Consumers have changed. They no longer have to wait for your local news to get caught up. They no longer have to watch your best Prime during prime hours. In fact, they really don’t need you at all except for super special events like the Super Bowl and who knows when that will be streamed online or snapped up by the NFL Network.

You know all of this but are you investing in reinventing yourself before it’s too late? The uptick in business could falsely make it seem like things are all better now. But Forrester’s Mr. Cooperstein said, “Every incremental dollar that goes somewhere else is going to impact the TV business.”

How are you capturing incremental dollars? Are you looking at new revenue streams such as partnerships or new verticals? Are you looking to monetize your assets such as developing video or programs for sale? How about creating programs that include product/advertiser placement revenues?

Yes, this means an investment in your future. Where better to invest?

I had my BlackBerry Twitter app Seesmic going at full speed. The comments were flying, the reviews ran the gamut of awesome to awful and I can absolutely tell you CBS did a horrible job of promoting the 3-D glasses needed to watch the Michael Jackson Tribute! No one seemed to know about that!!

Being out West, I knew what was coming such as the outrageous Pink performance and the frequently censored rappers. I was completely engrossed like never before in watching the Grammy’s. I made my comments and many of us responded back and forth – a real conversation. I watched the entire broadcast because the tweets kept me engaged. It was an entirely different experience. In fact, it was an interactive TV experience.

Look, it’s no secret the Leno move was a mistake and an extremely expensive one for the network and the affiliates. But let’s give NBC credit for trying something different and, more importantly, for cutting the cord soon after it was clear it wasn’t going to work (and the affiliates threatened with swords). NBC made the very public and expensive move. They knew the PR would be disasterous and they were right! But, nonetheless, they did it.

To simplify the situation, they had people in wrong positions. Do you have NBC’s guts?

Well, the big deal is the “social” in “social media.  How do you use going to a Chamber of Commerce event for business? You see people you know and deepen your relationship with them, you meet some new people and forge new relationships, you have the opportunity to ask questions, to learn, to give information, for people to get to know you, you show you care enough to just attend, etc.  It’s a social environment and you behave accordingly. If they tell you they stood in line at Starbuck’s you politely listen because they may tell you in their next sentence they are planning to open up a coffee shop of their own! You know and do all of this.

Well, the same things are true in the “social media” world. First, never forget it’s social! Have fun!! Jason Baer wrote a blog about this I loved.  Yes, when you physically go to that Chamber meeting it’s for work but c’mon – you’re having fun too! It’s the same thing on Twitter or Facebook or any of the other SM sites. Connect with people you know, meet some new people to expand your base (and the social media world has no boundaries so you can learn from people all over the country or the world), listen to what is being said, respond appropriately with meaningful information, become known for your great info and care enough to show up!

So here are some rules and hints for TV Salespeople (with a focus on Twitter because I get asked about it more than anything else):

1. Keep it social and GIVE of yourself
2. Use SM to learn, share information and build relationships
3. RESEARCH companies and industries. Use “twitter search” to listen in to conversations about the specific company you are calling on or learn about the industry in general. What are customers saying?  What are the trends? Have employees said anything about the company? Listen, listen, listen. Use what you learn with your current and future clients.
4. Follow people in a selected industry. Learn what they are reading, articles they are tweeting, the issues they are reporting. Try “twellow.com” to determine who you might want to follow.
5. Is your client on twitter? If she is, when? What time of day? What is she saying? Can you “meet” her on twitter and begin your relationship there? Use “search people” on twitter to find her.
6. Offer information and become a trust agent (read “Trust Agent” by Chris Brogan if you don’t know what I’m talking about – fabulous must read book).
7. Twitter is a great way to stay in touch with people when they change jobs! Everyone announces their job changes on twitter and where they are going. You won’t lose track of them again.
8. When you start doing this so will your competitors. You can view this as a threat or an opportunity to listen in on them and learn even more. I vote for the latter. 

Use everything you can to get to know your customer better. Tell us how you using Social Media as part of your sales process? What more help would you like me to provide. Oh, and follow me on twitter!

Here are some quick suggestions:

• EVERY contact must be relevant to the client

• EVERY contact demonstrates knowledge of their business

• EVERY contact is professional and respectful of their time (their time is a privilege)

• EVERY contact is simple, concise, straightforward and about them

• EVERY proposal is cost-effective for them and fits within their budget (do you know their real budget?)

• EVERY proposal is fresh, innovative, creative and about them

Or, do you want to turn your clients off?  Here are some suggestions:

• Be irrelevant

• Contacts are about you and your station

• Materials (verbal and written) are about you and your station

• Contact them before you know much or anything about their industry and business

• Present the same ol’ info the same ol’ way – nothing new, customized, innovative or creative

• Present something generic but loaded with flashy “tricks” to cover it up

• Communicate poorly and/or disrespectfully – remember, presentations are a privilege

 Are you willing to EARN your clients’ attention and business? It takes more work but the rewards will be appealing to all!

