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Sean Luce
Luce On Sales
Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor at the Luce Performance Group in Houston and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com
How To Find The Decision Maker
Sometimes a sale will backfire at the last minute even though it appears that the prospect is signed, sealed and delivered. Other influences can have an impact on the sale. Sales reps have been conditioned to call on people with the right titles: owners, general managers and agency buyers. However, other influences may need to be identified.
A Life Lesson. A Sales Lesson. Never Give Up
An Alexander Karelin will appear in each of our lives sooner or later in the form of one of life’s challenges. These life challenges can be from the minute to the massive. These trials can be anything from a flat tire on the way to see a customer to the loss of a loved one. We all encounter them. It is up to us to decide how to meet life’s challenges.
Have You “Red Tailed” a Client Lately?
How much bonding can be done with a client over a PowerPoint presentation even with all the bells and whistles? How stimulating is it for a prospect or client to sit through that Customer Marketing Profile or a seventeen minute closing presentation? Yes, sizzle can be added to the presentation, but is that really building a relationship with the client?
Should All Sales Reps be Treated Equally?
Absolutely yes without a doubt, and I would start by treating them all with dignity and respect. Sales reps are high on the list of the most valuable assets in a business. The sales department is the money generator that keeps the cog in the wheel turning. When it comes to treating sales reps equally, remember that everyone is different. Each person’s DNA is unique, so they should be managed differently. Does that sound like double talk?
Seven Questions to Ask SM's
(by Sean Luce) Sales Managers I work with complete a weekly questionnaire. In addition, they forecast 3 month rolling projections for their sales staff. The recaps give me a chance to prepare for weekly conference calls that keep the consultant and management on the same page. The goal is to identify the problems before they occur.
Finding Your Station's Sales Leaks
(by Sean Luce) The following is a case study I used last week for a consultant property in Missouri to identify and assess challenges and opportunities in the sale department. This is a good exercise for January-when you come back from the holidays-or anytime you want to maximize your department’s potential.
Why Businesses Should Advertise Every Day
(by Sean Luce) During a recent keynote address to business owners, I posed a question that has been asked many times over the years. Which is more important in advertising, the frequency or the message? The majority of hands were raised for the message. Surprisingly, quite a few of those hands represented radio stations whose main feature is frequency.
Breaking Old Habits
(by Sean Luce) With 2011 drawing to a close, I like to do an inventory and take out the old and bring in the new which translates to setting goals for the upcoming year. I have had an affinity for sports since childhood. I often use the correlation between sports and sales in my training. I have observed that there is not much difference in the way the best athletes prepare to win, and the way the super achievers in sales become successful. The little things are the primary difference between a good and a great athlete. The same holds true for sales professionals.
Your Daily Management Test
(by Sean Luce) After my last article on “Listening.” I was asked for the 10 questions on my Daily Management Test. I hung them up on my car’s dashboard in laminated fashion. They were 10 questions to give myself a quick critique on my day’s performance. As I drove home, I mentally would play back the day’s events and challenge myself with the following test.
Want To Sell More? Listen to Your Clients.
(by Sean Luce) Many sales reps are too eager to talk. They are thinking about what to say next in a conversation instead of paying attention to the client. The majority of the time the client will actually tell a rep exactly what is needed in order to sell the product or service to them. As my mom used to say, “Listen up”.
SM's: Set Simple Rules For High Performance
(by Sean Luce) My previous article entitled: “Ten Reasons I failed as a Sales Manager” received an interesting question from one of Radio Ink’s readers. Before I respond to the question, let me state that I made all of those mistakes as a sales manager. The key is to learn from those mistakes. I had some outstanding mentors early in my career who allowed me to make the tough mistakes. They knew that those mistakes would pay big dividends down the road, and they did.
10 Reasons I Failed As A Sales Manager
(by Sean Luce) Monday was Columbus Day here in the States, so let’s revisit the Christopher Columbus School of Management. The mantra is:“You don’t know where you’re going when you leave, you don’t know where you are once you get there, and you don’t know where you’ve been once you get back.” Not a good place to be, especially in management.
