Are You Like the Hot Dog Man?

There’s a lot of bad news about the economy out there these days. Everything seems to be on the down side and getting worse. To add to the confusion, some experts say we are in a recession while others tell us that isn’t the case at all. Monday morning quarterbacks are all over the place telling us how bad things are and describing to us how they could get the country right back on a positive economic track if they were in a position of power.

Along with all the confusion we are told that 2008 will be a tough year for the advertising business and that publishers should tighten their belts and be ready to cut costs and people if things don’t improve soon. I well remember being involved in a major turndown in the economy back in the late '70s but to be honest with you, I was so busy making calls and trying to sell as much advertising as I could, I didn’t realize we were in a downturn until a few years later. Maybe I was simple minded or just didn’t understand that when you are told the economy is in serious trouble and that things are going to be awful that you accept that they really are. Believe me that is not the right approach and I’ll tell you why.

Real professionals don’t worry about economic cycles, they worry about how much business they can book in their territory regardless of the economy. If you accept the premise that the world is ready to implode and things are really horrible, what’s your plan? Your plan should entail working even harder than you’ve ever done in your selling career. As a matter of fact, I can assure you many of your competitors will indeed cut back on their sales costs and consolidate territories in hopes they can do more with less. But it usually doesn’t follow that will happen and many companies will lose share of market by ill gotten decisions that handicap their sales force’s selling efforts. But that isn’t your problem.

Now you really have the opportunity to reinforce the wisdom of concentrating a client’s advertising budget almost totally in your media group where they will get more efficiencies and economical coverage of their market without scattering their budget with other publishers. In tough times, advertisers will welcome publishers who can give them a quality audience and broad coverage at a fair price without having to spend their money in a number of other media. Actually, a down economy plays into the strength of Crain because Crain publications typically dominate their markets with quality editorial products that deliver select audiences with tremendous purchasing power.

Years ago, there were a series of ads that ran in Advertising Age about the value of advertising. One was presented as a parable and it went like this. A man built a hot dog stand at the side of the road. He made terrific hot dogs and people came from all over the city to buy his hot dogs. As a consequence, he became incredibly successful and as he grew he was able to send his son off to college in a big eastern city. As a matter of fact, the hot dog man continued to enjoy success even though the economy began to slow.

His son returned from college one day and told his father he would have to pay attention to what was happening around him. After all, people weren’t spending money the way they used to and things didn’t look good for the future. So the son told his dad he should cut back on the size of the hot dogs he sold. He also told him to stop advertising in the local paper and that by doing these things he would save money and be able to continue his business. At first, the old man was skeptical about all the things his son wanted to do to cut back on costs but since his son had gone to college and had an education, the father felt his son must know more than he did. The problem was, however, people started complaining about the size of the hot dogs and said they didn’t taste as good as the old ones. They also complained about the size of the drinks they bought. They were in smaller containers and were not offered free refills. Business began to fall off dramatically because customers were disappointed with the quality of the hot dogs and the service they received. Business got worse and worse and finally the hot dog stand had to close because of the lack of customers. However, the father accepted the failure of his business by understanding his son did graduate from college and must know a lot more than he did about running a hot dog business.

Now is the time to increase your share of market by making more calls than your competitors. Don’t listen to the doom and gloomers who tell you how bad things are. When times are tough, great sales people see opportunity when others see disaster. March to your own drummer and dare to be the most successful sales person you can be. After all, you are already the best of the best.

Get going,

Chuck