WHERE COMMUNICATIONS INFLUENCE DECISIONS
The Point: Capitalizing on the New Frugal Mindset
It is the intention of this article to provide “how-to” assistance to local business communities across our nation during these chaotic economic times.
It’s not news that customers aren’t spending. Rattled and battered by continuing economic uncertainty, they are being more careful and more cautious in their decision-making. In every category, from savings and investments to major purchases, from discretionary spending to household necessities, from preventive healthcare to elective surgery, they are looking for reasons to put off buying and demanding more value when they do.
As we analyze the decision-making needs of this new frugal mindset, we are encouraging our clients to consider these five approaches to help them turn customers’ new decision-making needs to their advantage:
Five Key Approaches to the Frugal Mindset
Prepare your front line. As people grow more cautious, they will need a lot more personal attention and hand-holding to get them through their decision-making. This is the time to invest in giving your sales force and customer service staff the information and training they need to better empathize with their customers so they can more easily move people from consideration to purchase.
Recognize your real competition. You're not just competing with other products and services like your own. When people are cutting back, they are more likely to trade off among different desires: contribute to an IRA or put a down payment on a car; take a vacation or buy a TV; buy a whole new outfit or just a new blouse to do the trick.
Help your customers evaluate alternatives—including doing nothing. Provide tools and information to help people calculate costs and benefits and make choices among options. Stress the cost of not acting—show your customers what they lose if they don’t fund their IRA or visit their doctor. Putting off buying a new, more fuel-efficient car could mean many extra expenses for maintenance and gas.
Help your customers justify the purchase. Even in difficult times, people will act if they believe the benefits outweigh the costs. Can you demonstrate how you can help lower maintenance, improve health, or reduce energy costs? When people are being cautious, their horizons get shorter so if you can, show your customers that they will see quick returns. If your product costs more, does it also come with higher service or more features? Will they get better results?
Plug into values. Now more than ever it’s important to understand your customers. Is security important, or gratification? Are they saving for an education, a house, or retirement? Are they looking to enhance a career or change direction? These differences are important at all times, but when people are making trade-offs, it’s especially important to know which values are most important to their decisions. Remember, too, that even though people are weighing their decisions more carefully, they still make their decisions with their hearts as well as their heads. Make sure you give your customers reasons to feel good about the decisions they make.
When customers are in a frugal mindset, they are still making decisions. In fact, their decisions are even more important because the cost of making a mistake is greater. As marketers, your job is to help them make the best decisions for them. If you are respectful and respond to their needs, you have an opportunity to forge even stronger relationships and greater loyalty.
Barbara Sullivan founded Sullivan & Co. in 1990 as a communications strategy and design firm that helps blue-chip companies influence customers at the pivotal points in their buying decisions. Retail In$ights subscribers may contact Barbara at www.sullivannyc.com or contact at (212)888-2881 or info@sullivannyc.com.
A 2008 Inc. 5000 Company
A 2008 BtoB Magazine Top Agency of the Year
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Big Competition for Sirius/XM
The new iPhone application challenges satellite radio.FlyCast’s Apple-sanctioned downloadable application lets iPhone users listen to terrestrial radio stations, as well as “rewind” live radio to hear portions of a show they've missed. Additionally, is it possible for Sirius/XM to survive in our current economy when they go into 2009 with a debt of $1billion? Want more radio? Listen locally. Want more on this piece?...go to Inside Radio....
Monday, December 29, 2008
TV Managers are still Chasing their Tail
Television sees through tough times.
Local broadcast TV revenues were up 1.2% on a third quarter 2007 – third quarter 2008 comparison. “Automotive” was down 17.7% but remains TV’s top category; #2 “Telecom” gained 10%. While that's pretty much a snapshot of the national and regional scene...it runs parallel to station totals locally. Until managers instill and install new, long-term, local-direct training and new business development models at their local stations...they will continue to chase their tails running after automotive revenues until the well is completely dry and budgets are missed quarter after quarter leading to their own replacement.
Local broadcast TV revenues were up 1.2% on a third quarter 2007 – third quarter 2008 comparison. “Automotive” was down 17.7% but remains TV’s top category; #2 “Telecom” gained 10%. While that's pretty much a snapshot of the national and regional scene...it runs parallel to station totals locally. Until managers instill and install new, long-term, local-direct training and new business development models at their local stations...they will continue to chase their tails running after automotive revenues until the well is completely dry and budgets are missed quarter after quarter leading to their own replacement.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Does Local TV Have A Future?
by Diane Mermigas
Media conglomerate chief executives recently were asked about retaining their local TV stations. They defended the biggest market outlets as critical to their broadcast networks, despite their increasing reliance on digital and online content distribution. But for dozens of major independent station group owners, local TV is their core business and revenue source. They are desperate to avoid the financial pitfalls that are crushing newspapers.
The kicker is that local interactive online advertising revenues that were supposed to supplement traditional ad revenue declines will slip to only about 8% growth in 2009, just ahead of a much-weaker 7.2% national online growth rate. This year, local interactive advertising is still expected to increase 47% over 2007 to about $13 billion, according to Borrell Associates. The message is clear: Local media can’t run for cover.
The Television Bureau of Advertising Tuesday vastly lowered its 2009 TV station ad forecast to levels recently set by Wall Street analysts, saying it now expects local spot sales will decline 4% to 8% and national spot will be down between 11.5% and 15.5% next year. Only election-year spending helped to save local TV in the first 10 months of this year. Still, the owned-and-operated TV stations of Disney/ABC, CBS, News/Fox and NBC Universal significantly underperformed pure-play broadcasters for the second consecutive quarter, due partly to less battleground-state political exposure.
With as many as 1,000 local auto dealers expected to go out of business by next year and the big three domestic automakers seeking federal aid to avoid bankruptcy, local ad-supported media pain has only just begun. Auto ad spending, which contributes about 25% of the industry-wide local ad revenue base, was down about 40% last quarter for major TV station groups like Fox.
Local cable, which generally outperformed local television last quarter, could sneak up on broadcasters in these difficult times as a prelude to a complete rollout of the new addressable, interactive advertising and data that Canoe Ventures fronted by major cable system operators. “The credit crisis has magnified trends that were already in motion. For most of the decade, advertisers have been viewing interactive media as a more efficient, less costly way of reaching consumers than traditional media buys,” Borrell observes. Advertising expenditure dials have “just about been adjusted for interactive media,” which means that local TV especially must position itself to capture double-digit growth during a recessionary recovery by 2010.
In what is considered to be only the beginning of the local ad downturn, third-quarter estimated that declining advertising revenues reported by Goldman Sachs were -4% for local TV (broadcast and cable), -6% for network TV, -8% for radio, -5% for outdoor, and -15% for newspapers. The only third-quarter ad revenue gains were an average 5% for cable network and 10% for the Internet.
Without marginal lift from elections or holidays, 2009 is shaping up to be the worst ad year in decades, when double-digit declines could be led by spot television (-16%) and newspapers (-12%), analysts say. This will be especially brutal for media companies whose primary business is local TV and newspapers, like Belo, Scripps and Gannett. Others are like Tribune Co., whose corporate credit rating was lowered to CCC-Negative late Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s due to concerns that it will be unable to sell $1 billion of mostly non-media assets by year’s end to make debt payments. The situation could adversely impact its ability to retain and manage its already stressed local TV stations and newspapers.
Some pure broadcasters’ efforts to aggressively grow ancillary revenues are working, but not fast enough. For instance, Nexstar’s third-quarter retransmission consent income grew 38% to 6.2 million, and eMedia revenues grew 63% to $2.7 million of its overall $70 million. But $4 million in Olympics-related revenues and $8 million in political ad revenues were one-time boosts.
With broadcast network companies such as NBCU, Disney, News Corp. and CBS increasingly relying on online sites, digital platforms and devices to distribute their programs, local station owners fear the dilution of the affiliate brand. They worry that the broadcast network owners will exit the TV station business by selling programs directly to cable and new digital media.
