Let’s go way back to August 30th, 1936. The New York Yankees have a doubleheader that day against the Chicago White Sox. Lou Gehrig goes 1-for-4 in the first game and is now hitting .379 on the season. Then, starting with game two against Chicago that day, Gehrig fails to get a hit in twenty straight at-bats spanning six consecutive games, suffering the longest hitting slump of his career.
Less than two months later, on October 6th, the Yankees beat the New York Giants in game six to clinch the World Series. Nine days later, Lou Gehrig was named the American League MVP after finishing the season hitting .354 with 49 home runs, despite his worst batting slump ever.
I recently had a couple of reps, who are in horrible slumps, come to me and ask for advice. The first thing I told them to do was go to the dictionary and look up the definition of a slump, which is “a period of substantial failure or decline,” and I pointed out to them that the first two words in that definition mean we know it won’t last forever, it’s simply a period of time.
Next, I told them both that the amount of time it’ll take to get out of the slump will greatly depend on the way they handled themselves moving forward. Finally, I pointed out the words of Hank Aaron, who famously said about slumps, “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”
In our world of sports media sales, swings are presentations. And as mentioned several times before in this space, there’s not a sales problem of any kind that can’t be fixed by making more face-to-face presentations to qualified decision makers.
There is no magic formula, there is no new way and there certainly is no low dollar package that will get you out of a slump. What will get you out of it sooner rather than later, is getting out and meeting with more people and making more creative presentations to business owners that are solutions for their challenges.
Since having the discussion with the two reps about sixty days ago, the results have been very predictable. One has looked for excuses, gone back to the same people over and over again, spent more time in the office than out of it and hardly any time on the phone. This rep’s fortunes haven’t changed and the slump continues.
The other has kept a positive attitude, went through her list and crossed off people who had been in pending too long. She continued to get out, have lots of meetings and made more and more presentations. Earlier this week, this rep walked in my office and exclaimed, “I think it’s finally turning around!” as I was handed her third order of the week and a new pending/pipeline report with several, solid, new business opportunities listed. So, I asked, “What do you think has been the difference?” The reply, “It was what you said it was, I just needed to keep talking to more and more people and finally some yes’s started to come.”
I’d like to take all the credit for the turnaround and tout my incredible skills as her manager, however, this isn’t rocket science. Reps have a tendency to get in their own heads and look for the magic answer to the problem, but it just doesn’t exist.
The more face-to-face meetings you have with qualified decision makers, the more sales you make. Period. That’s how you get out of a slump.
Now, I don’t know whether or not this rep will end up being named our Most Valuable at the end of the year like Lou Gehrig. But, I do know that if she didn’t follow Hammerin’ Hank’s advice and “keep swinging,” she’d have no shot at all.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
