By PAUL B. BROWN
Published: September, 2009
While it may be the oldest business cliché there is, the fact is the customer isn’t always right.
And some customers may not be right for you. They may not be profitable. They could be demanding things that pull you away from your core strengths. Or they simply may not be worth the constant headaches.
On those occasions, you may be justified in firing your customer, telling them you will not work with them anymore.
The following items can help you decide whether it is time to say goodbye to the most challenging people you do business with.
A POTENTIAL FORMULA Every customer is bound to make you mad sometimes. And some are certain to have an outlandish demand now and then.
But those are not good enough reasons to fire them.
While there is no hard and fast rule on when it is time to sever ties, John Chisholm, writing on CustomerThink.com offers a reasonable rule of thumb.
You should tell a customer to take his business elsewhere when “the tangible and intangible costs of serving the customer outweigh the cash and any good will received from the customer.”
THE BENEFITS It is only natural not to want to fire a customer, especially in this economy. If you know that severing ties with a client is the way to go, but you are wavering, Debra Ellis, writing on her blog, offers three reminders of the benefits.
Forcing your staff to deal with “obnoxious, unrealistic and abusive” customers reduces morale, she writes. The time you spend trying to satisfy the impossible customer decreases the benefits you can provide to the good ones. And your most demanding customers “are not your profitable ones,” she says. “Rewarding them reduces your resources without a return on investment.”
DOUBLECHECK “Before you decide to end a client relationship, consider how expensive or time consuming it will be to make up the lost revenue,” suggests an item on OpenForum, an American Express Web site.
“Because it is costly to acquire a new customer, first look for ways to boost the profitability of the relationship. Can you raise prices or fees, lower the costs of the goods or services you provide, or reduce customer service? With some creativity, you may be able to find a way to turn things around.”
A HOW-TO GUIDE If you have reached the point where you are finally ready to let that difficult customer go, Tracy Fredrychowski, writing on SearchEngineAcademySC.com, a search engine optimization Web site, offers these four guidelines:
¶Be professional. “Customers should always be spoken to personally, not by letter or phone. Only when the customer is at a distance, is it appropriate to speak with them about the matter on the telephone. But in no circumstances should the contact be other than verbal. E-mails simply will not do in this case.”
¶Keep emotions out of it. Odds are the customer made you extremely frustrated or angry, but now is not the time to vent. Customers often will take being fired personally, “so it is important that you explain your reasons rationally and clearly.”
¶Offer suggestions. Remember after you have fired them, customers will still need someone to provide the product or perform the service you did. Help them if you can.
¶“Stay polite but firm. It is time to move on.”
FINAL CALL Who knows better that the customer is not always right than the people who serve them? This from NotAlwaysRight.com.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
In TV Sales, Don't Forget A Bag Of Donuts
GUEST COMMENTARY BY CHARLIE STERNBERG
From TVNewsCheck, Sep 22 2009, 3:28 PM ET
Local or national, transactional or direct, it's increasingly important for TV account executives to remember the blocking and tackling of sales: strong client relationships.
It is no secret that the transactional base that stations have enjoyed for years has shrunk. Dealer group money is gone. The competition to garner the local advertising dollar is fierce. More reps are out on the streets. Senior reps that have made a living riding large transactional lists are now refocusing their efforts to developing direct local business. One advertiser reminded me that "there are 100 of you and one of me."
The quickest way to grow local share is by switching your local newspaper, cable and yellow pages advertisers to TV. This will mean more "hand-to-hand combat" in your local market. Our ability to know and super-serve the customer will make all the difference.
Relationship building is the foundational skill needed for account executives. It's the first step in the selling process.
Congratulations. You've secured an appointment with the general manager of your local Ford dealership. As you detail the shows your station has to offer, he has already sized you up in his corner office. Can he trust you? Will you under-promise and over-deliver? Are you just another media rep hawking your newest promotion or are you there to truly help grow his business?
Persistence is great, but persistence without the ability to show you care is like building a house on sand instead of stone.
This year has proved to be a tough one for the television business. However, some reps are having a banner year. When asked for the keys to their success, the top two answers are:
Keeping a fuller funnel of new business prospects.
Staying close to current clients.
Here are some simple and inexpensive ways to create deep meaningful relationships in your market:
Keep a running bio of each client in your Outlook contacts. Know their birthdays, favorite sports teams, hobbies and background.
Offer a "service guarantee" to prospective clients. If you fail to visit them at least twice per month, you'll refund their month's advertising expenditure. This type of guarantee lets them know up front that you are committed to super-serving them and developing a deep meaningful relationship.
Drop off bagels/donuts with your station's logo on the packaging. (This also works with cookies in the afternoon.)
