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.

 

 

Make The Right Adjustments

Make The Right Adjustments

by | Aug 30, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

“We gotta do something”

That’s been the theme for 2022 from many business people.

So they prepare to Make Adjustments.

Making Adjustments is neither good or bad.  Actually it is something that all of us are doing all the time.

The question that often comes up is “What adjustments are we going to do?”

I urge you to stop for a moment and take a few deep breaths before making any decisions.

As hard as it is, now, more than ever, is time to remove emotions from your decision making process.

Emotions can be temporary, and decisions can have lasting consequences.

If you are running a business and you don’t have a strategic plan in place, it’s time to create one.

If you have a plan, but it was created before March 2020, it’s time to review it and see if it needs updated.

If the plan you created isn’t working right now, it’s time to see why and take a look at the whole picture.

For nearly 6 years I have served on the Board of Directors of Homebound Meals of Fort Wayne and I am in my final 6 months.  Besides myself, there is one other board member who has been there as long as me and his term expires early next year like mine.  The organization has been around since 1971 and during that time there have been dozens of board members, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of recipients of the lunch time meal program.

Their mission has never changed.  The strategy and tactics used to fulfil the mission have certainly evolved over time including the last few years.  I am confident that the partnership between the board and Executive Director will keep the organization around for many more decades as people come and go.

Making the right adjustments is also something I have seen take place at the church my wife and I attend.  We’ve been members for nearly 20 years and have seen numerous changes take place in leadership as some Pastors retire or are called to other places to serve.  Besides the church, we also have a school and they have had people changes too over the past 77 years too.  This summer their Executive Director, Mark Lange stepped down to move forward with other areas he and his wife Sue are being called.

I bring up Mark’s name specifically because I’ve known him and his wife Sue since I was 13 years old and we went to the same high school.  Our church and school, Holy Cross Lutheran in Fort Wayne was going thru some transitions that many older churches have gone thru and that was simply changes in the make-up of the congregation that was part of what was going to have an impact on the finances of the church and school.

A few years ago, I was one of a dozen who were asked to serve on a task force to explore the future needs and future circumstances using demographic studies, internal surveys, and antidotal stories.  Mark showed me how each year we had a financial plan and each week he would release numbers that showed how our income compared to the plan. He also included the actual expenses which were the reality of what was spent and I learned in my conversations with Mark how we were making adjustments as the year progressed.  Besides having the initial plan or budget, we also had a plan on what adjustments to make as needed.

No matter what business you are in, there are a few things you need to always include in your plan:

  1. Products and Services to sell
  2. Have the People and Infrastructure to create those Products and Services
  3. Invitations to potential customers to buy your stuff and ongoing marketing to keep those customers.

Some of you have had to change the portfolio of products or services you sell.  I’m not talking about completely abandoning everything, I’m talking about making adjustments. Fast Food places that were short staffed ran drive-thru only and closed their dining rooms for awhile.  Some restaurants limited their menu to their best sellers.

I’ve also seen some of you expand and not shrink.  Two ways to do this have been to add more products to sell to your customers.  One company added a second business that went hand in hand with their primary business and it’s created more opportunities.

The other way to expand has been to raise prices.  Too many businesses have been afraid to pass along increases to their customers because they were afraid of losing customers.  But inflation is one of the biggest headlines of 2022 and you really need to pass along your additional costs to your customers.  They are expecting it.  No, they won’t like it, but they will understand, (most of them).  You will also lose some.  A few years ago I told one of my clients that she needed to raise her prices which she resisted at first for those same reasons. However this is the ideal time to do it.

Some of the adjustments you may be tempted to make is to cut your advertising.  To which I say, maybe.  However the answer is probably maybe not.

It really depends on your overall strategic plan, not just current circumstances.  While I sell advertising on WOWO Radio and lead a team of advertising sales pros, I’m also a marketing and advertising consultant.  I want what is best for you and your company now and for the future.  If we can help with using the advertising resources of WOWO radio and our online options… great.  But I don’t want you to buy advertising from us or anyone that isn’t in your best interest.

More on what happens when you cut advertising in a future article.  For now, I urge you to Make the Right Adjustments for the Right Reasons, based on a Strategic Plan, not emotion.  Need help?  Contact me.

WOWO’s Baby Boomers Still Want to Spend Money With You

WOWO’s Baby Boomers Still Want to Spend Money With You

by | Aug 23, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

6 years ago, May 2016, I wrote an article titled, WOWO’s Baby Boomer Audience Wants To Spend Money with You.

It’s still true.

Despite all that has happened the past 6 years with the economy, with politics, with.. well, you name it… the WOWO Radio Audience has money to spend and they are spending it every week.

I’m getting some fresh research into our audience and the audiences of other media and it is fascinating.  I also have more than 6 years of antidotal stories of businesses using WOWO than I had when I first wrote the original story. What follows is what I wrote in 2016 with a few updates.

I’m going to lay this out for you, Mr/Ms Business Owner in the Fort Wayne area:

WOWO’s Baby Boomer Audience Wants To Spend Money With You

A lot of attention is given to the under 50 crowd because, well, people over 50 are nearly dead,  Or dead broke.  Or drooling toothlessly in their soup, or…

I wonder what other myths you have about Baby Boomers? I found an article that addresses some of them.  We’re going to look at them in a second.

First the relationship between WOWO & Baby Boomers.  WOWO radio was the radio station we listened to as school kids to find out if we had to go to school or if old man winter caused the school’s to close or delay.  As a 6 year old when my family first moved here, we learned that Bob Siever’s was Mr. WOWO with all the answers in the 60’s and 70’s, (my youth).

Now in 2022 WOWO continues to have the most loyal audience in town of adults over 21 years old and the biggest chunk of those 60,000 weekly listeners are baby boomers.

Let’s break some Baby Boomer myths from the article:

Who’s got the money to spend? Boomers accounted for 70% of the disposable income in the United States in 2012, and they will continue to be the wealthiest generation in the country until at least 2030, when they’ll still have nearly 45% of the disposable income. Ten years later, in 2022, Baby Boomers still have more than half the wealth in the United States according to the Federal Reserve.

Here’s 3 more from the article:

1. Baby boomers are not tech-savvy.

Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were born in the boomer years, and their generation was the first to experience the massive productivity increases that technology can drive.

Baby boomers are just as tech-oriented as are younger generations. Eighty-two percent of Boomers use Facebook, with 15.5% spending more than 11 hours per week on the site. Boomer women are also one of the fastest-growing categories on Pinterest. They also spend more time consuming and sharing content online than do other demographics.

In 2022, Boomers are also using Instagram, and doing online shopping.  Boomers are even teaching their grandkids how to use technology!

2. Baby boomers are reluctant to spend money.

Adults 55-64 consistently outspending the average consumer in nearly every category.

In fact, if taken as their own economy, the 100 million Americans who are aged 50 and over would rank the third largest in the world behind the U.S. and China. When it does come to retirement, however, two-thirds plan to spend more time doing things like shopping, traveling and entertaining.

And some more numbers from 2022:

  • Baby boomers account for about 38 percent of pet spending. [Source: Pet Business Professor]
  • Baby boomers increased their spending on new clothes by 28 percent compared to before the pandemic. [Source: Retail Dive]
  • 59 percent of baby boomers are willing to pay extra for socially compliant, sustainable products. [Source: Deloitte]

3. Baby boomers are old fashioned.

A recent study called Baby boomers “media-loving, eternally optimistic, self-indulgent consumers.” Now that they’re rid of burdens like college tuition, mortgages, and child care expenses, they’re looking to re-tool themselves and re-define their lives. Now rid of debts and obligations, they have the means to do it.

My 2022 update: Baby boomers are no longer the largest generation, but they do possess more wealth than Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Zers. With high average spending and a propensity to indulge in luxury purchases, baby boomers have an outsized effect on the overall health of the economy.

 

Want some examples of Boomers?  Boomers are not your elderly grandparents. Prince was a baby boomer. So was David Bowie. George Clooney, Barak Obama, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Paula Abdul, Jeff Bezos, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Kenny Loggins, Brad Pitt, Jerry Seinfeld, Demi Moore, Madonna, Oprah … all baby boomers. Not a single, crotchety, old fogy among them.

