ScLoHo Changes

ScLoHo Changes

by | Oct 11, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

UPDATE on 2/28/2023:

Despite what I wrote and my intentions a few months ago when I wrote this piece, I am going to be updating more than once a month.  Maybe weekly again.  We shall see.  There’s just too much on my mind not to share with you.  Last night I felt the urge and wrote and published this: https://www.scotthoward.me/wheres-the-money-in-2023/

Now here’s the original article:

This article and the audio version which is podcast episode # 286 is to announce some changes. The short version is I am going to reduce the number of articles I publish and podcasts I record.

This is due to a change in focus in my life and changes in the world around us.

Right now there are 1570 articles that I wrote and published on this website and most of them over the past 5 and half years have been captured in audio form as the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.  When I began writing and publishing the articles, over 15 years ago it was the beginning days of blogging and I actually had multiple blogs.  Some were updated weekly, others 3 or 4 times a day.  This was not a full-time gig, it was a side hustle, but not quite.

Side hustles are usually designed to make money.  Writing and blogging never had a direct connection to making money for me.  This was a passionate hobby.  If I was an artist, I would have been creating dozens and dozens of pieces each week, but as someone who has spent a considerable amount of my life in the media and marketing world, writing about it has been my creative outlet.

For awhile, there were just a few of us in Fort Wayne, Indiana that were blogging consistently and then I realized I was the only one of those that started out around 15+ years ago.  Long time acquittance and friend Anthony Juliano started shortly after he joined the Asher Advertising Agency where he’s been for 18 years and his focus has changed and sharpened over the years.  Most everyone I know with a few exceptions have stopped.

First off, I’m not stopping.  I am however going to change the frequency.  My intention is to do a monthly article and podcast update instead of weekly.

Two reasons:

Time is primary for me.  In 2020, my position with Federated Media changed from being a member of the WOWO radio advertising sales team, to becoming the General Sales Manager of that team.  It has taken close to three years for me to minimize my selling role on our team. In 2020, despite my being in management, I was still the number 2 salesperson for WOWO.  In 2021, I was either #2 or #3 every month.  My goal for 2022 was to reduce my selling time even more, to next to none, and with some staffing changes the past few weeks, that looks very possible.

The beginning of October however saw some additional organizational changes start to occur and for at least an interim basis,  I am also managing 3 more stations along with WOWO for the rest on this year.  The time I need to devote to the sales teams and the individuals that make up these teams is more important than ever.

Years ago, when I was with another group of radio stations and was promoted to a General Sales Manager position, I asked my boss, which was more important, my own sales or the sales of the people on my team.  He took the easy answer and said both.  I decided that it was more important to be able to multiple my time than add.  8 plus 2 = 10.  8 x 2 = 16.

What that meant to me is instead of adding two more hours to my day, it was a better investment of time to teach, train, coach and mentor others to be their best.  That’s the multiplying principle.

Something else I’ve learned from a guy I just heard of this year, Mike Weinberg, is that that Sales Managers and Sales People should employ different skills and talents.  Sometimes they are opposites in those two positions.  Our companies outside sales consultancy has different online talent assessments that potential candidates take for different positions.  Some do well in Sales but are not so great in Sales Management.  Honestly, less than half the people we have taking any of our online talent assessments score high enough to be considered for employment.

Here’s why we put so much value in those talent assessments…

Talent is like your height, skill is like your weight.  Once we become adults, we stop growing taller.  Our core talents are what they are.  What we do have control over, all of our life, is our weight. Like skills, we can grow and develop over time with the right development.

So I said Time is one reason for my changing the frequency to monthly instead of weekly updates.

Reason number 2 is accessibility of information. You and I have access to more information that ever before.  You don’t know the answer to something?  Ask your phone!

If you want to know what I think about something, there are two ways to find out.  My website has a search feature powered by Google.  Having published so many articles on the subject of media and marketing over the years, you’ll likely discover I already answered your question.   Also you can reach out to me directly.  I don’t hide.  My personal email is Scott@ScLoHo.net and you can also find my phone number for phone calls and texts at my website too.  You can direct message me on the socials too.  I’ve been on Twitter since October 2008 and am on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn too.

Thanks for your time today, my next update will be in November

 

3 Fundamental Questions To Ask Before You Advertise

3 Fundamental Questions To Ask Before You Advertise

by | Oct 4, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

There are 3 Fundamental Questions You Need To Ask Before You Advertise.

I’ll tell you what they are and also go a little deeper.

Question 1:

Who Do You Want to Invite to Spend Money with You?

