How badly have you been ripped?

[onradioct]

I just got off the phone with a business owner, who did not appreciate the cold call solicitation. I took a five minute verbal beating. It got me wondering; anyone have any great stories of trying to make a sale, only to end up in tar & feather?

 

[gethigh]

> I just got off the phone with a business owner, who did not
> appreciate the cold call solicitation. I took a five minute
> verbal beating. It got me wondering; anyone have any great
> stories of trying to make a sale, only to end up in tar &
> feather?
>
yeah, sort-of. 7 months ago, I was contacted by the owner of a furniture store in a neighboring city. THis owner has beautiful color full page glossy ads sent out each week in our JUNK MAIL. This is his only source of advertising, as he is not fond of Comcast, and there are no other radio stations around that would make sense for him to use. SO he calls me at my station and asks if there are any parts of his city that I am covering and can I come and talk with him about setting up an ad campaign. SO he gives me his high priced flyers, and tells me that he is getting nowhere depending on these glossy inserts. I leave his store with one of these inserts as fodder for my first of many radio spots for his store. I get together with my Prog. director and my production guy and we fashion a script, create a concept and begin telling a story of his furniture store by way of these very ear-catching 60-second skits that are aired on a haevy schedule each time. Well, low and behold. Folks start responding to the ads, people call the station and chat up the spots during our talk shows. Every time I hear about this, I call the furniture store and relay all of this to the owner to feedback his ROI. I did my job, I used creativity and put his spots above the rest of the ad clutter on my station, I gave him catchy commercials, and I used pertinant info to talk about to our listeners about his specials.
At the end of the campaign, I go in to talk to him about...."what next".
He not only tells me that he will not pay for his last schedule, but he kicks my ass and says that we got people talking about his store and they came in but he didn't get any sales, and as such, my station doesn't work..Boom!
being the good retail radio sales person I am, I came back with all kinds of answers to his objections. I got praises for improved production value, I got accolades for stand out commercials, he even appreciated how I handled his buisness. but because noboody came in and said "I will buy your furniture", he believes that my station doesn't work. Un believeable!

again, he won't give cable TV the time of day
nobody pays any mind to his print ads
his shop is in a questionable part of the city
and my station has no real competition, and he got folks talking by using my station. but nobody bought anything from him, so my radio station doesn't work.

 

[Tim]

Re: How

> I just got off the phone with a business owner, who did not
> appreciate the cold call solicitation. I took a five minute
> verbal beating. It got me wondering; anyone have any great
> stories of trying to make a sale, only to end up in tar &
> feather?
>

Myself, I RARELY cold call any business on the phone. I've dropped in on 95%+ of businesses for over 20 years....and that works great!

Yes, even though the cool, new sales consultant's idea is reasearch a business on it's website, write down a couple snappy points about the business and dazzle the owner on the phone...I still drop in.

OK...it can be an inconvenience...but, it's all in how you act and what you say. My reason for dropping in is to break the ice, meet the person for a couple minutes (literally), and try to create enough curiosity to set a meeting. If it's obvious the owner has 20 people he's waiting on....I simply say..."sorry...I'll stop back another day...".

95% of the time the business owner will either set an appointment or say, "not interested"...and more than 75% of the time they'll meet with me.

It's my feeling a million sales people call business owners on the phone every day. I know: I ASK businesses I drop in on if they get a lot of salespeople calling on the phone....and ask how many actually stop by. They tell me the phone never stops ringing, but rarely....RARELY does anybody drop by unannounced.

If you think you're THAT cute and intelligent on a preparred phone call to a new business, just think how good you'll appear in person?

Really...salespeople cold call on the phone for one main reason: it's far easier for the salesperson. Isn't the goal to cater to the business???????? I think a phone call is far, far, far, far more annoying than a person who politely drops in. By doing so you take initiative....you're not just another jive-ass sales jockey trying to pitch his/her stuff.

The worst that can happen if you drop in on someone is the owner will say: "I NEVER meet with anybody without an appointment!". Easy and honest reply: "I'm very sorry...I had no way of knowing that. When could we sit down for a brief meeting...maybe 10 or 15 minutes....and if after that short meeting, you can decide if we go further????".

Try it guys. Forget the sales consultants. They're just there to make themselves money. Try common sense...in most cases...especially with local direct businesses in medium or smaller markets....it works. I've been doing it with much success for years.

 

[Ed_Walker]

> He not only tells me that he will not pay for his last
> schedule, but he kicks my ass and says that we got people
> talking about his store and they came in but he didn't get
> any sales, and as such, my station doesn't work..Boom!
> being the good retail radio sales person I am, I came back
> with all kinds of answers to his objections. I got praises
> for improved production value, I got accolades for stand out
> commercials, he even appreciated how I handled his buisness.
> but because noboody came in and said "I will buy your
> furniture", he believes that my station doesn't work. Un
> believeable

A couple of thoughts: there are alwasys customers from hell
and this may be that case. On the other hand, if he didn't sell
any furniture, all those great production values don't mean a
thing when it comes to making the cash register ring.

If he did sell furniture, you'll just have to wait for him to
call you when he feels like moving merchandise again.

I hope you have a signature on his order when the station hauls
him to court for non-payment.

