Sales Trends Archives

Prospect Conversions – Don’t Sell Yourself Short

January 27, 2022/in Digital Publishing, Radio, Sales Trends, Tech Trends, Television, Webinar/by lindy

At the beginning of each year, we think about improving ourselves. Some make resolutions while others pick up a new planner or organizational tool for work or personal life. Many find themselves reading a self-help book, like Stephen Covey’s timeless classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey wrote that one should seek first to understand, then to be understood. A straightforward tip that’s helpful in one’s personal life and an essential strategy for sales professionals. In our recent webinar, The Broadcast Sales Executive’s Guide to Crushing It in 2022, what we covered is a living example of Covey’s game-winning strategy. Especially for Account Executives and Sales Managers seeking to increase prospect conversions and get more out of their biggest clients.

Walk a Mile in The Prospect’s Shoes

Many SDRs arm themselves with a well-crafted value proposition and create a plan for how they’ll woo the prospect or client into understanding why they should be buying what they’re selling. This is the classic goal-driven best practice for creating a sales pitch. It’s also in need of an overhaul.

What if, instead of creating your plan based on wanting the customer to understand the value of your product, you took a step back, took some time to get to know your prospects and clients? This sounds easier said than done. How would you do it, and where would you start?

Thankfully, there are tools that can help you understand your clients better. Having a true sense of a prospect or client’s personality is essential. It’s cornerstone of how you’ll tell the story about your product fulfilling their needs.

At Futuri, we specialize in providing account executives and sales managers with a sales intelligence tool designed to convert prospects while shortening the sales cycle so you can close more deals. TopLine was created to help your sales team understand prospects and clients better on a more personal level and keep you up to speed on the most important news in your client’s industry and help create rock star sales presentations.

The Right Tools for the Right Job

TopLine equips you to speak the lingo of their industry so you can communicate like an expert in their business category. TopLine Individual Personality Profiles are the secret tools in your arsenal. They help you prepare for the meeting, craft the perfect email, or make a warm phone call. Prospects and clients will remember the connection you made.

TopLine’s Business Acumen and Instant Insights help you connect in more meaningful and relevant ways. When you sound knowledgeable about what’s happening in their business and use the same terminology and catchphrases, you grow trust. A significant factor in getting the sale.

A great way to glimpse how TopLine can help you identify prospects is our weekly Top 3 Categories infographic, posted every Monday on our LinkedIn page. You’ll see the category, why we think it’s an excellent prospecting opportunity, data to back it up, and prospecting questions to kick start your creative approach. It’s 100% free and clear for you to use when you follow Futuri on LinkedIn.

We created these features in TopLine for every seller who has experienced that moment in a meeting when your prospect or client seemed to be keeping your ideas and product at arm’s length while they struggled to see how it could help their business.

That’s where TopLine starts. Our entire suite of features, including meeting prep, client research, custom-built presentations, co-op reports, and TopLine’s newly added client Digital Analysis reports, all come together in a single sales intelligence platform.

We’ll help you walk a mile in their shoes, help you understand why they bought them, and make them excited to buy another pair from you.

Cut to the Front of the Line

If you’re ready to take the next step and learn how TopLine can maximize prospect conversions, grow your client list, land more new business all while shortening your sales cycle, send us a note, and we’ll be in touch soon.

In the meantime, you can check out our recent webinar here.

From all of us at Futuri, here’s to crushing your sales goals in 2022!

WEBINAR | The Broadcast Sales Executive’s Guide to Crushing It in 2022

January 15, 2022/in Sales Trends, Webinar/by Zena

Join TopLine‘s A.J. Vaughan and Erin Callaghan for this free webinar on Thursday, January 20, with sessions at 11a and 4p ET.

If you’re a broadcast sales executive, chances are you’ve learned a LOT about doing business differently over the last 22 months. But the pace of change isn’t slowing down just because clients and prospects may be open to taking in-person meetings again. Consumer behavior continues to evolve, and that’s driving change in hot categories and ways to build that business.

