If you are in advertising sales you have most surely heard someone say “Advertising is a necessary evil”. It is often said in a begrudging manor, not in a complimentary way. When your prospect tells you this, it rarely leads to a sale. But maybe it should. The prospect is at least acknowledging that advertising is necessary. You have half of the battle won already. Now you just have to show the prospect that by working with you, they will be able to eliminate the evil aspects from their mind.
The primary reason a prospect would say that advertising is a necessary evil is because they don’t like to spend their hard earned money on advertising. They find it hard to measure and confusing. If they have tried something in the past that didn’t measure up to their expectations, they probably consider that an expensive advertising mistake they want to avoid making again.
Despite having a previous bad experience, the prospect still says advertising is necessary. You don’t need to convince them to advertise, you just need to demonstrate that you can make it less painful. Your job is now to demonstrate that with your professional training, expertise and customer service skills, you will be able to make their advertising efforts more effective, you will be able to make them feel better about their efforts.
Selling is all about persuasion. Zig Ziglar says selling is all about the transference of emotions. Zig says that if he can get you to be as excited about his product as he is, then it’s possible to make a sale. But if you’re not excited about your product then selling is going to be difficult for you. That’s why multi-level marketing organizations require you to buy and use the product yourself. You can’t effectively sell the product unless you are on the product. They only way to understand the value and benefits of the product is to be a user of the product yourself.
Consider this, what would your life be like if you were required to write a check to the Radio station every month for your own personal advertising campaign before they would allow you to sell Radio advertising other businesses? Would you do it?
If you were buying your own advertising campaign every month on the Radio station you work for to let people in the community know who you are and what you do, you would be able to speak about Radio advertising from a firsthand perspective. You would be on the product so to speak.
If you were required to buy your own advertising schedule every month you certainly would have a greater grasp for what the local business owner is going through when it comes to advertising their business. You would understand just how hard it is to track advertising results. You would know beyond a shadow of a doubt how hard it is to put out your hard earned money to buy an intangible product like Radio. You would be able to feel their frustration on a personal level.
If you were forced to buy your own Radio advertising campaign you would certainly make a significant commitment to learn how to make your advertising as effective as possible. You would devote your attention to every single detail to ensure you got your money’s worth from your advertising.
If you were buying your own advertising every month you would definitely be much persuasive about the power of advertising on your Radio station.
When your prospect says they don’t think they can afford it you can say “I know how you feel” because you’ve been there. You would have firsthand experience at finding the money necessary to buy your own advertising.
When your customer says they don’t know how to track the results you would be able to say “I know how you feel” because you’ve been there. You would be able to help them learn the same lessons you learned buying your own advertising.
If you were buying your own advertising every month you would be able to identify with your customers when they express their frustration when they try to figure out if their advertising is delivering a Return On their Investment. You would have already figured out just how many new customers you needed to pay for your advertising. You would have already figured out how much each new customer was going to spend with you to make sure the advertising paid for itself.
If you’re not buying your own advertising every month you need to find another way to understand what the customer is going through every month that makes them say “advertising is a necessary evil”.
If you want to take the “evil” out of the equation, you must position yourself in a positive helpful way. You must present yourself as a trusted resource. People buy from people they like. You can achieve a short term limited amount of likability with jokes, gifts, and free lunches but in today’s competitive environment professional likeability comes from becoming an indispensable resource. You must make a meaningful difference in your client’s business life.
You need to make a commitment to a lifelong effort of self-improvement. You may have a lot of years of experience but the possibility exists that you have one year of experience that you just keep repeating over and over. You need to make sure your expertise is up-to-date. What are you doing to improve your expertise, not just prolonging your experience?
Your clients essentially hire you to be their advertising representative for your station. When they don’t buy, you didn’t get hired. When they cancel you get fired.