In Media Sales Your Product is Advertising
"What do you do when your air conditioner breaks in the middle of July?"
The question is being posed by my partner, Josh, in front of a roomful of broadcast media sellers as part of an exercise during a recent training event being performed by The Academy of Marketing.
"Let's make a list of the things you do from the moment you realize the air conditioner is broken until it is fixed," Josh continued. He turned to the whiteboard with a red marker in hand and waited.
The students jumped right in and before long we had a list that looked like this:
- Check the circuit breaker
- Take a look at the unit to see if we can figure out what is wrong
- Call the service company listed on the side of the unit
- Call a friend or relative to ask about reliable service providers
- Go to Google and type in a search term
- Check the Yellow Pages
"What's missing from the list?" Josh asked. Now, this particular group sells cable TV advertising but the exercise works exactly the same when we train radio advertising sellers or billboard sellers or broadcast TV sellers. They quickly realize that the medium they sell is not on the list.
"This list represents typical consumer behavior. Each of you is a consumer of HVAC services and this is what you would do if your AC broke during hot weather. None of us said that we would run to the TV and start watching commercials until an HVAC provider showed up. Could you imagine if your AC were to break on a hot summer day and you were to say, 'Honey, you go to the garage and listen to the radio in the car - I'll cover the TV.' No, because only a crazy person would do this - not a typical consumer."
The group laughed at the absurdity of it all. Josh waits for a minute and then delivers this bombshell:
"If none of us goes to our TV during the moment when we need HVAC services, why does every HVAC provider expect their phone to ring after their spots air on TV or radio? For that matter, why does every local advertiser you have on the air expect exactly the same thing?"
The laughter in the room always stops at this point in the exercise because everyone realizes at exactly the same time that there would be absolutely no reason to expect the phone to ring after a spot airs on TV or radio. Who would call? A person watching TV who doesn't need HVAC services is not going to call and the person who needs HVAC services has already taken one of the actions listed above.
The Academy of Marketing trains media sellers to understand the ways that advertising really works. Unlike most trainers, we do not spend our time on sales process training. That is, we don't suggest ways to get appointments and we don't talk about the skills necessary to make a strong Power Point presentation. Not that there is anything wrong with that - we heartily endorse sales process training - its just that there isn't anything to add to what is being taught.
What is not being taught to advertising sales professionals is the "advertising" part. Think of it this way. In the pharmaceutical business, sellers are taught how to get appointments with doctors and they are taught what happens when a person takes the drugs they sell. They are taught pharmaceuticals and sales. In the HVAC business, the sales team has to understand exactly what will happen when HVAC products are installed in a house. Someone who sells admission to technical schools must be able to describe the courses and how the students' learning can be applied to a job.
Although we haven't thought of every single business, it seems that the media sales business is alone when it comes to the lack of understanding of its product. Media sellers might disagree with this assessment by claiming that they have product knowledge. But, we would point out that knowing how many commercials are in a stop set, or who is on your station during morning drive, or how many networks your cable system delivers, or how many people your broadcast TV station reaches between 6p and 7p is not really what your customers want to know.
Your customers want to know what is going to happen to their business when they buy your product. In order to answer that question, advertising sales people need to be experts at consumer behavior and how consumers interact with advertising media.
. . .to be continued. . .
Looked at your subsequent post that referred me here as well. I sell b2b print (with a bit of digital for good measure). Your analysis for b2c broadcast sales most certainly apply in our pond as well. I'm looking forward to more. Thanks
Reply to this
A very insightful article Tim, and relevant to advertisers wherever they are; meeting that customer need in a very niche way is becoming increasingly important.
I included a link to this post in my fortnightly roundup of great posts on my blog: http://www.smallbusinessbites.net/2011/08/26/bites-blogosphere-business-articles-august/
Reply to this