Good morning and hope all is well? Question I have for everyone is this.......I'm just starting to build a business relationship with a few new businesses in a shopping mall. One thing that has been mentioned to me over again from all three is ......"no foot traffic in this mall, we are looking at moving". Now these businesses do not advertise at all, however my question to you......is how would you handle this next visit about bringing them along to show what advertisig can do......oh yeah then they mention just out of the blue "I have no money to do anything".
Thanks let me know
Greg
Greg, you may consider prospecting elsewhere! That being said. HAve you asked about "CAM fees"? It's kind of like Condo or Home Owner Association fees, only retail businesses in a shopping center. The property manager gets these monthly fees. Often they earmark a portion of these funds for advertising or promotions. Sometimes the property manager pays 100%, often they use the advertising portion to MATCH whatever the retailers put in. You may beable to build an effective schedule using these matching funds, where each retailer only puts us one or two hundred dollars, you combine 10 or 15 seconds of copy for 3 or 4 stores into a 60 seconds spot, that has a general tag about the mall or shopping center.
Bring the mall marketing director qualitative info on your station(s) to show who you can bring, and from where. Don't forget to map listeners at work as well as at home. Your mall may be right on their way home. Do you have a community orchestra? Get a music rental store to provide free sheet music for a play along with the orchestra in the mall. Or have a Christmas sing along for your supper--and have the food court provide freebies for all who will sing along with a choir. Most symphonies have a certain amount of hours dedicated to community outreach and might like this way to relate to the community. (You should not have to pay for them.) Hop this helos a litte! Chris Lagey, Virginia Beach, VA
Hey Greg-
I have had good luck selling in to the entire Mall (merchant association or actual management) and structuring it like a co-o: Mall pays a percentage and the merchants pay a percentage. The Mall is the open/close for the donut and inside is one, or two merchants. It helps build a brand for the Mall, build foot traffic for ALL the merchants and they get great advertising and creative for much less than each can (or will) pay individually- everyone wins. Find one or two strong players (who are the alpha dogs in the Mall?) and get them on board, maybe get the national stroes to throw in some co-op dollars! Works pretty well with AutoMall type groups too! Good luck, Enjoy...
Perhaps a co-operative effort is needed here.... find out who operates the mall as a whole and meet with them to discuss how to increase traffic inside and the consequences of a lack of advertising - that being constant vendor turnover. If the operator/s won't co-operate, then approach a few of the individual stores to pool their resources and advertise the mall as a "hidden treasure", featuring (then add a couple store names and a line or two about what they carry)
Greg,
Several ideas come to mind:
1) Is the mall itself advertising? We have one in the market that advertises regularly as a shopping destination (with the advertising funds coming from the mall tenants' association and from the mall owner). You certainly want to be tapping into these dollars, if they're available.
2) Are other stores in the mall doing well? One of the arguments that has been used successfully over the years is that every store in the mall has roughly equal access to all mall traffic. Now, take that with a grain of salt. "Spending a few hours at the mall" isn't the pastime it used to be 15-20 years ago for many people. But perhaps during the Christmas shopping season more people are doing so. Obviously, if a shopper's destination is a specific mall store--say, one of the anchor tenants with outside entrances--she may not pass by any other store. But if she's "walking the mall," every store theoretically has access to her. Why do some stores attract her attention while others are ignored? Many factors, obviously, but external advertising is an important one: the stores that invest heavily in advertising are likely to be the ones getting the most traffic, all other factors being equal.
3) Here's a video you might want to share with prospects on the power of radio: http://www.radiosalescafe.com/video/radio-the-power-of-sound-and-voice-in-a-digital-word. (Incidentally, one of the producers of this video, Melissa Kunde of the Seattle Area Radio Association, has written a superb piece, posted today as a guest blog here.)
