Tim Rohrer is a great speaker, and unlike a lot of sales trainers, he still works in sales. Today Rohrer shares a great story from his sales experience.
I got kicked out of a sales call the other day. Seriously.
The client abruptly ended the meeting and declared that I had "wasted his time". While there was no violence, this was the professional equivalent of being thrown out the saloon door. The meeting is over. Hit the road, bub.
So, you are probably wondering what I did to get kicked out and I'll tell you. But first, I will tell you that while originally ambivalent about the situation, I am now quite pleased. Not pleased that the prospect felt I had wasted his time – because that was exactly the opposite of my intention – but pleased that I was not kowtowed into changing my position simply because the prospect acted in a blustery, semi-belligerent fashion.
The prospect – an attorney – was referred to us by a television salesperson and wanted to explore the possibility of buying advertising from our radio group. I assigned the prospect to one of the sellers and he took the prospect through the process of asking pertinent questions to better understand how to help before setting up a face-to-face meeting.
When a meeting was established, I decided to tag along. My primary reason for going was that I wanted to advise the client not to use radio advertising as a direct, lead generation device.
After twenty years of selling radio advertising, I have strong opinions about how to use it and what works best. Many clients buy time with an unrealistic expectation of what is going to happen when their ad is broadcast. In my experience, one of the unrealistic expectations of personal injury attorneys is that lots and lots of people will call them upon hearing their message. The reason this is unrealistic is that people who have been injured do not go to their radio (or TV), turn it on and then wait for a personal injury attorney to advertise so that they know whom to call.
Instead, they proactively seek out help. In 2010, this is done is via internet search engines. Our attorney prospect has a very poor web presence and doesn’t show up in any of the typical searches. Consequently, the only people who would respond to his radio advertising campaign would be either 1) those recently injured but who had not yet taken action or 2) those that had been injured some time ago but for whatever reason had decided not to take action.
The first of those groups is tiny and the second of those groups is undesirable. And, both groups would have to make note of the phone number at the time they heard the ad in order to reach our prospect because no one would find him if they were to search for personal injury attorneys.
Before you think of me as some whacked out purist, let me tell you the story of Mrs. Moran – my high school Latin teacher. Mrs. Moran liked to decorate her room and her often elaborate decorations required picture hangers and nails be driven into the walls. In order to do that, Mrs. Moran used - a stapler. Many people told Mrs. Moran that she ought to use a hammer to do those jobs but Mrs. Moran didn’t have a hammer. So, she wrote on a piece of masking tape – "This is a hammer" – and then affixed the tape to the top of the stapler. The next time some smarty pants student told Mrs. Moran that she ought to be using a hammer she showed them the sign on the stapler.
Problem solved.
When I told our attorney prospect that he was unlikely to be satisfied with our lead generation until such time as he had a stronger, more effective presence on the internet he became indignant. He told me he was a media expert and that we needed to fit into his plan. I told him that we weren't a utility but rather a professional services provider with a keen understanding of how our product works. He told me that he didn't need or want my expert opinion. And, you know the rest of the story.
Media sellers shouldn't act as if their media is all things to all clients. Explain what your media does well and offer ways to do that well for a select number of clients who believe in you and your product. The most successful sellers that I know are those that have carved out a personal brand in the market place. They enjoy long-lasting, deep relationships with clients that commit a significant percentage of their media expenditures to them and then honor them further with recommendations and references. Those are the media sellers that have chosen to stand for something.
The other day, I ran into the TV rep that was the source of the initial referral and I asked him what it was like doing business with his attorney client. Turns out the attorney is never satisfied with the number of leads generated by his TV ads and is constantly harassing the TV rep for more spots, better times and cheaper rates.
Of course! One is almost always dissatisfied when using a stapler to do a hammer's job.
Tim J.M. Rohrer is a recognized leader in sales and sales management. He writes about his experiences in advertising sales on his blog at http://www.salesandmarketingloudmouth.com. Currently employed as a Sales Manager at Radio One in Atlanta, he can be reached through e-mail at timrohrer@comcast.net.
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