Question 2:

Why Should Those People Spend Money with You?

Question 3:

What is the Math Needed to be Profitable?

Now, let’s dig in starting with the first question, Who Do You Want to Invite to Spend Money with You?

I want you to think about basic demographics such as age and gender but also deeper than that. Income, lifestyle, values.  Once you develop what we call a persona or two or three of your ideal customers, you will be able to decide where to advertise.  Most advertising choices have a particular audience and you want to find the audience that matches your ideal customer.

As I tell my advertising sales team at WOWO Radio where I am the General Sales Manager, it’s our job to find business that want our radio audience to become their customers.  It’s that simple on our end, and reverse it for you as a business owner and you’ll be able to decide where to advertise, or at least where NOT to advertise.

Let’s move on to the second question and dig in. Why Should Those People Spend Money with You?

This should be an easy question to answer and on the surface it is.  You can say, because we make really good  ___________. That is just the start.  Because, you are not the only one offering what you are selling.  Before Apple introduced iPhones, we had cellphones.  Many were what we now call dumb-phones, with the ability to text and talk and take a low quality picture.  Some people, those who were more advanced had a Blackberry phone, which were nicknamed Crackberries because it seemed like people were addicted to those phones.

I’ve never owned a Blackberry or an iPhone.  I went from slider and flip phones to a Samsung Android Smartphone when I joined a tech company back in 2011.  Now, it seems like everyone has either an iPhone or Android, and my old Nokia 6170 and Motorola Razr sit in the back of my desk drawer just waiting to be tossed out a dozen years later.

The Why You Question is so important, yet so overlooked.  It is the reason that people will switch from what they have been doing or using and try you instead.

The reality is that not everyone that knows about you will abandon their current provider right now, if they don’t have a reason.  The reason for someone to switch is a combination of what makes you appealing and a dissatisfaction with the status quo.  This is a topic I can do a whole series on in the future, but for today, let’s keep moving.

Question 3 is about Math.  Math involving money and customers.  How much do you need to sell to break even?  Take a step back… How much should you price your goods and services so you will break even?  You need to know these numbers because you need to know how to make money.  Yes I mentioned break even, but that’s because you need a baseline number.  You can then increase your prices on paper to set up a decent profit margin.  Then you need to also come up with alternative formulas to get to the end result.

Here’s an example using small numbers.  If you need $100 to break even, there are a few ways to do that.  You could sell 50 items at 2 dollars each.  Or you could sell 2 items at $50 each.  Or you could sell 10 items at $10 each.  All of these options add up to $100.

In retail, it is common to double the wholesale price to get a retail price and make money.  Take those formula’s we just talked about and and double the dollars so now you’re bringing in $200 instead of $100.  You have to know your numbers.  This gives you a foundation for when inflation hits and your costs climb, you can raise your prices appropriately.

It’s also important to know your numbers for advertising.  Many advertising and marketing sales people are afraid to talk about Return On Investment but my team isn’t.  We want to know that they money you invest with an ad campaign with us has reasonable goals and we can use those goals along with your tracking the results to decide the success rate and make appropriate moves in the future.

One more time, here are 3 Fundamental Questions To Ask Before You Advertise:

Question 1:

Who Do You Want to Invite to Spend Money with You?

Question 2:

Why Should Those People Spend Money with You?

Questions 3:

What is the Math Needed to be Profitable?

Reach out to me for help and guidance.

 

How to Deal with Inflation Realities

How to Deal with Inflation Realities

by | Sep 27, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

In sales, there is a visual description that we use that describes our on-going goals, Up and to the Right.

If you visualize goals over time, that is how most companies want to see their growth.

Inflation however can be a real kick in the pants.

When the costs of things are following that image of Up and to the Right, it affects nearly everyone.

I was talking with a friend last week who had a new home built and he was explaining how he was fortunate that they locked in prices before prices started climbing.  He still had to deal with some of the challenges his builder was facing including inventory issues that included not having materials available due to supply chain issues and what was available was now priced much higher.  Staffing shortages also contributed to the issues that created a delay in the completion of his family’s home.

In this case the builder had to eat the increased costs and his profit margins shrunk.

I’ve watched other businesses that have had to decide how to handle inflation and many of them resisted raising their prices and it hurt their business.  I understand the reluctance, however over my career I’ve urged many business owners to raise their prices as the cost of doing business increased and they were losing operating profit.