4) RE: the "no money" objection... If they're chain store operations, you may have to climb up the ladder to find someone in a position to authorize an advertising investment on your station. It certainly helps to have the local manager in your corner, but he or she may not have the authority to do anything. If the store is an independent with local ownership, at least you can deal directly with the decision-maker. If they're unhappy with the status quo, obviously they need to do something different.
5) Get a copy of this DVD and watch it with your advertising prospects! Could be the best investment under $20 you'll ever make.
Wish you well, Greg. Keep us posted!
I like what Rod said, and specifically the idea of making each of your clients a destination store for listeners. What's the ONE pain each of them answers better than any other option in town? Secondly, if there are no mall advertising dollars or co-op dollars, would the three of them be willing to share a radio budget and co-promote? Perhaps selling 60's as 3x20's or 2x30's that link to the next ad with a phrase like: "and while you're there..." If you can get the ball rolling with three businesses, you may be able to entice other mall businesses to join the promotion. Obviously it's in the mall's interest to drive traffic, so letting them know that several stores are thinking of relocating might help conjure up some marketing dollars.
Have you considered speaking with the mall Marketing Director? Perhaps an event could be created with the participation of the mall and other retailers. Some events to consider: fashion show, treasure hunt, classic auto show, flea market, etc. If they don't have money, perhaps they could provide prizing and you can bring in some outside clients who do have money and include them in a mall promotion.
Greg,
I'd walk away from this deal. Years ago I learned a formula called something like,"Know when to hold em, know when to fold em."
When the prospect offers an objection you do the dance we do as salespeople. Listen, adjust, re-pitch.
2 of those and you can still find a way forward thru creativitiy and hard work. But you get a 3rd objection in the mix and it's time to walk. You have 3 issues with this shopping mall, a) no foot traffic, b) businesses that do not advertise, and c) they have no money to do anything.
Move on.
Respectfully,
They did you a favor. Move on. One thing I have to constantly remind myself is time (life really) is finite. If you could only have 65 clients who would listen to, appreciate and act on your ideas, AND be able to pay for them; would this client be one of the 65? If not, find another client, and don't forget to take care of the other 64.
Use ROI formula. Also, allow mall merchants to share the cost of a :60 rather than buying :30's individually.
I like your answer best, Kelly, but mainly for mid-size and large cities. 
Cold Lake, AB has a population in the 14,000 range and depending on how many reps there are at Greg's station there may not be 65 good clients to choose from.
Greg,
I feel your pain. I guess being creative is the true answer. They can’t afford to advertise, but they can’t afford not to.
If you have the liberty at your station to swing some deals, what about creating a contest for those that buy in. If you put together a campaign that is $500 value and they get it for $250 plus they provide 5 x $50 in gift certificates or 2 x $100 and 1x $50, that your listeners could win by entering at the stores that have bought in. This will drive the traffic. Although you don’t get your rate card this time, you can show them how your medium works for them. When they see the success, get them to sign up to do it again next year. Then have someone sit with them again to show the power of radio. Just a side note, when we do campaigns like this, we charge the whole thing out at $500 and then physically buy the $250 gift certificates. We do this for two reasons. 1) it shows us spending money with the client instead of just showing up for prizes with our hands out, and 2) when they look at their radio budget (if they have one) it reflects that last year I spent $500 with your station.
Good luck
Greg - Malls can be a challenge. Wonder what kind of rent they are paying - and if some of the rent money is to be designated by the mall owners to advertising? That's how our mall works. However, you can put together a package that includes 3 businesses or so in a :30 sec ad, and they can share the cost. It doesn't give them time to go through their laundry list of features (like they usually want to), but can highlight a sale, or their USP, and continue pounding away at their name and tag-line for good exposure. I do a couple groups like this with anywhere from 10 to 20 businesses. Their individual cost is minimal. One package I do is for a 4 month run, another is 7 months. Just need to update ads monthly...and maybe collect.
I'd have a spec ad with businesses you have the best shot at to include in your presentation.
