ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?We now move from the Crain Sales Boot Camp to our own Crain Sales Blog. This space is indeed all about sales. It will provide each of us with some thoughts on basic selling practices and help us get better at what we do. So, let’s get ready by beginning with a topic that needs to be at the top of everyone’s list. Are you ready? OK then, let’s go.
How much time do you spend getting ready for the sales call? A very basic question that some of us take for granted. Of course we spend time preparing for the call, so perhaps the question should be changed to "How do you get ready for the sales call?"
When reporters and editors were in Journalism School, they learned that a good investigative story contained answers to Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. If that formula works for investigative reporters, then it certainly has an application for sales (especially media sales) as well. So, let’s expand on that basic question of how to prepare for the call, and ask ourselves these questions:
*Do I know “Who” I’m calling on?
*“Why” am I calling on that particular agency or client contact?
*“Where” are they trying to go with their messages?
*“What” are the market objectives?
*“When” does budget planning take place? Am I making the call “When” the media plan has already been executed?
*“How” am I going to present my product lineup to this agency and/or client contact?
Certainly, there are a number of variations to these basic questions, but I’m sure you get the idea of how the answers will help us prepare for the call. Often times, we get so passionate about making the call because we finally were able to get the meeting with an important client contact that we have been trying to get an appointment with for the last several months.
We go into that long awaited meeting with some butterflies in our stomach, but once we get rolling, the butterflies are gone and we have made the pitch without a complete understanding of “Who” we are meeting with, “Why” we are meeting with them, “What” their market goals are……well, you get the idea. I know the feeling since it’s happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. Experience is a great teacher, and reminds us to go back to the basics and make the next call more meaningful for the customer, not for ourselves.
So, bottom line on this topic is very simple. This is not brain surgery folks! Plan your calls and build them around the person and/or client. Never assume that everyone knows about your medium, because more often than not, they don’t. Hard to believe, but they do not lose sleep thinking about how best to spend their budget with you. Prepare for the call and you will be amazed at how your listening skills will improve. Prepare for the call and you will develop a clear understanding of how you can be a resource that helps the client reach market goals. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Regards,
Tony
1 comment:
Chuck & Tony: Thanks so much for putting this site together! I look forward to reading what both of you have to say and what my Crain colleagues have to say as well.
I really don't have any story or experience to share right now, just a tidbit that may help some of you.
The publication I work on is the highest priced one in our market, by a fair amount. I'm regularly hammered on price (a situation certainly encouraged by the competition!) While going thru an old file recently I found a quote that I'm going to dust off and use from now on when I get a price objection.
"It's unwise to pat too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money- that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought is incapable of doing what it was bought to do."
It's important to let the customer know why your publication is a better buy in spite of the price. Ad pages are NOT commodity items, although your lower priced and inferior competitors will try to turn them into one!
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