Pat Bryson: What Results Do Your Clients Expect From Their Advertising?

    • 1373 posts
    May 20, 2023 1:16 PM PDT

    "I want results NOW!"

    by Pat Bryson 

    I was on a zoom call a couple of weeks ago with a very good salesperson. She had emailed me to say that she had been experiencing a rash of cancellations in the past few weeks. After a strong 2022, a "rash" of cancellations seemed out of place. What was going wrong? This was the topic of our zoom call.

    I asked her to give me one example so that we could do a forensic analysis of the process. This particular business was a garage door company. Although they had agreed to a long-term schedule, they wanted to cancel after 3 weeks. My first question was, "How long do people think about buying a garage door before they do?" (Unless their current door malfunctions and their car is stuck in the garage.) The answer is several months. Why, then, would it make sense to expect phone lines to light up in three weeks? It doesn't but our clients don't understand that. In their heart of hearts, they expect to air a commercial today and have the teeming masses show up tomorrow shouting our call letters.

    Which brings me to the point of this newsletter. How well do we manage expectations UP FRONT with our clients? Do we quantify what they should expect? Example: "I want more traffic in my store." "Ok, how much more? How much traffic do you have now? How long did it take you to achieve your current level of traffic? How quickly do you expect the additional traffic to happen?"

    We need to quantify their expectations. And, if those expectations are entirely out of whack (that's an Oklahoma term for "ridiculous") we need to tell them. We know how advertising works. We know the process to educate potential customers. And, we know how long it takes. We need to explain the recipe for effective advertising:

    1. Enough repetition per week to reach a 3 frequency.
    2. Consistent enough (at least 52 weeks).
    3. A relevant message.

    Results will build over time. Depending on the product and the product's gestation period, results will come sooner or later. Usually, advertising has ramped up to generating great results between 6 and 9 months into the campaign. This doesn't mean your clients won't see results before that, it simply means that peak momentum will not have been reached yet. Think "train" starting down the tracks and gathering speed till it is running at full capacity.

    The key to happy clients is to educate them on what their advertising can and will do if done properly. This education must be done at the time you are selling them, not later when they want to cancel. At that point, it sounds like an excuse. If done up front, you sound like a marketing genius as you accurately predict the trajectory of their campaign. And, if after preparing them for delayed gratification, their ad happens to hit a 2%'er who is buying today and comes in immediately, you look like a hero.

    I'm always happy to work through a forensic analysis with you to determine a strategy to save business and hopefully to resell these clients. My thanks to the salesperson who reached out to me and provided the inspiration for this newsletter. I hope other readers will benefit from her experience. We get better by analyzing our wins and our losses. That's how we improve!

    Happy Selling!

    Pat Bryson is the founder of Bryson Broadcasting International, a consulting firm that works with radio stations around the world to increase revenue by raising the skill level of their sales staffs. Her client list spans from the United States to Canada, Europe, Central Asia and Australia. She has been named one of Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women in Radio for 2018 and 2019.

    Pat publishes the Bryson Broadcasting International Newsletter twice monthly and is the author of A Road Map to Success in High-Dollar Broadcast Sales and Successful Broadcast Sales: Thriving in Change.

    You may contact Pat at [email protected] or visit her website at https://www.patbryson.com/.
    This post was edited by Rod Schwartz at May 20, 2023 1:17 PM PDT

    • 6 posts
    June 3, 2023 11:24 AM PDT
    Rebecca Hunt said:

    "I want results NOW!"

    by Pat Bryson I was on a zoom call a couple of weeks ago with a very good salesperson. She had emailed me to say that she had been experiencing a rash of cancellations in the past few weeks. After a strong 2022, a "rash" of cancellations seemed out of place. What was going wrong? This was the topic of our zoom call. I asked her to give me one example so that we could do a forensic analysis of the process. This particular business was a garage door company. Although they had agreed to a long-term schedule, they wanted to cancel after 3 weeks. My first question was, "How long do people think about buying a garage door before they do?" (Unless their current door malfunctions and their car is stuck in the garage.) The answer is several months. Why, then, would it make sense to expect phone lines to light up in three weeks? It doesn't but our clients don't understand that. In their heart of hearts, they expect to air a commercial today and have the teeming masses show up tomorrow shouting our call letters. Which brings me to the point of this newsletter. How well do we manage expectations UP FRONT with our clients? Do we quantify what they should expect? Example: "I want more traffic in my store." "Ok, how much more? How much traffic do you have now? How long did it take you to achieve your current level of traffic? How quickly do you expect the additional traffic to happen?" We need to quantify their expectations. And, if those expectations are entirely out of whack (that's an Oklahoma term for "ridiculous") we need to tell them. We know how advertising works. We know the process to educate potential customers. And, we know how long it takes. We need to explain the recipe for effective advertising:

      1. Enough repetition per week to reach a 3 frequency.
      1. Consistent enough (at least 52 weeks).
      1. A relevant message.
    Results will build over time. Depending on the product and the product's gestation period, results will come sooner or later. Usually, advertising has ramped up to generating great results between 6 and 9 months into the campaign. This doesn't mean your clients won't see results before that, it simply means that peak momentum will not have been reached yet. Think "train" starting down the tracks and gathering speed till it is running at full capacity. The key to happy clients is to educate them on what their advertising can and will do if done properly. This education must be done at the time you are selling them, not later when they want to cancel. At that point, it sounds like an excuse. If done up front, you sound like a marketing genius as you accurately predict the trajectory of their campaign. And, if after preparing them for delayed gratification, their ad happens to hit a 2%'er who is buying today and comes in immediately, you look like a hero. I'm always happy to work through a forensic analysis with you to determine a strategy to save business and hopefully to resell these clients. My thanks to the salesperson who reached out to me and provided the inspiration for this newsletter. I hope other readers will benefit from her experience. We get better by analyzing our wins and our losses. That's how we improve! Happy Selling! Pat Bryson is the founder of Bryson Broadcasting International, a consulting firm that works with radio stations around the world to increase revenue by raising the skill level of their sales staffs. Her client list spans from the United States to Canada, Europe, Central Asia and Australia. She has been named one of Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women in Radio for 2018 and 2019. Pat publishes the Bryson Broadcasting International Newsletter twice monthly and is the author of A Road Map to Success in High-Dollar Broadcast Sales and Successful Broadcast Sales: Thriving in Change. You may contact Pat at [email protected] or visit her website at https://www.patbryson.com/. When I am out with a salesperson and meeting with a client, I also ask: What's your product cycle - how often do consumers buy, in this case, a new garage door? Do consumers buy garage doors only after their old ones break? Or do they buy when they see a newer style? How many customers do you get as a result of a new build? A year from today, what you would consider the result of this campaign to be a success? Selling 15 new garage doors? 20? If you don't know what their expectations are, how can we address them ahead of time? Especially considering that the product cycle of a garage door company is far different than a restaurant, expectations are far different!