Practice What I Preach?

It has been some time since I updated this blog for which I have a long list of reasons I can supply: people I can blame, circumstances beyond my control, acts of God, sun spots and more. Fact is there are only one person to blame (moi) and one reason to give: lack of discipline. My wife tells me to stop beating myself up all the time so enough about that. Instead I will focus a paragraph or two on why discipline is more important and more difficult to maintain in your sales career (and elsewhere) than ever before.

My father was in sales, way back in the day. Was in the retail shoe business in the 1950's (and downtown Auburn, NY had a host of locally owned shoe stores) and then sold cars until he passed away in 1974. Professional discipline was required: show up to the store on time (9AM), dress professionally, smile and pretty much go home and forget about it at 5PM. Five days a week, occasionally six. Never on Sunday. Run an ad in the Pennysaver or newspaper and wait for people to come in. Check! It worked.

My son is in sales, very modern day young man. As a youngster he always wanted to play games on the "puter" (a Commodore 128!) and has taken to the Internet, social media and all things digital as a way of life, which it is for almost all young people today. They are constant communicators, welcoming new media and platforms because they have grown up doing so.

That leaves the rest of us, those in the middle. We learned our trades (and many habits) from people of my father's generation and are trying to hire, reach and sell to people of my son's generation. That's not to mention trying to reach, hire and sell to people of our own generation who are just as mixed up about media, communications and demographic habits and trends as we are. At least that is my guess, based on very unscientific research of me and my peeps. We all claim to be users (have a Facebook page and Twitter handle) but can't say that we are totally comfortable with it or good at it.

For the record, an excellent report from Pew Research on social media users today is HERE.

And people still read newspapers (thank God), in fact newspaper readership is healthy and still primarily done in paper and ink. Pew has an excellent report HERE for that information.

So, the discipline factor. We in the middle have to use our expertise to continue to develop great (not just good) print products that attract readers and advertisers and generate profit. At the same time we have to become social media mavens, not just claim to be users.

HERE is a good introduction to using social media...and HERE is a compilation of tips to become a guru (or so they claim).

It takes practice, practice, practice to get good at the ever-changing social media world. It takes time. Time takes discipline. There is no link to click that makes you more disciplined, nor is there a quick fix tutorial that will bless you with the attitude of a lifelong learner.  It is within each of us, we just have to tap it. Daily. I hate to say it but "24-7" because it is.

I never thought I would say this, but I think I am jealous of my father.

Zig Lives On Even If Cold-Calls Haven't

"Cold Calling Is Dead - Thanks to Social Networking. Get Your Free eBook. Download Yours Now!"

This headline is at the top of my LinkedIn page this morning. What has happened in our profession? Google "cold call" and results return more references to the demise of this sales staple as well as a couple of 2012 links explaining the finer points of the technique ("7 steps to a perfect cold call - CBS News", "Seven Secrets to Cold Calling Success - Entrepreneur").  Contradiction in the search engine! I am confused. When did cold calling die? Must have passed away when Zig Ziglar did, in November of 2012. I still love Zig, and miss his wisdom, captured in this Top Ten Ziglar Quote List, courtesy of Forbes.com:

10) “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.”

9) “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

8) “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.”

7) “There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.”

6) “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.”

5) “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”

4) “If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”

3) “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

2) “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

1) “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”

Funny, but the term "cold call" isn't in Zig's list, be they dead or alive. As much as some folks want us to think that selling has changed (and we all need reprogramming with a fee payable to the trainer claiming to be the cold-call undertaker), the fact is that selling always has been and always will be about relationships, helping people and being sincere in everything you do. Successful advertising works the same way. So, if you're selling successful advertising, you'd better be twice as nice and twice as sincere.

Aside from learning how to write up an order and using some helpful tools, there really isn't too much else you need to know.

