Читать книгу Media Selling - Warner Charles Dudley - Страница 101

Media salespeople represent their companies to their customers and because they are selling an intangible product, they become the personification of, the surrogate for, their product. Salespeople are often the only contact a customer will have with anyone from a company. Therefore, they have to face the kill‐the‐messenger attitude many people have about the media. Because of this unique situation, a company’s credibility depends on its salespeople’s credibility, which to a large degree depends on their personal conduct and integrity. Salespeople must be law abiding, respectful of civil liberties and actions or statements that are potentially offensive to others, as well as be moderated in their personal habits. It is the responsibility of salespeople to build and maintain customer relationships based on dependability, reliability, believability, integrity, and ethical behavior.

Salespeople must give their job their full attention, not steal company’s assets, not waste its resources (which includes efficient and reasonable use of entertainment and transportation money), not file false expense reports, and not offer special deals to get business away from others within their own organization.

Salespeople have a responsibility to their company to generate revenue by getting results for clients, to sell special promotions and packages, and to keep customers and get renewals. There are times when the responsibility to a company to generate revenue can come into conflict with a salesperson’s duty to his or her customers, to his or her conscience, and to the various communities. When such conflicts occur, salespeople should remember the hierarchy of responsibilities and that their company is at the bottom of that hierarchy, because it is in the company’s best long‐term interest to be last. Good companies know that what goes around, comes around; that good karma returns home; that ethical behavior is good business; that employees are happier working for ethical companies; and that consumers keep coming back to products and companies they believe are ethical, do the right thing, and are sustainable.

Great media companies understand that, if they take care of their audience that usage, readership, and ratings will go up, which means advertising revenue will go up. Also, if advertisers trust salespeople and their companies, most advertisers will pay higher prices for better service from these trusted partners. If salespeople do the wrong thing, it results in lost customers, expensive employee turnover, high lawyers’ fees, large court costs, and, perhaps, even time in jail.

Unfortunately, many companies set up rewards for salespeople that unwittingly reinforce doing the wrong thing. These include compensation systems that reward getting an order regardless of what’s best for the customer, contests that reward selling special promotions or events regardless of advertisers’ needs, and bonuses for making sales budgets regardless of what is reasonable.¹⁵ Beware of chief finance officers (CFOs) and top management that recommend accounting practices that “preserve a company’s assets”; they often have the wrong assets in mind. A company’s and a salesperson’s most precious asset is an excellent reputation, which is preserved by always doing the right thing all of the time.