WHY WE’VE DECIDED TO SHARE OUR MEDIA SALES SECRETS
With years of experience in media sales, we have learned a lot. We wanted a way to quickly and easily share some of our top secret media sales tricks with you! We hope that in using these strategies you will be able to experience more success in your day to day sales!
The Management Maniacal Commitments Part Two: Weekly Training
What is your sales management training plan? We ask sales people to make plans for
their weeks to be successful. We ask them to make a plan for whom they will ask and
what activities they will do. As a sales manager, what is you sales skill improvement
plan? Some managers love to train and love to teach, others do not. Either way, you
need a plan to help your sales people improve each week. The second maniacal
commitment of superhero sales management is a weekly training meeting. Housekeeping and
planning meetings do not count, and should never be mixed or combined with a training
meeting. Our meetings are a lot like the ads we run, the people who consume the ads can
really only walk away with these 3 things “what do I think about the ad I just heard,
what do I feel about the ad, and what am I going to do now”. Meetings are the same,
housekeeping is important, but when combined with training meetings, either the
housekeeping or the training will get lost. Let them leave your training meeting with a
focus on “what do I think about that training, what do I feel, and what can I
do right now to improve on the skill I just learned?”
These meetings should be viewed as a time to practice and receive valuable coaching.
Reading an article and assuming the team understood and can apply what was read is naïve at
best. Imagine if sports teams “practiced” that way. They met with their coach and team
and read an article about how to be a great player… it wouldn’t work. Our teams need
practice, and practice in the sales world is called role-playing. I know, I know,
role-playing is a nasty word in advertising sales. What’s interesting to me, is that
almost every other industry makes “practicing” a regular activity. I’ve heard all the
excuses from advertising salespeople, “it’s not real, it feels forced, I am much better
in front of a client then in front of my peers”, and the list goes on… but the reality
is that skills are only learned when practiced, and I assure you, they are being
practiced, but most likely they are being practiced on our clients and prospects.
So, a more appropriate question is what's your practice schedule and plan
for this week? Regardless of your salesperson’s skill level, they need to practice.
If you want training that actually changes behavior, and increases sales, it doesn’t
need to be flashy, it doesn’t need to be lengthy, but it does need to reach and
teach your team. Here is an outline to follow for more powerful sales training.
Outline the skill and the need for it (this is what would be considered traditional lecture and discussion training. For example if the skill I wanted to have my team improve on was their elevator speech, I would discuss that salespeople’s ability to increase sales and new business on my list is completely related to a sales person’s ability to persuade new business to meet with them. Their elevator speech, or personal 30-second introductory commercial, should communicate what the client gets if they accept a meeting with the salesperson. It should always be benefit focused, memorable, and geared to get the first appointment. Ask the group what things should or could be included in a powerful elevator speech and write them on the white board.
2. Break into Small Groups and Refine the Brainstorm (5-7 minutes)
Break into groups of 2 or 3 and ask the group to decide which of all the ideas written
on the board are most important and why. Let them, as a smaller group, decide which
things are most important to them. At the end of the time, let each group report back.
They will probably complain and try to avoid doing this, reassure them that this is practice and that any attempt will be successful. Have each rep write out their speech and take turns giving their speech to the group. (As a side note expect the loudest and most aggressive antagonists to be your veterans, these are the skills most of your veterans have let go of and have become a bit lethargic in, but don’t relent, ask everyone to give their speech).
End the meeting with an assignment to review and rewrite the speech and next week’s
meeting will be an all company meeting where each rep will be able to give their
newly polished and practiced elevator speeches to everyone in the office. (Watch how
fast your sales people polish and improve on their speech, when they are asked to
give it to the whole company) When done in this way, this meeting will improve new
business sales fast!
The outline from above of a few minutes of lecture, a small group discussion and
individual work and report is the magic formula to improving skill in your sales team.
Every meeting can be quickly and easily designed under that outline and it will turn
even a simple article out of a trade magazine into a skill building exercise and
a worthy practice.
Matt Burgoyne
The Management Maniacal Commitments Part One: Weekly One on Ones
In my experience, when I ask sales managers if they meet with their sales people
every week in a one on one they usually tell me yes, but, when I ask their sales
people the same question, the answer tends to vary. One on ones are something that
sales people find helpful and meaningful. It is understandable that the sales manager,
with so many duties and responsibilities, may not be maniacally consistent in having
weekly one on ones. However, this is a sales management super power that must never
be missed.I have discovered a secret formula to making these weekly meet ups
powerful enough to create change in your sales team.