If you need help with the tools that FCPNY provides as member benefits-- AdMall, CVC Audits and more -- contact Tom at tcuskey@fcpny.com or call 877-275-2726.

IOT -- It's not short for "IDIOT", at least not yet.

God speaks to me. Often, unfortunately. It's not that He has a lot to say to me; He has to repeat Himself several times before I actually listen. I am working on that and I am getting better at listening.

Case in point: IOT. I have heard the term twice now in the past three days from very legit sources. Repetition merits listening to. If you are new to the term, as I was, it stands for Internet Of Things. My first exposure to the phrase came from a friend who owns a fast growing, high-tech lighting company. You'll see an example of his work if you watch this year's Super Bowl (they lit the Phoenix stadium where the 2015 game will be held). He was talking about LED lights they design that have built-in transmitters that communicate constantly with a central station that monitors the status and condition of the lights. Keeps everyone on top of maintenance. He said "this is the next big thing you're going to start hearing about: the Internet of Things!" He was right. I heard about it again, this morning, on a news report about the huge high-tech product showcase that is going on in Las Vegas this week. The Internet of Things is all over it. Not only are people connected through our enabled devices, the devices themselves communicate with each other and take care of their business, if you will, without our direct assistance. The Internet of Things. 

Like everything new it is part exciting and part scary. I know I have seen sci-fi movies where smart machines take over the Earth. That's not the scary part, it's the exciting part. Here is scary...

Our clients would like to automate their marketing and advertising. There are programs that put a social media message out on multiple platforms at the stroke of a key. Reports come in that tell what kind of web traffic they are getting and where it comes from. Digital equals measurable, and measurable is good. Where are you in this mix? Hopefully, you're out in front of it. Digital changes so quickly that you have to become an everyday student of it…and then you can help your customers, your PRINT customers, make the most of it. Don't wait for your company or your boss to tell you to do this. It's up to you. You see, print isn't dead, it's alive and kicking in many forms. And it won’t die unless you kill it by not efficiently and intelligently attaching it to the new technologies that will always be coming our way. 

So don't become an I-di-OT. Get out in front of the wave. Learn a little bit more about new and existing products every day. Your advertisers have businesses to run -- they are looking for someone like you to take their hands and guide them through all of this, today and going forward. That becomes the exciting part. In spite of the looming Internet of Things, people still make ad decisions and pay the bills. And your job is to help people make their futures brighter. That makes yours brighter, too. Thank God!

Need training or assistance from FCPNY? Contact Tom at tcuskey@fcpny.com or call 877-275-2726.

Political ad spending -- looking forward to 2016?

I don't know if anything could have been done to stop the death of the dinosaurs. Lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii is going to make its way downhill to the sea, and man will not deter its course. There are some things in which we are powerless. Changes in media spending habits may be one more fine example, but I am betting, and hoping, that we still have a hand in our future. 

I live in the 24th Congressional District. Incumbent Democrat Dan Maffei is fighting off a strong challenge from Republican John Katko. This means nothing to you if you live outside the district, unless your home district is touched by the Syracuse TV market. Estimates of ad spending in this race have topped $5-million, and the great majority of those dollars have come from outside the district. Both parties have seen this race as a volatile swing zone so the outside money has flowed. And the winner is...local television. As we approach Election Day (tomorrow as I write) 30-second local spots have been almost entirely swept up by political messages, most of them by this Congressional battle. TV execs are whooping it up right now (and probably already sweating the "curse of media success": going up against these sales numbers next year). Still, TV's future seems bright, or brighter than most, except for you know what.

According to an article on emarketer.com (http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Total-US-Ad-Spending-See-Largest-Increase-Since-2004/1010982), 2014 will wind up seeing the biggest jump in ad dollars since 2004. TV is king at 38.1% of the mix while print grabs 17.7% of the ad dollars. Between now and 2018, it's estimated that TV will lose 6% of it's share while print will lose almost 21% of its claim. Every category is losing except digital. 28.2% of dollars are there right now, expecting to grow to a share of 37.3% by 2018, a 32% increase. The web is full of stories documenting the challenges newspapers/print media have had building digital services that provide revenue. As an industry, as a state association and as individual publishers, we have to overcome that or continue to lose. Why not make the 2016 elections our target to do so?

