When the client calls you in and makes an extreme demand like, I want twice the spots for half the money, I want them all live reads and all in AM Drive, our answer is most likely, NO! We can't and won't do that. Or, Who the hell do they think they are?
 
In today's New Economy, that's the incorrect answer. That answer doesn't exactly move the sale along but more likely moves us to the parking lot. In fact I believe that this stance is much to blame for our current reduced circumstances. It's not part of our DNA to compromise. We were trained to SELL. We have so little training for a client's extreme position - other than NO. We know so few of the basics of how to negotiate, hondle, settle, compromise, bargain, trade off or re-package. 

Look at this offering. It's a 90-minute online workshop for only $99 an email address and is jammed with Negotiation Skills for Tough Times. It's an entire new skill set that can make the New Economy (the terrible economy) not as tough for us. When added to good sales skills, you'll learn techniques that will do wonders for your billing. We'll show you how. Offerd Thursday, Feb 26th & Monday, March 2nd at 3:30pm ET.

Click Here for Details & Registration on Negotiation Skills for Tough Times.

By the way, the most profitable response to the above question is, We probably can't do THAT, but let's see what we CAN do. What comes after that is all the fun.

There's an author I quote with almost every workshop. Her name is Barbara Geraghty. She wrote a book called Visionary Selling: How to Get to Top Executives - and How to Sell Them When You're There. (Want one, go to  www.tazmedia.com, click on Recommended Reading.

She has, what I call, the Ultimate Client Needs Analysis. It's simple. We ask the client three questions:

1. What are you trying to get done? (Goal.)
2. How Much? (Quantity.)
3. By When? (Time.)

The perfect answer would be something like,

1. We're trying to increase weekend tire sales.
2. By 20%.
3. By the end of May.

That gives us the problem to solve - with them. We respond with, How Q-104 can help Discount Tires Increase Weekend Sales by the end of May. That statement becomes the reason for the business relationship, it's the name on every page of the presentation, and it's the over-riding idea when creating copy, an NTR project or anything online. Got it? After we get the schedule on the air and sales aren't increasing, we can go back to THEIR OFFER as the problem. Maybe it's frequency, or daypart - but we have a problem that both of us can attack.

Here's the rub. At a recent state convention, a senior AE noted, I have many clients who couldn't answer those questions. In fact, they don't know to ask those questions. Wow. I'd forgotten that. Over the years I called on many clients who said No, when they really meant, I don't know what you're talking about. Since they bought print, I thought they knew everything about advertising, when indeed they used print because somebody else did. Or the print guy understood how to ask the right questions.

As we go forward in the New Economy, we're going to be living in a world of Direct more than ever before. Likewise, we're going to meet scores of people who've been downsized from their jobs and now opening franchises or their own new business. The opportunity here is client education, helping them discover (a) these are the questions to ask, (b) how to arrive at the answers and (c) how YOU and radio can help them arrive at those goals. 

In the past we've SOLD Radio. Now, with a little bit more inquiry - we might find that they also need information about all of marketing and advertising.  If we do this correctly, we can win the confidence of a business and sell more than we thought possible.

Grab the book. Go to www.tazmedia.com, click on Recommended Reading.