Jim Doyle and Associates is excited to announce that John Hannon, Executive Vice President of ACME Communications, Inc., has joined Jim Doyle and Associates as Senior Vice President.
While at ACME, John most recently oversaw operations of their station, WBXX, in Knoxville, TN, and syndicated distribution of The Daily Buzz a national morning news program originating from Orlando, FL, as well as assisting with ACME’s sale of assets. Prior to that, John managed ACME’s CW station in Dayton, OH. During his leadership, WBDT was the #1 rated CW affiliate in the nation for four consecutive years. Ironically, it lost that position this year to WBXX while John was running the Knoxville station on an interim basis.
Prior to ACME, John spent time as an AE, LSM, and GSM in Dayton and oversaw the Quorum Broadcasting, ABC and FOX stations in Billings, MT.
“I’ve been a fan of John’s for years,” said Jim Doyle, President of Jim Doyle and Associates. “His station experience and passion for local sales and for TV will make him a critical part of our future.” In addition to working with JDA clients and consultants, John’s number one priority is to bring a brand new Basic Selling program to market in 2012. “I’ve been to Jim’s Sales Manager Boot Camps, watched his national satellite conferences, and participated in his training sessions,” Hannon said. “I am a huge believer in the value JDA provides to broadcasting companies and am thrilled at the opportunity to join the team and launch Basic Selling, a product specifically designed to satisfy an ongoing broadcasting industry need.”
Jim Doyle and Associates is a Sarasota, FL, based Sales Training firm. Hannon joins Jim, Tom Ray, and nine Senior Consultants in providing revenue development and training to TV stations and Cable systems across America.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Characteristics I look for in a new hire
This article originally appeared in The Leaders Edge, Jim's coaching program for managers. For more details, on The Leaders Edge, go to: jimdoyle.com/MediaSalesManager/The-Leaders-Edge
From Tom Ray, Executive Vice President of Jim Doyle and Associates
Here are some of the things I think you should hire for since you can't teach them easily: -Positive Personality. I want upbeat, energetic, glass-is-half-full people on my team, not Debbie and Donnie Downers. -Strong understanding of how business works. I want team members who "get" business and are able to determine the win for a client and work towards it. -Competitive and like to win. I like former athletes and individuals who have excelled in competitions because they are driven to win. -Naturally curious. Hire people who want to know how things work, how a client's business operates, and who enjoy learning from others. -Learners. Readers. Self-Improvers. The best AE's I encounter always want to know more. -Ideal AE's have a firm grasp on technology. They use the tools available to them, they don't fear the computer or smart phone, but embrace it and end up teaching everyone else the tips and tricks they learn. -Finally, closers. When the work is done and done well, they aren't afraid to ask for the business. Not "closers" who start with the close, but professionals who expect to be rewarded for their efforts, and who know the only way they will be is when the client says, "Let's do it." Jim weighs in on what he looks for when hiring an AE: -Are they driven? What Caliper calls Ego drive, which is the deep desire to win. In selling, winning is defined as closing the sale. Ego drive causes sellers to work harder, come in earlier, come back one more time, make cold calls even when they aren't comfortable, work hard to overcome objections. -Do they have great EMPATHY? That's the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Empathy without drive can become sympathy. With drive, empathy is powerful. "I'm so sorry that business is bad, what do you think we could do about it?" -Resiliency. Especially for new-to-the-business AE's. Do they have the ability to bounce back from rejection and not take it personally? New AE's face more rejection than I've faced since my 7th grade dance. (Trust me, it was ugly!) -Are they smart? This is becoming more and more important. AE's today need to analyze both the client situations and the AE's arsenal of products to determine what is the RIGHT solution for a client. We need smarter, more analytical people. I'm told that IQ testing is okay for applicants as long as it's gender/race neutral. I think it's time to do that. -Are they students and learners? I agree with Tom here. The desire to learn is critical to continuing to be relevant. It also suggest whether they're a curious person. I think curious, interested people do well in sales (if they have strong Ego drive!). -Are they likeable? I am more and more focused on this. A good AE has to get the client engaged quickly. Do I want to hang out with them? -What about follow through? We require more attention to detail than ever. -Do they love the business?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Are we losing clients because of weak production?
Are we losing customers after we’ve made the sale?
The folks at our company look at hundreds… maybe thousands of TV ads every year. That’s what we do!
We just viewed a bunch more at our most recent Senior Consultant meeting. And want to hear something REALLY scary?
Most of the commercials that we see look great. They’re well-edited and have a professional look. But, most of the commercials we see probably won’t work for the client. At least they won’t work with all the potential of a truly effective message.
My friend and colleague, Don Fitzgibbons, a.k.a. the Guru of Ads, does a fun and powerful seminar. During the seminar, he shows a horrid-looking ad and asks the audience, “Good ad or bad ad?” The audience responds to their emotional sense and says, “Bad ad.” Don, however, goes on to report that this ad was responsible for a huge growth in sales for the advertiser and asks again, “Good ad or bad ad?”