Adding to the clear proof of Boomers’ immense consumer power, they drive almost 50% of all retail sales whereas Millennials represent a mere 10%.

Here’s the opportunity that you have with WOWO Radio.  Want to see how it can work for your business?  Contact me.

 

How To Build Instant Trust For Your Business

How To Build Instant Trust For Your Business

by | Aug 9, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

If there was only a way to get someone to trust you instantly…

Actually we were born that way.  We trust from the very start.  Then as we experience life, we discover that things aren’t always trustworthy.

Depending on a persons life experiences and outlook, we develop either an optimistic or pessimistic attitude.  Most of us are a blend of both depending on the situation.

As I’ve talked about in the past, Trust is one of the key foundations of our lives and this applies to everything.

I’m going to focus on the necessity of trust in business and marketing including your advertising.

I’m also going to share with you examples that you can use today to create “Instant Trust”.

Trust is an emotion first, and logic second. No matter what the data says, you have to win the heart, not just the mind.

Certain forms of media are trustworthy for different people.

A century ago, newspapers were the trusted source of information.

Half a century ago, TV was, especially CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite who would end his nightly broadcasts with his signature sign-off, “And That’s The Way It Is”.

All of this was before the online world which gave anyone and everyone a voice.

The most trusted media people in my city are now the local radio and television personalities.

But they are not all equally trusted.

Particular stations and networks have their own brand and people put trust in that brand.  If your business advertises on a particular station that is trusted, there is a transfer of trust that spreads to your business.

In the TV world, we have newscasts on 4 stations and over the past couple of decades there has been a changing of the guard so-to-speak as some TV veterans retired and others took their place.  TV viewership has eroded as alternative sources of news and entertainment have continued to become available.  I no longer have to sit down at the appointed time to watch the evening news to see what happened while I was at the office.  I get news instantly from the apps on my phone, whenever I want. I have not watched a single local newscast from start to finish this year and I see no reason for that to change.

The radio world in Fort Wayne has nearly 2 dozen radio stations.  The oldest is WGL which I worked for a couple of times. Listenership is very small according to the rating data I have access to and the format has changed numerous times.  The next oldest is WOWO.

WOWO will be a century old in 2025 and for more than a quarter century has been a news and talk radio station.  In December I will have completed 9 years at WOWO with many more to come.  When I was a kid I listened to WOWO and it was the most listened to station with over 70% of all of the listeners tuning in each morning.  WOWO is still one of the few stations with over 100,000 weekly listeners.

Federated Media bought WOWO in the 1990’s and owns and operates other heritage stations in Fort Wayne including WMEE, which I once worked for a few decades ago. 98.9 The Bear and K-105 are the other two Fed Med stations that have huge audiences in Fort Wayne and have earned the trust of our listeners.

One of the things that makes WOWO unique however is the whole news/talk format and how listeners interact with WOWO.  When you listen to a music station, you pick the station that plays the music you enjoy listening to.  The radio personalities are there to complement the music and add to your listening pleasure. 70% or more of what your favorite music station plays is music.  Music is the main emotional connection.

With WOWO being a news and talk radio station, we don’t play music.  We talk instead. In the morning, it’s news, weather, sports, traffic, farm reports, and interviews. The rest of the day the newscasts are twice an hour with talk filling in the rest of the hour.  People listen to WOWO to hear people talk.  Big difference.

WOWO Listeners Trust the WOWO Brand.

WOWO Listeners are not annoyed by talking the way they can get annoyed by too much talk on a music station.

WOWO’s advertisers are trusted simply because those businesses are on WOWO.  There is an implied trust and emotional bond that businesses get that advertise on WOWO.    But that’s not all.

WOWO cranks it up two more levels for our advertising partners.

There is what I refer to as a Platinum Level for WOWO Advertisers.  We all know that the Gold Standard is the highest level of any business.  This is a step above the Gold Standard.