Do Your "Quiet" Research First.
(by Sean Luce) Several years ago, I was on a call with several key decision makers from Pepsi. During the luncheon, I ordered a Coke. One of the most utterly stupid moments in my sales career was ordering that Coke. I try to limit those "stupid moments" to once every 10 years.
Feel Broken Today? This Will Help You Get Over It
(by Sean Luce) Since early in my career, videos have been a key component of my sales training. I started using videos as a sales manager and have continued showing them in my consulting business. The videos originally provided me with a chance to swallow some water in case I became nervous while speaking. Videos are now a key component of my speaking engagements. In my experience, the videos should be no longer than 5 minutes, but I did have an exception to that rule. I would show a documentary about Ernest Shackleton called "Endurance." I had never found a story to rival Shackleton’s tale of human endurance in the Antarctic until this past July.
Coaching Sales Reps to Make the Grade
(by Sean Luce) How many sales managers ride in the field with their sales reps on coaching calls? Coaching calls should be the most basic and on-going part of training sales reps. For various reasons, training in the field has gone by the wayside. Since lack of instruction in the field is a primary cause of poorly trained sales reps, I would like to share some tips on how to coach and grade reps in the field.
Improve Your Sales Meetings TODAY
How challenging are your sales meetings? Do you challenge your sales reps? Or do you just cover the normal administrative inventory, avails and rates, maybe throw in a few success stories, and hit the door? Then, do your sales reps "hit the door"? Like really hit it, and charge out into the field with improved selling skills and motivation?
Is Selling Internet Really Hard?
During one of my recent seminars for business owners, called "The Shift -- How Online Advertising Can Strengthen Your Media Mix," I pointed out that since 2007-2008, how ad dollars are allocated has been changing, with the Internet grabbing hold of money that had typically gone to radio, television, and, of course, newspapers. Add the "Great Recession" in the fall of 2008, and it was the perfect storm for reallocating media dollars.
Never Give Up
Those of you who have attended my seminars know that I tend to show a lot of motivational videos, and especially those of athletes, as business and sports have a great deal in common. Not only does your attitude determine your altitude, being physically fit means being mentally fit. Nutrition, exercise, rituals, and deep breathing make a huge difference when it comes to the end of the day and you don't feel like making that one more call -- the call that could make your year. Imagine if you make one more call every day each week. With 240 days a year, on average, that you are selling, 240 calls would make a huge difference!
The One Question That Shouldn't Be Asked
Regardless of what media you sell or represent, finding an emotional connection between yourself and the prospect is one of the most demanding aspects of a sales call. If you don't go deep enough, you could skim over the prospect's real needs. Don't be afraid to ask a question you think might be shrugged off. You might get a response of, "It's none of your business" -- but it IS your business, if you want to uncover the prospect's needs.
How To Overcome The "Radio Doesn't Work" Objection
Two weeks ago, I made a prospecting call with a sales rep. It was right in the wheelhouse demo of our station, right in the geographical circumference of the stations coverage and the product would be a product (above mid-line specialty furniture) our listeners would shop for. They do have multiple locations. We walked the business. We did a physical in-store for 5 minutes and took down all the vital information. The rep called immediately for the owner from the car. Voicemail. The rep then walked back in the business and asked the receptionist for his personal voicemail box. She was successful. Here's what happened:
You Can't Find Good Radio Salespeople Because You're Not Looking
Sean, I just can't find any good salespeople." I've heard that line over and over the past few years, and it's incredible to believe that in many areas -- especially the West Coast, where there is 14 to 17 percent unemployment -- radio stations "can't find" find good sales reps. I wonder if the real answer is that management doesn't want to train them.
ITP Or Nothing.
A few weeks back for Radio Ink, I wrote about the open house we did in a large market. We interviewed 15 candidates on a Saturday and found two sure-fire potential sales reps. One came almost directly out of a university and the other had sales experience from selling alarms and satellite services. Here's an update on that story.