The high capital cost, declining revenues and tighter margins will become increasingly apparent in the media conglomerates’ television station results. Disney’s ABC-owned station reported ad revenue declines of -12% last quarter compared with -18% for CBS stations and -22% for Fox stations. In what could prove to be a best-case scenario, Bernstein Research estimates that Disney’s ABC TV station advertising will decline -15% in fiscal 2009, which assumes an 80% incremental margin. At News Corp., which recently sold eight of its smaller TV stations, local TV and newspaper declines will pressure overall margins through fiscal 2009.
Still, News Corp. and Disney executives last week defended their holistic strategy of continuing to own major market TV stations. “These are business for us that deliver high capital returns and … we still believe in them because of the way that we run them and the free cash flow that they throw off for this company,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Local TV station owners (many of them heavily in debt) are under pressure to modify high-cost legacy structure, leverage their unique local content and connections, and engage in new digital enterprises to collectively offset traditional ad declines. That means reaching beyond cash retrans fees from cable and telco operators to linking their local franchise brands with consumer electronics manufacturers like Apple, GPS operators, wireless mobile telephone and PDA manufacturers (like RIMM).
It also means leveraging their position with Google and other Internet players seeking to capitalize on selling their available ad inventory and launching new Wi-Fi services using unlicensed “white space” between their channels. “If our business is going to be in-play, we might as well reinvent ourselves,” confided one veteran independent broadcast executive. “It beats waiting for a rescue that will never come.”
Media conglomerate chief executives recently were asked about retaining their local TV stations. They defended the biggest market outlets as critical to their broadcast networks, despite their increasing reliance on digital and online content distribution. But for dozens of major independent station group owners, local TV is their core business and revenue source. They are desperate to avoid the financial pitfalls that are crushing newspapers.
The kicker is that local interactive online advertising revenues that were supposed to supplement traditional ad revenue declines will slip to only about 8% growth in 2009, just ahead of a much-weaker 7.2% national online growth rate. This year, local interactive advertising is still expected to increase 47% over 2007 to about $13 billion, according to Borrell Associates. The message is clear: Local media can’t run for cover.
The Television Bureau of Advertising Tuesday vastly lowered its 2009 TV station ad forecast to levels recently set by Wall Street analysts, saying it now expects local spot sales will decline 4% to 8% and national spot will be down between 11.5% and 15.5% next year. Only election-year spending helped to save local TV in the first 10 months of this year. Still, the owned-and-operated TV stations of Disney/ABC, CBS, News/Fox and NBC Universal significantly underperformed pure-play broadcasters for the second consecutive quarter, due partly to less battleground-state political exposure.
With as many as 1,000 local auto dealers expected to go out of business by next year and the big three domestic automakers seeking federal aid to avoid bankruptcy, local ad-supported media pain has only just begun. Auto ad spending, which contributes about 25% of the industry-wide local ad revenue base, was down about 40% last quarter for major TV station groups like Fox.
Local cable, which generally outperformed local television last quarter, could sneak up on broadcasters in these difficult times as a prelude to a complete rollout of the new addressable, interactive advertising and data that Canoe Ventures fronted by major cable system operators. “The credit crisis has magnified trends that were already in motion. For most of the decade, advertisers have been viewing interactive media as a more efficient, less costly way of reaching consumers than traditional media buys,” Borrell observes. Advertising expenditure dials have “just about been adjusted for interactive media,” which means that local TV especially must position itself to capture double-digit growth during a recessionary recovery by 2010.
In what is considered to be only the beginning of the local ad downturn, third-quarter estimated that declining advertising revenues reported by Goldman Sachs were -4% for local TV (broadcast and cable), -6% for network TV, -8% for radio, -5% for outdoor, and -15% for newspapers. The only third-quarter ad revenue gains were an average 5% for cable network and 10% for the Internet.
Without marginal lift from elections or holidays, 2009 is shaping up to be the worst ad year in decades, when double-digit declines could be led by spot television (-16%) and newspapers (-12%), analysts say. This will be especially brutal for media companies whose primary business is local TV and newspapers, like Belo, Scripps and Gannett. Others are like Tribune Co., whose corporate credit rating was lowered to CCC-Negative late Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s due to concerns that it will be unable to sell $1 billion of mostly non-media assets by year’s end to make debt payments. The situation could adversely impact its ability to retain and manage its already stressed local TV stations and newspapers.
Some pure broadcasters’ efforts to aggressively grow ancillary revenues are working, but not fast enough. For instance, Nexstar’s third-quarter retransmission consent income grew 38% to 6.2 million, and eMedia revenues grew 63% to $2.7 million of its overall $70 million. But $4 million in Olympics-related revenues and $8 million in political ad revenues were one-time boosts.
With broadcast network companies such as NBCU, Disney, News Corp. and CBS increasingly relying on online sites, digital platforms and devices to distribute their programs, local station owners fear the dilution of the affiliate brand. They worry that the broadcast network owners will exit the TV station business by selling programs directly to cable and new digital media.
The high capital cost, declining revenues and tighter margins will become increasingly apparent in the media conglomerates’ television station results. Disney’s ABC-owned station reported ad revenue declines of -12% last quarter compared with -18% for CBS stations and -22% for Fox stations. In what could prove to be a best-case scenario, Bernstein Research estimates that Disney’s ABC TV station advertising will decline -15% in fiscal 2009, which assumes an 80% incremental margin. At News Corp., which recently sold eight of its smaller TV stations, local TV and newspaper declines will pressure overall margins through fiscal 2009.
Still, News Corp. and Disney executives last week defended their holistic strategy of continuing to own major market TV stations. “These are business for us that deliver high capital returns and … we still believe in them because of the way that we run them and the free cash flow that they throw off for this company,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Local TV station owners (many of them heavily in debt) are under pressure to modify high-cost legacy structure, leverage their unique local content and connections, and engage in new digital enterprises to collectively offset traditional ad declines. That means reaching beyond cash retrans fees from cable and telco operators to linking their local franchise brands with consumer electronics manufacturers like Apple, GPS operators, wireless mobile telephone and PDA manufacturers (like RIMM).
It also means leveraging their position with Google and other Internet players seeking to capitalize on selling their available ad inventory and launching new Wi-Fi services using unlicensed “white space” between their channels. “If our business is going to be in-play, we might as well reinvent ourselves,” confided one veteran independent broadcast executive. “It beats waiting for a rescue that will never come.”
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Times...They Are A Changin'....
THE TIMES…THEY ARE A CHANGIN’……
It’s been another challenging year for the economy and consumers across our great nation. The
It’s been another challenging year for the economy and consumers across our great nation. The
Fed’s Q4 Beige Book reported declines, downgrades and more woes, although the December Black Friday weekend did shine a little light onto the retailing industry with sales up by 7.2% from mid-December 2007, according to the National Retail Foundation. But if 2008 is remembered as a tough year to be a banker or broker, 2009 is looking like a very tough year to be a consumer or retailer. And perhaps an especially difficult time to be a marketer or advertiser unless local businesses are counseled well by the brightest of media sales professionals who understand and have studied the outcomes of the past four recessions of late…1983, 1987, 1991 and 2000. Each had storybook surprises for local businesses and consumers. The changes in each recessionary environment bore different consequences and rewards. What is evident is the environment in our present 2008-2009 recession is that it comes at a time when we, as well as our global communities, are witnessing an historical U.S. presidential election and the immense challenges the new administration will face that will have an endemic affect on economies worldwide. To bring ourselves up to date and provide bold opportunities for the stimulating tests of our abilities which lie ahead, let’s review just the past nine months.
The election is over and having set historical precedent of electing America’s first black president amidst a world shaken by corrupt, unbridled financial pandemonium, manifested by Wall Street’s unscrupulous penchant for greed, a failure of an administration to appropriate oversight to monitor the bankers and mortgage brokers who encouraged the lending of assets to the economically depraved while incenting the insurance companies to back toxic mortgages, which also became the business model for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Amidst this chaotic climate, our country suffers the morose affects of a six-year war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, millions of Americans, whose mortgages which should have never been granted, are being made homeless by the recklessness bred by the self-indulgence and gluttony of the CEOs of mortgage companies and investment banking firms who seek their own rewards instead of their shareholders, whose trust they violated. Our country faces thousands of jobs lost as a result of the credit crunch, exorbitant energy costs, and the failure of the automotive industry to create a competitive environment with fuel efficient vehicles instead of apparently being in bed with the oil companies, who enjoy the ongoing production of gas guzzling cars and SUVs to feed their CEOs and speculators’ wallets.
Additionally, the loss of, or great reduction of, ad revenues flowing to TV from the auto industry will be widely felt by media companies who continue to chose transactional business as their primary business model, instead of developing and serving well the preservation and growth of local businesses which has always been the strongest pillar of our economic foundation. Diane Mermigas of MediaPost Publications and well known business media analyst reports the Television Bureau of Advertising vastly lowered its 2009 TV station ad forecast to levels recently set by Wall Street analysts, saying it now expects local spot sales will decline 4% to 8% and national spot will be down 11.5% to 15.5% next year. Only election-year spending helped to save local TV in the first ten months of this year. Still, the owned-and-operated TV stations of Disney/ABC, CBS, News/Fox and NBC Universal significantly underperformed pure-play broadcasters for the second consecutive quarter, due partly to less battleground-state political exposure.
With as many as 1,000 local auto dealers expected to go out of business by next year and the big three domestic automakers seeking federal aid to avoid bankruptcy, local ad-supported media pain has only just begun. Auto ad spending, which contributes about 25% of the industry-wide local ad revenue base, was down about 40% last quarter for major TV station groups like Fox.
Local cable, which generally outperformed local television last quarter, could sneak up on broadcasters in these difficult times as a prelude to a complete rollout of the new addressable, interactive advertising and data that Canoe Ventures fronted by major cable system operators. “The credit crisis has magnified trends that were already in motion.
For most of the decade, advertisers have been viewing interactive media as a more efficient, less costly way of reaching consumers than traditional media buys,” Borrell observes. Advertising expenditure dials have “just about been adjusted for interactive media,” which means that local TV especially must position itself to capture double-digit growth during a recessionary recovery by 2010.
Thus, the changes which are manifest in the auto industry may well be as dire as with the real estate industry at present and its ancillary businesses such as furniture, floor covering, wall covering, remodeling and landscaping. The credit crunch and consumer exhaustion may spread to other businesses. Finally, we have suffered an administration’s failure to provide adequate health care and affordable prescription medicine to the uninsured and the elderly, a deepening recession and a $700 billion dollar bailout which promised immediate relief yet immersed in paralysis.
The consequence of this untimely economic disaster is wreaking havoc on the media and their clients who seem to be in a state of flux. Most direct clients however are not so morose and are more than willing to invest in their future and the salvation of their business. The key to the success of a business has always been throughout each and every economic downturn maintaining their consistency as that will fare far better for them to maintain their brand awareness and its equity, and consumer brand confidence, as opposed to sitting on the sidelines while their competition eats up their market share. You must inspire that trust if you are to help the forge forward. But foremost, you must believe in it yourself.
The good news is that all cycles have a beginning and an end. We are at the beginning of the end of a cycle at this time. No one knows how long it will take to transition from the end of one cycle to the beginning of another, but the next phase in a new cycle is recovery and expansion. Today, there is more true wealth in the world than at any time in history. It is in everyone’s interest to keep the system sound and improving it. Our nation’s greatest successes have begun during troubled times such as these. Bob Dylan once lamented, “The times, they are a changing. Come senators, congressmen please heed the call, don’t stand in the doorway, dont block up the hall. For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls…for the times they are a-changin’.”
For all that is said and will be written about these times, you must be at the beginning of the changes and arouse those about you not to settle for the gloom that you hear and read about. For all that will do is hold you back from the great future that lies ahead. Reinvent yourself. The only rescue that’s out there is the one you provide for all who wait for you to show up. The playing field for everyone has now been leveled and the continuum of growth local businesses seek is in your hands…for your future and theirs begins now, for the times…they are truly a changin.’
The election is over and having set historical precedent of electing America’s first black president amidst a world shaken by corrupt, unbridled financial pandemonium, manifested by Wall Street’s unscrupulous penchant for greed, a failure of an administration to appropriate oversight to monitor the bankers and mortgage brokers who encouraged the lending of assets to the economically depraved while incenting the insurance companies to back toxic mortgages, which also became the business model for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Amidst this chaotic climate, our country suffers the morose affects of a six-year war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, millions of Americans, whose mortgages which should have never been granted, are being made homeless by the recklessness bred by the self-indulgence and gluttony of the CEOs of mortgage companies and investment banking firms who seek their own rewards instead of their shareholders, whose trust they violated. Our country faces thousands of jobs lost as a result of the credit crunch, exorbitant energy costs, and the failure of the automotive industry to create a competitive environment with fuel efficient vehicles instead of apparently being in bed with the oil companies, who enjoy the ongoing production of gas guzzling cars and SUVs to feed their CEOs and speculators’ wallets.
Additionally, the loss of, or great reduction of, ad revenues flowing to TV from the auto industry will be widely felt by media companies who continue to chose transactional business as their primary business model, instead of developing and serving well the preservation and growth of local businesses which has always been the strongest pillar of our economic foundation. Diane Mermigas of MediaPost Publications and well known business media analyst reports the Television Bureau of Advertising vastly lowered its 2009 TV station ad forecast to levels recently set by Wall Street analysts, saying it now expects local spot sales will decline 4% to 8% and national spot will be down 11.5% to 15.5% next year. Only election-year spending helped to save local TV in the first ten months of this year. Still, the owned-and-operated TV stations of Disney/ABC, CBS, News/Fox and NBC Universal significantly underperformed pure-play broadcasters for the second consecutive quarter, due partly to less battleground-state political exposure.
With as many as 1,000 local auto dealers expected to go out of business by next year and the big three domestic automakers seeking federal aid to avoid bankruptcy, local ad-supported media pain has only just begun. Auto ad spending, which contributes about 25% of the industry-wide local ad revenue base, was down about 40% last quarter for major TV station groups like Fox.
Local cable, which generally outperformed local television last quarter, could sneak up on broadcasters in these difficult times as a prelude to a complete rollout of the new addressable, interactive advertising and data that Canoe Ventures fronted by major cable system operators. “The credit crisis has magnified trends that were already in motion.
For most of the decade, advertisers have been viewing interactive media as a more efficient, less costly way of reaching consumers than traditional media buys,” Borrell observes. Advertising expenditure dials have “just about been adjusted for interactive media,” which means that local TV especially must position itself to capture double-digit growth during a recessionary recovery by 2010.
Thus, the changes which are manifest in the auto industry may well be as dire as with the real estate industry at present and its ancillary businesses such as furniture, floor covering, wall covering, remodeling and landscaping. The credit crunch and consumer exhaustion may spread to other businesses. Finally, we have suffered an administration’s failure to provide adequate health care and affordable prescription medicine to the uninsured and the elderly, a deepening recession and a $700 billion dollar bailout which promised immediate relief yet immersed in paralysis.
The consequence of this untimely economic disaster is wreaking havoc on the media and their clients who seem to be in a state of flux. Most direct clients however are not so morose and are more than willing to invest in their future and the salvation of their business. The key to the success of a business has always been throughout each and every economic downturn maintaining their consistency as that will fare far better for them to maintain their brand awareness and its equity, and consumer brand confidence, as opposed to sitting on the sidelines while their competition eats up their market share. You must inspire that trust if you are to help the forge forward. But foremost, you must believe in it yourself.
The good news is that all cycles have a beginning and an end. We are at the beginning of the end of a cycle at this time. No one knows how long it will take to transition from the end of one cycle to the beginning of another, but the next phase in a new cycle is recovery and expansion. Today, there is more true wealth in the world than at any time in history. It is in everyone’s interest to keep the system sound and improving it. Our nation’s greatest successes have begun during troubled times such as these. Bob Dylan once lamented, “The times, they are a changing. Come senators, congressmen please heed the call, don’t stand in the doorway, dont block up the hall. For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls…for the times they are a-changin’.”
For all that is said and will be written about these times, you must be at the beginning of the changes and arouse those about you not to settle for the gloom that you hear and read about. For all that will do is hold you back from the great future that lies ahead. Reinvent yourself. The only rescue that’s out there is the one you provide for all who wait for you to show up. The playing field for everyone has now been leveled and the continuum of growth local businesses seek is in your hands…for your future and theirs begins now, for the times…they are truly a changin.’
