we’re constantly learning, growing, and evolving as the technology changes around us, allowing us to become better-informed consultants. This means what we do in advertising and marketing is as much a practice as law or medicine is – do not be afraid to share this with your clients.
An ad that works in Jacksonville may fall flat in Atlanta. A digital ad may exceed expectations in Charlotte, but not so much in Vegas.
With each of the above examples, consider including search retargeting and site retargeting as part of your solution, especially if your prospect is not on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing. With digital, your clients do not need a big investment to look like they are spending a million dollars each month.
With terrestrial, it’s a little more of a challenge to meet a smaller budget, but that means your client will have to commit to a longer schedule. I had a single location coffee house who ran with me three weeks a month in morning drive between sponsoring morning traffic for two weeks and daily giveaways for another week, yet because they had a consistent presence on one of the most popular morning shows in town, they began to see new faces in their store, and slowly increased their spend to every week for an entire year.
Perhaps you can look at a studio sponsorship, sponsor the call-in line, or have the remote vehicle sponsored. There are several items at your station that can be sponsored for a year at a time. It makes for a long-term partnership for a business that may not be able to afford $2500 each week, though $2500 each month to sponsor every contest and giveaway your station has for the next year, especially when listeners can only sign up at their location. It could be the first step in a multi-year relationship.
Not everything is about commercials between 6A – 7P. The more creative you can be with your solutions, the more likely you are to grow your client base and secure the first appointment.
Like the advertisements we put out online or over the air, the VBRs we deliver are trial and error. What works on Monday at 9 AM, may have no chance of working Wednesday afternoon at 3. Play around with it. Change it. Sometimes you’ll have to send it in an email.
At times, you’ll stop in a place cold and have to give a VBR to an audience. Might I suggest learning to have a sense of humor? It doesn’t always work, but it goes a long way at the right time. Something that worked like gold for me: Cold calling on Friday afternoons in Vegas between 3 – 5. No business owner expects a salesperson to stop in at this time. Their guard is down.
“I’m on my way home for the weekend and wanted to make one more stop. I’m sure you think it’s too early to begin talking about the Holiday shopping season. But with so many options online it seems like consumers have forgotten the excitement of stopping in a local jewelry store and trying on a piece of jewelry that is as unique as the person wearing it. How important would it be to bring more consumers to your store that would have otherwise purchased jewelry on Amazon or another website?”
As you deliver your VBRs and ask these questions, remember what Jack Canfield said: Some Will, Some Won’t, So What? Someone’s Waiting. Ask enough prospects and some will say yes.
Bottom Line: Your audience always chooses you; however, the likelihood of them choosing to meet with you goes up tremendously when they have a valid business reason that is all about them and has nothing to do with you!
