Happy Half New Year

There are less than two full weeks left in the 1st half of 2011. Now is an excellent time to take stock of your progress and to talk to your customers about doing the same. Sit down and review your numbers and your goals, look for areas of potential improvement. If you don't have written goals this is a good time to establish them.

Talk to your customers about their plans and goals for the 3rd and 4th quarters. If they are not on target thus far, now is the time to make course corrections. If they cut back on their advertising in the new year, ask them about changes in their traffic. Perhaps it is time to reconsider this decision. Ask them how they feel about your performance and if they have any suggestions regarding what you can do better. This type of review will save you a lot of grief later. Ignoring a problem is like ignoring a small wound, treat if right away and it disappears, ignore it and it festers and gives you a great deal of pain. A proactive approach is the best way to achieve your goals.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

Have a good "staycation"

July is typically a slow time for advertising. Many advertisers cut back based on the theory that two many people are on vacation. This may have been a valid idea in 1968 but not today. The old fashioned two week vacation went the way of the automobile tail fin. Few people even take a full week's vacation using their time to create long weekends. This was the trend even before the economy contracted but the recession has kept even more people at home. Many people are taking "staycations" choosing to stay at home and visit local attractions and restaurants to save travel and hotel expenses. Advertisers who opt out for the summer months miss their chance to tap into this business. Talk to you customers about this and design some ads to attract "staycationers" to their business.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

Good enough is neither good or enough!

Here is something that occurred to me as I prepared my recap report for December 2010.

In the last few weeks of 2010 I closed over $200,000 of new business for my company. In each case we won this business from competitors and in several cases had to overcome the objections of their advertising agencies. In each case we were able to secure this business by using research, good planning and by adhering to good sales practices. We investigated the customer's situation and needs and formulated a creative plan. We approached the customers with a well thought out program that included ad layouts. Between the tight economy and the rise of alternative media print we can not longer afford to "Wing it." Selling print advertising in this environment requires a lot of hard work before and after the sale. Selling today requires more than a big smile and a firm handshake. If we want to be successful in 2011 we need to bring our "A" game to every customer.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

January Dangers

Just as most of us assess our waistlines after the first of the year, most businesses assess their bottom line. As the final numbers for 2010 are tallied, many businesses start looking for ways to cut expenses. If you do not wish to be one of the "expenses" that drops out of the budget, it is time to take action. I believe a "good offense is the best defense." Approach your customers with new ideas and new proposals. Focus on the value you deliver to the customer. If they have had a bad year, remind them how much worst things could have been without the customers your publication brought in. Suggest they get more aggressive to turn things around. Conversely, if they've had a good year, praise them for proactively advertising and going after business when many were cutting back. This is also a great time to go after advertisers in competing media by showing the greater value offered by your paper.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Are you in the 8%

Research indicates that 92% of New Year's resolutions are broken, most are forgotten before Groundhog Day. What is the difference between the 8% that people keep and the 92% that fall by the wayside? Psychologists believe the difference lies in the thought that goes into the decision to make a change. Most people just blurt out something like "I'm going to lose 100 pounds this year" or "I am going to double my sales." Resolution "survivors" are well considered. A person making a solid resolution can answer these questions: "Why do I want to make this change?", "What steps do I need to take and in what order?" and "When will this be completed?" Lasting resolutions are usually written down and shared with others. By determining the specific changes you wish to make in your behavior and formulating a plan to make them significantly increases your chances of success. Typically the next few weeks tend to be slow. Use this time to plan your resolutions for 2011. Your best year ever starts with good goals.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Goodbye 2010

My wife and I were in the car this evening and talking about some of the things we had done in the past year. We both agreed that it seems like years since we attended the AFCP conference in Tucson last spring. This year went by very quickly and I am sure 2011 will be no different. This is why this is a good time to think about the changes we want to make in the coming 12 months. I suggest you start by looking at where you have been. Look at your records for 2010, your sales numbers, your account lists, anything you have that tracks your progress. Flip through your 2010 calendar and look at your appointments. Once you have done this sit down and think about the year, your victories and your problems. If you wrote down goals at the beginning of the year, review the list and note which ones were completed and where you fell short. Do this with a detached attitude, resist the temptation to beat yourself up. Regret is a waste of energy, you can not change the past but you can learn from it. Taking the time to ponder the lessons of the previous year is the first step to a great new year. Schedule a time to do this, and make it a priority. Time management expert Alan Lakein said that planning is "bringing the future into the present" to fix it. Reviewing the past and planning for the future allows you to take control of your destiny. This week I will discuss some ideas to make 2011 the best year ever.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Happy Valentines Day

Though Santa has yet to arrive as advertising sales people we should be thinking about cupid. Now is the time to start asking customers about their Valentine's Day advertising plans. Retailers are now flush with cash and in a good frame of mind. Jewelers, restaurants, florists and other concerns that do business during both holidays should be sold on both dates. This puts you ahead of the competition and secures your February revenue. In our business, the early bird gets the ad.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim B.

Quote of the week

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." Thomas A Edison

In the past two weeks I have helped three of our reps secure commitments for over $150,000 in advertising for 2011. In one case we took the business from broadcast TV, another from Valasis and in two of these cases we overcame the bjections of their ad agencies. In all three of these cases the appointments lasted more than twice as long as the customer had originally allotted, not because we ran long, but because the customer wanted more information. How were we able to engage the customers and persuade them to buy from us? Comprehensive planning. In each case we prepared research on the market, on their industry and business and prepared a detailed plan for them including spec ads. In addition to putting together a marketing plan we planned how we would present our information to them. The take away lesson is that in today's market, we need to use every tool to land business. Money is tight and the competition is very tough. In better times planning many be a luxury but in a recessionary time it is a necessity.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim B.