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
Monday, December 22, 2008
7 Deadliest Sins of Mobile Marketing
7 deadliest sins of mobile marketing
By Eric Holmen
In April 2007, I contributed to a book released by Stanford University’s Mobile Persuasion Lab called “Mobile Persuasion: Perspectives on the Future of Influence.” It was, I believe, the first book written about the immediate future of mobile marketing and mobile technology, and covered a lot of uncharted territory on this “emerging” trend.
I wrote, as did a number of contributors, about changing consumer needs and demands, and how the way we live our lives is creating an entire new platform for multi-directional conversations with businesses and brands via mobile. I also wrote that mobile would become more than a vehicle for sending and receiving calls and text messages. Mobile technology would change the way people live – affecting everything from healthcare, social networking and activism, to entertainment, commerce and finances.
At that time, my message of mobile’s rise to prominence was met with some resistance. For many people, mobile marketing was just another fad that would pass, and so a lot of developments that we were making in pushing forward the adoption of mobile were ignored.
That was in 2007.
Today, as we approach 2009, the exact opposite is true. There seems to be a media and chief marketing officer frenzy over everything related to mobile marketing and with it, conflicting reports and opinions. In one arena, a Nielsen November report claims that mobile ad recall is up by 81 percent year over year, while the Mobile Marketing Association’s survey by Synovate, also in the same month, states that “consumer interest in mobile marketing has flat-lined in 2008.”
Unlike the analysts or surveys, however, our company is on the very front line of mobile marketing adoption and what I wrote in 2007 is indeed happening right before our very eyes: “Mobile persuasion, mobile marketing and mobile technology are the watchwords that marketers will need to come to terms with rapidly as the world of advertising, media fragmentation and Web 2.0 changes before their very eyes.”
But while mobile’s rapid rise to fame is great for our industry, there is a downside, too. Everyone wants in and a many companies have suddenly become experts on mobile marketing, whether or not they understand the mobile space or have sufficient depth of experience.
Mobile marketing might be a new frontier, but it is not the Wild West.
Absolutely, competition is to be encouraged – this eggs us on to provide even better services and products to customers. But without extensive knowledge and deeper understanding of mobile marketing in all its complexities and extensions, there is also a danger that companies aren’t being told what not to do.
Below are some of the worst sins that brands and marketers can carry out when it comes to mobile marketing. This is my list of not-to-do’s – the seven deadliest sins of mobile marketing.
1. Garbage in, garbage out
As with any marketing approach, sending inappropriate, irrelevant or poorly targeted content buys you a ticket to one place – the sin bin. Do not be tempted to send trashy content. SMS marketing works exactly the same way as other ad mediums in turning customers off. Sixty-four percent of consumers find mobile ads irritating if they aren’t delivering valuable or relevant content, while three out of 10 U.S. mobile users recall relevant mobile ads. So if you don’t fancy being blacklisted from your customer’s phone, understand their preferences and dislikes before sending content, even if it’s a simple text message.
2. The road to nowhere
Spam ‘em? Don’t even think about it. The mobile phone is a high-ranking highly-personal possession and should be treated with respect. It is one of the three things people do not leave home without – the other two being keys and wallet. Call it sacrosanct. Spam has no place on mobile phones, as startup HeyCosmo found out recently when it sent phone spam to certain bloggers. Opt-in is the only road forward for mobile marketing, with Federal Trade Commission regulations firmly in place to weed out any maverick marketers around.
3. Pick a time, any time
Some marketers might be mistaken in thinking that any time is a good time to send a text message. Just like telemarketers calling up during dinnertime, the text message delivered at the wrong time will appear obtrusive, unwelcome and potentially annoying to the customer. So what is the right time to text? Ask the customer when they sign up to receive your messaging.
4. Gimmicks, gadgets, gizmos and junk
As a guest on consumers’ mobile phones, sending irrelevant gimmicks to enter competitions, links to irrelevant banners or scrolling through multiple screens will get you blacklisted faster that you can say TXT2LOSE. If a consumer has signed up to receive price alerts, notifications of new arrivals or discounts on favorite items – send only those. Leave the gimmicks and silly banner links for someone else.
5. Don’t dish up seconds and thirds
An honest marketer will tell you that campaigns do not always translate successfully into other mediums. Just because an online campaign yielded great results with low CPM, it is no guarantee of similar success with mobile.
A strategy for mobile should have its own identity, but be able to integrate with others. And with a small screen and size limitation of 160 characters, you need to get2the!
6. Safe data, smart operator
Security breaches happen because someone somewhere wasn’t smart enough, while someone somewhere else was much smarter. If you value your customers, then you will value keeping their data safe and well protected especially as mobile commerce and banking grows. Brand erosion and the damage from loss of customer trust caused by security breaches can end up costing millions to a company.
7. You are dumped
The point to all this advice is about developing and feeding your relationship with consumers. Marketing, mobile or otherwise, does not drive most transactions. Relationships and trust do. So if relationships drive transactions and business, marketers must treat their mobile relationships with respect and without aggression. Most of all, marketers have to show consumers their raison d’être in order to become a valued and trusted part of that mobile phone carrier’s life. Otherwise, you are dumped.
Yes, mobile marketing has the potential to make the experience truly miserable, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By avoiding some of these marketing sins, mobile marketing can and will continue to flourish.
Eric Holmen is president of SmartReply Inc., a mobile and relationship marketing firm in Irvine, CA. Reach him at eholmen@smartreply.com.
By Eric Holmen
In April 2007, I contributed to a book released by Stanford University’s Mobile Persuasion Lab called “Mobile Persuasion: Perspectives on the Future of Influence.” It was, I believe, the first book written about the immediate future of mobile marketing and mobile technology, and covered a lot of uncharted territory on this “emerging” trend.
I wrote, as did a number of contributors, about changing consumer needs and demands, and how the way we live our lives is creating an entire new platform for multi-directional conversations with businesses and brands via mobile. I also wrote that mobile would become more than a vehicle for sending and receiving calls and text messages. Mobile technology would change the way people live – affecting everything from healthcare, social networking and activism, to entertainment, commerce and finances.
At that time, my message of mobile’s rise to prominence was met with some resistance. For many people, mobile marketing was just another fad that would pass, and so a lot of developments that we were making in pushing forward the adoption of mobile were ignored.
That was in 2007.
Today, as we approach 2009, the exact opposite is true. There seems to be a media and chief marketing officer frenzy over everything related to mobile marketing and with it, conflicting reports and opinions. In one arena, a Nielsen November report claims that mobile ad recall is up by 81 percent year over year, while the Mobile Marketing Association’s survey by Synovate, also in the same month, states that “consumer interest in mobile marketing has flat-lined in 2008.”
Unlike the analysts or surveys, however, our company is on the very front line of mobile marketing adoption and what I wrote in 2007 is indeed happening right before our very eyes: “Mobile persuasion, mobile marketing and mobile technology are the watchwords that marketers will need to come to terms with rapidly as the world of advertising, media fragmentation and Web 2.0 changes before their very eyes.”
But while mobile’s rapid rise to fame is great for our industry, there is a downside, too. Everyone wants in and a many companies have suddenly become experts on mobile marketing, whether or not they understand the mobile space or have sufficient depth of experience.
Mobile marketing might be a new frontier, but it is not the Wild West.
Absolutely, competition is to be encouraged – this eggs us on to provide even better services and products to customers. But without extensive knowledge and deeper understanding of mobile marketing in all its complexities and extensions, there is also a danger that companies aren’t being told what not to do.
Below are some of the worst sins that brands and marketers can carry out when it comes to mobile marketing. This is my list of not-to-do’s – the seven deadliest sins of mobile marketing.
1. Garbage in, garbage out
As with any marketing approach, sending inappropriate, irrelevant or poorly targeted content buys you a ticket to one place – the sin bin. Do not be tempted to send trashy content. SMS marketing works exactly the same way as other ad mediums in turning customers off. Sixty-four percent of consumers find mobile ads irritating if they aren’t delivering valuable or relevant content, while three out of 10 U.S. mobile users recall relevant mobile ads. So if you don’t fancy being blacklisted from your customer’s phone, understand their preferences and dislikes before sending content, even if it’s a simple text message.