“It is easy to get to the top after you get through the crowd at the bottom.”
Zig Ziglar

1. You can RESEARCH companies and industries on Twitter. Use “twitter search” to listen in to conversations about the specific company you are calling on or learn about the industry in general. What are customers saying?  What are the trends? Have employees said anything about the company? Listen, listen, listen.
2. Follow people in the selected industry. Learn what they are reading, articles they are tweeting, the issues they are reporting. Try “twellow.com” to determine who you might want to follow.
3. Is your contact on twitter? If she is, when? What time of day? What is she saying? Can you “meet” her on twitter and begin your relationship there? Use “search people” on twitter to find her.
4. Offer information and become a trust agent (read “Trust Agent” by Chris Brogan if you don’t know what I’m talking about – great book).
5. Twitter is a great way to stay in touch with people when they change jobs! Everyone announces their job changes on twitter and where they are going. You won’t lose track of them again.
6. When you start doing this so will your competitors. You can view this as a threat or an opportunity to listen in on them and learn even more. I vote for the latter.

 Use everything you can to get to know your customer better. How are you using Social Media as part of your sales process?

You may say, “So what?”

Well I ask, “How many do YOU have?”

We all know intuitively as well as statistically our traditional marketing messages are missing many hard-to-reach consumer groups. We’ve all read or heard about establishing relationships with the consumers which means 2-way communication rather than the traditional outbound push of information.

Establishing these relationships with Followers and Fans not only helps you as a company remain relevant but also positions you with advertisers like never before. The “geeks” of the world who are all over technology are becoming the new trend setters. Being called a “geek” is suddenly a good thing! That’s a group advertisers want to talk with and listen to. Are you a favorite with this group? Is this a good reason for advertisers to partner with you?

How “geeky” is your audience? And how are you positioning that with your clients and advertisers? How many Followers and Fans does your business have?

Well, there are no guarantees but I recently read a very short blog written by Seth Godin (yes, him again!). He said, “you will never be out of work if you can demonstrably offer one of the following:     sales, additive effort and initiation.”

As most of you know, I work primarily with television stations and there has never been a time when the ability to sell, to bring additive effort to the table and taking the initiative to reinvent the business has been more valuable.

The business is changing rapidly – not because of the broadcasters’ great inventiveness but because of the viewers and the advertisers forcing them to change. But are they changing? Are they delivering News much different today from yesterday? If you took a newscast from 1980 and compared it to one today would there be much difference? Yet, think about how much the world has changed and our ability to consume information from so many sources. Sure, the graphics are better; the color is richer, the clothing and hairstyles are more modern but what about the Newscast and the content delivered? It’s still pretty much 9 minutes News, 5 minutes Weather, 5 minutes Sports, maybe an Enterprise story thrown in and a couple of “refers” to a website. Some have gone so far as to show their website with comments. Is that “additive effort and initiation?” Is that what consumers want? The decline in local news ratings answers that question for us.

And Sales Departments are still out there talking about station ratings and pageviews in a world where advertisers care only about their sales and how to measure success. Advertisers want to talk “with” – not “at” – their customers and develop relationships. What kind of sales skills are needed in today’s environment? Very different from the 1980’s but every station still has the “wall of one-sheets” that describes their program ratings and sellers are still taking “packages” out to their clients based on inventory they want sold. If you mention “measure success” to most sales reps you can watch them cringe.

If you want to be employable hone your sales skills in today’s environment and don’t be afraid to bring something new and different to the table. Take the initiative – the worst that can happen is someone will say “no” but we’ve been told that before. The new world takes new efforts and new initiatives and the courage to experiment.

That’s the one phrase Seth left out that I would add immediately – “courage to experiment.” Go for it, be a positive disruptor. Seth also said, “Smart organizations will treasure you if you are the one who makes productive or transformative happen.”

How will YOU remain employable?

This study, based on 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising “experts”, reveals 4 change drivers shifting control within the industry (excerpts): 

Attention – consumers are increasing their control as they adopt ad-skipping, sharing and rating tools. Their survey suggests personal PC time now rivals TV time with 71% using the Internet more than two hours per day verses just 48% spending the equivalent time watching TV.

Creativity – amateurs and semi-professionals are creating lower cost and extremely effective advertising content. UGC content sites are growing rapidly and were the top destination for viewing online content attracting 39% of respondents.

Measurement – advertisers are demanding more individual-specific and involvement-based measurements which pouts great pressure on traditional mass-market models. Two-thirds of the advertising experts polled expect 20% of ad revenue to shift from impression-based to impact-based formats within just 3 short years.

Advertising Inventories – The panel expects 30% of ad revenues to shift from traditional proprietary sales models to placement/auction platforms within the next 5 years. As revenues shift in response to consumer fragmentation it will no longer be efficient to have dedicated platforms for each channel. Market forces will move the industry to open, dynamic platforms capable of following a customer by serving messaging across multiple channels.

So, what can you do?

• Welcome consumer innovation
• Adjust your external business model
• Adjust your design and infrastructure

“For both incumbent and new players, it is imperative to plan for multiple consumer futures, craft agile strategies and build new capabilities before advertising as we know it disappears”.

 What are YOUR thoughts and plans?

The Complete Report (28 pages)      End of Adv as We Know It   

Executive Summary (2 pages)   End of Adv As We Know It Summary