Trust me...please!

I heard a commercial while driving in to work this morning for Reputation.com, a service that manages what folks are saying online about you or your company. The commercial said something to the effect that 90% of people believe what they read online about your company, so the inference is that you best be sure that everything out there about you is positive. I did not catch the source of that statistic because I don't think they gave it.

On the other hand, I read a promotional piece this week from a publisher I know that cited Research magazine. The stat: seven of ten people say print advertising information is most important when making a purchase. Consumers still trust print in spite of all the market and media changes. 

Okay.

The real fact here -- and I say this without scientific basis -- is that there is so much information available to us today that you can likely find a study or research to back up most claims made about anything in media. And that's nothing new. There were many times in my own old selling days (B.C. or Before Computers) and when riding with a sales rep where a prospective advertiser would pooh-pooh your readership study or market report. 

"You come in here with your stuff that says you're the best, the TV guys come in with their stuff that says they're the best, and radio and everybody else," was a common comment made by these poor business owners (who probably spent as much time dealing with eager ad reps as they did anything else). And they were right. So how do you separate yourself? How do you develop folks to believe in what you say and what your company says?

Trust. You have to build trust. Build a relationship based on honesty and truth. And that, too, is nothing new; it's just changed. I love Jeffrey Gitomer (www.gitomer.com) who is famous for pointing out that we spend too much time training sales people to sell instead of training them to help people buy. "People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy!" is the Gitomer mantra. I believe that they love to buy when they deal with someone they can trust, someone who makes them feel very safe and comfortable when they open their wallet to spend. Gitomer also says "You don’t earn loyalty in a day; you earn loyalty day by day." In my own current sales career (A.D. or After Digital), I find this to be the most difficult aspect of today's market. There are too many faceless gatekeepers out there now with voice mail, e-mail and websites that lead nowhere when trying to reach out to someone you think your product can help. How do you build trust in that environment? 

I'm going to look for answers to that question and share them in upcoming blogs. If you have suggestions or ideas, send them to me at tcuskey@fcpny.com and I will pass them along. Thank you. 

It's time to make a hot splash!

Being a creature of habit, the first thing I do when I hit the kitchen in the morning is make a cup of Keurig coffee and take it into the family room for my morning news routine. This isn't a 7-Eleven jumbo cup; it's a standard cup, doesn't hold that much or take long to drink. But this morning I spilled it all over the coffee table (how appropriate) and floor. It went everywhere! Boy, when you spread it out and get a good look at it there is a lot more coffee there than meets the eye.

If you're selling free paper advertising, you've got a product in hand that holds the same mystique. And you may have to pour it out all over a prospect to get them to realize that.

Case in point: there is a lot of interest right now in the $684-million advertising budget that's devoted to the coming Affordable Healthcare Act rollout. The Obamacare marketing budget is being driven down to the state level in most cases and I had the opportunity yesterday to speak with a very nice young ad agency lady about the value that Free Community Papers of NY can provide to an organization that needs to reach as many New Yorkers as possible. Predictably, the young gal told me that metro market dailies would be the recipients of the print dollars in this campaign and thank you very much for calling. Incredible! With a program that potentially affects more people in more places than ever these experts have selected one of, if not the fastest shrinking medium available to them. And as far as all those folks in Upstate New York that don't live in a metro area?  Who knows.

This is nothing new, and my pitch to them isn't over, but it's time that all of us in the free paper business take our media kits and marketing information and pour them over every big agency and prospect we can, just like a cup of hot coffee. Make a big spread. Make it hot. When the volume of value we offer burns into their thick skin on a consistent basis maybe we finally will become the default choice for print dollars, or at least get consideration up front. That will only happen when they know we are the best choice with more reach and readership than our metro daily competitors. But to do so we need to be polished, professional and on top of our game with reliable marketing facts. That's where training and assistance that groups like FCPNY can provide to help you do the best job you can.

Call us at 315-472-6007 or email tcuskey@fcpny.com for assistance. Thank you.

PS: If you're reading this and you live in New York State, consider sending a message to our elected officials by voting against all incumbents in the next elections. Let’s send a message that we want New York to be about New York. The agency mentioned above that the NY Health Department is using is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nothing like keeping all the dollars here in NY. A printing firm I once worked for stopped bidding on state work because bids went to out-of-state printers who didn't have to pay the NY taxes and corporation-related fees that we did. That's wrong, but voters can fix it. Thank you again.

Don't get distracted from the coming opportunity!

My wife and I recently drove to Hilton Head, SC for a long week of beach, sun, food and more. Great time, but you notice lots of scary things when you're driving in the car for a long period of time. One thing I noticed on this trip, as well as a recent long weekend to Maine, is that motorcycle helmet laws vary from state to state. Being from Upstate New York (helmets mandatory) it is odd to see a Harley pass you with a rider's hair flowing in the wind, only RayBans separating their noggin from the elements, but we saw quite a few on these trips along the East Coast. Equally scary to other road-residents: a lot of drivers are still talking without a hands-free device. Also, you see a fair number of people who appear to be doing something in their laps while driving...texting I assume? I almost hope that's what they're up to. Personally, I believe hands-free cell communication takes your concentration off the driving just as much as hands-on...and probably as much as driving with a burger in one hand and coffee in the other (we saw that, too!).

In the case for helmets, new high tech ones can have music piped in and a GPS driving-direction map for the face shield is one the way soon.

As I often ask, what does this have to do with advertising? Distraction.

New media, digital/mobile/call-it-what-you-want is distraction based. In the good old days, readers embraced print media and many perused newspapers and shopper publications for the ads. I never knew anyone who watched TV or listened to the radio to see/hear what ads were on. But print ads were welcomed on the whole. Now, ads in general have become an unwelcome distraction. Check out this headline from digitaltrends.com: "Banner ads suck, say guys who invented banner ads." As online and mobile ads become the rule it's the pop-ups, re-directs, e-mail blasts, ad text messages and more that have turned advertising into something invasive. Next scary trend: distraction may be okay with up and coming users.

For example, how many people see and react to mobile ads? According to consumer research by The MMA and Lightspeed Research (October 2010), in UK, France and Germany, 45 percent of consumers (especially younger people) noticed mobile advertising and 29 percent of these responded to it (source: mobithinking.com). Moreover, mobile local ad revenue in the U.S. will grow by 54 percent by 2016, according to a new study by local media advisor company BIA/Kelsey. They say that mobile local ad spending will outpace mobile national ad spending by 2016. BIA/Kelsey projects that local mobile ad spending will account for 58 percent of total ad spending in just four years. The company expects mobile ad spending to reach $9.92 billion by 2016. (source: clickz.com). That's a big pie that is up for local grabs.

As local print publishers we have to be the ones to make this work for users and advertisers:

1. It's a growing revenue stream; we can't let it slip by.

2. We already have local customers and content.

3. We have history on how to get the message across without becoming a distraction or invasion.

At FCPNY we launched OhSoLocal, our local mobile app last year. It hasn't caught on yet; I think we were too early with it. If you want to learn more on how it might work for you or if you need help with any other free paper topic give us a shout at 315-472-6007 or email me at tcuskey@fcpny.com.

Thanks for your time.

Dog days are coming

I had the opportunity to travel to Maine this past weekend, stopping along the way in Boston to pick up my son Michael and his girlfriend Lyndsey. Boston is a great city, especially for young people. We walked the Quincy Market area for a while...my wife, Lyndsey, me and Mike who had his miniature Italian greyhound Enzo in tow. Enzo actually belongs to Mike and Lyndsey; a joint venture, dual custody, all that stuff. Cost more than a few bucks, too. You would think a city the size of Boston would have everything you want or need. Not so. Enzo had to be pre-ordered from a breeder in Nebraska who shipped him air-freight to his proud new parents eight weeks after he was born. They "laid him away," if you will, making payments while he grew to travel size.

