What is failure? Let’s define it as an outcome that falls short of expectations. Based on that definition many of us fail to some degree every day. Expectations should be tempered by the difficulty factor. For instance, in baseball a great hitter fails to get on base seven out of every ten times at bat. In radio, however, a thirty percent closing ratio would be considered below average for a veteran sales person. The degree of a failure is determined by the severity of the resulting consequences. In the workplace, failure can result in consequences that range from minor disappointment to the loss of your job. But, generally speaking, failure is viewed as a bad thing.

But that’s not necessarily true. For instance, failure can be evidence of effort. You’ve heard the saying “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” It would be equally true to say, “Nothing ventured, nothing failed.” We also learn a lot from failure. So how about, “Nothing failed, nothing learned.” Claiming to have never failed is tantamount to claiming that you never tried to accomplish anything. That’s hardly a badge of honor. Most great accomplishments were preceded by many more failures. Thomas Edison failed over 3,000 times before he found a light bulb design that worked. We honor him and his invention, but in many companies today he would have been fired long before he ever fired up a filament for the first time.  

To keep failure in the proper perspective, here is a list of things a good organization should understand about failure:

1. You should know your industry’s baseline failure-to-success ratio.
2. A lack of failure is as big of a red flag as a lack of success. Failure is a natural result of innovating, experimenting, and attempting to do difficult things. That kind of failure precedes success.
3. Fear leads to paralysis. When people are afraid to make mistakes they become afraid to do new or difficult things. Your organization cannot achieve maximum success if your people are afraid to fail. Over-reacting to failure can be as counter-productive as under-reacting.
4. You should have a non-threatening post-analysis system in place to examine failures. Ask a lot of questions, drill deep enough to determine the exact cause of the failure, and discuss the failure until everyone is in agreement regarding the lessons to be learned and the changes to be made to avoid the same failure going forward.
5. Possible causes of failure include:
    a. Lack of clarity regarding expectations
    b. Unexpected variables
    c. Insufficient training
    d. Human error
    e. Unrealistic  expectations
    f. Insufficient effort
    g. An employee’s incompatibility with the job description

Reward success. Analyze and discuss failure. Think about the effect that your response to failure is going to have on your organization. Failure is going to happen, but if your repertoire of responses to it is limited to beating yourself up, berating others, threatening employees, and firing people then you are missing out on all the organizational and personal growth that can result from failure.

I promised to be brief today. Here are bite size tips on generating local online advertising revenue.

1. Businesses are spending billions on local online advertising and marketing.
2. Radio is doing a terrible job of getting our fair share of this money.
3. Traditional newspaper advertising may be dying, but they are doing a great job of getting local online advertising budgets. Study them.
4. If most of the content on your station's home page isn't updated daily, your website is not set up to make money.
5. If you aren't helping your customers get online co-op dollars from their vendors, you are behind the curve.
6. If you are looking for rich categories of online revenues...a good place to start is the classified section of the newspaper.
7. If you are not offering online video products to your local advertisers, you are way behind the curve.
8. Pursuant to number 7, every station sales department should have at least one digital camcorder, every sales person should know how to use it, and someone in your station should know how to edit and upload video clips and how to link them to your site.
9. If you are still trying to sell banner ads for $500 a month you will continue to be disappointed with your results. If you actually get someone to buy a banner ad for $500, they will be disappointed with their results, as well.
10. Online products will play a growing part in radio's future efforts to generate revenue. Embrace it. If you haven't done so already, start doing research on online advertising right now. Where should you go to find this information? Online, of course!

In yesterday's Radio Business Report there was an angry letter from someone who was unhappy that the latest list of Mercury Award winners did not include any entry from the "Station Produced" category. For those of you who don't know, the Mercury Awards are a program that was initiated by the RAB to encourage higher standards in the production of radio commercials by offering cash prizes for entries from a variety of categories. This year's judging panel decided that there were no entries from the "Station Produced" category that were deserving of recognition. The writer said this was tantamount to the RAB telling Radio, "You Suck." He went on to say that he had canceled his membership and he was encouraging others to follow suit. Talk about over-reacting!

I do not want to address the Mercury Awards judging process.There was enough debate on that topic yesterday. I do, however, want to take the opportunity to point out a problem that radio has had for years. Every time a radio company does a focus study, they ask test subjects, "What do you like least about radio?" The number one answer every time is "Too many commercials." I will tell you right now that isn't the problem. The real problem is too many BAD commercials. There are commercials that people actually enjoy. I'm sure you can think of a few that you look forward to hearing again. But there are far too many that are offensive. Some insult a listener's intelligence. Some contain horrible elements like those phony sounding conversations. Some are riddled with cliché's. Many are chock full of information the listener couldn't care less about. I could go on but I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And the truth is that many of those bad commercials were produced inside a radio station. There is a real lack of understanding of the psychology of copywriting and there is a real lack of appreciation for how important effective copywriting is. I know there are some good commercials produced in stations, but the exception does not disprove the rule. There are a number of reasons for the poor quality of many station produced commercials but the underlying reasons are always the same...time, money, and talent. Several years back, while I was working on the station side, I wrote a script for a local client that was going to require some fairly involved production. I took it into our production manager. He went on and on about how nice it was to get good copy for a change from someone in sales. I told him it was my intention to start working toward getting the sales people to raise the standards for copy in the hopes of producing more quality commercials. That's when he looked at me and said, "If you think we can produce this kind of commercial on a regular basis you're kidding yourself. I don't have that kind of time time." We don't have the time to produce good commercials so our clients will just have to settle for crap because it's all we have time to produce? What's wrong with THAT picture?