Stop by without pushing your newest promotion. Explain you were "in the area" and wanted to see how this month's sales were going. Take the time to care.
Send a handwritten note after your first meeting with a new client.
Draft a welcome letter from your GM that goes out to new clients.
Make sure your station's top 20 accounts are getting a visit in person from upper management each quarter.
Don't be afraid to ask how their advertising is working. Often times we scramble to make changes to the schedule or creative after we get the call to cancel. This is too late. Be proactive.
Develop a Personal Marketing Portfolio with campaigns you've developed and testimonials from other clients. Show this resume on your first call to establish credibility and tenure.
Recently I was at lunch with an owner of a multi-location fitness business. He explained that his advertising was working, but wasn't sure which media were most effective. He noted quite candidly that he wasn't sure if it was our station that was getting his phone to ring. He looked us dead in the eye and said, "I am going to renew with you for another six months because I like you guys. You take the time to review my campaign's performance and we really feel we have a true partnership with your station. I will be trimming back some of my other stations, but not yours." There are scores of clients just like this in your market who are not looking at rating points, posting or CPMs. They just want an efficient marketing solution sold to them by someone who cares. Be that someone.
The fact is that we sell a medium that can be a bit difficult to track at times. Customers can't haul their TV sets into a car dealer's showroom like they can their daily newspaper. Often, we don't get direct credit for developing the lead. When asked "where did you hear about us," customers give credit to the Internet or yellow pages. They have forgotten that they saw an ad three times on TV that drove them to search for the number online.
As our business grows from one screen to three, the ability to develop deep meaningful relationships within the local market will make all the difference.
I think Dale Carnegie said it best back in 1937 with his breakthrough book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership and to arouse enthusiasm among people."
I would encourage us all to pay special attention to the way we excite our clients while developing deep, meaningful relationships.
Charlie Sternberg is the local sales manager for WRDQ, an independent station owned by Cox Television in Orlando, Fla. He can be reached at 407-822-5635 or charlie.sternberg@WRDQ
From TVNewsCheck, Sep 22 2009, 3:28 PM ET
Local or national, transactional or direct, it's increasingly important for TV account executives to remember the blocking and tackling of sales: strong client relationships.
It is no secret that the transactional base that stations have enjoyed for years has shrunk. Dealer group money is gone. The competition to garner the local advertising dollar is fierce. More reps are out on the streets. Senior reps that have made a living riding large transactional lists are now refocusing their efforts to developing direct local business. One advertiser reminded me that "there are 100 of you and one of me."
The quickest way to grow local share is by switching your local newspaper, cable and yellow pages advertisers to TV. This will mean more "hand-to-hand combat" in your local market. Our ability to know and super-serve the customer will make all the difference.
Relationship building is the foundational skill needed for account executives. It's the first step in the selling process.
Congratulations. You've secured an appointment with the general manager of your local Ford dealership. As you detail the shows your station has to offer, he has already sized you up in his corner office. Can he trust you? Will you under-promise and over-deliver? Are you just another media rep hawking your newest promotion or are you there to truly help grow his business?
Persistence is great, but persistence without the ability to show you care is like building a house on sand instead of stone.
This year has proved to be a tough one for the television business. However, some reps are having a banner year. When asked for the keys to their success, the top two answers are:
Keeping a fuller funnel of new business prospects.
Staying close to current clients.
Here are some simple and inexpensive ways to create deep meaningful relationships in your market:
Keep a running bio of each client in your Outlook contacts. Know their birthdays, favorite sports teams, hobbies and background.
Offer a "service guarantee" to prospective clients. If you fail to visit them at least twice per month, you'll refund their month's advertising expenditure. This type of guarantee lets them know up front that you are committed to super-serving them and developing a deep meaningful relationship.
Drop off bagels/donuts with your station's logo on the packaging. (This also works with cookies in the afternoon.)
Stop by without pushing your newest promotion. Explain you were "in the area" and wanted to see how this month's sales were going. Take the time to care.
Send a handwritten note after your first meeting with a new client.
Draft a welcome letter from your GM that goes out to new clients.
Make sure your station's top 20 accounts are getting a visit in person from upper management each quarter.
Don't be afraid to ask how their advertising is working. Often times we scramble to make changes to the schedule or creative after we get the call to cancel. This is too late. Be proactive.
Develop a Personal Marketing Portfolio with campaigns you've developed and testimonials from other clients. Show this resume on your first call to establish credibility and tenure.
Recently I was at lunch with an owner of a multi-location fitness business. He explained that his advertising was working, but wasn't sure which media were most effective. He noted quite candidly that he wasn't sure if it was our station that was getting his phone to ring. He looked us dead in the eye and said, "I am going to renew with you for another six months because I like you guys. You take the time to review my campaign's performance and we really feel we have a true partnership with your station. I will be trimming back some of my other stations, but not yours." There are scores of clients just like this in your market who are not looking at rating points, posting or CPMs. They just want an efficient marketing solution sold to them by someone who cares. Be that someone.
