By Paul Weyland
1. Avoid negative talk. Get out of the office and go see clients face to face. Don’t listen to the doom-and gloom-sayers that sit around the office all day bitching about management and the economy and pretending like they have a job by cranking out computer-generated reports that clients don’t understand and throw away as soon as the account exec leaves their office.
2. Pick the easiest fruit from the tree when prospecting. Go to product/service categories completely under-represented on your medium and completely over-represented in other media. Examples: Attorneys, remodelers, plumbers, electricians, garage door companies, handymen, chiropractors, podiatrists, real estate agents, florists, window installers. We’ll come up with some ideas in some of these product/service categories later in this newsletter.
3. Use a headline to get appointments- Why do newspapers use headlines? Come up with a provocative headline to get a local direct decision maker to call you back. Think about the client’s situation and come up with a solution to the problem that keeps them up at night. Anything is better than, “Hi, I’m _____from station ________ and I just want to talk to you about your AAAAADVERTISING.”
4. Show the client that your plan for their success is better than theirs. Don’t just pitch spot packages. Listen to your clients. Then help them come up with real solutions to marketing and advertising problems. Most local clients don’t have a long-term advertising and marketing strategy. A client would value a new idea that helps them attract new customers without having to sacrifice their price.
5. Always ask for long-term business. The sooner you get an annual contract the easier it will be for both you and your client. The client benefits from having a constant presence on your station to catch his fair share of your audience that WILL buy what he’s selling either from him or his national discount competitor this week. For everybody else he’s starting the branding process and he’s controlling public dialog about his product or service in the minds of your listeners or viewers. You benefit from having the long-term contract because that’s the way you build a big account base. You also benefit because with the annual contract you are immune from blood-thirsty competitors trying to steal your hard-earned business. And finally, you benefit from selling long-term because every time you see the client you’re not shaking him down for money. Only then can you become a trusted client resource instead of just another media leach.
More Ideas Working Now from RBR.com/TVBR.com
(Source: Paul Weyland is a speaker, trainer, author and consultant. He can be reached at www.paulweyland.com or at (+) 512 236 1222)