Don't confuse entertainment value or awards with effective commercials. A Mercury Award for a commercial that fails to get the desired results is meaningless. Conversely, a commercial that gets results and converts a prospect into a satisfied customer is gold whether it wins an award or not. We don't have time for a class in creative here, but I can give you a couple of quick pointers. I once read that if you are selling fire extinguishers, lead with the fire. No one cares how many years the fire extinguisher company has been in business. The listener only cares if their fire will be extinguished. Humor is only good if it relates to the product and the listener. A listener who laughs but doesn't buy is meaningless. Good commercials cause the listener to test out the product or service in their imagination and to enjoy the mental experience.
 
It takes talent to write good commercials. Some stations have people with that kind of talent working for them. If you do, fine. Make sure the standards of your productions match their talent level. If you don't have that level of talent, you can do one of two things. You can hire it, or you can outsource your production. Both approaches will probably require charging the client for the production. So what? All the other media do it. It's not that hard to explain how "free" production is almost always more expensive than paying for good production. Whatever you do, don't start charging and then deliver the same old sonic junk. Clients ultimately determine the value of their investment based on results. Without results, it doesn't matter how cheap your spots are. 

Damn. I was hoping this one would be short. Oh well, I'll try for more bite size morsels tomorrow.  
 

At 11:00 am on June 11, a second wave of layoffs hit the staff of the Radio Advertising Bureau. I was part of the first wave that happened in January so I know what those who lost their jobs felt like. It wasn't the first job I ever lost, but it was the best job I ever lost. But this time it's not about me.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around these latest layoffs. Of all the comments already written about them, Eric Rhoads, publisher of Radio Ink, wrote an especially in-depth piece. He made a number of thoughtful observations, but his very last paragraph perfectly sums up my sentiment. He said, "Sometimes it's difficult to quantify the value received from organizations like the RAB, yet there is tremendous immeasurable value, and we as an industry should not let RAB become a casualty of this economy. It plays a necessary role for radio, and we should do anything in our power to keep it relevant and alive." Amen bro.

The RAB operates on income generated by membership dues and from the sale of additional products and services designed to support radio's local and direct sales efforts. The reason behind the layoffs is the lost income resulting from the decision by a number of radio stations and companies to cancel their memberships. It's not hard to understand why the people at the top of radio made these decisions. It's one less expense on their spreadsheet and it won't affect their daily lives at all. It's the people at the bottom of the org chart, the local sales people, who need the RAB the most, and who's jobs are now more difficult as a result of a decision they had no voice in.

If this trend continues, Radio faces the very real possibility of losing the RAB altogether. Without the resources and support they provide, radio could wind up being represented by a generation of local sales people who lack training, who don't have access to information on the businesses they are attempting to serve, and who have nowhere to turn for support and assistance when they encounter challenges they don't know how to overcome. That could do great harm to the way radio is perceived by the advertising community, which any radio sales person will tell you is a challenge that they already have to deal with on a regular basis.
 
Eric speaks of Jeff Haley's attempts to bring radio into the digital era. There's an old saying about leading a horse to water. In many cases, it's more like he's trying to lead mules. I mean, how much evidence is it going to take before reluctant radio companies finally realize that there is a transformation taking place and they have already let the first and second waves pass them by? Many have refused to adequately train their employees or to hire people who are actual experts in creating content and selling interactive products. Radio sales people are very frustrated. Many have been given interactive billing goals but all they have to work with are lame websites, outdated products, and overly-optimistic rate cards. Over the past decade local advertisers have become too sophisticated to buy into over-priced banner ads on a website with limited visitors. Other industries are doing it right. Why can't we? At the RAB, John Potter has done an excellent job of creating a powerful interactive sales training curriculum that has already helped many sales people. But many more work for companies that to date have not provided them with this valuable information. I respectfully submit that this is costing those companies much more than it's saving.
 
My concern for the industry is surpassed by my sadness at learning that friends of mine lost their jobs. To a person, they are extremely bright people and true radio professionals who have dedicated their careers to the betterment of radio and its people. I would add "great leader" to my description of Mike Mahone. Now they've been cast aside as nothing more than an unpleasant but necessary business decision. They all deserve so much more from an industry to which they've given so much for so many years.
 
What becomes of an industry, indeed a country, that rewards effort, accomplishment, and loyalty with an unceremonious kick to the curb? That is what some in the radio industry are doing to the RAB. It's what corporate America and Wall Street have done to the middle class. Surely there will be a day of reckoning. How many more good people will have to have their lives screwed up before it arrives?
 