The fact is that we sell a medium that can be a bit difficult to track at times. Customers can't haul their TV sets into a car dealer's showroom like they can their daily newspaper. Often, we don't get direct credit for developing the lead. When asked "where did you hear about us," customers give credit to the Internet or yellow pages. They have forgotten that they saw an ad three times on TV that drove them to search for the number online.
As our business grows from one screen to three, the ability to develop deep meaningful relationships within the local market will make all the difference.
I think Dale Carnegie said it best back in 1937 with his breakthrough book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership and to arouse enthusiasm among people."
I would encourage us all to pay special attention to the way we excite our clients while developing deep, meaningful relationships.
Charlie Sternberg is the local sales manager for WRDQ, an independent station owned by Cox Television in Orlando, Fla. He can be reached at 407-822-5635 or charlie.sternberg@WRDQ
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Predicting TV's Future
Dave Morgan
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Television is undergoing an enormous technology-driven transformation. This fact is well known to all in the industry -- and is even obvious to all those who watch TV. Yesterday, I spoke about some of the effects of this transformation at the Collaborative Alliance, an important television industry group focused on "advanced TV" issues. The Alliance was created and run by Mitch Oscar of MPG (a regular contributor to MediaPost's TV Board).
Here are some of the points that I made, based upon nine months of intensive analysis by my team at Simulmedia of anonymous, second-by-second set-top-box viewing data, representing millions of U.S. viewing households:
TV has a "discovery" problem. The explosion of choices in new channels, programs, platforms and viewing modes, coupled with obsolete discovery and navigation tools, make it impossible for viewers to know about all of the programs that they might enjoy. Today, the number of new programming choices is growing five times more than the amount of time people allocate to TV viewing.
Program loyalty is dying; everyone is tasting and sampling. Viewers are loyal to television, but they are no longer very loyal to individual programs, in spite of media buzz to the contrary. Sixty percent of viewers of all shows last year watched only one episode. Of those viewers, 40% had their televisions turned on during that show's time slot for at least one-half of the show, but they were watching other programs as well.
Loyalty to genre and time slots is strong, and viewership is very predictable. Loyalty to specific programs is very poor, but loyalty to types of programming and specific days and time-slots is very strong, and very predictable. Our analysis reveals that 70% of a person's viewing habits can be predicted with 99% accuracy based upon one year of historical viewing data. Thus, while audiences may be fragmenting at an extraordinary rate, where they are fragmenting to is quite predictable.
"On-air" program promos are critical to driving viewership. If someone has not seen an "on-air" program promotion, they will not see the show. That statement can be made with 99.3% accuracy. Further, if promos are delivered to viewers who have watched programming of a similar genre in the past, the promos are 62% more effective on average at driving actual viewership than promos that aregenerally targeted. Those that are delivered the day of a show are 200-300% more effective than those delivered a day or two before the show airs.
What does all of this mean?
To me, the numbers above make it clear that television networks and programmers are having a major problem maintaining their "lifeblood": their viewers. Audience fragmentation is clearly a very serious problem, particularly since the premium pricing in television's ad-driven model is built upon TV's ability to deliver massively scaled audiences on a per-program basis.
However, all is not lost. It's also clear that the fragmentation can be predicted, and even reversed, with a better understanding of how to find receptive audiences and deliver more relevant program promotions.
Like those in online media have learned over the past 15 years, the user is now in charge. What do you think?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Television is undergoing an enormous technology-driven transformation. This fact is well known to all in the industry -- and is even obvious to all those who watch TV. Yesterday, I spoke about some of the effects of this transformation at the Collaborative Alliance, an important television industry group focused on "advanced TV" issues. The Alliance was created and run by Mitch Oscar of MPG (a regular contributor to MediaPost's TV Board).
Here are some of the points that I made, based upon nine months of intensive analysis by my team at Simulmedia of anonymous, second-by-second set-top-box viewing data, representing millions of U.S. viewing households:
TV has a "discovery" problem. The explosion of choices in new channels, programs, platforms and viewing modes, coupled with obsolete discovery and navigation tools, make it impossible for viewers to know about all of the programs that they might enjoy. Today, the number of new programming choices is growing five times more than the amount of time people allocate to TV viewing.
Program loyalty is dying; everyone is tasting and sampling. Viewers are loyal to television, but they are no longer very loyal to individual programs, in spite of media buzz to the contrary. Sixty percent of viewers of all shows last year watched only one episode. Of those viewers, 40% had their televisions turned on during that show's time slot for at least one-half of the show, but they were watching other programs as well.