2. The road to nowhere
Spam ‘em? Don’t even think about it. The mobile phone is a high-ranking highly-personal possession and should be treated with respect. It is one of the three things people do not leave home without – the other two being keys and wallet. Call it sacrosanct. Spam has no place on mobile phones, as startup HeyCosmo found out recently when it sent phone spam to certain bloggers. Opt-in is the only road forward for mobile marketing, with Federal Trade Commission regulations firmly in place to weed out any maverick marketers around.
3. Pick a time, any time
Some marketers might be mistaken in thinking that any time is a good time to send a text message. Just like telemarketers calling up during dinnertime, the text message delivered at the wrong time will appear obtrusive, unwelcome and potentially annoying to the customer. So what is the right time to text? Ask the customer when they sign up to receive your messaging.
4. Gimmicks, gadgets, gizmos and junk
As a guest on consumers’ mobile phones, sending irrelevant gimmicks to enter competitions, links to irrelevant banners or scrolling through multiple screens will get you blacklisted faster that you can say TXT2LOSE. If a consumer has signed up to receive price alerts, notifications of new arrivals or discounts on favorite items – send only those. Leave the gimmicks and silly banner links for someone else.
5. Don’t dish up seconds and thirds
An honest marketer will tell you that campaigns do not always translate successfully into other mediums. Just because an online campaign yielded great results with low CPM, it is no guarantee of similar success with mobile.
A strategy for mobile should have its own identity, but be able to integrate with others. And with a small screen and size limitation of 160 characters, you need to get2the!
6. Safe data, smart operator
Security breaches happen because someone somewhere wasn’t smart enough, while someone somewhere else was much smarter. If you value your customers, then you will value keeping their data safe and well protected especially as mobile commerce and banking grows. Brand erosion and the damage from loss of customer trust caused by security breaches can end up costing millions to a company.
7. You are dumped
The point to all this advice is about developing and feeding your relationship with consumers. Marketing, mobile or otherwise, does not drive most transactions. Relationships and trust do. So if relationships drive transactions and business, marketers must treat their mobile relationships with respect and without aggression. Most of all, marketers have to show consumers their raison d’être in order to become a valued and trusted part of that mobile phone carrier’s life. Otherwise, you are dumped.
Yes, mobile marketing has the potential to make the experience truly miserable, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By avoiding some of these marketing sins, mobile marketing can and will continue to flourish.
Eric Holmen is president of SmartReply Inc., a mobile and relationship marketing firm in Irvine, CA. Reach him at eholmen@smartreply.com.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Being the Top Banana
Becoming the Top Banana
As we look back on 2008 we found so many great folks who love selling media putting a definite spark back into the game and it was wonderful to see. It was great because media is experiencing a chaotic yet necessary metamorphosis driven partially by the tech companies in dire need for newer revenue applications and partially by demanding consumers who want more every step of their way and are willing pay for it. We found great media sales professionals love what they do and want more of the action each day of the year. To them media sales is an exciting way to enter a career, earn great money, a wonderful lifestyle and save a bundle for their future. Not withstanding, there were plenty of ups and downs in the ever-changing media environment of the past three years which shook the stability of the rock pile many times. But overall…those who made the choice of becoming part of what we know is the fastest moving business in the job market today, besides being a trader on the floor in Wall Street, found refuge in having the highest earning potential and were thus rewarded. They are the Top Guns, as media mogul Dan Sullivan calls them, who look to go to work every day, who find cold calling a game of “hide and seek,” collections or receivables a condition of controlling their cash register and treating the building of their long-term local direct business like a growth mutual fund or annuity with guaranteed income payouts. Those sales professionals in media marketing today hold the future of the business in their palms. They are the ones for whom the bell tolls.
As a national media sales trainer for Executive Decision Systems, of Littleton, CO, creator of System 21©, for the last twenty-four years, as well as having the privilege of publishing Retail In$ights, I have witnessed sellers at myriad media companies who wanted to take the easy way out and continue to concentrate on the transactional side of the business instead of developing good paying, long-term, local-direct business to balance their sales portfolios. They continue to play the transactional game without realizing how fast the contest is changing and how clients and agencies are experimenting with other venues with which to reach the ever-mobile and finicky consumer. To me it’s like watching a train wreck coming down the track at breakneck speed and seeing those transactional reps stuck on the track too busy to see the impending tragedy.
For this essay I chose to talk about media’s human resources…those who venture out to sell media during the toughest of times and what will happen to an organization which tolerates employees and managers who have accepted mediocrity as the standard gold of performance. I use a model of behavior described by author Jim Sullivan who discusses the relevance of comparing monkey’s behavioral patterns similar to what are many corporate management business practices. I could have chosen to bring good cheer, happy thoughts and rah-rah-rah to the table…..as a preamble to the New Year 2008, but as a realist….I’d rather create cognitive thought and bring challenges to the forefront. Bear with me tho’ as it’s all for the good.
As we watch sales managers and their sellers in the field, we have found that by accepting mediocrity and poor performance accelerates turnover among the best sellers which leaves companies with the poor salespeople whose inactivity almost always creates chaos in budget attainment and management turnover. It seems to occur mostly when managers compromised standards and accepted poor performance without taking necessary action of” putting a few bullets in the chamber” as my friend Ric Gorman used to say. True, the labor pool has been rather bereft of good talent with which to hire to stabilize the corporation, but the lack of good potential performers often causes managers to quickly hire average sales people and hope that sales "training" will take care of the problem. Another noticeable problem is that many general managers are so busy managing their numbers that their failing to truly recognize poor performers, and their weak performance. Another good friend of mine, Mike Granados has often said "the fish stinks from the head down." Most of the time, general managers have to hire mediocre managers who will not take the time to methodically challenge the sales process and search out the probable causes of what went wrong. Instead, they claim they hired a sales manager or director of sales and that's their job to screen the applicants and their performance levels. Of times new sales managers are dropped off at the end of the pier, so-to-speak and it becomes a matter of sink or swim. And, what we have seen, which has been more of a major problem, is that the general manager as well as their hired director of sales has a difficult problem in their willingness to initiate change or their resistance to it. The result, owners suffer and Wall Street gets in their face and everything become a pressure cooker of unpleasant experiences.
The message is simple: if your top salespeople keep leaving as a result of management’s inability or unwillingness to become change agents and go to competition and then, only the least valuable salespeople remain, a manager must learn to control the balance of previous management behavior and start challenging corporate policies and their processes, which, as a means, made the company most successful in the past. Otherwise, as they say, “You'll get what you always got.”
Jim Sullivan, author of "A Multi-Unit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building High-and Performing Partnerships and Teams” puts it in a simpler context: him. It's a ‘monkey see monkey do mentality,’ which leads to mediocrity and drives owners bananas. His premise hypothetically, begins with putting five monkeys in a cage. Inside the cage, place one banana on a string and place a ladder under it. Keep a garden hose nearby. Soon, one of the monkeys will spot the banana and start to climb the letter to get it. When he does, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. Now, replace the banana.
After a while another one of the monkeys will probably go after the banana. Again, spray all the other monkeys with cold water.
Sullivan observes monkeys are relatively smart, so pretty soon, whenever one of the monkeys attempts to climb the ladder, all the other monkeys will try to prevent them from doing so. Naturally! They don’t want to get sprayed with cold water again. When that happens, put away the cold water hose. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. Now hang a new banana over the ladder.
The new monkey will spot the banana and head for the ladder. To his great surprise, all the other monkeys will spontaneously attack him. After several more futile attempts, all of which will result in further beatings, the new monkey will no longer try for the banana.
Remove another of the original monkeys and again replace it with a new one. Now replace the banana. Again, the new monkey will make a grab for it. Like its predecessor, he will be stunned to discover that all the other monkeys attack him. In fact, the previous newcomer monkey will most likely take a particularly enthusiastic role in his replacement’s punishment.