What's the point of this dog tale?

Enzo, if I didn't mention it, is about as cute and coy as a dog can get. As my son walked the market, holding on to his little pup, he attracted a steady stream of people -- all ages but mostly twenty-something girls and young kids -- who just fell in love with Enzo. Enzo is little but he makes a big impact. Every youngster that came up to him ended their brief visit with a "that's the kind of dog we should get" to mom and dad. If Mike had carried an order form and receipts with him he could have closed ten doggy-deals that afternoon, minimum, in my estimation. The "I don't have the money to buy" objection would likely have never raised its ugly head. Enzo inspires behavior where people find money they don't have to make the purchase. We have all lost sales to a competitor who somehow inspired spending among prospects who couldn't buy from us right now for budget reasons. The competitor -- Enzo in our case -- got their emotions running high. That's just one sales and marketing lesson to walk away with from this afternoon outside Faneuil Hall. There are others.

How can you make your product cute? Irresistible? In a world full of dogs how do you come up with an Enzo? How do you subtly yet powerfully introduce it to the market and let interested buyers easily find you by never staying in one spot but cruising the marketplace, covering all the areas? How do you turn what you do into an emotional catalyst that buyers just have to have?

I don't know, either, off the top of my head but these are the questions we all need to ask about what we sell. I need to examine our statewide ad products that way and you need to look at your publications and digital offerings with the same fresh eyes. Most of all, we need to urge and assist our customers to do the same with their products and services. That's our main job as media sales students. We creatively solve problems.

FCPNY offers training to you and your staff on how to do this. "Making marketers out of your customers" is one class we offer that helps you get better at helping your customers think more about their marketing and position in the marketplace. We are booking fall training visits right now -- drop me a line at tcuskey@fcpny.com or call 315-472-6007 to chat about how we can help you and your staff get better than the other guys.

Be one of the first 100 to call and I'll email you a photo of Enzo.

Thanks for your time today.

"I'm a people person," she said with a smile...

I have no idea how many sales interviews I have conducted or sat in on through the years. A whole lot, I know that. In more than a fair share of them, at one point or another, the applicant answered the "why do you like sales" or "why should we hire you" question with "Well, I'm a people person...I like talking to people...I like working with people." As opposed to working with wildebeests and Buicks? The interview was over at that point, mainly because I always felt that these very nice people just didn't get it. Now I have proof.

I attended an AdMall webinar this morning, and picked up a lot of valuable information about this tremendous sales research tool, one I thought I knew pretty well already. Great stuff. This one was on local accounts and I recommend it. During the introduction, host Dave Blakeslee put up a slide that summarized some research done on what advertisers look for in an advertising/media representative. Number one answer? Survey said (DING!): "someone who knows my business." 64% of the respondents said this was what they look for, followed by "someone who knows my customers" at 59%. (Multiple choice answers account for percentage totals in excess of 100%).

Coming in dead last, mentioned by 7% of the respondents: "someone likable." You know, a people person.

When you think of advertising you think "creative", a trait considered most important by 35% of the respondents or a little more than half of those who'd rather have someone concentrate first on getting to know what their business is all about. And then learning what that business' customers are thinking and buying. Advertisers don’t need buddies; they need advisors, trusted resources. That’s where you come in. That's not to say that people skills, relationship-building skills aren't important. They are, but should be implemented in the direction of engagement based on the value of information and research-driven advice the well-informed rep brings to their table. There will be plenty of time to talk about golf, fashion, kids and other topics after you've made the client (and yourself) fabulously successful by being a premier asset in their business.

FCPNY members: training on how to develop and implement research from member-benefits like AdMall and CVC audits and on topics like understanding small business marketing is available to you in a customized on-site presentation. Just drop me a note at tcuskey@fcpny.com or call 315-472-6007. Thanks very much!