There’s just one thing that makes an ad good. Good ads produce good, measurable good results for our clients. Bad ads don’t. No matter how creative or how well-produced the ad is, if it doesn’t produce results for the customer, it’s a bad ad.
We spend hours and hours of our time working on new business. We make new business a major priority of our sales effort—and then create commercials that don’t work for our advertisers.
What an incredible tragedy!
Leaders know that today we MUST succeed with new business development. Our new business efforts have to be more effective than they have ever been.
But there’s a dirty little secret about new business development: it's profitable for the company, and for the AE, only when we get repeat business. The amount of time it takes to generate one new business sale makes it a very unprofitable deal. Renew the 2nd or 3rd time and and ROI grows dramatically. And, if the client keeps going for a couple of years? Wow.
Unfortunately, a massive percentage of the time we never get that 2nd order because our client doesn’t get results during their first schedule. And yes, that’s often caused by under-selling. But far more often, the problem is a nice-looking ad that isn’t effective and doesn’t get results.
If we’re going to develop local business, our AE’s and producers must become better at marketing. That’s true for our core TV business and digital products alike.
Here’s a real-life example. Ask yourself if your AE’s and Producers could help a client in this way.
An assisted living center was advertising on a station’s dot.com. The banner ad:
Southwood Assisted Living, click here
We suggested they apply the marketing principle of focus, a basic marketing concept. The ad was changed to:
Assisted Living Programs for Veterans, click here
The click-through rates quadrupled overnight. (The same idea would have dramatically improved the results for the core TV product, as well.)
Before that change, the client probably would have cancelled. But not now!!
This is a big deal. If our new business efforts get better and better, but we lose clients as fast as we bring them in because of poor production, we’re cooked. We’ll have clients who now believe TV doesn’t work and won’t come back anytime soon. And, we’ll have AE’s who don’t believe in the power our products.
I can think of few industry issues that are as critical to our long-term success as this one. Too bad it’s one we don’t talk about very often.
It’s a problem we need to fix!
The folks at our company look at hundreds… maybe thousands of TV ads every year. That’s what we do!
We just viewed a bunch more at our most recent Senior Consultant meeting. And want to hear something REALLY scary?
Most of the commercials that we see look great. They’re well-edited and have a professional look. But, most of the commercials we see probably won’t work for the client. At least they won’t work with all the potential of a truly effective message.
My friend and colleague, Don Fitzgibbons, a.k.a. the Guru of Ads, does a fun and powerful seminar. During the seminar, he shows a horrid-looking ad and asks the audience, “Good ad or bad ad?” The audience responds to their emotional sense and says, “Bad ad.” Don, however, goes on to report that this ad was responsible for a huge growth in sales for the advertiser and asks again, “Good ad or bad ad?”
There’s just one thing that makes an ad good. Good ads produce good, measurable good results for our clients. Bad ads don’t. No matter how creative or how well-produced the ad is, if it doesn’t produce results for the customer, it’s a bad ad.
We spend hours and hours of our time working on new business. We make new business a major priority of our sales effort—and then create commercials that don’t work for our advertisers.
What an incredible tragedy!
Leaders know that today we MUST succeed with new business development. Our new business efforts have to be more effective than they have ever been.
But there’s a dirty little secret about new business development: it's profitable for the company, and for the AE, only when we get repeat business. The amount of time it takes to generate one new business sale makes it a very unprofitable deal. Renew the 2nd or 3rd time and and ROI grows dramatically. And, if the client keeps going for a couple of years? Wow.
Unfortunately, a massive percentage of the time we never get that 2nd order because our client doesn’t get results during their first schedule. And yes, that’s often caused by under-selling. But far more often, the problem is a nice-looking ad that isn’t effective and doesn’t get results.
If we’re going to develop local business, our AE’s and producers must become better at marketing. That’s true for our core TV business and digital products alike.
Here’s a real-life example. Ask yourself if your AE’s and Producers could help a client in this way.
An assisted living center was advertising on a station’s dot.com. The banner ad:
Southwood Assisted Living, click here
We suggested they apply the marketing principle of focus, a basic marketing concept. The ad was changed to:
Assisted Living Programs for Veterans, click here
The click-through rates quadrupled overnight. (The same idea would have dramatically improved the results for the core TV product, as well.)
Before that change, the client probably would have cancelled. But not now!!
This is a big deal. If our new business efforts get better and better, but we lose clients as fast as we bring them in because of poor production, we’re cooked. We’ll have clients who now believe TV doesn’t work and won’t come back anytime soon. And, we’ll have AE’s who don’t believe in the power our products.
I can think of few industry issues that are as critical to our long-term success as this one. Too bad it’s one we don’t talk about very often.
It’s a problem we need to fix!
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