This is a question that OOH Sales Leaders and sales professionals have asked themselves LONG before any of the challenges of the pandemic, the ever-evolving business dynamics of the media industry or before the uncertainties surrounding the effects high inflation and interest rates have on buying habits of the consumer.
The challenge is this: Many sales leaders have instituted a “don’t lose a piece of business on price” or a “get every piece of business you can” plan with their teams. Is that our only option? Of course not. We would all like to think that we are deploying our most precious asset (time) in a manner that is likely to yield the greatest return for our clients, our company and ourselves.
The question is this: How do we know if we are investing our time wisely, How do we know if we are chasing good business or bad?
Here are 4 key elements to qualifying a OOH sales opportunity and ensuring your company is bringing in the right business:
1. Are they sharing information they don’t have to share?
Too many times OOH sales reps believe a prospective client is showing “buying signals” when they ask a lot of questions - (not to burst your bubble, this is typically a precursor to getting caught in unpaid consulting) It is more about what information and how much the prospective client is sharing and not how much the sales rep is sharing. Keep this in mind, “Your ability to generate value for the client, your company and yourself is determined more by the amount of information you gather than the information you dispense”.
2. “Good question”, “Never thought about that” , “I don’t know”
These are typically indicators of a potential good piece of business. Why? OOH salespeople are helping the prospect realize/discover/uncover items they haven’t uncovered for themselves. When this happens, credibility increases (seen more as a trusted advisor than a salesperson) and commitment starts to rise.
3. Move from "nice to have" vs "need to have"
Can your prospects live without OOH advertising? Is doing nothing an option for them? Many salespeople struggle with this regardless of industry and many are in fact a "nice to have" product or service in the first place. "Nice to have" means “if it is convenient and you have time to implement”, whereas "need to have" means “we will find a way to make it happen."
4. Who convinced who?
Many OOH salespeople believe it is their job to convince people to buy. Really?? A good piece of business is one who convinces the salesperson why they want help, why they want it now and why they want it with their company. The more convincing the OOH salesperson does the ‘shakier’ the commitment is and the higher expectation the new client has down the road. Remember this “when people are sold, they look for more ways to make their decision the wrong one, when people buy they look for more ways to make their decision the right one.”
Whether it is now, 3,6,9,12 months from now or 3 years from now, the question for you to ask is, “are we chasing good business or bad?” Chasing bad business is exhausting, not only during the sales process, but after the sale. There is plenty of good business out there. Have you ever looked at the total number of businesses that operate in your geographic footprint? Most who do are surprised at the just how many there really are!
Are you and the rest of your team skilled enough to stop wasting time chasing “bad business” to focus on winning more “good business”?
Need help with sales skills or coaching to take your out of home company to the next level. Learn more about OOH Sales Mastery at oohmastery.com or Contact Dan Nausley at dan.nausley@sandler.com, 423.702.5579.
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Lisa & Dan Nausley and Reggie Piercy of Sandler Chattanooga have developed the OOH Sales Mastery Program after more than a decade of training/coaching thousands of OOH Operators across the country in sales, leadership, and executive coaching.