Platinum Level Sponsorship on WOWO is the personal endorsement or testimonial of one of either or afternoon host Pat Miller or morning host Kayla Blakeslee.  This is the trust factor on steroids that no other station in Fort Wayne offers.  A Pat or Kayla endorsement campaign means they will be your local spokesperson and do live 60 second ads for your business.

They receive a talent fee for this and WOWO charges a premium for that minute of airtime.   But it’s well worth it.  I’ll give you a couple of examples in a moment.

These live ads are exclusive for a business category.  For example, Pat Miller endorses Fairhaven Funeral Homes.  Fairhaven will be the only funeral service provider Pat will endorse.  Other funeral homes can advertise, but none will have Pat’s voice on them, endorsing them as long as Fairhaven continues.  Kayla Blakeslee endorses Shield Exterior Roofing and so while other roofers can advertise on WOWO, none will have Kayla as their spokesperson.

WOWO Listeners have an emotional bond with Pat and Kayla and they are trusted by their listeners.  When Pat and Kayla are talking about something political, you bet their listeners are emotionally invested.  That emotional trust carries over to our listeners when they also talk about the businesses they endorse.

A few years after I started at WOWO, before Kayla was hosting Fort Wayne’s Morning News, she was the news director and news anchor in the morning.  Charly Butcher was our Fort Wayne Morning News Host until he suddenly passed away 4 years ago this week.  I worked with a small specialty shop that was going to have a special open house on a Saturday and they bought a ton of radio ads on a music station and just 3 or 4 ads with Charly’s endorsement.  After the event, the owner continued with WOWO because he heard customer after customer tell him that Saturday they were at the open house because Charly told them to come.  The music station’s ads did nearly nothing apparently.

Before I wrap this up, I mentioned two levels of trust building beyond the regular ads on WOWO.  The 2nd one is something I started using a lot of when I came to WOWO and they create an implied endorsement of a business to our listeners.  We have news and weather sponsorships that are done live by the WOWO local newscasters.  We have local news 13 hours every weekday starting at 5am, so there are plenty of these “embedded” sponsorship mentions that are live 10 second messages.  This was my secret sauce for success for my advertising partners when I came to WOWO.

Instant Trust? Hmmm, not quite but pretty close.  Contact me for more details.

 

 

Word Of Mouth Advertising With A Bigger Mouth

Word Of Mouth Advertising With A Bigger Mouth

by | Jul 26, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

The very best form of marketing is what we call Word Of Mouth.

Why?

Because it is from the heart, from one person to another and it includes implicitly, the Human Relationship factor we all need: Trust.

Several years ago, I wrote about the Word Of Mouth advantage that my radio station has and you can read what I wrote in January 2018 here.

I found that article by Googling the term, “Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth” and only a few articles popped up, both attributed to me.

I honestly don’t think I coined that term despite what the Google gods say.

Here’s the backstory:

From my teen years to age 26, I spent all of my radio life working on the radio.  I was an overnight radio disc jockey.  That’s how I met my first wife and mother of our three kids.

I also did other shifts on the radio and became the Program Director of one of the stations I worked for.  That meant I was the guy in charge of the music, the format, the air personalities, basically anything except for the advertising.

Most radio ads were forgettable.  The ones that I had to voice and produce were usually written by an advertising sales person and most were lousy, in my opinion.  So every once in awhile, I would use my creativity and write ads for local businesses that were different from the usual stuff I was told to read and record.

However in 1986, I moved from the on-air side of radio to the advertising side when I joined Crawford Broadcasting in Detroit as an advertising campaign Master Producer.  I worked hand in hand with a couple of WMUZ advertising sales people and created some pretty successful ad campaigns for our clients.

WMUZ also was very advertiser friendly.  When I was there for about eight years, our live radio hosts would give a 10 second endorsement for every local business on their show.  They were called Rolling Endorsements.  The way it worked is there would always be a 30 second or 1 minute recorded ad that was immediately followed by a brief live endorsement.  Robin Sullivan was one of the most popular afternoon radio hosts at the time I was there and when Robin endorsed Hilton Mortgage, her listeners took her recommendation as seriously as if their best friend had recommended Hilton Mortgage.

