Four Tips for Recovery
You probably think I'm nuts. I've been known to be crazy on occasion. When you've been in front of business owners with your media rep clients weekly since August of '08 (except for 3-days during knee surgery in January), you get a pretty good feel for the real, crazy world of marketing and advertising. Those of you left, that have stared down the "Great Recession/Depression" of '08-'09 should be able to see light on the other side of the tunnel.
If anyone thinks we are going to see a "U" in "recouvery", you have a case of spell-check error. We're in an L-shaped economy right now and it feels good to be in the lower part of the "L",though we still have some "track" to go before we see a full recovery. However, there is a recovery coming. As with all recessions, normal or not, there is about a 3-year recovery cycle, and that is going to start in 3rd quarter for various reasons. One reason is that a recession usually lasts about 1 year before recovery starts. Our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) went down in Q3 and Q4 of '08 and Q1 of '09, and the GDP will likely remain down in Q2 before a 3rd quarter flat or marginal uptick.
Something as dreadful as being in the middle of a recession/depression shouldn't keep you looking behind at the carnage of the past. Rather you should be looking forward to how you're going to take advantage of the "recovery" while others are still licking their wounds.
1) Staffing Up: No kidding! True, there has been some legacy-shredding of sales reps in media. Hopefully, you've cleaned out some "order takers" and have some consultant-type sales reps still on your staff. It's time for reinventing and that doesn't mean re-treading. Reinventing does mean getting better. Put some new rubber on the roads. Now is a great chance to find good talent looking to change careers. Don't wait for them to come to you. It normally takes a minimum of 3 months to effectively train a sales rep, if you train them. If you wait until "recovery" does happen, you will be 3 months behind and those are critical months when the competition is starving for good sales reps. If you don't train your sales rep then you now know what it means to "get your head handed to you" in the current economy.
2) Inch Up Your Rates, Regardless of Demand: This is counter-intuitive to supply and demand, though this recession has been anything but intuitive. Now is the time to put demand on your inventory. In the heart of the depression advertisers are blown away to think we have run out of inventory. Get advertisers to start thinking about "rates going up", not continuing to go down. Raising rates by 30-40% overnight will be unacceptable. Start now.
3) Align New Brand Applications: Hopefully, you have a "Web Footprint" by now. The Web isn't going away. If the recession did anything the past 9 months, it helped bring "below the line" measured media to the forefront. If you don't already have an internet-only sales force, you should-or at least start laying the pipe for it. Getting this department up to speed will take more than giving your current reps the "task" to sell interactive media (your web presence). It's not too late-yet. While you're looking for those new radio reps for recovery find some interactive sellers too.
4) Teach Some Basics - Again: I've seen 10-year "vets" in this recession unable to get an appointment, any kind of appointment. If your rep can't get an appointment, it's going to be pretty tough to do anything. Sales hasn't changed, it's still about basics and you must keep drilling in basic sales skills. For example, when was the last time you role played in your sales meeting? The basics never get old, they remain invaluable. You still have to talk the language of the business owner, and now new interactive agencies too. A media rep today has to be more dialed in and have a greater scope of all existing media. This includes learning your basic retail and marketing vocabulary, and also metrics of the New World Order where iPods and interactive media are integral. "Spots and dots" is outdated terminology and ROI (Return on Investment) is being complemented with ROII (Return on Interactive Investment). For now I'll take it you are doing basic ROI with your advertisers' as long as you can get an appointment.
Sean Luce is the Head International Instructor for Luce Performance Group and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com.