I encourage all sales people to make sure your company knows how important the RAB is to your ability to do your job. And I encourage you to make sure you take full advantage of the services and resources you are entitled to as part of your company's membership. If your company chooses to not provide you with this important advantage, I strongly encourage you to consider signing up for the new individual membership plan they now offer. 

Saving the RAB is crucial to saving Radio. Let's not learn that the hard way. 

As I pondered my entry for today I was struck by two thoughts. First, I figured it was time to dispense some actual sales advice. Second, my first two entries were sort of wordy, so perhaps I should try to be more concise. After all, we are living in an era where people are just too busy for complete coverage of any issue. We want sound bites so we can get the idea and then move on.

OK. Here's some bite size sales advice.

1. Stop pitching packages and "ideas" before you have spent even one meeting with your customer discussing their business, their challenges, and their objectives.
2. In the process of selling, sentences that end with a question mark are significantly more productive than sentences that end with a period.
3. If you must use a sentence that ends with a period, you will get much better results if it contains the words "you" or "your" rather than the words "we" or "our".
4. Dress ten percent better than the person you are meeting with.
5. Improvisation is for comedy. To be successful you must have goals and you must have a plan to achieve them.
6. The harder a person works for a deal, the more satisfied they are with it.
7. If you are not willing to walk, you have no business negotiating price.
8. Win/Win is the only way to go.
9. Your actions will cause you to be perceived by your customers in one of three ways...worse than the competition, the same as the competition, or better than the competition.  
10. Nothing you do is neutral. Everything you do either moves you closer to success or further away from it. 

I hope I didn't take up too much of your time. Have a great weekend!

Look people, I know times are bad. Real bad. But there is a disconnect inside many radio companies that is compounding the revenue problem. When so many advertisers are either cutting back on advertising or eliminating it, each and every sales encounter is critical. The closing ratio is more important than ever. We've all heard Einstein's quote that says the definition of insanity is to continue doing things the same way and expecting different results. People do what they know how to do. If you want people to do something better, they must be taught a better way to do it.
 
In other words...they need training. But training is being denied in a recessionary attempt to limit expenses. This is a spreadsheet mentality which is being misapplied to this vital issue. Training is not a line item expense...it is a necessary investment. This is true in all industries, not just radio. Training is how you improve the performance of existing employees and how you maximize the return on your investment in new employees. To deny training is to suppress the ability of people to succeed. It is penny wise and pound foolish.

But the upper tier decision-makers in radio are faced with tremendous challenges right now, and those challenges are understandably shaping their perspective. Wall Street and corporate CFO's are not going to suggest spending money on training. Thus, the disconnect. So it's up to the training industry, trade organizations, state associations, and sales people themselves to make sure that training is included in all ongoing discussions regarding what needs to be done to address current revenue challenges and radio's preparation for the future.

At the risk of sounding like a sales pitch, let me just state that training is not an expense. It is a necessary investment that offers the quickest and most significant return of all the investments that a radio company can make. If you invest $1000 in training a sales person, and if your margin is 30%, then the training self-liquidates when that person closes sales equaling $3333. Depending on market size, that amount typically represents just 1-3 average orders! Every additional dollar generated after that is gravy. Gravy is as good on a spreadsheet as it is on homemade biscuits. 

As bad as things are right now, radio is uniquely positioned to turn this economic climate into an opportunity. But old habits will not yield new and improved results. An investment in training will provide deserving sales people with skills that will enable them to close more sales right now as well as in the future. Talk about a morale booster! And when they close more sales, your company makes more money. 

It doesn't get any more logical than that. 

My first blog...another step in my quest to be an effective, relevant, and timely resource to the industry that I have loved and worked for over the past 31 years.  I know there is little chance of anyone actually reading it at this early stage of development, but a journey of a thousand miles, etc.

To get off to a proper start, I should probably define the mission statement for this blog and for my company, Superior Sales Training. Simply stated, my mission is to provide radio managers and sales people with knowledge, skills, strategies, and tactics that make them more effective at generating revenues for their companies and at generating results for their advertising customers.

Take note of the two primary goals stated above. First, to help sales people become more effective at selling. No matter how committed you might be to helping your customers be more successful, you cannot help at all without first convincing them to say "yes".

Second, to help sales people become better at getting results for their customers. If you are great at selling but unable to generate the results your customers need, your career will consist of taking money under false pretenses until you run out of prospects who you haven't previously disappointed.

That is the unique difficulty faced by radio sales people. You have to be really good at those two things to be successful. So, my posts will primarily deal with selling and with generating consumer responses. I will not be able to resist occasionally addressing other concerns that I have with radio. I may even cross the line into controversy from time to time. But my overall intent is not to provoke, but rather to give aid and hope to the thousands of radio sales people who are struggling right now to succeed in a climate of a bad economy, dubious advertisers, and industry leaders who are trying to understand the role radio will play in the current and future media landscape.

No pressure. Wish me luck.