|
|
||||||||
A Message to the Broadcast TV Industry Craig Reumund
Can you imagine the
GROWTH
broadcast television
could have had if better practices were implemented during better economic times? |
|
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS STUNTING BROADCAST TELEVISION SALES GROWTH CRAIG REUMUND, ESA & COMPANY The saying, "do what you did, get what you got," could not be more appropriate than it is to broadcast television today. Prior to the economic meltdown, broadcast television was considered a no-growth industry by Wall Street; worse, it was losing revenue share in key ad categories like automotive to inferior media like radio, cable and internet. To assume that once the economy turns upward, television will begin growing -- something it didn't do in good times -- is at best, doubtful. The economy doesn't have to improve for television to build better sales results. The economy is not holding us back, conventional wisdom is! Until we debunk our broken sales departments, television will continue to languish in its old model. To clearly identify the "conventional wisdom culprits" that cripple television sales, consider the following examples: Conventional Wisdom: The Carrot and The Stick Will Deliver New Business It is conventional wisdom that pushing salespeople to longer hours, providing higher commissions on new business, or dangling threats of termination will generate a growth productivity in the form of a sustained revenue growth rate. All of that has already been done in good times and still, no growth! Unfortunately, the skills and attributes possessed by most of our client service reps (a.k.a. transactional sales people) are not conducive to new business development. Expecting a client service/transactional sales person to perform well in new business results in frustration, no matter what consequence, good or bad, is presented. Conventional Wisdom: One Salesperson Can Handle Sales and Service Roles It is conventional wisdom to expect all sales people to perform well in client service / transactional business, and new business. Negotiating is a skill required by both transactional and new business sales people. Skills required for new business and transactional are exclusive. Television station sales departments were originally built on a service platform with personnel selected for their ability to negotiate and service clients. The television industry sales and sales management is saturated with people having personal characteristic strengths that make them perfect for share negotiations and client service activities. There are many capable people already filling this capacity at broadcast stations across the nation. The day to day activities of productive outside sales people require different skills and personal characteristics that are contrary to those of client service characteristics. We know what those characteristics are and where to find these people. Some are already at our stations. This is simply putting the right people in the right seats on the sales growth bus. Don't be fooled by the 1% that performs well at both tasks, these different initiatives of transactional and new business need to be managed and measured differently. Recognizing that successful client service people and successful new business sale people are two different types of people and require very different personal characteristic strengths, is a fundamental awareness that all sales department new business plans have as a foundation. Conventional Wisdom: Performance & Measurement It is conventional wisdom to think our new business sales departments are built on disciplines of good outside sales. They are not! In other professional sales industries, sales managers measure close ratios of sales people, it is a basic criteria for measurement of competency in sales. How many of our teams have measured individual close ratios? How many managers know the criteria by which to measure a close ratio? How do we know sales people's abilities if we don't measure close ratios? The answer is, we don't. In our current management model, sales abilities are often measured in total dollars. One big lucky sale could keep an underperforming salesperson employed in the wrong role far beyond their productive capacity. Competency in new business sales is based on prospecting activity, presenting skills, closing, and executing. Conventional Wisdom: Sales Management It is conventional wisdom to think that managing new business sales people is the same as managing client service people. For new business salespeople, prospecting, presenting, closing and execution are criteria for success. These day to day behaviors that can be nurtured and measured are the criteria that create high new business revenues. Income and rewards need to be tied to the success of these behaviors. Is individual prospecting being regularly measured at your stations? Is closing being regularly measured at your stations? Manage good sales behavior and reward revenue results. Hopefully, during difficult times, we learn better business structures, strategies and tactics from more successful sales business models. Can you imagine the growth broadcast television could have had if better practices were implemented during better economic times? There is a solution to the stated issues that not only fits every market, but does so while lowering the cost-of-sale. Eckstein, Summers, Armbruster & Company has the business plan that changes conventional wisdom and builds a sales department that is based on strong sales business models. All of the elements of structure, compensation, sales management criteria, and behavior modification are in place. Above all, the plan is designed to fuel growth at the local level while decreasing the cost-of-sale for broadcast stations. The time has come to deliver the sustained revenue growth that is befitting of the strongest local medium the world has known, and to do so within the confines of today's cost-conscious market realities. We are ready to challenge conventional wisdom if you are. Call us and challenge us! Craig Reumund is a Senior Consultant with ESA & Company. He meets with hundreds of local business owners each year and has significantly changed the fortune of thousands of local businesses over the past 20 years. |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Our business is New Business |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||