1. Review what happened last week.
2. Talk about what is going to happen this week.
3. Project where they will end the month.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “That seems pretty obvious!”, but beneath the obvious is where the magic happens. While you may have known all the ingredients of a successful one on one, the order of the ingredients is just as important. Just as bread will not rise, unless left in the proper conditions, if you get them out of order, the one on one loses it’s focus and power. Let’s look at each step in more detail.
First, prepare for your one on one. The one on one must happen on Monday, no other
day of the week can hold accountable actions from last week and direct change in the
activities of this week. By Tuesday, last week seems old and this week is already 40%
over. It must be on Monday and it must be in the same place at the same time, done in
the same way, week after week, after week. Don’t move them, and don’t reschedule them.
As a manager always show up for them prepared. Assign a specific time to a specific
sales person each Monday. You are modeling the behavior and preparation you expect your
sales people to give their clients, so show up and expect them the same from your sales
people. If you have a sales person who consistently shows up unprepared, rather then
automatically assuming they’re at fault, first look at yourself, do you constantly push,
reschedule, or have “flexible” one on ones? Fix you first, set the habit.
Last Week
Most managers are only taught to coach or manage through the rear view mirror, “What
did you do last week, what did you ask, did you hit your budget?” etc. This is the
equivalent of the coach simply stating what happened in the game and believing that
he coached, “We won 24-7. We lost 10-3.” Spend a few minutes on last week to hold them
accountable to their activity, did they ask enough, review each ask, celebrate their
wins and speak to the losses or continuances. Help them see what old asks need to be
reset and reloaded or moved on from. Basically, save the sales person from selling
themselves on how “busy they were”, don’t let them mistake being busy for being successful.
This Week
Spend most of your time here, focused on what they will accomplish this week.
My suggestion, is to limit most of the conversation to who they are going to ask
this week. All the drama and needs of production, on-air, promotions, ect., that
normally start the small fires and take away from the meat of the conversation, can
wait for a different time. This meeting is to help them see what happened, what they can do
again, or do differently this week. It is to shape activity going forward. Review each
planned ask, have them give you their 15 second “pitch” and you’ll easily see which asks
they are prepared for and which ones they aren’t. Give them help and direction with their
asks and help them see what they might be missing, give them real-time deal coaching. Make
sure they have planned to ask enough to be successful, many times sales people fail to even
plan enough asks to hit their goal.
Where Will You End the Month?
By this time, the month you’re actually in can only be partially affected. They have
bought and paid for where they will end this month, with their past actions of the
last 30 , 60 and 90+ days. So this exercise is to accurately project and report where
they will end. My father always used to say “Good News Fast, Bad News Faster and No
Surprises.” You may be able to help them actually get a buy or two they can’t see or
don’t know how to convert, if you know where they actually are each month. Teach them
to accurately project and you will see their sales increase. I call it the “Oh Crap!”
moment when they see, recognize, and admit, that they don’t have enough on their plan
to hit their goal, only then, do they go and do the work necessary to change their
course.
Key indicators demonstrate if One on Ones are not being done or not done effectively:
Key Indicators for the Sales Manager
-The one on ones move, are rescheduled, or float.
-The sales person leaves the one on one without a plan of success for the week.
-Extremely high or low closing ratios.
-Poor Projector (they never end the month where they say they will).
Key Indicators for the Sales Person
-The one on ones move, are rescheduled or float. The sales person schedules other
appointments during one on one time.
-The sales person comes unprepared or unplanned to the one on one.
-They claim to ask many clients but rarely gets a client to close.
-Extremely high or low closing ratios.
-Extreme peaks and valleys in billing.
Remember inconsistency kills, this isn’t a sprint, and you can’t win with short bursts
of commitment. Part of the super power is the skill of having the same conversation,
on the same day, at the same time, and not lose the commitment to it. This is how long
term growth and success happens for a company. Maniacally commit to obtaining this
super power.
Matt Burgoyne
The Attribution Radio Advertising Deserves
If you’ve spent any amount of time in radio, you know first hand how deeply radio can
impact the business of your clients and customers. It can create incredible amounts
of success and a high return on their advertising investments, and yet, even our best
clients can sometimes question if radio really works.
Compare advertising to the human body, when we want to see if the body is healthy,
the first thing we do is check the vitals (heart beat, blood pressure, temperature,
clear breathing, etc.) from there we get a basic direction to determine what to test
and where to go.
Advertising has vital signs as well, here is what I believe they are:
Increased visits to their location, increased calls, emails and leads.
- Increased web traffic to their site, more visitors, more views, more time spent on their
site.
- Increased name and brand searches from Google and other search engines.