That’s because of the relationship Robin built with her audience on WMUZ, they trusted Robin as best friends trust each other.

That Trust Factor in both the radio station and the radio host is what becomes as powerful as Word Of Mouth Advertising.  Except with the size of the radio audience, it’s not just a one to one Word Of Mouth, but Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth.

Fast forward to 2003.  I’m returning to radio in the advertising world but in a different city than I did it previously.  In the 80’s and 90’s I was in Detroit and now I was back in my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Interestingly the Fort Wayne radio stations I joined two decades ago don’t exist anymore.  All have changed formats.  At the end of 2013 however I joined WOWO Radio which is nearly a century old and has been a news and talk station for more than a couple decades.

With the history of WOWO and the longevity of WOWO as a news and talk station with live and local radio hosts and news personalities, the Trust Factor is alive and thriving.

First off, WOWO itself is trusted by our core listeners.  Over 100,000 weekly listeners make it one of the most listened to stations in Fort Wayne.

Next is the implied endorsement that any local advertiser has simply by being on WOWO.

We can take it a step further with a couple of options that really fit the  “Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth” model.  Similar to when I first learned it at WMUZ ind Detroit in the 80’s but unique to Fort Wayne.

We have live 10 second embedded sponsorship mentions read by the show hosts or newscasters available during live programming.  Since WOWO has live and local newscasts 13 hours daily, Monday thru Friday, twice an hour, that is one option.

The other is a step up from what I saw at WMUZ.  Live Testimonial Endorsement Ads with our morning show host, Kayla or our afternoon host Pat.  Instead of a recorded ad followed by a brief live endorsement, the entire ad by Kayla or Pat is live. This is our Platinum Level of Advertising that is also limited to only a few Trusted Businesses.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll divulge even more details about this Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth on WOWO radio and how we use Human Relationship Marketing Principles to create the Trust Factor including the emotional connection that includes transfer of credibility.

Human Relationship Marketing in a Nutshell

Human Relationship Marketing in a Nutshell

by | Jul 19, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

All of us are exposed to a variety of advertising and marketing messages every single day.  But there is one method that trumps all the others combined and it’s built on what I refer to as Human Relationship Marketing.

Human Relationship Marketing is a different approach than most advertising professionals talk about, but the goal is similar.

Human Relationship Marketing and all the other approaches have the ultimate goal of selling stuff.  But how it’s done is what separates Human Relationship Marketing from the others.

As Humans we have a primary need to Trust.

For us to feel confident about anything, we need to Trust it.  

I Trust the chair I am sitting in to hold me.

I Trust the cook at the restaurant not to poison me.

I Trust the drivers heading towards me on the road at 40 miles per hour to stay on their side of the yellow line.

See how important Trust is to our Human activities?

This Trust Factor is essential to be our Human experience.

As a side note, it goes beyond humans.  Over the years my wife and I have had a cat or two. Our current feline is a little skittish compared to our previous critter who would sleep thru anything.  If you are also a pet owner, you understand the Trust Factor between pets and people too.

So how does this Trust Factor apply to Human Relationship Marketing and what is Human Relationship Marketing in a Nutshell?

It’s pretty simple.  

Human Relationship Marketing includes or mimics the Human Relationship Principles that build Trust and uses those as the foundation for the advertising and marketing.

I’ll give you two examples.

The first is for a car dealer in town that uses all kinds of gimmicks and cliches to sell cars. Every month it’s a new sale.  So far this year, they’ve had their Nickle Pickle sale; Hole In One sale; Swimming In Savings sale; and Shamrock Your Ride. These campaigns are filled with cute word plays and clever puns but do they build Trust?  Not with me or most other Humans I know.

The other example is from my own radio station where our afternoon talk show host talks about how he and his wife have bought or leased 8 cars from his favorite dealership.  Even before they were advertising on WOWO radio, Pat Miller and his wife were getting their cars from this dealership.  My friends, this is the very best form of Human Relationship Marketing using the Trust Factor.  It’s what I call Word of Mouth Advertising with a Bigger Mouth.

Speaking of which, next time I’ll give you my background story on that phrase, Word of Mouth Advertising with a Bigger Mouth.