Don’t Dismiss The Number One Selling Skill

According to Bill Truax, prospecting is the least used but most important skill in selling. It isn’t always the easiest or most enjoyable task to perform, but it’s the only technique that actually gets your sales reps in front of potential clients, allowing them to use all of their other skills to close a sale.

Companies spend thousands of dollars on programs to develop better selling skills , but virtually nothing on improving a rep’s ability to prospect successfully,” says Truax, president of Trufield Enterprises in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. “And prospecting is so critical to success.” Read more at managesmarter.com.

December will be National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month, National Tie Month, and Safe Toys Month.

Chanukah - December 5-12
Kwanzaa - December 26-Jan 1
World AIDS Day - December 1st
National Pawnbrokers Day - December 6th
Pearl Harbor Day - December 7th
Human Rights Day - December 10th
Poinsettia Day - December 12th
Bill Of Rights Day - December 15th
Wright Brothers Day - December 17th
Winter Begin - December 22nd
Christmas - December 25th
National Whiner’s Day - December 26th
New Year’s Eve - December 31st

Your program director plays a huge role at your radio station. One of those roles should never be to write your media kit. Your media kit is for clients and prospects to learn how your station’s audience can help their business grow. When PD’s write media kits, it comes out as pages about “you” (the station) and little about “them” (your client/prospect).

A page in your media kit for your on-air schedule and a page for your promotions/community involvement is all that is needed in regard to what’s happening on-air.

Your media kits shouldn’t read like programming promo. It’s about your audience, and how they can help clients/prospects. Remember, you are the marketing expert. All of your marketing materials should be produced by you, not the PD.

I came across this post from ManageSmarter.com over the weekend. Thought you’d find it interesting:

No matter the product or service, selling is a tough business. Having a thick skin, a great work ethic and an unflappable “can-do” attitude are among the most crucial traits needed to launch a successful selling career.

But your sales team also needs to know where the potential pitfalls are and how to avoid them. By discussing with team members the primary reasons why salespeople fail, you’re providing a roadmap for success that will help them throughout their careers.

“Whether your team consists of 1,000 salespeople or just one, the simple fact stands: Avalanches roll downhill,” says Keith Rosen, president of Profit Builders and author of Time Management for Sales Professionals and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cold Calling. “It starts from the top, and that’s why managers are 100% accountable for the success and failure of their sales teams.” Rosen suggest: Read More

I’m often asked to recommend software that can help Radio sales departments. In the past, we’ve heard of solutions from Wicks, Marketron, Radio 3k, Sales Force, RAB, Smartrate, InaBox, Radio Ink, and others.

But, we want to know what you use (or what have you used in the past)…and give us your opinion or review.

Just leave a reply/comment. We’ll reveal the results in an upcoming etip and RadioSalesBlog post.

While you head out to visit clients and prospects, here are some promotional ideas for November:

November will be Aviation History Month, Lung Cancer Awareness Month, MADD’s Tie One on For Safety Month, National Adoption Month, AIDS Awareness Month, Alzheimer’s Disease Month, and National Vegan Month.

Kids’ Goal Setting Week - November 15-19
National Family Week - November 18-24
National Men Make Dinner Day - November 1st
Sadie Hawkins Day - November 3rd
Daylight Savings Time ends - November 4th
General Election Day - November 6th
Veterans Day - November 11th
America Recycles Day - November 15th
Great American Smokeout Day - November 15th
Thanksgiving Day - November 22nd
National Salespersons’ Day - November 23rd
Black Friday - November 23rd

A great resource for managers (and sellers who will be managers one day) is Sales & Marketing Management magazine. I recently read a post I thought would interest those of you trying to solve one of the greatest challenges managers face…hiring superstars.

Mistake 1: Relying only on interviews to evaluate a candidate
Mistake 2: Using successful people as models
Mistake 3: Too many criteria
Mistake 4: Evaluating “personality” instead of job skills
Mistake 5: Using yourself as an example
Mistake 6: Failure to use statistically validated testing to predict job skills most critical to success
Mistake 7: Not researching the reasons that people fail
Mistake 8: Relying on general “good guy” criteria
Mistake 9: Bypassing the reference check

Click here to read the entire post.