Kim - kimw@brainerdradio.net
Sometimes you just have to move on. The no advertising is part of the no traffic. Ask them what they will be doing different in the new location from what they are doing now. Is the new location attractive to them because there are other stores that are attracting traffic BECAUSE THEY ARE ADVERTISING!!. The "No Money" is a smokescreen...what are they going to pay for the move and new lease with...snowballs? You may have to get frank with them, what have you to lose....you can't lose what you don't have.
dale
Dear Greg,
We are not miracle workers. You can throw a drowning man a life preserver but if he refuses to grab on, he will drown no matter how badly you want to save him. A business with no financial commitment to advertising is a business with no commitment for growth and success. If they won't make a commitment to saving their business with a commitment of money for advertising, it is time for you to move on and provide your professional services to a more committed business owner.
I would address the issue straight on. Tell them it takes a financial commitment on their part to create awareness in the market about their business and what they have to offer. If they cannot or will not provide the funding for your professional services you have no business wasting any more of your valuable time.
Spike Santee
I would try to get all three to work together.
Each one may only be on the radio two or three times per day, but TOGETHER they are inviting people to their mall six or nine times per day! The POWER of working together is amazing! (proof here - http://med.fsu.edu/uploads/files/FacultyDevelopment_LessonsGeese.pdf)
I've used this same information to get other business owners to "flock together" and help each other!
John Small
Sunny Radio & GreatRadioAds.com
Thank you very much Dale this is good info.....I understand what you are saying.....keep you posted meeting with all three today...take care
Greg
Thank you very much Spike good points and direct to the point.....like it, sometimes that is what needs to be done. Take care
Greg
Thank you John very much for the info and will keep you posted....going to meet with them today.....take care and thanks again
Greg
This is a dead prospect in my view. First of all, if the mall has no traffic, you can't be their savior. Having a need and the money to invest in a solution are two critical elements that must be present in order to spend time with a prospect. Absent that, there is no potential ROI for the effort.
It sounds like your options are very limited.
1) Get the Mall management to allocate dollars to promote the mall and hope that generates business for them.
2) Wait till they are able to move into another location and hope they survive that enough to start advertising once they are settled there.
3) Help them find a budget for advertising.
4) Be their friend but find some other business people to advertsise for. It is great to have friends but the 80/20 rule still applies. 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers, 80% of your headaches will come from 20% of your customers and those will seldom be the same customers. When you are qualifying who is a good potential customer, one of the hallmarks of a good customer is one who can pay their bills. If they cant pay your station, there is no commission in it for you. It is easy to catch somebody elses dream, just dont let their underfunded dream become a nightmare for yourself.
Spend your time finding people who are willing to pay for your services. You wont be in business if you are only charity. Your service has a value and in our business we really enjoy seeing great results. But if they cannot afford to advertise there is very little room for you to help them. Maybe keep taking articles into them about how and why they must advertsise to stay in business or at least plan to advertise their going out of business sale. Sure that sounds rude and I wouldnt say it that way to a customer, but this leaves you again with a couple options
1)realize they are not a customer untill they are doing business with you. Before that they are a suspect or a prospect.
2)telling them the reality of that situation is being honest with somebody you are trying to help.
3)this option sucks but many of us have done this. Keep working with them in the hopes that someday...may ...if only... and one day you will look back and the chances are you will see lots of waisted time that you could have invested in a business that you really could have helped.
sorry to be a downer on this one, sad to say I speak from experience.
DJ
Greg, I have also called on dying merchants in dying shopping malls. It's actually heart-breaking. Consider this:
1) If everybody else has moved out, why is your prospect still there?
2) Malls work by concentrating large numbers of retailers in one location. When the 'focus' effect is gone, the mall fails.
3) Your prospect will NOT advertise. Trust me.
4) Do your prospect a favor and try to help him find suitable retail/commercial real estate space with the foot traffic he needs. Call real estate specialists in your region, do a TINY amount of homework and then pass it along to the mall retail prospect; he will remember you forever.
5) He WILL advertise when he moves to the new location you have found for him, though. That's the deal.
