Sales Reps Take Note

Here's worthless sales tactic of the day: stop staying to me, "Your client seemed to really like our product." I know my client probably seemed pretty open to your product. After all, most of my clients, before we got in there and put a proper media plan together, were open to LOTS of products. Client's don't know a good media mix, so they dabble. They hire us for our professional ability to plan and place a good media mix.

So a few things are at play here, the first of which is; they want to stop talking to you and get back to work. So, let them. Call me and sell me your product. The client may sound extremely interested, but ultimately, they just want to get you off the phone, but still act like they are interested in what you have to say... in two minutes or less. Save the pitch for us. Next, saying the client liked the product and your pitch means absolutely nothing to me. The agency needs to review the product, look at it's potential and see if it fits the strategy. Please don't run up on us with, "this is so perfect for them" because you don't know the strategy. Stop. Ask some questions. Then let's work thru the pitch. Lastly, sell us. We love to be sold to. After you have an idea of what our strategy is, really tell us how you think it could work. Get some ideas going. Ask more questions. Be engaging. My number one complaint is lazy salesmanship. An example would be a recent email I got from a radio sales rep. The email didn't have a subject and the body of the text simply read, "Call me, I have an idea." It has dawned on me that the email could have been intended for someone else, but let's assume it was for me. There was no follow up in any way shape or form. Must have been one hell of an idea. That rep dropped a notch in my book. Totally worthless tactic and probably a waste of time if I returned the email.

An agency always wants what's best for our clients. Please respect the fact that we do, in fact, know what is best for their business. Put yourself in our shoes. See the big picture. Ask us a lot of questions. Find the angles. And then sell us. If you want to just check in to see if I'm ready to spend some money with you, you're going to be waiting while your competition is engaging me with better sales tactics.