Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Today is a perfect day for this topic which is to remember that your clients and your prospective clients are human beings just like you. They too just came off a three-day weekend after heading to the lake with their family or laying by the pool all weekend. They didn’t necessarily want to get out of bed this morning either and re-enter the crazy. And they may not want to hear from a seller first thing this morning.
Let them settle in a bit and get caught up before you start hammering them. Speaking of which, this would be a great time for you to do the same. We are about 30 days away from the first half of the year being over, great time to start looking at your list of things you wanted to accomplish in 2024 and see how you are stacking up against what you had set out to do.
As for your clients and prospects, it is always a good idea to keep in mind what they have going on. It’s like the rookie sales rep who starts out and thinks every sports bar in town is the place to start and walks into the crowded restaurant during lunch rush and asks to see the manager.
I once had a rep who called a high-end auto dealership looking for the General Manager as she was looking for an answer on a large proposal before the end of that week. She had called and left a message, sent an email and texted him that day. Later on, I heard her asking the receptionist at the desk to have him paged.
Fortunately, the receptionist knew better and said she would get the message to him, because can you imagine the reaction had the GM gotten an urgent page while he was trying to sell a car, only to get to the phone and it’s his radio sales rep wanting to know if he had made a decision?
I appreciate the persistence, but we have to be better at understanding what business owners and decision makers are going through and be smarter about when to interact with them. And how to interact with them.
Similar to coaching or managing a team, each client and prospect has to be treated a little bit differently. This is where really getting to know your clients and their businesses comes in handy. In the previous car dealer example this rep had spent plenty of time around this client and I had gotten to know him as well. Trust me, he was not the kind of guy you ask the receptionist to page.
Human beings like to be treated well, respected and like to know that someone is listening and truly wanting to help them. That is how you build relationships with people and get to know them. Not by selling them something and then seeing them the next time when it is time for a renewal.
I will consistently remind sellers that you should be part of the added value. Your expertise, your knowledge of the audio or video or digital space and certainly what you know about your station(s) and audience(s). And part of that is your understanding of what your client needs from you and when they need it.
Ad copy is a great example. Most business owners are incredibly busy, so they may not have time to ever think about the ad copy they are running. We have all seen reps who will just let that ad play forever and ever until their client points out that it has been the same for a long time. That is a client who needs you to take the lead on suggesting refreshed copy or sending over a spec spot with a new idea or a new take on the old idea, something that shows you are thinking about them and their business.
See something in the news about a client’s industry or something you think relates to them? Send it over to them with a note that says you saw this and were thinking about them or the time they said something about this topic. Or perhaps it is a topic about marketing that makes sense based on a conversation you have recently had with them about a particular product.
There are several things you can do for your clients that can help them and not be you nagging them to buy something. I have had reps in the past who served as ‘secret shoppers’ for retail clients. Pop in and see how the business is run when the owner isn’t looking.
There are a lot of things reps can do to let their clients know they are thinking about them and care about them as people and about the success of their business. Whether it is simply popping in to say hello, referring them to a friend to do business with them or pitching new ideas and concepts for their current advertising, all of these things show you see them as something more than just another client you are looking to sell something to.
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.