Loyalty to genre and time slots is strong, and viewership is very predictable. Loyalty to specific programs is very poor, but loyalty to types of programming and specific days and time-slots is very strong, and very predictable. Our analysis reveals that 70% of a person's viewing habits can be predicted with 99% accuracy based upon one year of historical viewing data. Thus, while audiences may be fragmenting at an extraordinary rate, where they are fragmenting to is quite predictable.
"On-air" program promos are critical to driving viewership. If someone has not seen an "on-air" program promotion, they will not see the show. That statement can be made with 99.3% accuracy. Further, if promos are delivered to viewers who have watched programming of a similar genre in the past, the promos are 62% more effective on average at driving actual viewership than promos that aregenerally targeted. Those that are delivered the day of a show are 200-300% more effective than those delivered a day or two before the show airs.
What does all of this mean?
To me, the numbers above make it clear that television networks and programmers are having a major problem maintaining their "lifeblood": their viewers. Audience fragmentation is clearly a very serious problem, particularly since the premium pricing in television's ad-driven model is built upon TV's ability to deliver massively scaled audiences on a per-program basis.
However, all is not lost. It's also clear that the fragmentation can be predicted, and even reversed, with a better understanding of how to find receptive audiences and deliver more relevant program promotions.
Like those in online media have learned over the past 15 years, the user is now in charge. What do you think?
Monday, September 14, 2009
Auto dealers expect to boost spending.
The National Automobile Dealers Association predicts dealer advertising will begin to rebound with the 2010 model year. It can't come soon enough. TNS Media says car dealers have reduced spending by one-third so far this year and that figure could grow as General Motors and Chrysler reduce their dealer ranks. So with this good news for stations who have lost major revenue because of the downturn in the auto biz....now you may be able to take a sigh of some relief. But remember...you have to build long term, local-direct revenues as your base...and use the auto biz as icing on the cake as well as transactional dollars. Philip J....
Friday, September 11, 2009
More Ad Dollars from Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority
The face that promotes Las Vegas tourism is that of a chinchilla. Believe it. The furry creature and friends return in the latest TV spot for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The first ad for Chinchilli day described a war between rebel chinchillas and the owners who fought them. See it here. The current ad features the duped boss from the first ad using a similar line on his boss, all for a three-day weekend in Vegas. This time around, the setting is a French village where three chinchillas rescue residents from three rogue musketeers. See the ad here, created by R&R Partners.
If you haven't already done so...better make the call or miss the $$$$...Philip Jay...
If you haven't already done so...better make the call or miss the $$$$...Philip Jay...
Subway Catering Service to Launch in D.C.
UDS Group Inc. announced that their pilot agreement with Subway has been extended into 2010, and that Washington, D.C. has been selected to be the first major market to introduce Subway Catering & Delivery (SCD) using the UDS delivery management solution. The SDC launch is scheduled for October in D.C., which hosts 450 Subway restaurants. Until now UDS has been engaged by Subway franchisees on an individual basis in various markets. The Washington, D.C. launch signifies the first concentrated effort by an entire major market franchise group to implement the UDS One Number Solution. Using a designated phone number and Subway Catering & Delivery Platform, all participating franchisees are networked to serve orders on a collective basis, unlike typical quick-serve restaurants that employ individual store number ordering. "We want consumers to think of Subway first for catering and delivery," says Ryan Coblin, CEO and chairman of UDS Group Inc. "One of the most recognized of all brands, Subway will now be delivering regular menu items and catering options direct to the door of businesses, residences, and other venues. In short, Subway is now going to be just a call, or click, away."
Whomever has this account in your DMA shouldl be on this launch by now as it will probably relate to big ad dollars coming....Philip Jay....
Whomever has this account in your DMA shouldl be on this launch by now as it will probably relate to big ad dollars coming....Philip Jay....
Ad Dollars Trickling Back In
Echoing an optimistic message he delivered to investors two months ago, CBS chief Les Moonves says, “We have just seen pacing beginning to go up week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter.” Moonves says the biggest gains have been in locally-driven divisions like radio and television stations.
“We’ve seen it very significantly change in the last three or four months,” he told the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch media conference yesterday. Moonves says CBS Radio is pacing up as much as 15% from where it was earlier this year, although it continues to be down from a year ago. “It’s heading in the right direction and we think we’ll start seeing some plus signs soon,” he added.
“We’ve seen it very significantly change in the last three or four months,” he told the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch media conference yesterday. Moonves says CBS Radio is pacing up as much as 15% from where it was earlier this year, although it continues to be down from a year ago. “It’s heading in the right direction and we think we’ll start seeing some plus signs soon,” he added.
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