Sales & Marketing

A man walks into a bar and orders a cappuccino and a Greek yogurt. That’s the joke. What really happens is that a man walks into a bank and orders a cappuccino and a Greek yogurt. And this happens daily at the Capital One 360 café in midtown Manhattan. A soaring two-story, all-glass property on the corner of 58th Street and Third Avenue is the physical New York City home of Capital One 360, an online-only bank for the digitally adept.

If you ask me what I want when I go to a restaurant I’ll tell you: tasty food, friendly service, fun atmosphere. If you ask someone else what they want out of their vacation spots they’ll tell you it has to do with relaxation perhaps, warm or cold weather depending on their desires, and some unbelievable views from their room. The lists go on and on. The question is with all the companies that we work and deal with do we get what we want?

Prospective advertisers have been tightfisted with their dollars over the past few years. Trust through success and success stories will loosen the purse strings—but trust involves relationships, and relationships take time. How much time? With whom? And how? Whatever you call it—networking, word of mouth marketing, referral-based marketing—it involves planning, process and strategy. What considerations, strategies and expectations are proper and realistic in pursuit of gaining new clients through referrals?

There has been much buzz about the relationship between social-media usage and TV consumption, but until recently there has not been a lot of thorough analysis. The Council for Research Excellence (CRE) recently completed its first study into the topic, and we think we’ve been able to shed some light among all the heated discussion.

“We have been working on this marketing plan and branding campaign for over three years Mike. And you were the only one who didn’t come in here with your manager and try to sell me a bunch of ideas that didn’t have to do with the plan that we have been developing internally forever.”

During Super Bowl XLVI, nearly $2 billion was spent on advertising, according to Kantar Media. While many corporations have traditionally hired advertising experts, recent trends show corporations replacing agencies with consumers who have a flair for creativity and an affinity for the product. Consumer-generated advertisements have been more desirable given consumer engagement and interaction opportunities with brands. But before marketers make the switch, they should understand the risks and rewards of swapping the ad agency for the creative customer.

The final and 10th point is the fact that it is time to put it all together. What do you stand for and believe in each and every day you are out there working your hardest?

Recently, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that digital ad revenues in the US reached $36.6 billion in 2012. As online publishers continue to lure advertisers to the Web and the public's appetite for all things Internet lingers on, one might think that marketing dollars are better spent online. However, digital advertising isn’t the only piece of the customer path puzzle; for many advertisers, the returns on online ad units continue to trail those of traditional broadcast buys. Yet brands are asking hard questions about TV campaigns: “Is TV right for us? Should we shift our ad spend to the Web?” Advertising and media agencies need to be ready to answer these questions with concrete data that reflects the full context of every customer touchpoint. This includes online assets as well as offline ones, such as direct mail, radio and, of course, television.

How do you sell? We all are “idea sellers” now. None of us try to sell on price. There’s not a rep I know in the country that tells people they sell on low CPP’s or a high frequency. So the truth is we are more similar than ever before. We are all becoming more creative, social media savvy, and providing that extra push for customer service.

In the radio and media sales world we hope that we can stand out. That we can prove our relationships are stronger and better than our competition. That our ideas are top notch and our service is second to none. All of those attributes are wonderful for a sales person but it really does help when the product or brand they align themselves with backs up their product with cold hard facts that they are noteworthy in the hustle and bustle of the social era.

The majority of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are looking to improve their social media presence in 2013, a survey shows. Groupon, which carried out the poll, found that 58% have plans to expand their brand on social media with the overriding aim of enhancing business activity. A further 28% of SMEs want to improve e-commerce processes this year, while 17% intend to better support social media channels.

What do you stand for? What do you believe in? Why should I listen to you and your product pitch when there are literally 100 other media sales people who are going to call me this week that all think they have an idea of how they can help me out with what they represent?

Michael RuddI think your product doesn’t work. You guys have no idea what you are talking about, advertising doesn’t work anymore. We just need to be on social media. You are overpriced and won’t deliver the results that I need, I have no doubt about that. Sales objections. We all get them. Every single day if we are really doing the job that we are expected to do.