One at a time, gradually replace all of the original monkeys with new ones. Each of the newcomers will go for the banana. Each one will be attacked by the other four. Most of the new monkeys have absolutely no idea why they were not allowed to climb the ladder, or why they are not participating in the assault on the newest monkey.
When all of the original monkeys have been replaced, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, not one of those monkeys ever approaches the ladder. Why not? Because as far as they're concerned, that's the way it has always been done around here.... And that's how corporate culture in the media business and company policy often begins.
Thank you, Jim Sullivan. I was able to share your wonderful piece from your People, Performance and Profits column in “Nation’s Restaurant News.” I truly hope my friends in the media and subscribers to Retail In$ights do not think that their newly hired salespeople are a bunch of monkeys or for that matter, neither are their general managers. It does however cause one to take pause in considering how things began in the media business and how often things remain the same. Change is the new business model. Change, make change or be changed may be the result.
With all the competition gathering and growing about you, one need to reflect on how good business may be done and what type of business gets done the first. We know the agencies and their clients are manifesting change. Local-direct is the future of the business. Those who are trained to get after local-direct business will reap the benefits of their chosen career path as well as enjoy the financial rewards which come from its pursuit. The new business model of the future is all about balance. Balancing ones portfolio with long-term, local-direct business and transactional activities is a good equation for everyone concerned. Media sales as a profession is a most exciting, exhilarating way of doing business, whose rewards mostly go to those who seek better ways of generating new revenue solutions. No more monkey see, monkey do, else the ladder may be pulled from under you and then its back to the jungle and its law of Eat or Be eaten prevails.
The year 2009 is yours for the taking. Go get it and enjoy the fun of the hunt. Make it an adventure.
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
LeNoble's Media Business Insights
As we look back on 2008 we found so many great folks who love selling media putting a definite spark back into the game and it was wonderful to see. It was great because media is experiencing a chaotic yet necessary metamorphosis driven partially by the tech companies in dire need for newer revenue applications and partially by demanding consumers who want more every step of their way and are willing pay for it. We found great media sales professionals love what they do and want more of the action each day of the year. To them media sales is an exciting way to enter a career, earn great money, a wonderful lifestyle and save a bundle for their future. Not withstanding, there were plenty of ups and downs in the ever-changing media environment of the past three years which shook the stability of the rock pile many times. But overall…those who made the choice of becoming part of what we know is the fastest moving business in the job market today, besides being a trader on the floor in Wall Street, found refuge in having the highest earning potential and were thus rewarded. They are the Top Guns, as media mogul Dan Sullivan calls them, who look to go to work every day, who find cold calling a game of “hide and seek,” collections or receivables a condition of controlling their cash register and treating the building of their long-term local direct business like a growth mutual fund or annuity with guaranteed income payouts. Those sales professionals in media marketing today hold the future of the business in their palms. They are the ones for whom the bell tolls.
As a national media sales trainer for Executive Decision Systems, of Littleton, CO, creator of System 21©, for the last twenty-four years, as well as having the privilege of publishing Retail In$ights, I have witnessed sellers at myriad media companies who wanted to take the easy way out and continue to concentrate on the transactional side of the business instead of developing good paying, long-term, local-direct business to balance their sales portfolios. They continue to play the transactional game without realizing how fast the contest is changing and how clients and agencies are experimenting with other venues with which to reach the ever-mobile and finicky consumer. To me it’s like watching a train wreck coming down the track at breakneck speed and seeing those transactional reps stuck on the track too busy to see the impending tragedy.
For this essay I chose to talk about media’s human resources…those who venture out to sell media during the toughest of times and what will happen to an organization which tolerates employees and managers who have accepted mediocrity as the standard gold of performance. I use a model of behavior described by author Jim Sullivan who discusses the relevance of comparing monkey’s behavioral patterns similar to what are many corporate management business practices. I could have chosen to bring good cheer, happy thoughts and rah-rah-rah to the table…..as a preamble to the New Year 2008, but as a realist….I’d rather create cognitive thought and bring challenges to the forefront. Bear with me tho’ as it’s all for the good.
As we watch sales managers and their sellers in the field, we have found that by accepting mediocrity and poor performance accelerates turnover among the best sellers which leaves companies with the poor salespeople whose inactivity almost always creates chaos in budget attainment and management turnover. It seems to occur mostly when managers compromised standards and accepted poor performance without taking necessary action of” putting a few bullets in the chamber” as my friend Ric Gorman used to say. True, the labor pool has been rather bereft of good talent with which to hire to stabilize the corporation, but the lack of good potential performers often causes managers to quickly hire average sales people and hope that sales "training" will take care of the problem. Another noticeable problem is that many general managers are so busy managing their numbers that their failing to truly recognize poor performers, and their weak performance. Another good friend of mine, Mike Granados has often said "the fish stinks from the head down." Most of the time, general managers have to hire mediocre managers who will not take the time to methodically challenge the sales process and search out the probable causes of what went wrong. Instead, they claim they hired a sales manager or director of sales and that's their job to screen the applicants and their performance levels. Of times new sales managers are dropped off at the end of the pier, so-to-speak and it becomes a matter of sink or swim. And, what we have seen, which has been more of a major problem, is that the general manager as well as their hired director of sales has a difficult problem in their willingness to initiate change or their resistance to it. The result, owners suffer and Wall Street gets in their face and everything become a pressure cooker of unpleasant experiences.
The message is simple: if your top salespeople keep leaving as a result of management’s inability or unwillingness to become change agents and go to competition and then, only the least valuable salespeople remain, a manager must learn to control the balance of previous management behavior and start challenging corporate policies and their processes, which, as a means, made the company most successful in the past. Otherwise, as they say, “You'll get what you always got.”
Jim Sullivan, author of "A Multi-Unit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building High-and Performing Partnerships and Teams” puts it in a simpler context: him. It's a ‘monkey see monkey do mentality,’ which leads to mediocrity and drives owners bananas. His premise hypothetically, begins with putting five monkeys in a cage. Inside the cage, place one banana on a string and place a ladder under it. Keep a garden hose nearby. Soon, one of the monkeys will spot the banana and start to climb the letter to get it. When he does, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. Now, replace the banana.
After a while another one of the monkeys will probably go after the banana. Again, spray all the other monkeys with cold water.
Sullivan observes monkeys are relatively smart, so pretty soon, whenever one of the monkeys attempts to climb the ladder, all the other monkeys will try to prevent them from doing so. Naturally! They don’t want to get sprayed with cold water again. When that happens, put away the cold water hose. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. Now hang a new banana over the ladder.
The new monkey will spot the banana and head for the ladder. To his great surprise, all the other monkeys will spontaneously attack him. After several more futile attempts, all of which will result in further beatings, the new monkey will no longer try for the banana.
Remove another of the original monkeys and again replace it with a new one. Now replace the banana. Again, the new monkey will make a grab for it. Like its predecessor, he will be stunned to discover that all the other monkeys attack him. In fact, the previous newcomer monkey will most likely take a particularly enthusiastic role in his replacement’s punishment.
One at a time, gradually replace all of the original monkeys with new ones. Each of the newcomers will go for the banana. Each one will be attacked by the other four. Most of the new monkeys have absolutely no idea why they were not allowed to climb the ladder, or why they are not participating in the assault on the newest monkey.
When all of the original monkeys have been replaced, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, not one of those monkeys ever approaches the ladder. Why not? Because as far as they're concerned, that's the way it has always been done around here.... And that's how corporate culture in the media business and company policy often begins.
Thank you, Jim Sullivan. I was able to share your wonderful piece from your People, Performance and Profits column in “Nation’s Restaurant News.” I truly hope my friends in the media and subscribers to Retail In$ights do not think that their newly hired salespeople are a bunch of monkeys or for that matter, neither are their general managers. It does however cause one to take pause in considering how things began in the media business and how often things remain the same. Change is the new business model. Change, make change or be changed may be the result.
With all the competition gathering and growing about you, one need to reflect on how good business may be done and what type of business gets done the first. We know the agencies and their clients are manifesting change. Local-direct is the future of the business. Those who are trained to get after local-direct business will reap the benefits of their chosen career path as well as enjoy the financial rewards which come from its pursuit. The new business model of the future is all about balance. Balancing ones portfolio with long-term, local-direct business and transactional activities is a good equation for everyone concerned. Media sales as a profession is a most exciting, exhilarating way of doing business, whose rewards mostly go to those who seek better ways of generating new revenue solutions. No more monkey see, monkey do, else the ladder may be pulled from under you and then its back to the jungle and its law of Eat or Be eaten prevails.
