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ENS on SalesENS on Sales is Wayne's weekly media sales tip. You can signup below to get your free copy in your email every week, and you are welcome to view our archives. To request more information please complete the following form:**All requests are submitted only to Angela and Wayne of ENS Media Inc.**
Number One
© by Wayne Ens
When we take on a new media client, we generally begin the project with a Market Audit, which includes an Advertiser Perception Study to determine how advertisers perceive the various media in that market.
One of our survey questions is, “What is the number one benefit you expect from your advertising?” Nearly 80% of businesses we survey advertise to “increase sales”.
Part of our Market Audit process also includes sending mystery shoppers into the market to request proposals from every media in the market. And here is one of the most startling revelations…..while nearly 80% of advertisers identify increasing sales as their primary reason for advertising, less than 10% of the media proposals we audit, address how that proposal is going to increase sales!
Most proposals only address why a particular media is number one and why their audience is number one. They talk about themselves, rather than demonstrating what they can do for the advertiser.
A few do discuss building traffic, or image, or awareness, but seldom do they address an advertiser’s number one concern….increasing sales.
And while advertising does do much more than just increase sales, you owe it to your stations and to your clients to address your prospects’ number one concern in every proposal.
In my early days in print, I was trained not take responsibility for increasing sales. In fact, we had such little faith in our ability to increase sales we were taught to only take credit for traffic, and that it was the client’s job to sell.
This lack of confidence in our ability to increase sales resulted in us recommending radio as a ‘back-up’ media so that we wouldn’t have to take all the blame for failure, and we created ads that drew throngs of unqualified traffic for our advertisers.
When I thought my clients only expected traffic, I once sold a huge promotion to a men’s wear store with a draw for a trip to Disney World. We did generate huge traffic at the store to fill out the Disney ballots, but no one bought a suit. ….they were all there for the trip.
Later when I went to a radio station in that market, we developed a promotion for a draw for a complete year’s wardrobe at that store. We drew far less traffic, but sold more suits because everyone who entered wanted a suit.
Of course, the radio promotion had the added benefit of creating more awareness about the advertiser’s merchandise rather than promoting how wonderful Disney World was.
Do you have enough confidence in what you are proposing to partner in your client’s sales success? Take a look at every presentation and proposal you make this week and see if they talk about you, or do they address what you can do for the advertiser?
P.S. Our Guided Discovery Selling trains your sales people to produce customer-focused presentations. Contact Wayne if you are interested in learning more.
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