 

[radioray]

You sound like a vet and a pro, so you probably don't need this, but here is what one of my favorite consults says.

http://www.paulweyland.com/managing.html

http://www.paulweyland.com/calculate_ROI.html

http://www.paulweyland.com/valuenewcustomer.html

I didn't see an articlc about the following point but I'll paraphrase. Weyland also in his speeches gives a good story. I'll try to paraphrase it. Paul wears glasses. He sees ads for new glasses all the time. He ignores all of them, they just roll off him. Why? He doesn't need glasses, he's got them. But one day he sat on his glasses. All of a sudden BOOM, every newspaper, radio, and tv ad about glasses he spotted and took note of because NOW he was "ready to buy" (ha! ready? He NEEDED to buy!). Same with me, BTW. I was in the market for a car for a little while and so I really paid attention to car ads. A month ago I bought a car and now I don't pay car ads any attention at all. They don't apply to me, at least not anymore and for the next few years. People are light light switches for certain products, they are "off" for information about glasses/cars/furniture (because they have them and don't seconds) or they are "on" because theirs broke down/fell apart/got too old, etc.

Now, about your case, I highly doubt that people with, say, new furniture or even passable furniture will throw out their new living room sets just because they heard an ad on the radio, no matter HOW good/funny/memorable it is. And since furniture isn't a "fast moving consumer good" type of business, the people in the market for furniture at any given time will be small, very small. BUT everyone needs new furniture eventually and occasionally. The hope is that THEN they will remember "that place with those funny/cool ads". In, say, two years from now, when some of those people who stopped into his store DO need a new, say, dining room table, they may very well

Put another way, this guy is selling a slow-moving product (because of the length of the products life line), but expects an immediate result from an ad campaign. This will NOT happen IN HIS LINE OF BUSINESS (except for a small, one percent or less of the population, for whom the ad is applicable at the time like in my example of glasses, cars, etc or unless he offers and absurdly good deal like a 99% discount) simply because of what he is selling.

This guy sounds like a typical hard-charging entrepeneur who wants results from an ad campaign (understandable) AND HE WANTS THEM RIGHT NOW GODDAMMIT! Sorry, that won't happen in the furniture business. His ad campaign should be long-term branding, not "immediate return" advertising. He should EXPECT results BUT NOT IMMEDIATELY.t

It's about client expectations in this case.

Or he might just be another client from hell!

Good luck!

 

[LITTLEBLONDEGIRL]

> > I just got off the phone with a business owner, who did
> not
> > appreciate the cold call solicitation. I took a five
> minute
> > verbal beating. It got me wondering; anyone have any
> great
> > stories of trying to make a sale, only to end up in tar &
> > feather?
> >
> yeah, sort-of. 7 months ago, I was contacted by the owner of
> a furniture store in a neighboring city. THis owner has
> beautiful color full page glossy ads sent out each week in
> our JUNK MAIL. This is his only source of advertising, as he
> is not fond of Comcast, and there are no other radio
> stations around that would make sense for him to use. SO he
> calls me at my station and asks if there are any parts of
> his city that I am covering and can I come and talk with him
> about setting up an ad campaign. SO he gives me his high
> priced flyers, and tells me that he is getting nowhere
> depending on these glossy inserts. I leave his store with
> one of these inserts as fodder for my first of many radio
> spots for his store. I get together with my Prog. director
> and my production guy and we fashion a script, create a
> concept and begin telling a story of his furniture store by
> way of these very ear-catching 60-second skits that are
> aired on a haevy schedule each time. Well, low and behold.
> Folks start responding to the ads, people call the station
> and chat up the spots during our talk shows. Every time I
> hear about this, I call the furniture store and relay all of
> this to the owner to feedback his ROI. I did my job, I used
> creativity and put his spots above the rest of the ad
> clutter on my station, I gave him catchy commercials, and I
> used pertinant info to talk about to our listeners about his
> specials.
> At the end of the campaign, I go in to talk to him
> about...."what next".
> He not only tells me that he will not pay for his last
> schedule, but he kicks my ass and says that we got people
> talking about his store and they came in but he didn't get
> any sales, and as such, my station doesn't work..Boom!
> being the good retail radio sales person I am, I came back
> with all kinds of answers to his objections. I got praises
> for improved production value, I got accolades for stand out
> commercials, he even appreciated how I handled his buisness.
> but because noboody came in and said "I will buy your
> furniture", he believes that my station doesn't work. Un
> believeable!
>
> again, he won't give cable TV the time of day
> nobody pays any mind to his print ads
> his shop is in a questionable part of the city
> and my station has no real competition, and he got folks
> talking by using my station. but nobody bought anything from
> him, so my radio station doesn't work.

I have noticed in all of the replys that the most important comment that the
client made was missed!
The client said that people HEARD HIS AD AND CAME IN....But they did not buy!?
It is CLEAR that the CLIENT does not have a sales staff that can SELL! (did you ask if he offers product training for his staff?)

You did your job and your campaign did work!

The client did not do HIS...period.
You can bring them in the door, but it is HIS responsibility to take it from there and make the sale.

Don't beat yourself up. You did what you said you would do, bring him potential customers.

It is also clear that this client has an negative attitude problem that the people visiting can either feel, see, hear, or all of the above and has carried over to his sales staff.
You can have the best location, product and or service around. But if that customer does not "feel" good about being there....... I could go on, but I think you get the picture.>

 

[Spots]

Take it from an old sales pro....you just caught this guy on a bad day.

He most likely doesn't remember who you are or where you're from...he wasn't listening to you when you called. He just needed to vent.

If you think it's a worthwhile prospect, go call on him again, maybe even in person.

Most of all, don't take it personally. Most clients/prospects aren't like that!

 

[salesdawg]

I once called on a client who had advertised with my station in the past.........the a/e for the account was no longer with the station, and so I had inherited the account.............when I announced to the owner who I was and where I was calling from, his response to me was "Do you wanna know what I like about your station?"...........thinking that he was going to praise the award winning local news coverage that my station offers, I excitedly said yes...........he then told me "Your station is listed in the phone book. If I wanted to advertise with you, I would have called you.............YIKES!!!!..........talk about speechless!!!!.............needless to say, I gave the account to someone else at the station and never called on him again.............nor has anyone else.