In this webinar on January 20th, Futuri’s Erin Callaghan and AJ Vaughan from our TopLine team outline trends for 2022, prospecting opportunities you may not have considered, and ways to crush next year’s budget. All registrants will receive the webinar on-demand (even if you’re not able to make it live) and a packet of prospecting materials to set you up for 2022 success.

This webinar has already taken place, but you can access the recording and a wealth of related materials by clicking here.

Closing the Appointment to Get More Sales

Closing The Appointment: How to Get It Done in Today’s Environment

January 25, 2021/in Resources, Sales Trends/by Zena

Don’t let your efforts to close the appointment earn you a one-way ticket to the junk folder. TopLine’s Jim Tarantine shares insights into how you can successfully close more appointments — and, ultimately, more sales.

We’ve all heard the phrase.

via GIPHY

Everyone wants to close sales, but how about closing the appointment? Getting appointments with qualified buyers has never exactly been a piece of cake, but it’s only gotten harder over the years, even before you take the pandemic into consideration.

So how does a sales executive cut through the clutter to close more appointments? We talked with Jim Tarantine, Product Manager for Futuri’s groundbreaking sales intelligence system, TopLine, about what his team is seeing and how to grow your revenue by evolving your approach to closing appointments.

Q: Why has it gotten harder for sales executives to close appointments over recent years?

JT: There are so many more choices for advertisers today. Broadcasters used to have to think about things like newspapers and even the Yellow Pages, but a lot was about differentiating yourself from your competition across the street. Today, with so many digital choices added to that competitive set, there are way more people trying to get at advertisers to talk about how they can deliver results, not just impressions.

At the same time, on both the buying and selling side, resources have dwindled. The advertiser has less time and potentially less personnel to evaluate all the things to get results for their brand. If you’re not differentiating yourself right out of the gate by showing you’ve done your research about them and time with you will be well-spent, you’re not going to get them to commit that valuable time to meeting with you.

Q: Have changes in the way agencies work with their clients impacted the broadcast sales executives ability to close the appointment?

JT: Agencies are indeed getting more protective of their clients, and they don’t really want media reps in their space. To defend agencies a little, it’s harder and harder for them to keep business today, too. So even though that “don’t go directly to my client” thing has existed ever since I got started in broadcast decades ago, it’s only gotten worse as the opportunity for agencies to acquire business has gotten more complicated. Agencies are doing everything they can to deliver results and be a trusted partner to their advertisers.

When you think about that, paired with the overwhelming number of choices advertisers have today, evaluating your approach to closing the appointment in today’s environment is necessary. Are you presenting yourself as a subject matter expert who’s there to partner with an advertiser to help deliver results? Are you interacting with a prospect in the way they prefer? Things like that are more critical than ever to closing the appointment and, ultimately, sales.

Q: Talk a bit more about that. How can you get that information on someone you haven’t yet met? How can one sales executive possibly be a subject matter expert in every industry they’re pitching?

JT: I’m glad you asked! [Laughs] That’s where TopLine comes in. We’ve designed TopLine to help broadcast sales executives to close the appointment and close the sale.

With TopLine’s Appointment Prep Tools, you enter a small amount of information on the person you’re targeting. Through artificial intelligence, or AI, you’ll get information on the approach to which they’re most likely to respond. Is their personality more about you getting right to the point, or should you start with a little friendly small talk and virtual wining and dining? Do they want to see a lot of information, along with links and examples, or just the headlines? Not everyone likes to see information in the way you do, so tailoring your approach is crucial.

In terms of subject matter expertise, every single day, the TopLine team is creating content to give sales executives valid business reasons to share with advertisers and get them to take that appointment. In 2020 alone, we created more than 5,200 articles on local category business trends and provided more than 450,000 instant custom research stories for broadcast sales executives to open up new business conversations. (Of course, this is A LOT, so it’s all quickly searchable and sortable! Everything TopLine does is designed to help sales executives spend more time selling.)