That’s kind of a made up term, Operating Profit.  One time I was working with an HVAC company and wanted to create an R.O.I. or Return On Investment formula so we could calculate how many new customers we needed to bring them to pay for the ad campaign and the owner was very insistent in pointing out that in his eyes, there was no “operating profit”.  To paraphrase what he said, “Every dollar we bring in goes somewhere, we don’t just toss it in a bank account as profit.”

Yes, that is true with most small and medium sized businesses, the ones that are not publicly traded on the stock market.  Those are the size of businesses I usually work with. But this is also the difference between Gross Profit and Net Profit.  The reality for the HVAC owner is that that were able to afford a decent personal living lifestyle due to the success that had operating their business.  Their staff was happy and their customers were happy too.

Profit is not a dirty word as some news media like to focus on the money being made by the really big publicly traded companies that are required to disclose money numbers.  We live in a country that likes to offer opportunities to anyone and most of us are employed by or work in the small business world.

How do you as a business owner deal with the inflation realities?

Make adjustments.  You have to continue to make a profit.  Before inflation and before Covid disrupted everything a few years ago, (if you were in business before 2020) you had a formula for setting your prices.  Customers were used to paying you for your products and services based on the prices you charged which you set at a level to make a gross profit.

One thing you need to do is raise your prices.

Another thing you can do is offer a lower price option that is simply a smaller portion or less than the more expensive option.  I’m thinking of the restaurant business.  Huge plates of food that were way too many calories for a single meal that you were offering in 2019, we don’t need that much.

If you are in a service industry you can do the same thing.  For your old price, offer something a little less and for those who want the same service, mark it up.  Give us, the consumers a choice of higher prices or same prices and we will adjust.

Inflation is a reality and instead of wishing it away or driving yourself out of business because you are afraid to adjust, do what needs to be done and be honest about it.  Your customers make not like it, but they still want what you sell and will figure out what works for them.

The Wait is Worth It

The Wait is Worth It

by | Sep 20, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

Are you a patient person?

Or does waiting create anxiety?

For me, it all depends on the why I am waiting.

I’m sure it is that way with you too, to some degree.

At the end of 2019 I was cleaning up my email and found a series of newsletters from Roy H. Williams.  Roy goes by the moniker The Wizard of Ads, like my nick name is ScLoHo.  Every Monday for several years, Roy’s newsletter arrives in my inbox.  It’s called the Monday Morning Memo.

Now there’s nothing but predictability in what I just shared with you.  I can count on receiving the appropriately named Monday Morning Memo from Roy Williams on Monday Mornings.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that all things were predictable?

The Monday Morning Memo dated September 16th, 2019 talks about something I talk about too.  I call it the buying cycle, Roy calls it the purchase cycle.  Both of us are referring to the same thing.  And it has to do with time.

Roy used the example of engagement rings. Roy says:

330 million Americans will purchase 2 million engagement rings this year. This means that 1 American in 165 will buy an engagement ring.

There has been a tendency for digital marketers to emphasize the zero moment of truth.  That’s the instant that a person is ready to go out and hand over their credit card for a few thousand to buy that ring. The digital marketers are looking at that as the time to be in your face with their ads for diamonds.  After all, for many of us, it’s now or never.  Actually in the wedding game, a significant number of us get married more than once, so those diamond ring digital marketers may get a second or third chance down the road.

However the buying cycle or purchase cycle as Roy refers to it, is not the same for everything we buy.  I bought gas the other day, something I do about once a week.  Filling up my gas tank is a much shorter buying cycle than buying an engagement ring.

Also it is important to recognize that most of us have habits that we follow with many purchases and unless there is a reason to change our habit, we aren’t going to change them.

Earlier this year, my office moved from the northwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana to the southwest side.  I live northeast.

When my commute to the office changed, so did some of my buying habits.  Until this move, I never would have used the gas station or grocery store that I use now.  A few years ago the breakfast place I would visit stopped selling my favorite beverage so I changed.

Because you just can’t advertise a sale and it will convince everyone to stop what they are doing and go and buy from you right now… that is why you need to move from a self-centered marketing plan to one that is customer-centered.  Being there when they need what you can offer is critical.  Reminding them and inviting them, every week is what this is all about.

Looking for the Very Best Sales People

Looking for the Very Best Sales People

by | Sep 13, 2022 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s a crazy time out there.  It seems like so many companies are suffering from shortages.

First it was supply chain issues that were either created or amplified by the numerous complications of Covid-19 shut downs in 2020.

Then came staffing shortages.  Even as businesses wanted to open up after the worst of Covid, many businesses simply didn’t have the people.