It all comes down to having an audience or readership, as always, but knowing who they are and how to segment them for successful targeting has become the key to new revenue. Our collective past attempts have relied on packaging digital with print, but that's because we desperately want our print products to survive. Like Tarzan, we have to let go of one vine before we can grab another if we want to keep moving forward. Otherwise we are just hanging there, gradually losing our grip. 

Continue to build audience with diverse print products, and tie them to exciting websites that build different demographic groups. Learn how to integrate video in your sites with interactive platforms that advertisers (or candidates) can take advantage of. The goal: have it up and running by this time next year and be ready to market it to the candidates. Let your associations (like FCPNY) bundle it for access to national and statewide political action groups. 

It's different, yes. The margins are different, too. Historically, that's too bad, but it is what is. Given a second chance, the dinosaurs would probably have settled for change with new possibilities for growth rather than extinction. But they didn't have a choice. 

Don't make people guess who you are.

Over the past month or so I have been involved with our own FCPNY annual Super Conference and the Association of Free Community Papers (AFCP) conference, held this year at Disney in Orlando. At each event I had the opportunity to meet people face-to-face that previously I had known only through email or phone contact. With many folks today hiding behind their digital communications means, this is becoming a more common occurrence. What's more, none of these people looked like I imagined they would.

Two reasons:

1. I am quickly becoming one of the older people in the conference room. I am in that narrowing group of business people nearing retirement age while most of the other folks in the room are 59 and under. I tend to imagine people as being in my own demographic stratum but most turn out to be younger. Duh. Much younger in some cases. I met one salesperson that looked like she could have been the high school aged daughter of the woman I imagined her to be.

2. No one ever looks like you imagine them -- we are all non-psychic, lousy guessers.

Which leads to the selling point: prospects use the same electronic gatekeepers as our colleagues, only they have them running at DEFCON 1. On top of that, prospects are trying to do more with less (just like our companies) so they have less time to spend chatting with salespeople. Thus, we often don't know what they look like, sound like, what they need, want or fear. How do we overcome?

Honestly, if I knew the hard, fast answer I wouldn't be here writing a blog, I'd be cashing checks in Palm Springs. The wires are full of suggestions on how to break through and get conversations started. Boil down most of what you read and you're left with two basic realities:

1. You haven't shown or aroused potential value in your brief opening.

2. You don't stand out from the rest of the selling crowd.

If your product doesn't have value, fix it. If it does and you haven't conveyed it, practice. Be sincere and be supportive. Don't sell. And practice, practice, practice what you say or do.

If you don't stand apart, work on branding your product and yourself. Yes, you need a personal brand that you convey so people remember you and what you do. Unless you’re the product owner, your personal brand may be the only brand you have total control of. Make sure everyone knows what you look and sound like, and what you stand for. 

We at FCPNY can help you with all of these sales needs as well as other selling issues you may be facing. Give us a call at 877-275-2726 or email me at tcuskey@fcpny.com.

Thanks so much for your time!

New beginnings

Happy New Year! I attended a worship service on New Year's Day and the presider gave a wonderful homily about being granted opportunities to start over. He opened with a cute story about a man who started each day with a review of the local obituaries. Finding his name among the obits one morning, the man called the newspaper editor to complain. After taking an earful of grief from the caller, the editor promised to make it up to him by including his name the next day among the listing of new births. "We'll give you a whole new beginning," he told the man.