December Bah Humbug

I enjoy the holidays as much as anyone but in December I am a real Scrooge. As a sales manager I drove my sales people to keep making calls and as a rep I cracked the whip on myself. There is a strong temptation to blow off December, kick back and party a little but you can not afford to lose this month. The calls you make in December lays the ground work for your January sales. Your January sales set the pace for the balance of the year. If you let December slip away you may have to play catch up for the rest of the year. Another advantage of busting your butt in December is that your competition probably won't, this gives you a jump on them. Remember that December is 1/12 of your working year unless you're willing to give up 1/12 of your income, keep your nose to grindstone until the new year arrives.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim B.

Three ways of looking at an ad

Before talking to a customer you should consider your recommendation from three different angles. Obviously you should think like a sales person using your knowledge of your products and marketing to craft a good program. You should look at it from the customer's perspective. How will this help the business? How will it impact the bottom line? Doing this will help you explain the program as a sound business decision. Finally you should think like a reader. Will the program attract the consumer's attention? Would the offer or information in the ad motivate a shopper to patronize the customer's business. Thinking this way will help you to paint a clear picture of who the ad will attract for the business. Putting yourself in the shoes of your customer and the customer's customer will add credibility and power to your presentations.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Why are you here?

Do your prospects and clients know why you are calling on them? More importantly do you? Are you just going through the motions, doing your job and seeing the people or do you have a clear purpose for every call? Reps who have a clear objective in mind before every call will be much more successful than those who do not. Ask yourself is "If this call is successful, what will happen." You should have a specific goal for every call. "Make a sale" is not specific, "Present our holiday tab" is. Sometimes your goal will simply be "identify the decision maker" or "uncover prospects advertising goals for the next quarter." Sales is a systematic process to move a customer along a continuum to the point where they accept your point of view and buy your product. Your goal should always be to take them to the next step in this process. If you can not state a specific objective for each call, this process will take much longer.

Keep Smiling Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

What's bugging your readers?

Watch the morning news and you're sure to see a story about the "bedbug invasion." The media coverage of the return of bedbugs is making the public paranoid about these little critters. When consumers get paranoid they naturally reach for their wallets. Make sure you call on your exterminator customers. One of my guys has seen his business increase because he is promoting "free bedbug inspections." Even if they don't find bedbugs, when they do the inspection they are able to propose and sell other services. He told me he found several people who had termites and he was able to eliminate them before they did noticeable damage.

Some retailers also are cashing in on this scare. "Bedbug proof" mattress covers and other products sell at a premium. We have an opportunity to make some sales by helping our customers take advantage of this problem. By paying attention to the news and asking "How can I use this?", we create opportunities for ourselves and our customers.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Show and Sell

A picture is worth a 1000 words is a well worn cliche'. Cliche's become cliche's because they make so much sense that they get repeated over and over. I was with a rep earlier this week servicing a customer's ad in a coupon product. The customer asked about doing free standing inserts. Without skipping a beat the rep reached into his portfolio and pulled out a price list and a sample insert. He quoted a price and handing the sample to the customer he said "the price I quoted is for one just like this." This really helped the customer know what he was getting. She looked at the nice glossy flyer, felt the paper and then said "OKAY." If the rep didn't have a sample at his fingertips he would have spent a long time describing it and the customer would have had, at best, a vague idea of what an insert looks like. Because he was prepared, he landed the sale. As soon as we got back to his car he opened the trunk and replaced the insert in his portfolio, ready to make the next sale. Like another cliche's says--"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity." He was ready when an opportunity popped up.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Positioning Research

One of my job responsibilities is to help reps pull research for their proposals and presentations. I serve as a liaison between the marketing department and sales. There is a lot of research available from Paper Chain, the CVC audits and just off the web. Most reps use data very poorly. They rattle off the numbers and expect the customer to "Get It". Numbers are meaningless to most people and many people distrust statistics. The key to using data is to position it properly and to put a face on the numbers. After relating the numbers to the customer use a story to illustrate your point. For example if you talk about the fact that a high percentage of your readers are two earner families you could back it up with a statement like: "Mr. Customer, you're a busy person, so you know what its like, your may not have time to read the newspaper every day but our publication is a quick weekly read with lots of way to save money. You can see why busy families, the kind of people who need your services, like our paper, don;t you." This puts a face on the circulation statistics and also tell him how it relates directly to his business. This is much more effective than the raw statistics.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Plan your week

I am in complete agreement with the old saying "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Setting up a plan or agenda for the week is a great way to increase your productivity. Doing this forces you to think about how you want to work your territory. You do not have to write in every appointment but planning the key appointments and the geograhic areas you want to work will give you direction and eliminate indecision. I put together my plan on Friday afternoon or over the weekend. This way I am ready to get to work on Monday morning. Taking a few minutes to put together a plan, will save hours during the week.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Planning for summer

I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. This is the unofficial beginning of summer. It is important to know your clients plans for the summer season. Know when they are planning to go on vacation so that you can handle their advertising in advance. It is not a bad idea to have an "emergency ad" on hand just in case an advertiser takes an unexpected long weekend. get a generic ad pre-approved so that if for some reason you can't reach them they won't miss out on any business and you won't miss out on any commissions. Don't let a customer skip a week because they are on vacation. Do an ad saying: "We're on vacation this week, look for our super special coupon in next week's paper. Thanks". This will help them because they will not anger any customers who drive to them location only to find them closed and any potential customers who may have found another supplier will wait to see what the "super deal" is. This gets the customer up to speed quickly upon their return,

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch