Greetings From The Front Lines - A Dose Of Good News For a Change

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Greetings from the Front Lines-A dose of Good News for a Change.

Wherever the front lines are for you. Right now, it's Europe for me. I'm getting ready to wrap up 45 weeks of road work in 2008-200,000 air miles also (by December 20^th) -check that-46 weeks if anybody is counting. Here are a few things I've noticed over the past year in our recession laden economy and maybe there are some insights you can take and apply to your situation or career. Somebody might ask you what you were doing in the recession of 2008 and how you survived it-if indeed you survived it selling media in US markets.

In the US, we started to feel the recession in April of 2007 and you could feel it start get serious around August of 2007. Some economists have said over the past week-the recession started in December of 2007. Really? Economists-great way to make a living-you can go your entire life without ever having to be right once. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to us in media sales.

Bad news sells! You bet it does. It lines the front pages of newspapers every day. The newspaper industry just announced it lost 2 billion dollars (in US markets) so far in 2008. It's online didn't save it as some thought it would. I wonder-when advertisers are reinforced every day with negative news on the economy-at what point do business owners simply want to quit advertising? Perception is reality. It is! Here in Greece where they haven't seen anything yet relative to US economy; many people are fearing the worst which is starting to drive advertisers away. You can go in defeated to see a customer or you can go in a make a difference. Business owners will feed off your positive vibe and "ideas" are the currency going into 2009. If you can bring an idea-versus a "perceived cost of having to advertise" you can make a difference.

Remember, we go through a recession (in US) at least once every 5 years on average dating back to the last depression-circa 1930's. Our last one was 2001-which compared to our current one was a walk in the park-if you even remember it. So we were a little overdue. Everything being printed and in all media predicted the gloom of "Black Friday"-day after Thanksgiving (US) which was last Friday, November 28^th. Guess what-retail sales were up 1%. Though Newspaper headlines said on Monday (December 1^st)-"Let's wait and see what happened the entire weekend." And Newspaper wonders why it's lost 5% of its readership on the first 6 months of this year alone. Go figure-some people just want to quit reading bad news as well as wanting "in real time" news.

Here's some good news: Since the 1970's-before every economic downturn or recession, OPEC was feeding high on the hog. I was in Europe when a barrel of oil was traded at $147.00 in July of this year. I knew it then- the US recession was in full swing. Before every recovery in the past 30 years, OPEC would cut production-it happened again in October of this year. OPEC greed helps feed a bad economy-go figure-US in recession since December of 2007 and gas prices are $4.00 a gallon in July. Something has to give-usually a barrel of oil gives as it has in the past 90 days-bottom out oil prices and OPEC continuing to try to cut production signals a recovering US economy. Not a big fan of controlled pricing universally-OPEC.

In my experiences-I normally see the East Coast of the US start to ease up and the West Coast normally follows within 6 months. We're starting to see some East Coast markets start to hum again. Just in time to spread across the country where the West Coast has felt the brunt of the recession-excluding British Columbia. You had to wonder when housing prices went up 30% from 2003 to 2006 on the West Coast-when it was going to end. We have some great sales managers and sales reps working California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona and selling in these times will make you better in recovery. Did I mention recovery? Yes, after every recession there is a recovery and the recovery once in full swing will sell cars with pent-up demand, sell real estate and sell stocks on Wall Street again. Recovery normally takes a Bull Run for 3 good years-expect that to start in 2009 depending on where you are. Not an economist-in August I thought Wall Street would bottom out around 7500. It reached that two weeks ago. Also, only 3% of Americans are involved in Wall Street-so why does everybody measure the US economy like a football game with the Dow Jones Industrial Average? Also, we're in the tech revolution-not the industrial revolution-just ask Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.  

Will selling media be the same when it does come back? No, there has been a sifting out of scattershot spray and pray advertising. Measurement and accountability in all marketing will thrive. Are you measuring your success either in tracking your advertiser's results or online with measured metrics?

Get ready for a new world of advertising and marketing. One where the commercial visiting and product/package peddling sales reps are things of the past. That's the good news! The bad news will be if you don't evolve.

Before you go into your next sales call today or tomorrow-remember, you have 45,000 to 51,000 self talk impressions every day. Your mind cannot go more than 11 seconds without having some form of self-talk. What are you thinking before your next sales call? Positive self-talk makes a huge difference. We can either succumb to the negativity and bad news, or go out and make a difference for advertisers who desperately need you-to come in with ideas that make a difference.

Thank you for reading our Luce Performance Group Newsletter. Remember, it's up to you to make it a great day!