Closing an appointment is infinitely easier when you use these assets to show an advertiser that you have real insights into what’s happening in their category today. As we say here, “Simply pinging advertisers over and over without insights is a one-way ticket to the junk folder.” Insights cut through the massive amount of clutter advertisers are hit with these days.

Q: That’s a great point, and it’s reminding me of many times when companies have pitched me to buy something based on what they wanted instead of figuring out what I wanted.

JT: Exactly. To be effective in closing the appointment, sellers need to take the approach, “It’s not about me. It’s not about the spots and dots or endorsements or websites I have to sell. It’s about the cars they have to sell, or the furniture they need to get out the door.”

So that leads to — what insights can you provide that tell the story of the customers who might be in the market for their product? (Especially at a time when the pandemic has changed so much!) How are consumers behaving differently in 2021? How are people approaching the buying process? That should start before you even mention your medium. For radio sales executives, once you’ve provided insights, then you can begin talking about radio and audio as a medium, and all the awareness, the endorsements, the on-demand content, the video content, the social media programs, the talent, the podcasts, all those things I can provide. And THEN you talk about your stations.

Unfortunately, I think that at times, we still shoot ourselves in the foot by doing it the opposite way. Here’s what I mean: You start with the latest ranker or the newest profile of my station, without any regard to the buyer’s personality, their industry’s trends, and how their customers’ behavior might be changing.

Q: Any other insights you’d like to share with readers who might be rethinking their approach to closing the appointment?

JT: TopLine has so much more to share on this topic, and we’ll do a series of pieces like this, but my quick hit to close on is this: Even if you’re not a TopLine partner and don’t have access to the wealth of tools we have to help you close more appointments and close more sales, at least show you’ve done some research.

I think many of us in management and buying positions are becoming savvier and savvier and understanding who’s just spamming you with meeting requests vs. who’s done their research. The more exact and targeted you can be in your language, the more likely you’ll get their attention right away. Saying, “I understand you’re in charge of the advertising team at CompanyX, and our StationY can help you get your message across to potential customers” isn’t going to get you far. But say, “I was just on CompanyX’s website, and I saw your article about Y, and point Z resonated with me. That’s where I think I can help you.” That’s the move.

CES 2021: The Only Constant is Change

January 15, 2021/in Industry News, Sales Trends, Tech Trends/by Mia Cross

In a year relatively light on major announcements, CES 2021 reminds us that to reject change is to embrace failure.

The first all-virtual CES is in the books. Compared to recent years, the 2021 event was relatively light on major, industry-changing announcements. Take General Motors, which had the most prominent presence of any automaker, for example. While they unveiled many cool concepts (like its Halo self-driving car concept) and an increased electric vehicle portfolio, its biggest news seemed to be its new logo.

But about that new logo: No company, especially one of GM’s size, takes that type of rebranding lightly. This logo redesign is only the fifth in GM’s 113-year history. And they did it not to freshen their logo up, but to have it underscore its commitment to the future: developing, producing, and selling electric vehicles.

GM says the new blue gradient is meant to reflect “the clean skies of a zero-emissions future,” and the negative space around the (lowercase!) “m” is even meant to resemble a plug. While the logo itself has been the subject of some creative criticism, the fact it exists is a way for GM to say, “We’re very serious about our commitment to embracing the change necessary to be successful in this changing world.”

So yes, CES 2021 felt more about evolutions of existing technologies and products than launching groundbreaking new ones (especially those that specifically impact broadcasters). But even its virtual execution was an example of how the big-picture evolutions in the ways we develop, distribute, and monetize content are very much here, and not going anywhere. The disruptions that began in March 2020 have tremendously hastened the digital-driven sea changes that have been coming to the broadcast industry for years.

So many of those changes have to do with delivering the right content to the right people at the right time.

Let’s talk broadcast sales. As noted in our recent piece “The 7 Trends You Need to Know About to Grow Your Revenue in 2021”, while radio and TV are incredible mass-reach mediums, broadcasters can no longer rely solely on impressions to get the buy. Broadcast brands need to develop and deliver stories about how they can reach a targeted audience well-matched to a brand’s goals to secure new revenue.

