You live in two worlds. The first is your personal world, the world of your family and personal life. The second is the business world, the world of your customers, your products and services. You’ve heard how important it is to leave your work at the office. “Don’t take your work problems home at night.” It’s not good for you or your family. On the other hand, you should not bring your personal world into your work world.
There is scientific proof that misery loves company. In fact, misery actually seeks company. People who are feeling down seek company as a way of alleviating their negative feelings.
Psychologists call this transference of negative thought an emotional contagion. Your negative thoughts about your personal world can infect your business world and cause you irreparable damage.
In the advertising business, you are selling the hope and anticipation of a better brighter future. You are trying to persuade a business owner to spend their hard-earned money on an advertising plan that will help them find new customers, increase their sales, pay for the advertising and turn that advertiser into a long term repeat customer. If you have been in advertising sales for any length of time, you know that can be a tall order.
Zig Ziglar described selling as a transference of emotions. He taught us, “If you can transfer how you feel about your products or services to the prospect, you will have a customer for life.” If you are not excited about your product, if you don’t believe it will work and work well, how can you possibly think the advertiser will feel any differently? They won’t.
In MLM there is a saying: “You can’t sell the product until you’re on the product.” It’s true, you can’t be a convincing salesperson unless you use the product yourself. When you use the product and someone raises an objection, you can answer that objection from personal experience.
What if you had to buy $500 a month in radio advertising from your radio station in order to work there, would you do it? You could advertise yourself and your advertising services, would you do it?
I can hear you now, “No way! I can’t afford it. Why should I do that? I can’t make any money doing that.” Doesn’t that sound like our prospects when we make a sales presentation?
If you were on the product, buying your own advertising, and you got the old “I can’t afford it” excuse you could immediately say, “I understand how you feel. I felt that way at first but when I saw how many new customers I found, the advertising easily pays for itself every month!”
You would sound pretty convincing wouldn’t you?
When your prospect says they are afraid the advertising won’t work, you could respond with, “I had that very same fear at first but I went ahead and bought the advertising, and before I knew it, my phone was ringing with new customers wanting my help. It was the best decision I ever made.”
You’re beginning to sound even more convincing. Let’s give the old “I tried it once and it didn’t work excuse a try.” “I hear what you’re saying. The same thing happened to me the first time but then I learned some keys to success. I made sure I was consistent, had a balance of reach and frequency and most of all, I made sure I had an emotionally engaging message. It really made all the difference. I’m absolutely convinced I can do the same for you. Won’t you give me a shot?”
How can you develop this kind of passion? Here is a couple of ideas.
You should attend every station event, roll up your sleeves and work the crowd with the promotions people and the air staff. They see firsthand every day the emotional connection between the radio station and the listeners.
Be vigilant about testimonial letters and testimonial recordings, from all of your clients. Hopefully their belief will inspire you as much as your potential new customer.
If your station will give you some air time, approach it as if you were actually paying for it. Treat it professionally: Be consistent, balance your reach and frequency, and make sure you write an emotionally engaging creative message.
Remember, you are only one decision away from becoming the person you deserve to be.
