This might upset you. We just discovered the following at www.CongressSecrets.com. It's an earmark added to the latest stimulus plan, submitted (of course) by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) While they're attempting to re-institute the Fairness Doctrine they're also proposing to extend it to ADVERTISING. 

Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 315) is amended herewith:

FAIRNESS IN BROADCAST ADVERTISING
    (c) Public Interest Obligation to Cover Advertising Fairly. A broadcast licensee that sells time to commercial advertisers shall be required to provide comparable time for the broadcast of contrasting points of view. A broadcast licensee is prohibited from airing a commercial announcement unless advertising time is also broadcast for a competing product or service. When a commercial announcement is broadcast for one advertiser, the licensee must afford comparable time in terms of length and frequency and spot rate for a competitive product or service. If there is no competitive advertiser purchasing equal time, then the original announcement cannot be aired unless free of charge.

An attorney explained it like this. If you sell a schedule to (say) Pepsi, in order to air it, you would be required to have an exact equal schedule from a competing client like Coke or Dr. Pepper. If a soft-drink competitor doesn't buy an equal schedule, you will be required to either run the competitive schedule free of charge or not run the original Pepsi schedule.

When will this all end?

Several former employees from a company (which I can't name) are reporting one of the colder and humiliating experiences I've heard.

The RVP came to town and all the AEs were gathered in a cluster-wide meeting. They were entered to a reality-type competition called "To No Avail." Then, in front of everyone, the RVP went to each shouting questions like, "What's the market CPP for Men 25-54 on FU102 middays?" Or, "How many hits did BigTalk1490.com get last week?"  At the end of the all-day Saturday meeting, the AE with the least correct answers was eliminated from the station. This is being repeated every time the RVP comes to town. A bit too tough for my taste.

Yankee Ingenuity wins every time. Thanks to a veteran AE (who'll we'll call Mary Ann) who sent in a solid solution for these tough times. A couple weeks ago she was bounced along with half the sales staff. No gathering moss under her rock. She waited a couple weeks and on her resume simply made a couple "adjustments" including her name, a couple call letters and dates of employement. She then submitted it and re-applied for her old job. Since her former sales manager was also MIA, the new SM had no idea that Mary Ann had left only weeks earlier.

At the interview the unknowing new SM was so impressed by her knowledge of the station, the market, competition and key accounts that he hired her on the spot. It gets better. Many of her accounts hadn't been re-assigned so she got them back. She also knew the top accounts of others who'd been let go - and claimed them too.  Mary Ann says it was the best of all worlds; she got some severance, took her family to Hawaii for a couple weeks and returned to her old cubicle with a better list than the one she left with. Isn't innovation great? What an example for all of us. You Go Girl!

I'm so proud and excited to see your innovation at work. Just heard of a group using the highly successful Garage Sale metaphor to sell out the coming week. It's stunning in it's simplicity.

Every week, Market Manager S. Toner puts a classified ad in Friday's Garage Sale section of the local newspaper. Then every Saturday between the hours of 9a and 3p, they have card tables in the parking lot where advertisers are invited to drop by and buy the unsold inventory for the coming week - there is give an take just like a Garage Sale. 

Results? While sales activity during the week is off dramatically, they report that the Saturday Garage Avail Sale crowds are growing wildly. Even better, what a great way to finally meet those advertisers that you haven't called on.

Slogan: "If you gave up a perfectly good list to become a manager - you can't be all that smart." Think about it. An Account List is the ultimate job security but you threw it all away for a title and what you thought to be more money.

Look at the facts. As a Senior AE you left the station at 5PM, you had no "corporate" to contend with, didn't lie awake at 3AM  worrying about some insane quota and you could screw around all you wanted - and you gave that up?  Remember going to the SM and saying, "I can get them on, but I'll need a better rate than this?" Remember watching them yell and get all red in the face - now the tables are turned and they're doing that to you. Not much fun, eh?

Sure, the idea of more money, a title on the resume was attractive, but look what happened. With the time and angst you put in the job, you're probably just above the minimum wage plus

PLUS, now you're in Deep Doo Doo. No Make the Big Quota-roonie. Missing the Budget Thingy - Big Time! 

Our newest webinar offers you a choice.

1. Stay with your management gig . . .

Understanding that Knowledge is Power, we have carefully crafted a webinar that will get you through this unfortunate life experience. Here's a partial list of the subjects we'll cover . . .

• How to Keep Changing Gigs Before Your Incompetence Becomes Obvious. (Have you seen my resume?)
• How to Kiss Corporate Butt Until Your Incompetence Becomes Obvious. (A specialty from my long career.)
• How to Blame Everything on AEs. (Probably the most important lesson I learned as a Sales Manager.)
• How to Steal Accounts from Your Own AEs. (Ditto.)
• How to Hide Out from the Staff for Days at a Time. (See above.)
• Activity Minimums. How to tell them "Twenty (20) face-to-face cold calls per day is the standard"  - and keep a straight face. (Good fun.)
• How You Can Triple-Bonus clients without your staff knowing - and insist they get "the rate."  (Fulfilling.) 
• How to Detect Call Report Fraud. (Think back about the call reports YOU turned in.)

2. If, however, you decide to reverse your poor life choice, we have an excellent syllabus for that also:

Read on to see if you qualify . . .

Have your salespeople described you as  . . .

• Having worked with glue too much?
• Hasn't seen the ball since kickoff?
• Has lug nuts rattling in the hubcap?
• The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead?
• Always amazed by the Quarter Behind the Ear Trick?
• Doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his butt?
• Always the last to laugh?

If any of these sound familiar? We're here for you. Drop an e-mail to taz@ITeachByExample.com