From a content perspective, when people have endless options to get content specifically tailored to their preferences, it’s never been riskier to simply go with your gut on what your audience wants to see and hear. Pairing your seasoned eyes and ears with the right technology to identity exactly what topics and angles your audience will respond to is necessary to grow an engaged audience.

More and more broadcasters are acting on what they may have known in their gut for years: to reject change, especially when it’s inevitable, is to embrace failure. GM’s rebranding announcement was a statement to their world about how they’re embracing change. And embracing change is a big part of the reason that Futuri’s audience engagement and sales intelligence technology, designed to equip broadcasters with the tools necessary to evolve their relationship with their audiences and advertisers successfully, saw record growth in 2020.

In the latest episode of the podcast Innovation19 with Daniel Anstandig, our CEO breaks down trends related to audience engagement, content, and revenue for broadcast media from CES 2021, capped off with a lightning round of the fun gears and gadgets that always come out of CES (ultra-premium bathtub with mood lighting, aroma, and fog? We’re in!). Take a listen, and as you do, think about how these things all roll up to the importance of change. And remember — at Futuri, we’re always here to have a discussion about how we can help you embrace and navigate change to grow your content, grow your audience, and grow your revenue.

Listen to Innovation19 with Daniel Anstandig

The 7 Trends You Need to Know About to Grow Your Revenue in 2021

January 13, 2021/in Sales Trends, Tech Trends/by Zena

Successful sales executives know that knowledge is power. We break down seven top trends emerging in broadcast sales, and how you can navigate them successfully.

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that lacking the willingness or ability to adapt is a recipe for failure. Nearly every business — and hey, almost every person! — underwent some type of massive change in the way they did things, from adjusting to your kids’ remote learning to securing revenue from clients you can’t pitch in person. Those that were most successful are the ones that genuinely thought differently about the way they do things.

The fact that success today requires a change of approach is especially true in broadcast sales. In addition to the massive shifts everyone has experienced in the way they work, brands have changed how they think about ad dollars’ budget allocation. While radio and television stations used to be able to rely on gross audience numbers to sell their reach, today brands understand that a targeted (smaller) audience of qualified buyers provides a more substantial return on their ad dollars compared to a larger audience of inefficient consumers.

Having the tools and data to tell the unique story of your audience and their buying habits is key. With this type of information, you can maximize a brand’s advertising dollars and become an indispensable part of a brand’s team and win you a client for life.

How do we know? Well, that’s what we’ve been doing for years with TopLine, the sales intelligence system that pairs AI with expert human analysis to advance every stage of the sales process. We work with hundreds of broadcasters across America in markets large and small, and we helped deliver $130 million in advertising and sponsorship revenue for our partners in 2020. Already, we see 2021 off to a strong start.

In a recent episode of the podcast Innovation19 with Daniel Anstandig, Anstandig, our CEO, and Futuri SVP Tracy Gilliam discuss predictions and expectations they’re seeing emerge in broadcast sales. They make recommendations to help you successfully capitalize on each trend in 2021. Read the high-level takeaways below, listen to the full (but short!) 19-minute episode to dig deeper, and consider how you can make the right changes to achieve revenue success in 2021 and beyond.

1. Advertisers are focusing on targeting, audience engagement, efficiency, and accountability for performance.

Relying solely on impressions to deliver a campaign doesn’t cut it anymore. Radio and TV are best-in-class mass-reach mediums. Still, with so many ways to reach a targeted audience, broadcasters must articulate the ways you can reach an audience that’s well-matched to a brand’s goals. That storytelling is vital for securing new revenue.

2. Agencies have to justify their ad purchases with results.

Increasingly, agencies are dealing with pressure to show justification for their media buying decisions. As the world gets more technical and analytical, buyers want to see how efficient broadcast advertising is in driving awareness or lead generation. Quickly delivering campaign summaries that show precisely how you produced results is crucial.