I’ve talked to numerous business owners and employers and most are in the same boat of not having the ideal working conditions and employment pay and benefit packages to convince someone to come work for them.

While each week I give them advice, I’ve also been listening to the people who want to work to hear both sides.

And as a result, the company I work for, Federated Media located in Indiana with radio stations in Fort Wayne and the South Bend metros have made a few adjustments and improvements.

As the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio, I need to hire at least TWO new advertising sales people for immediate openings I have.

While pay and income is important, the people I add to my team are not entirely focused on their paycheck.  Here’s a couple more very important things that I know are important how we accommodate, no more than accommodate, we purposefully incorporate in our culture.

  • Remote work versus 9-5 office hours. Before I came here nearly a decade ago, Federated Media in Fort Wayne created a Work From Home set-up for our advertising sales teams.  Most weeks, my sales team only come to the office two hours a week.  Once for a Weekly Individual Focus Meeting aka One-on-One with me, their sales manager; and once a week for a WOWO Sales Team meeting.  When I was selling and not in management, you would rarely see me in the office.  I was meeting with clients or in a coffee shop.  Two hours a week here, the rest of your work day… go do what needs to be done to create success.
  • Brand New Flexible Paid Time Off policy.  This was launched this summer and basically it means instead of having to use vacation time to take the day off to take help your kids get moved into their college dorm, or whatever is going on in your life, just take the time off.  For sales people this really wasn’t as much of an issue, because sales people set their out schedules anyway, but this really benefits the support staff that work in the office every day.  Guilt Free days off is what I heard someone say.

Here’s what those two things mean for my sales team.  I want you to have a balanced life and do it without feeling guilty or feeling pressure that you have to conform to old fashioned working hours.  I work with you to make sure the couple of weekly meetings we have are a good fit for you too.  Currently our weekly sales team meetings are at 9am on Thursdays.  We used to have them earlier but that created a conflict with one of our team whose child needed to be dropped off for school at a time that created a conflict with an 8:30 meeting, so we changed it a few years ago.  Also, ever since March 2020, our weekly sales team meetings have been on Zoom.  We will return to having them in person in the future but that’s not likely until 2023 or 2024.   I’ll explain more on why in a moment.

All of this work-time flexibility could be taken advantage of by people who don’t have the self-discipline or desire to be productive.  One thing we have always had is a high bar to pass in order to be considered for employment with the WOWO Advertising Sales Team.  Everyone must first take an online sales talent assessment that measures a dozen different talents thru a series of about 60 multiple choice questions.  It takes between 30 and 60 minutes. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/Work4WOWO .

Only about 40% of the people who take the talent assessments will qualify to move forward in the process.  Someone asked me this summer after they were told their talents did not match what we were looking for, what he could do to improve for the future.  Nothing was my answer.  There is a difference between Talent and Skill.  Talent is part of who you are that doesn’t change; while skill is teachable, trainable and can be improved.  Similar to our height and weight.  Once we become an adult, there’s nothing we can do to increase our height. However we do have control over our weight.  Height = Talent; Weight = Skill.

With the shortage of people looking for jobs, have we lowered our standards?  Absolutely not.  I’ve made the mistake of hiring someone whose talents were marginal and there was only so much improvement they could do… it wasn’t worth it.

How did we get so smart to be able to evaluate a person’s sales talent online?  We didn’t.  We work hand in hand with our sales consultancy, The Center for Sales Strategy who have evaluated thousands of sales people and are pretty darn good.  So good that we use C.S.S. for more than hiring.  They are our partner in on-going training.  Which brings me to my next reason to apply to join me at WOWO:

On-Going Training and Professional Development. I just mentioned the Center For Sales Strategy which is our companies lead sales consultancy.  I also have additional resources and training from both outside experts and internally.  Bottom line is we don’t just bring people on board and wish them luck.  We are always providing training and resources to help you be successful.

I will also be upfront and honest with you.  Currently I’m in my 3rd year as the General Sales Manager at WOWO, after 7 years selling myself for WOWO, plus years of radio, advertising and sales experience elsewhere.  These past 3 years I’ve observed what it takes for someone to succeed and what others have done that have prevented them from being successful.  If you are not willing to do what it takes, and to take the actions needed, be coachable and want to win, then this is not the place for you.

We are an elite team at WOWO and Federated Media.  I was watching the Legacy series on Hulu over the weekend.  It’s the story of the LA Lakers and how they became successful with multiple championships and that is what we are building here too.  Want to see if you can join our team?  Contact me.