These vital signs are also the things we, as advertising sales people, should work to have a good reputation for. That is the outline of the conversation that every radio sales should adopt and fearlessly have with their clients before the schedule runs, and a report driven recap afterwards. If we do this we will find closer relationships, bigger budgets, more long term business and the ability to bring clients new and emerging digital products.
Obviously, some of those things we can’t track by ourselves, the client must. But this is yet another moment where we can position ourselves as the “advertising and marketing experts”, where we get to work with our clients on a candid evaluation of their marketing. This conversation differentiates us and sets us apart in a different role than just that of a “sales person”, but an advisor, consultant, and a strategic partner. Teach them what to track and how to evaluate. This is a monthly conversation and evaluation not just a sterile report we send them to evaluate on their own.
For more information on Media Driven Traffic and what Rumple can do
for you schedule a free demo and get a free trial for your team or company.
Matt Burgoyne
With the Right Game Plan, Your Budget Will Always Score
In a nutshell, there are three things we need from our sales people and sales managers.
Year over year increase in sales, new business growth and achieving monthly goals.
The problem with this list is that these are all outcomes not activities.
They are the result of actions, not the actions in and of themselves.
It’s like in football, we need to score points and stop the other team from
scoring points to win the game, but it’s getting the right yardage, a good defense
strategy and touchdowns, among other things, that bring the victory.
In our industry, I believe
achieving these three outcomes are the direct result of three different skill sets.
1. Year Over Year Increase
Why are you growing over last year? Or why are you not? These questions can be
answered by looking at how many proposals your sales people are presenting on a daily,
weekly and monthly basis. What is your team’s speed? What does your team’s speed
need to be? How many asks do your sales people need to ask each week to give your company
the best shot at growing over last year? Do you really know how many asks your sales
people are making each week, not stop by’s or follow ups, but real unique asks that
present a worthy idea and solve a problem?
Year over year growth is a result of your sales team’s speed. If you get the results you want, congrats! You’re going the right speed, measure that speed and maintain it. If you don’t like your current results, increase your speed.
2. Account Management
New business growth has a direct correlation with account management, or the lack thereof.
Most lists I see are big, really big. How many accounts (including clients, prospects,
current and past customers) should a sales person be allowed to protect on their list?
My answer is always as many as they are willing to take on the responsibility for.
That is the price a sales person should be expected to pay to protect that account, an ask each month.
So what does this have to do with new business? Well, when a sales person has a list
so big (80+) that they couldn’t possibly ask every account each month. So
when their regular customers are struggling, instead of prospecting for new customers,
they just go back to the dusty shelf of neglect, where they have laid a large number of
occasional clients, to make up the difference. This prevents those neglected accounts from
being worked on by someone who will give them their full attention and turn them into
regular clients. Most sales people only complete 5-7 asks per week, which means on a list of
85 accounts there are at least 20 good prospects that didn’t even get the opportunity to do
business with your company this month.
Every time you get serious about account management, the first thing you’ll notice is a
dramatic increase in new business.
3. Hitting Monthly Budgets
Not only is hitting monthly budgets important for year over year growth but also for
how we spend money and budget our business’ cash flow. Sales people and sales managers
should be focused on projecting each week where they will end the month. If you do this,
your months will level out, your growth will be predictable and your sales people will
feel accountable for the number they give you. This is best done weekly, in a formal
one on one meeting, in which the sales person projects their week to their sales manager.
Then in a recap when a sales manager projects the team’s week to their general manager.
These meetings, though repetitive, become the heart and soul of growth, when done right.
Every time you focus on accurate projections, you start hitting your monthly goals
more regularly.
Like any good advice, this can’t be done all at once. The good news is, that if you
focus on improving any one of these strategies, you will see an improvement in your
sales.
Matt Burgoyne
What’s the Magic Number? 10 Asks Per Week
There is a pattern to success these days, and I know what you’re thinking… you think
I am crazy! How could I say there is a pattern to success, in the middle of what
feels like a mad chaotic run to make our goals and budgets along with scrambling to
keep up with change?
But, when we look at the 3,000 plus sales people that are using Rumple there is a magic
number when it comes to how many written proposals (otherwise known as asks) a sales
person needs to do each week to be successful.
There is a pattern to those who are consistently hitting their budgets and goals,
those sales people and companies who are on the positive side of growth this year
and years past. And the magic number is an average of 10 asks per week.