Hopefully neither you nor I want to go back that far, but it is nice to get a chance to make a fresh start in any aspect of life. Taking advice from the same preacher, we should do the following before making resolutions:

1. Examine the past -- where are you coming from? You can do it anytime but the New Year is a nice time to restate your personal credo. What do you stand for? What few words describe your ethics, your beliefs and your values? What experiences -- both in the past year and in life generally -- need to be processed and evaluated as you move forward?

2. Identify the present -- where do you stand today? This is the transition moment. You've looked back and now you're turning your head to the future. Don't try moving forward while still looking back; you'll surely bump into something or trip and fall if you do, maybe even hurt yourself. Look ahead and identify where you want to go. The homily included another story. The great Mickey Mantle was walking one afternoon in New York City to Yogi Berra's apartment. Getting lost on the way, he stopped at a payphone and called Yogi. "Where are you now?" Yogi asked. "On the corner of 5th and Main," replied Mantle. In keeping with his well-known style Berra then said, "Great, just keep coming this way!" and then hung up. Moving without a destination in mind leads to wandering and squandering of time, talent and treasure. Know your destination before moving forward.

3. Chart the course and evaluate frequently -- once you start moving toward an objective you need to regularly measure where you are. Is the course you charted getting you to the destination you want? If not, re-chart and move in the new direction. Don't abandon the goal, even if you have moved farther away than you were when you started. You can still get there and, with the right outlook, might even enjoy the longer than expected ride.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and fruitful year and beyond. Drop us a note at tcuskey@fcpny.com or call 877-275-2726 if we can be of help to you.

Driving change -- a holiday story.

Growing up in Auburn, NY, my dad worked primarily in auto sales for most of his life. The holiday season was not a time he looked forward to as auto prospects were typically very hard to come by back in the day. In a time when most people holiday shopped local stores or did some catalog shopping -- and prepaid for most of their purchases -- disposable income was devoted primarily to gifts, festive meals and not much else. Consequently, dealers pulled in their advertising reins as the year wound down. My father never gave me much advice but always proclaimed that "the best time to buy a car was in December, right before Christmas, in the middle of a snowstorm!" The salesman and the dealer were pretty hard up in that situation and would make incredible deals according to the old man.

Fast forward 50 or so years, arguably 50 years that have seen more changes than in any other period in our history. Including (maybe especially) car sales. As I sat with my coffee watching the morning news today, in a 15-minute span there were four major auto manufacturer ads on the tube extolling the pleasures of holiday car shopping. And three of the four were high-end wheels: Mercedes Benz, Infiniti and Cadillac (Ford rounded out the group). Apparently what was once a barren time for auto retailers is now among the most prolific, based on the quality and frequency of the ads they are running. And TV time at the holidays typically commands the highest rates as avails shrink. 

What changed? A better question might be "what hasn't changed?" Rebates, cheap leases, 0% financing and mega dealerships have reshaped auto sales, not to mention the huge impact that online inventories and information have had on the industry. Plus, there are more brands and models available today than ever before. But when you cut through all that, it still comes down to a salesperson, a customer and the perception of value. With some adaptation and education my father would still fit right in.

Media sales (especially print media) have changed dramatically, too. We still have our seasonal challenges plus more brands and models of competition -- and an educated buyer who is looking for the one thing everyone wants: value. It's the perceived package they get after factoring price, quality, service, function and return on investment. That never changes. 

Lessons we can learn from our automotive mentors:

1. Create excitement that turns slow times around with promotions that offer emotional appeal and logical value to buyers.

2. Diversify and expand your product offerings. Something for everyone.

3. Make it easy to buy: you can't lease advertising but are there ways to make it easier on the budget that you haven't considered?

4. Remember that in the end, it's one-on-one: a customer and a salesperson. Train, train, train and always be sure that support ("Let me talk to my manager!") is always available.

5. Ask for the business! ("What do I have to do to put you in a car today?")

FCPNY is here to help our members with training and ideas to help. Call us at 877-275-2726 or email me at tcuskey@fcpny.com. Enjoy the holidays!