Media Info Bureau

With so much going on at the FCC and in connection with other topics

In nearly all email programs there is the option to add a signature to the end of your email. Some of you may not be aware that you can create and edit multiple signatures within your email program. This allows you the ability to create common sales templates within your email program giving you quick access to them in a single click.

Unfortunately, all too often, I get a call from an ad sales coaching client telling me that their nearest competitor just stole another ad deal using false or misleading data. Where this seems to be most evident is with digital audience numbers. So, what do you do to sell against a liar? The answer might be easier than you think... tell the truth. Here are six things to consider when telling the truth about your ad products.

If your client has a sense of humor, but his voiceprint is deadpan, contrast him with a voice who is truly excited (maybe even overexcited) about the benefits his business has for customers, interspersed with just his unemotional “yup” or “you bet” comments. Record short phone interviews with the client’s relatives about him and build a campaign around the family stories about the client, using short clips from his family members. Or…take a “goes nowhere” story told by the owner in a flat unemotional voice, cut it apart, intersperse it with a very enthusiastic announcer and create an epic:

What’s the easiest way to get a client on the air? Put them in the commercial! What’s the quickest way to make a bad commercial? Same answer! Unfortunately, there are very few Frank Purdues, Lee Iaccoccas, Victor Kiams or even Dave Thomases out there. Most clients think they can pull off being great spokespersons. Most are wrong. Are there ways you can fulfill their desire for 30 or 60 seconds of fame and still make a commercial that works? Yes.

The FCC meeting (3/31) proposed to attribute Joint Sales Agreements

You may find it interesting to note that an MIT study on what motivates people concluded that money is not the best motivator. Researchers concluded that once a task went beyond rudimentary skills, like assembly line work, money was not a key motivator towards increased performance. Once the skill required moved into cognitive skills like sales, there were three factors that "truly" motivated the test subjects; autonomy, mastery and purpose. I heard author Daniel Pink talk in detail about this subject and it inspired me to dig deeper and ask if the MIT findings also applied to managing younger sales people. I found that these three motivators applied to nearly every sales rep I have managed that was born after 1982. Experts refer to this age group as the "millennial generation".