Selling Radio Direct with Pat Bryson

How a mistake can be a golden opportunity. Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

Fact: It is five times more expensive to generate new customers than to keep existing ones. The Gallup organization tells us this, and we all know it to be true.  We also know that we humans make mistakes that can sometimes upset our clients to the point that we might lose them.  How do we keep this from happening?

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson. 2015 is here with new challenges to meet this year. It will be important to work harder and smarter. 

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

One of the attributes of great sales people is a trait we call "urgency". They want it done yesterday....or now at the latest. As sales people, we keep many plates spinning wildly at all times. We need to be able to multi-task, and, we need to get things done. Today is better than tomorrow.

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson. When I fly out from Calgary early in the morning, I sometimes stay at the Delta Airport Hotel.

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

Zipf's Law. Ever heard of it?  If you are selling a product, you need to study this natural phenomena.  Mr. Zipf found that "the",  the most used English word, occurred about twice as often as "of", the second most used word, and about three times as often as "and", the third most used.

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

Today's successful Account Executives believe themselves to be marketing consultants, not just spot sales people. 

They seek to understand their clients' needs and to create solutions to these problems.  They advise their clients on many phases of their marketing, not just radio, TV and newspaper.

These sales people share certain traits in common.  Let's take a look at the attributes of the Best of the Best:

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. 

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job.  Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.  It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

Many times we hear "Radio doesn't work".  And, after hearing it often enough, sometimes we begin to doubt our strength as a way to reach consumers.

I recently was making calls with a salesperson for one of my clients. We stopped at the Hidden Paradise Alpaca ranch. Now, this Alpaca ranch is in the middle of nowhere. You have to WANT to go there. They have been a client of my stations for 6 months. Here's their story:

Selling Radio with Pat Bryson

First impressions are lasting and sometimes your voice mail message is the first thing prospective clients experience.  What does it reflect about you? Most voice mail messages are boring: "You've reached me...leave a message."

Try putting this on your voice mail: "Hi, you've reached (your name). I'm out helping other clients to create successful marketing campaigns. If you'll leave me your name and phone number, I'll be in touch to help you to do the same."