3. It’s harder than ever to get a prospective ad buyer’s attention.

This has been a challenge since way before people started working remotely, which certainly hasn’t helped. And today, especially with agencies getting more and more protective with their clients, they don’t want media reps in their space. Arming your sellers with real insights into the buyer to cut through the massive clutter they’re hit with is how to move the mark. Simply pinging a buyer constantly without insights is a one-way ticket to the junk folder.

4. The pandemic is shifting and accelerating trends, and new trends mean new opportunities.

Shifts in the way we live and work are growing categories like home delivery services, bulk shopping, and financial services, and businesses that might not have traditionally bought media, like child care or senior services, need to get their message across to a growing audience. Staying educated about these shifts and getting out of your category comfort zone is imperative to growing your revenue.

5. Multi-platform influencer campaigns with consistent messaging are essential.

Going back to the fact that gross impressions are no longer enough, endorsement campaigns need to go through every single channel advertisers are using — social, podcasts, video, you name it. Giving sellers the tools to tell the story of all your platforms and how they deliver value will get attention — and secure revenue.

6. Media brands are expecting more from their reps — and there are fewer reps.

It’s still true that good, resilient sales talent will stand the test of difficult economic times. That said, think of the changes in the ways consumers interact with advertisers, advertisers make purchase decisions, and broadcast brands sell to those advertisers. Standing out requires being a true partner to your clients who’s there to help them navigate change. Simply presenting yourself as a subject matter expert on their industry and providing them valuable information when you may not be pitching them means they’ll think of you first when they are spending.

7. Local is still a huge advantage, as long as your message is tailored to meet that community’s needs.

Local buys are still where it’s at in terms of percentage of revenue for most media companies. Obviously, there’s more and more focus on national and regional opportunities these days. Still, local communities and networks are a colossal differentiation opportunity when it comes to targeting and understanding the unique local audience. Making sure you’re helping advertisers adapt their messaging and approach to meet consumers’ needs in your specific community is a significant advantage.

For more insights into 2021 trends and predictions for broadcast sales, listen to episode 6 of Innovation19 on your favorite podcast platform. And to learn about how TopLine can help you stay ahead of these trends and grow your revenue, reach out to us today.
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Prospect Conversions – Don’t Sell Yourself Short

Walk a Mile in The Prospect’s Shoes

The Right Tools for the Right Job

Cut to the Front of the Line

WEBINAR | The Broadcast Sales Executive’s Guide to Crushing It in 2022

Join TopLine‘s A.J. Vaughan and Erin Callaghan for this free webinar on Thursday, January 20, with sessions at 11a and 4p ET.

This webinar has already taken place, but you can access the recording and a wealth of related materials by clicking here.

Closing The Appointment: How to Get It Done in Today’s Environment

Don’t let your efforts to close the appointment earn you a one-way ticket to the junk folder. TopLine’s Jim Tarantine shares insights into how you can successfully close more appointments — and, ultimately, more sales.

CES 2021: The Only Constant is Change

In a year relatively light on major announcements, CES 2021 reminds us that to reject change is to embrace failure.

The 7 Trends You Need to Know About to Grow Your Revenue in 2021

Successful sales executives know that knowledge is power. We break down seven top trends emerging in broadcast sales, and how you can navigate them successfully.

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© 2022 Futuri Media

Walk a Mile in The Prospect’s Shoes

The Right Tools for the Right Job

Cut to the Front of the Line

Join TopLine‘s A.J. Vaughan and Erin Callaghan for this free webinar on Thursday, January 20, with sessions at 11a and 4p ET.

This webinar has already taken place, but you can access the recording and a wealth of related materials by clicking here.

Don’t let your efforts to close the appointment earn you a one-way ticket to the junk folder. TopLine’s Jim Tarantine shares insights into how you can successfully close more appointments — and, ultimately, more sales.

In a year relatively light on major announcements, CES 2021 reminds us that to reject change is to embrace failure.

Successful sales executives know that knowledge is power. We break down seven top trends emerging in broadcast sales, and how you can navigate them successfully.

Products

About

Main Pages

Social

Resources

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© 2022 Futuri Media