I am talking about 10 thoughtful asks of clients who haven’t already been asked in the last 30 days. When I tell some salespeople and sales managers the magic number, many of them look at me as though I am asking for the impossible…
I know, I know, this industry asks a lot of our salespeople. Finding leads, cold calls,
research, writing copy, spec ads, campaigns, promotions, and now the new crazy world
of display ads, social media and the digital wild west. But, despite all that is asked
of our salespeople, in the end it always comes down to: you only get what you ask for…
or in the language of one of my greatest mentor, It’s what you say times how many times you
say it. True for our clients and true for us.
Call it our OES schedule of advertisements your salespeople need to deliver live and
in person each week to have the best chance of success. It is a number that if you
can create a culture around, will deliver back to you returns and growth you thought
were unattainable.
10 per week is the magic number that creates growth and allows sales people and
companies to hit their budgets and beat last year, consistently.
Matt Burgoyne
Looking For New Business Growth? Clean Up Account Lists
First quarter is a perfect time to focus on account management, frankly anytime is
the perfect time to focus on account management, but there is something refreshing
about a new year, new opportunity and newly rebuilt focus on success. I know what
you may be thinking because I have heard it from many salespeople and sales managers,
new business won’t grow if you reduce the number of accounts each sales person calls
on. Though it seems paradoxical it works every time. There are two main reasons this
works.
1. Unasked Accounts
Here is a common scenario: The sales person has 25 accounts currently running advertising
with them (a very generous number) and a list of 85 accounts (most account lists I see
are north of 110). If your sales person asks 7 people a week (the real average I see
everywhere is 5 but again, let’s be generous), that means at least 32 accounts that
could generate revenue for your company, going unasked… they were not even given
the opportunity to do business with your company this month.
This means veterans don’t go
prospect because they have a huge dusty shelf where neglected accounts can sit until
needed (when their “regulars” don’t come through and they turn to the inactive ones).
It also means new salespeople are restricted from working with all of those neglected
accounts on the lists of your veterans. They struggle with new business because the
veterans have “covered” a vast number of prospects that have potential but they never
really get to… so new business struggles along at a slow pace.
2. The Inability to Focus
I’ve heard my whole life “survey large acres, develop small fields”. The sales manager
surveys the sales person develops. To really work and develop lists that grow year after
year they must be reviewed each week. The sales person must be able to ask themselves
each week ”Who is currently advertising with me, who have I asked and what is the next
step, and what can I ask the accounts on the rest of my list that they likely would say
yes to this month?” With a list of 100+ the sales person physically can’t do that full
review so they train themselves to skip or avoid looking at the accounts that are their
“regulars”. Febreeze calls it being nose blind, they literally can’t smell the decay,
because they have only reviewed and focused on a portion of their list for so many weeks
it’s habit now to skip and their eyes literally don’t see the entire list.
It also creates a team enviornment where account trading and exchanging happens weekly and the right personalities are more often coupled with the accounts who will respond to them best. When it happens weekly the salesperson quickly sees the need to replenish their lists with new opportunities instead of chasing after the accounts that only ever say maybe and so new business flourishes. some salespeople and sales managers the magic number, many of them look at me as though I am asking for the impossible…
I believe every sales person should have a list as big as they are willing to manage.
Here’s my simple rule: You can have as many accounts on your list as you want….
But the other side of that stick is that you must present a written proposal to every
account on your list that isn’t currently running advertising with you EVERY MONTH. Most
sales people can only effectively manage 65-70 but when there’s a will there’s a way!
Matt Burgoyne
Encouraging Veterans to Sharpen the Saw
I know there is a belief that the more veteran the team the less training you need
to do on a weekly basis. I would encourage you to rethink this belief.
All of us can improve and sharpen
our skills. The training you do with veterans looks different than the training you
would do with a newer staff but is far more valuable because with their experience,
proper training can take their skill to greater heights.
I believe there is a direct correlation between year over year growth and time
spent training and learning, aka sharpening the saw.
One of the meetings I encourage with a group of veterans is the “Elevator Speech”
meeting. How do they introduce themselves? Even the best of us can and will get caught
in old patterns or ruts. Usually veterans lean on products and industry jargon, or
the old line of “I just want to find out more about your business” in their introductions,
and yet our clients have less time, more competitive sales people hunting them, and less
money to spend than ever before. These old lines just don’t work as well as they once did.
Even the ace in the hole “I have an idea for you” seems to have lost its luster after
so many have used that line and failed to deliver on the promise. If they will introduce
themselves in a powerful way they can stand out above the noise and crowd.
I challenge you to gather your veterans around the conference room, and ask them to give the group their best introduction. Even the best athletes in the world need practice, coaching and training to stay on top of their game. We are no different, practicing the basics weekly leads to greater success yearly.
Matt Burgoyne