The year 2009 is yours for the taking. Go get it and enjoy the fun of the hunt. Make it an adventure.
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
LeNoble's Media Business Insights
Radio Revenues for 2009
Barclays sees double-digit drop.Barclays Capital is pegging radio with a 13% drop in revenues next year. Local spending will be hardest hit. Analysts think Main Street advertisers will cut spending by 16%. Barclays says national spot and network revenue will be down 10%.
Sounds like a good time to call in help for the local team who, for the most part...sit at their computers/telephones and negotiate CPP....Better to grow local direct and make direct clients long term fans..as direct business builds and stabilizes the foundation..says Dr. PJL
Sounds like a good time to call in help for the local team who, for the most part...sit at their computers/telephones and negotiate CPP....Better to grow local direct and make direct clients long term fans..as direct business builds and stabilizes the foundation..says Dr. PJL
Selling the Big Idea
Thought everyone would like to read Chris' Big Idea.....So here ya go...
Philip J
Selling The Big Idea RE: Every Word Matters (Online Publishing Insider, 12/18)
From: Chris Witt, Witt CommunicationsI work with 1) C-level executives who want audiences to embrace their ideas (proposals, initiatives, directions, etc.); and with 2) high-tech professionals who get called in to make an oral proposal for large government contracts. They don't think of themselves as being into sales, and I don't try to convince them that they are. (But they are.)
Everything you say about selling a product applies to selling an idea or a proposal.
I ask my clients to be clear about WHAT (what is their idea, product, or service?), WHY (why should the audience care about it? how will it help them solve a problem, achieve a goal, or satisfy a need?), and HOW (how can they use it?).
Philip J
Selling The Big Idea RE: Every Word Matters (Online Publishing Insider, 12/18)
From: Chris Witt, Witt CommunicationsI work with 1) C-level executives who want audiences to embrace their ideas (proposals, initiatives, directions, etc.); and with 2) high-tech professionals who get called in to make an oral proposal for large government contracts. They don't think of themselves as being into sales, and I don't try to convince them that they are. (But they are.)
Everything you say about selling a product applies to selling an idea or a proposal.
I ask my clients to be clear about WHAT (what is their idea, product, or service?), WHY (why should the audience care about it? how will it help them solve a problem, achieve a goal, or satisfy a need?), and HOW (how can they use it?).
Sunday, November 30, 2008
When the Economy slows Down, It’s Time to Fire Up: Things to do to Champion Rough Waters
Every time the economy took a hit from the late 60s through the early eighties when I was on the street, I knew while the other reps were whining about why there were not getting the buys they always depended on it was my time on deck to show management why they made all the right moves in hiring me. Agencies were pulling back media dollars at their client’s behest, driving our GM and sales manager nuts. They told our owners how much money they could depend on and all of a sudden the lights went out. Sales meetings became sales beatings. All the other sellers developed a patch of excuses as to why they weren’t making budget not just for the month but the whole quarter. The traffic and business department had an unexpected holiday as did the production team. Going to work in the morning for the other reps was like walking into a revolving door. I had a little fear thrown at me by some of my clients but I told them if they stopped advertising the current customers they had been reaching we become afraid something really bad was happening and they would stop buying and their balance sheets would take a major hit. The new customers wouldn’t come or call either. It’s simple. When a business stops inviting people to come to their business customers stop coming.
Advertising in a slow economy is good especially when the competition stops. A business gets to improve their market share and steal customers away from their competition. When the economy comes back those businesses who maintained their consistency doubled and tripled their market share while their competition had to fight hard to get back to where they were before the downturn while those who stayed the course went far ahead. Steve Passwaiter of BIA Financial reminds us that Proctor &Gamble made a fortune out of boosting advertising during recessionary periods of 1987, 1990 and 2001. They hoped that their competition stops or slowed their advertising because they know that it would be a great opportunity to steal share. When a business stops promoting themselves during an economic downturn, they join the others who are waiting at the edge of the cliff and thus promote themselves into a deeper downward spiral. Look at the two graphs below. One graph depicts what happens to businesses when they stop using their marketing communication dollars to drive traffic.
It is a known fact that since we have witnessed the last three recessionary environments, 1987, 1990 and 2001, those businesses that remained consistent with their media marketing and branding doubled and tripled their share against competitors who took to the sidelines. The example below is what happens to a company when it ceases its advertising. (EDS, Inc.)
Downturns, troughs or economic contractions always find their way back up to spur peak economies.
The graphic illustration below highlights recessionary environments from the point of a contracting economy to its recovery and expansion.
Recession is defined as a period of economic retraction; when the economy actually gets smaller. Generally, two months of decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or a sharp rise in the unemployment rate, are red flags that a country is approaching, or in the midst of, such an economic contraction. In the example above, one can see the duration of a given economic period when the economy is at peak performance of GDP and when it begins to contract, recover and expand. (Wikipedia 2008, EDS, Inc, 2008)
During those times I spent in the street while I was on the offensive my colleagues were on the defensive and when I talked to them they looked defensive and relished telling stories about how clients were being tough on them and they began offering lengthy excuses involving their client’s objections…which in itself is a paradox. An excuse is a series of statements that a prospective client makes after getting bombarded by media reptiles offering a continuum of the “package de jour” day after day. All they really want is to get back to business and make money. Their objective in the excuse such as “ My budget is committed for the rest of the year”…..or I’m not interested”…is just getting you the hell out of there. An objection is nothing more than an unanswered question which, once answered is like in an obstacle course, driven out of the way. I always made it a point, in the face of economic troubles when my colleagues where whining to always walk in to a business looking confident, alert and happy and, after listening to their woeful stories about how business is slow, always had a creative idea to bring customers in the door or spoke mainly about how to improve their fortunes.
Many of our salespeople tried to ride out the storm and were just being protective with their existing accounts as opposed to getting out there reaching new business prospects. In place of going out and spinning engaging, compelling and captivating ideas to new businesses they spent all their time trying to keep what they had. To me, new business is something that must be done. What do attorneys or doctors do when they’ve solved a legal or medical problem for a patient? They too have to generate new business and they’re out there meeting people all the time in different environments. During rough times managers need to step up with incentives and let nervous salespeople know their work is appreciated and they are all in the same boat. It’s time to create some weekly goals for the team to achieve and to celebrate when they are accomplished. Incentive programs don’t cost money…they attract money. The goals should be a little challenging but once reached…and the company’s market share grows it’s nice to reward the folks who helped get there. When establishing incentives, managers should aim at the seller in the middle performance level of the sales team because Top Guns feel pretty safe and may not have as much drive as those who feel pressed by the economy and wonder if they’ll be part of the team when the recovery begins. They’re the ones who will respond to positive motivation first.
Incentives for current clients are a good timing element in a tough economy. Since many companies want to trim some of the fat out of their marketing budgets during those times perhaps a Frequent Flyer type program will encourage clients to hang in there with you and have the incentive to renew their contracts as opposed to putting it off until the economy sweetens. We have found it is easier to keep a client and keep them happy rather than having to bear the cost of losing them.
Create incentives for renewals. So many companies invest their energies on building new business which should always be the model of a prosperous business but during tough economic times, companies and their sales reps need to reach out to their clients and help them create more penetrating, creative and intrusive messaging to tweak response levels for them. By helping clients to grow market share during a turbulent economy also manifests renewals as it shows your relationship with them is a real partnership rather than just a sales number. Increased response levels are good collaborative efforts during recessionary environments but during good times as well.
While the economy is faltering, training programs are always helpful reinvest in reinvigorating the sales team and bringing in a street-smart sales trainer who has dealt with successful selling in recessions. Training should include not only a focus on new business development but include clues and techniques in dealing with tough customers during tough times. External sales training specialists brought in by the company demonstrates to the sales team the company is interested in their success as well as the company’s. Executive Decision Systems, Inc of Littleton, CO is the best and most formidable, street-wise media sales training organization in the U.S. They have bested the roughest of downturns in the economy since 1984. Their instructor has local-direct street know-how since 1967…which is 41 years of continuous proof of having dealt with dire times. Their phone number in Colorado is 303-795-9090.
