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Don't Rely On The Opinions Of Advertising Salespeople Alone

by Rich Harshaw, CEO

Marketing & Advertising - 66 Strategies: Y2M TIP 3

In last week's issue, we talked about not relying on the opinions of advertising agencies alone. So now let's talk about advertising salespeople. I'm talking about the guy or gal (from the newspaper or radio station or wherever) that comes and tries to sell you advertising space. Just like the agency people, be careful.

Advertising salespeople make commission on the ads they sell you. That's obvious. So realize that they're going to try to load you up with as much as possible because it increases their commission. This might come as a shock, but there is a chance that they might try to sell you more than you actually need to get the job done. You've got to understand what you're buying so you can know if they're loading you up with too much or not. It's not like buying a suit. If a guy in the store attempts to sell you four or five suits, you smile politely and let him know that you only need one. If he becomes pushy, you tell him to back down because you're absolutely sure that you only need one suit. See, if you know you only need one suit, you just buy one suit - maybe two, max.

But how many radio ads do you need to make an effective campaign? That's hard to say. What stations should you be on? Some are definitely more expensive than others. So how do you even know what you need to buy? How big should your newspaper ad be to maximize effectiveness? What section of the paper should it be in? Which days should it run? I could go on asking these kinds of questions for every possible medium out there, but I think you get the picture. It's not exactly easy to know what you need to buy in the first place and that's what makes it difficult to know whether or not what the ad sales rep is proposing to you is what you really need or not.

Now before you get discouraged, I'm going to give you some evaluation questions that you can ask the advertising sales rep to see if they really have your best interest at heart. You can use these questions to find out if they're trying to maximize your dollars or just maximize their commission check. I need to qualify these questions first; you need to have a general idea of what you should do before you ask the sales rep these questions. In other words, you need to form your own opinion, draw your own conclusion about the best way to buy that particular medium, and then ask the sales rep these questions.

Tell the sales rep that you have a certain budget for your advertising campaign. Say it's five thousand dollars or $20,000 or whatever it is. The number isn't important. Just tell them what your entire budget is for your entire campaign - not just their station or their newspaper or their billboard or whatever. Tell them what your entire budget is and ask them this magic question: How would THEY spend your $X budget if they were in your shoes? Which stations, which newspapers, whatever. Now again, make sure you've researched it out ahead of time so you have a good idea. Form your own opinion based on your own research. Their answer to this question won't mean much if you don't know. If you do know, however, their answer to this question could be very revealing.

Let's say that you have $25,000 allocated to spend on a marketing campaign. Then let's say that you've determined by reading these newsletters and doing your own research, you should spend $5,000 of your $25,000 budget on one particular radio station. You've checked their rates; you know the CPM, frequency, etc. and you've determined that $5,000 is about right and that maybe as much as $7,500 would be within reason. Then you ask them how they would spend your budget if they were in your shoes. Then let's say that they suggest that you spend at least half your budget on their station - or $12,500 - and that only $3,000 should be spent on the other station that is their major competitor while the rest should go to print ads or direct mail or broadcast faxing - that throws up a big red flag, doesn't it? You've determined that they should get 20% of the budget and they're gunning for 50%. Now don't misunderstand. I'm not faulting the guy for gunning for half my budget - that's his job. I'm just making this point. Now you know that you can't trust his opinion. Again, this is assuming you've done your homework.

Here's another way to test the trustworthiness of your advertising sales rep. In this scenario, you don't reveal your entire campaign budget. Instead you just tell him how much you want to spend on his station...or in his newspaper or in his publication or what have you. Now here's the trick: Make sure that the number you give him is actually about 50 to 100% higher than you actually intend to spend with him. If you were planning on spending $5,000 on his station, tell him you want to spend $10,000. See how he reacts. Sales reps on the lower end of the spectrum will lick their chops and tell you that you're an advertising genius and try to take your money. You might find out, however, that they try to steer you in another direction.

We do this all the time for our clients. Let's say we're buying radio ads for a client. We tell the station sales rep that we want to spend $10,000 in a week, knowing full well that $5,000 is plenty to get the frequency and gross rating points we want. Sometimes the rep will fax over a proposed schedule with $10,000 that is just ridiculous - way too many spots. It's like the radio equivalent of placing a full page ad on every other page of the newspaper. You just don't need to do that - it's overkill, a waste of money. About half the time the sales rep will say, "Hey, that's just too much money to spend in that short amount of time. You need to either cut your budget or extend the amount of time that your ads will be running." See, that makes you feel more confident in that sales rep, doesn't it? But what if they don't say that? Then you know not to trust that person.

Here's the third thing you can ask the sales rep to find out if their opinion is worthwhile or worthless. Ask them about specific competing media. Again, do your homework and form your own opinion about the competing media before you ask. If you've concluded that a competitive radio station or the other daily newspaper would be a good fit for your campaign and the sales rep only has negative things to say about it, that should throw up a red flag. That's a sales rep who only has one thing in mind: Fattening his commission check. Steer clear. Ask for a new rep who's more objective.

Okay, one bonus question to ask a sales rep to find out what their opinion is worth. Here it is: First, ask them how long they've been selling advertising and second, how long they've been with this particular newspaper or radio station or whatever. I've found that the longer someone's been around in general and the longer they've been with the company they're with now, the more likely they are to be objective. That's a generalization, but it might work for you. If a guy hops around from radio station to radio station every six months, that person is more likely to tell you whatever he thinks he needs to get the sale...because he's probably starving!

Why did I tell you all this? Why would you want to evaluate your sales reps anyway? Because I've found that the ones who are good, the ones who really do have your best interest at heart, can be a very good source of information. They can give you helpful suggestions and steer you in the right path when you DON'T know exactly the best way to proceed. Usually, these kinds of reps will be happy to work with you even if you're not buying anything from them. They know if they help you now, you'll be more likely to buy from them when it is appropriate. This goes for ad agencies too. There are good ones out there and there are not so good ones out there. Wouldn't you like to know which is which?

The Questions:

1. How much of the $X budget on your medium?

2. Don't reveal budget; tell how much you want to spend on his station.

3. Ask about direct competitors.

4. Ask how long they have been around.