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Our sales meeting topic this week is about making presentations to customers. The lifeblood of what we do. This is where we take the knowledge we gained from the needs analysis and research about the client and their challenges and put together our suggested solutions. The more presentations we do, the more we sell. The more we sell, the more we make. Just like location, location, location is key in real estate, presentations, presentations, presentations is what matters in media sales.
Now, we are going to assume that you have done everything right up to this point in the sales process. You have prospected a good client, someone who can afford to advertise correctly and you have had a great needs analysis meeting where you asked a lot of good questions, sat back and listened to all of the information to uncover the problems your prospect is facing. You’ve looked at their website and social media and done the same for their competitors. And now you are ready to make a killer presentation.
Do you know where the worst place is to make that presentation? Hopefully you have read my sales columns before and know that the answer is that the worst place to make the presentation is at your prospects office. Entirely too many distractions just waiting to happen at their place of business. Additionally, they are on ‘their turf’ and it’s where they feel most comfortable. You’d prefer someplace where they feel slightly less comfortable.
A neutral site is better than their place of business. Obviously, it gets them out of their setting, out of their comfort zone and you should get a little bit more time for them to focus on what you are presenting.
Where you want this meeting to take place is at your place of business. Your home turf. Where you are most comfortable. A place where you can actually control who comes in and out and a lot of what happens around you. And this is where a little bit of show business comes in.
Make the presentation a memorable experience for the prospect if you can. This is one of those times where you cannot forget that while we work in stations on a daily basis and get to hang out with the talent and get to see how it all works behind the scenes, most of your prospects will have not had that chance and will probably think it is a really cool experience for them just to get a tour of the studio(s) and to say hello to some talent they may recognize.
Make sure you have some things set up strategically, such as taking the prospect by to say hello to the General Manager or Program Director. Let those people know ahead of time who you are bringing by, what they do and what it is you are pitching them. If the PD knows it is a particular show, they can guide the conversation to that show or talent. Either way, you are making them feel comfortable and letting them know it is a group effort and a good team of people that will be working on their campaigns.
When you get to make the actual presentation, remember that you are a 21st century media company. I am sure you will have tested everything before the client arrived, but let’s make sure we look like a legit media company and aren’t messing with cables and trying to get equipment to work when the client is in the room.
From the time you start your presentation until the time you finish, this is your time to shine. While everything is on paper or on the screen, it is going to be the enthusiasm, creativity and knowledge that comes out of your mouth that is going to win or lose this deal.
You know the steps you will take where you will first talk about what you uncovered meeting with the client and the additional research you did. Then you are going to take those challenges and match them up with the right solutions to try and solve whatever the challenges are.
As you go through the presentation, this is where some more show business needs to come in. Most likely you are pitching live endorsements or some type of tie into a show or personality. Whichever it is, that person or those people need to play a part in the presentation. If you are in your building and it worked out to have them in the meeting live, great, bring them in to meet with the prospects and make sure you have met with the talent beforehand and discussed the gameplan.
Have the talent bring in some merch for the prospect or if you know the person has kids or grandkids, bring something for them. Have them tell a few funny stories, endear themselves to the prospect and see where it leads. The best is when the client and talent hit it off and start talking about things the talent can do in the ads or appearances they can make, things that show closing signs.
Make sure you have had the talent record something for the client. If the talent couldn’t make it to the meeting, have them record a video for them. If the talent was able to come, you should still have a piece of audio or a sample social video post or something the client can take back to people at the office or at home and show off.
When you’re out selling insurance or mortgage loans or medical supplies, it’s hard to make any of it look sexy. What we do can and should have an appeal to it and should be presented in a fun way. Give your client a memorable experience during the presentation and let them walk away feeling good about what they saw and what they heard. Hopefully when they get back to their office, they’ll talk about what fun they had and tell everyone there truly is no business like show business.
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.
