Category: Sales
Pending Business: Updating Your Unique Value
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — “Unique” in the news/talk business is a value point that is melting away like an ice cube in the desert.
You don’t need a stack of stats to realize everyone gets their news, opinions, and information from multiple media touchpoints. Radio is not the pre-eminent free utility it once was. Your smartphone, laptop, desktop, smart watch and smart TV, will flash an alert, update, or bulletin, in the blink of an eye. The 24/7/365 news, information, opinion cycle is on steroids and being consumed at a breakneck pace from almost anywhere. Traffic, weather, sports scores, headlines, breaking news, opinions, updates, are all for sale.
Pending Business: The Great Ones Have This Trait
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — What is the single most important quality of a great salesperson?
Product knowledge? Station and competitive knowledge so deep, you even know the tower array. Not really.
Planning and organization? Every minute is booked, accounted for and planned weeks in advance. Unrealistic in today’s world.
Wired with contacts? You know the gatekeeper’s favorite treat and the decision maker’s birthday. So does everyone who’s read Harvey Mackay.
Pending Business: Creative Always Counts
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Does size matter, when it comes to results?
Ever sell a big audience number with disappointing results for the advertiser? The performance your advertiser expected never materialized. Now what? How do you re-connect with an advertiser who trusted your numbers, paid for the campaign, stood by the phone and the only calls were your competitors explaining the mistake that was made advertising with you. Can I get a head nod?
Pending Business: Time to Practice
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Ever try sales practice exercises? Silly concept?
Every performance-driven activity you can think of requires some form of practice. Athletics, the performing arts, public speaking, teaching, bar mitzvahs, all require practice. Even your doctor, dentist, and lawyer required practice before they could open their… practice.
So what about the professional sales rep? Sellers, especially in today’s warp speed changing environment must practice.
Pending Business: Clients (As Well as Listeners) Seek Connection
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — How do you sell into the turbulence of today’s news/talk radio cycle?
If you are fortunate enough to be based at one of the few dominant, highly sold news/talk radio stations with no real competition, virtual high five to you! The biggest challenge you face is working with your management to balance pricing, demand, and relationships. It is tempting to hang the sold out sign in every conversation and email. Careful, as markets tend to correct themselves and comfort zones can be rocked.
Pending Business: Yogi Got It
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Yogi Berra said it best, “It’s so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.”
What did Yogi know decades before the world stopped?
As we make the gradual return to re-opening, we see a new normal environment, where we may never again sit elbow to elbow in a crowded restaurant, concert, sporting event, movie theatre, or even religious service. Essential service retailers from Costco to Home Depot feature marked floors with social distancing markers, directional arrows, and limited number of in-store shoppers. The new age pandemic impacted retail environment is emerging.
Pending Business: What’s All the Fuss About?
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — My phone rang a lot last week.
Calls from great sellers I had the privilege of managing at different radio and TV stations. “What’s the big deal? We were working remotely 20 years ago!”
So, what opened my eyes to allowing every seller to working remotely back then?
Look beyond the media business.
Pending Business: Get Ready
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — After the facemask protocol, the last thing I expected was paperwork.
Sign a waiver before getting a haircut? It’s all good.
How about the double squirt of Purell while signing at the car dealership to get the next service checkup? Does your favorite take-out have the small bins of pens on the counter, one labeled “used” the other labeled “fresh”? Ladies, don’t be surprised if your handbag winds up wrapped in a plastic bag at a medical or dental office or waiting areas. Better yet, be forewarned, you could be limited to a mobile phone and purse.
Pending Business: Masks, Appointments, and Social Distancing
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — As restrictions are slowly lifted in your area, businesses will cautiously reopen.
Given the current unpredictable business environment, your challenge is to be at your best. Stay smart about what and how you’re selling.
As local business categories slowly come back to life, dealing with restrictive guidelines never before anticipated, marketing dollars may take a more cautious path to recovery. Some of your advertisers are dealing with the logistics of government-funded loans to bridge the gap, and the new challenges that will arise. Will hours and operations ever be the same as before the coronavirus pandemic? Some businesses will be overwhelmed powering through phone messages for appointment — think hair salon, personal grooming. And other businesses may never re-open.
Pending Business: Don’t Fight Santa
By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — This you know: Radio reaches more people on a weekly basis than any other platform. Every piece of research you see, says every week 92% of us are touched by radio. What you don’t see? The majority of the local market ad spend. Why even raise that point, now, today when there is no normalcy in the business world?
It’s important, now more than ever, here’s why.
Your “platform”, i.e. radio station, is under intellectual attack.