During economic slow downs, there is a great deal of internal and external emotional stress. Some sellers who are on the bubble need constant reassurance they are doing well and helping to put out the proverbial fires in the marketplace as well as contributing to the growth of the company. Wise sales managers should always recognize their feelings of inadequacy and help them to feel they are making a valuable contribution even during troubled times when both managers and clients are also trying to adjust to the current instability in the market. Top Guns should realize that good hard work and new business replaces worry of lost income. Managers should also be on the lookout for sellers who seem to blow things out of proportion during times like these. That kind of doomsday thinking may affect the entire sales staff environment and manifest greater drags on budgetary commitments. Constant positive reassurances as well as having accomplished goals for which the team, as a whole, has received incentives in addition to a continuum of positive workplace environment helps belie the negative inflections. Stressing we are all on the same ship and rise and fall with the tide helps people to feel more balanced, centered and in control. Showing managerial stability and instilling confidence in the minds of staff during stormy weather rights the ship and keeps the topsails filled with air currents that blow toward safe harbors.
Let us be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.--
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Push on my friends, the sun is shining on the other side.
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
Every time the economy took a hit from the late 60s through the early eighties when I was on the street, I knew while the other reps were whining about why there were not getting the buys they always depended on it was my time on deck to show management why they made all the right moves in hiring me. Agencies were pulling back media dollars at their client’s behest, driving our GM and sales manager nuts. They told our owners how much money they could depend on and all of a sudden the lights went out. Sales meetings became sales beatings. All the other sellers developed a patch of excuses as to why they weren’t making budget not just for the month but the whole quarter. The traffic and business department had an unexpected holiday as did the production team. Going to work in the morning for the other reps was like walking into a revolving door. I had a little fear thrown at me by some of my clients but I told them if they stopped advertising the current customers they had been reaching we become afraid something really bad was happening and they would stop buying and their balance sheets would take a major hit. The new customers wouldn’t come or call either. It’s simple. When a business stops inviting people to come to their business customers stop coming.
Advertising in a slow economy is good especially when the competition stops. A business gets to improve their market share and steal customers away from their competition. When the economy comes back those businesses who maintained their consistency doubled and tripled their market share while their competition had to fight hard to get back to where they were before the downturn while those who stayed the course went far ahead. Steve Passwaiter of BIA Financial reminds us that Proctor &Gamble made a fortune out of boosting advertising during recessionary periods of 1987, 1990 and 2001. They hoped that their competition stops or slowed their advertising because they know that it would be a great opportunity to steal share. When a business stops promoting themselves during an economic downturn, they join the others who are waiting at the edge of the cliff and thus promote themselves into a deeper downward spiral. Look at the two graphs below. One graph depicts what happens to businesses when they stop using their marketing communication dollars to drive traffic.
It is a known fact that since we have witnessed the last three recessionary environments, 1987, 1990 and 2001, those businesses that remained consistent with their media marketing and branding doubled and tripled their share against competitors who took to the sidelines. The example below is what happens to a company when it ceases its advertising. (EDS, Inc.)
Downturns, troughs or economic contractions always find their way back up to spur peak economies.
The graphic illustration below highlights recessionary environments from the point of a contracting economy to its recovery and expansion.
Recession is defined as a period of economic retraction; when the economy actually gets smaller. Generally, two months of decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or a sharp rise in the unemployment rate, are red flags that a country is approaching, or in the midst of, such an economic contraction. In the example above, one can see the duration of a given economic period when the economy is at peak performance of GDP and when it begins to contract, recover and expand. (Wikipedia 2008, EDS, Inc, 2008)
During those times I spent in the street while I was on the offensive my colleagues were on the defensive and when I talked to them they looked defensive and relished telling stories about how clients were being tough on them and they began offering lengthy excuses involving their client’s objections…which in itself is a paradox. An excuse is a series of statements that a prospective client makes after getting bombarded by media reptiles offering a continuum of the “package de jour” day after day. All they really want is to get back to business and make money. Their objective in the excuse such as “ My budget is committed for the rest of the year”…..or I’m not interested”…is just getting you the hell out of there. An objection is nothing more than an unanswered question which, once answered is like in an obstacle course, driven out of the way. I always made it a point, in the face of economic troubles when my colleagues where whining to always walk in to a business looking confident, alert and happy and, after listening to their woeful stories about how business is slow, always had a creative idea to bring customers in the door or spoke mainly about how to improve their fortunes.
Many of our salespeople tried to ride out the storm and were just being protective with their existing accounts as opposed to getting out there reaching new business prospects. In place of going out and spinning engaging, compelling and captivating ideas to new businesses they spent all their time trying to keep what they had. To me, new business is something that must be done. What do attorneys or doctors do when they’ve solved a legal or medical problem for a patient? They too have to generate new business and they’re out there meeting people all the time in different environments. During rough times managers need to step up with incentives and let nervous salespeople know their work is appreciated and they are all in the same boat. It’s time to create some weekly goals for the team to achieve and to celebrate when they are accomplished. Incentive programs don’t cost money…they attract money. The goals should be a little challenging but once reached…and the company’s market share grows it’s nice to reward the folks who helped get there. When establishing incentives, managers should aim at the seller in the middle performance level of the sales team because Top Guns feel pretty safe and may not have as much drive as those who feel pressed by the economy and wonder if they’ll be part of the team when the recovery begins. They’re the ones who will respond to positive motivation first.
Incentives for current clients are a good timing element in a tough economy. Since many companies want to trim some of the fat out of their marketing budgets during those times perhaps a Frequent Flyer type program will encourage clients to hang in there with you and have the incentive to renew their contracts as opposed to putting it off until the economy sweetens. We have found it is easier to keep a client and keep them happy rather than having to bear the cost of losing them.
Create incentives for renewals. So many companies invest their energies on building new business which should always be the model of a prosperous business but during tough economic times, companies and their sales reps need to reach out to their clients and help them create more penetrating, creative and intrusive messaging to tweak response levels for them. By helping clients to grow market share during a turbulent economy also manifests renewals as it shows your relationship with them is a real partnership rather than just a sales number. Increased response levels are good collaborative efforts during recessionary environments but during good times as well.
While the economy is faltering, training programs are always helpful reinvest in reinvigorating the sales team and bringing in a street-smart sales trainer who has dealt with successful selling in recessions. Training should include not only a focus on new business development but include clues and techniques in dealing with tough customers during tough times. External sales training specialists brought in by the company demonstrates to the sales team the company is interested in their success as well as the company’s. Executive Decision Systems, Inc of Littleton, CO is the best and most formidable, street-wise media sales training organization in the U.S. They have bested the roughest of downturns in the economy since 1984. Their instructor has local-direct street know-how since 1967…which is 41 years of continuous proof of having dealt with dire times. Their phone number in Colorado is 303-795-9090.
During economic slow downs, there is a great deal of internal and external emotional stress. Some sellers who are on the bubble need constant reassurance they are doing well and helping to put out the proverbial fires in the marketplace as well as contributing to the growth of the company. Wise sales managers should always recognize their feelings of inadequacy and help them to feel they are making a valuable contribution even during troubled times when both managers and clients are also trying to adjust to the current instability in the market. Top Guns should realize that good hard work and new business replaces worry of lost income. Managers should also be on the lookout for sellers who seem to blow things out of proportion during times like these. That kind of doomsday thinking may affect the entire sales staff environment and manifest greater drags on budgetary commitments. Constant positive reassurances as well as having accomplished goals for which the team, as a whole, has received incentives in addition to a continuum of positive workplace environment helps belie the negative inflections. Stressing we are all on the same ship and rise and fall with the tide helps people to feel more balanced, centered and in control. Showing managerial stability and instilling confidence in the minds of staff during stormy weather rights the ship and keeps the topsails filled with air currents that blow toward safe harbors.
Let us be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.--
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Push on my friends, the sun is shining on the other side.
Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.
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