Feelin’ Good

by Scott Howard | Oct 13, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

How are the feeling right now?

Are you:

Happy?

Sad?

Excited?

Scared?

Hopeful?

Hurting?

Melancholy?

Enthused?

No matter what you said you are feeling right now, it’s okay.

I just randomly came up with 8 possible emotions that you could be feeling at this moment and if you were in a room filled with 25 other people, I’m sure you could find someone else who is experiencing the same emotion you identified with.

Some of us have days when we go thru all 8 of those emotions in just a few hours. Others can experience the same emotion for not just hours, but days, weeks, or even longer.

Emotions are part of our human experience and even if you think you are a facts and logic person, your emotions are actually in the drivers seat of your life. If you are a facts and logic person and you got a little miffed by what I just said, it simply proves the point.

But I’m not here to play with your emotions today.

No, instead I want to help you understand the importance of our emotional side.

Because I write and talk about media and marketing and offer tips for businesses, I’m going to focus on how our emotions work in that context.

The emotional state of the people you deal with are going to have an influencing factor on how that conversation or interaction occurs, just as your emotional state at the moment will too.

Quite frankly there is a lot of negative news out there, and some peoples emotions are rubbed raw. I’m not even talking about the political stuff, I’m referring to the challenges we are facing as we wrap up 2021. Prices are going up. We have shortages of everything from computer chips to staffing shortages. A year ago we saw empty shelves instead of toilet paper and sanitizing supplies, and in my visit to the store recently, we seem to have plenty now.

There are other reasons people are having a tough time. In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I’ve witnessed marital discord and divorce, loss of loved ones, either permanently by death, or because of disagreements that are hopefully temporary.

If you own or run a business, realize that your team wants to be the best versions of themselves, but there are other things going on that could be preventing that, at least temporarily.

If you work for someone, what I just said also applies to your boss.

Customers and clients, they are going through the wide range of emotions too, and we just don’t know the full story of what is going on in their lives do we?

I titled this piece, Feelin’ Good, because ultimately that is what we all want.

We want to feel good about our lives, our jobs, our family and friends.

We want to feel good when we spend our money.

My wife recently spent money on two very different experiences, one was a gift box that included some fun things she picked out to send to out of town family members. The other was spending money on getting her car repaired.

Two very vastly different reasons to spend, and yet both times she wanted to feel good when she punched in her pin number as she paid for her purchases.

It might be easy to make someone feel good when they are buying gifts, and more challenging to make them feel good when they are spending it on a repair. But no matter what your business, please do your best to help your customers and staff feel good.

That’s the best kind of marketing you can create, an experience for all that leaves them Feelin’ Good because of what you did for them.

One more tip and this may not be earth shattering but after living in a world where we couldn’t see peoples smiles because of being masked up, please smile purposefully. Even behind a mask, we can see a smiling face.

A Lesson in Business from the Business of Baseball

by Scott Howard | Sep 22, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Long before baseball was known as BIG business it was known as America’s favorite pastime! But the truth be told, it’s always been a business and some valuable lessons can be learned by looking at how a baseball organization is run.

As a fan, we look at baseball as pure entertainment. Behind the scenes, the owners and managers are meticulously trying the create the perfect team on the field and the perfect balance sheet in the office. It’s not just the team they put on the field that makes them successful. There is more to it, much more!

As you work each day to build a successful business, there are some lessons to be learned from the way a professional baseball team builds, creates, and even re-organizes its rosters.

As with baseball teams, businesses have owners, managers, assistant managers, players, and personnel. They also, intentionally, have a mix of veterans, rookies, and those somewhere in between.

When creating a roster, it’s more than just pure talent that they look at. They look at personalities, and attitudes on and off the field as well. Regardless of the position, each player and person on the team plays a major role in the overall success of the team. The same rules apply when creating your roster of employees.

In the 10 Lessons from Baseball on Building a Successful Business, Lesson #4 is: Hiring or Identifying Specialty and Utility Players. In today’s baseball, every team has specialty and utility players. Having employees on your team that specialize in one area or another can be very rewarding. Likewise, having a player/employee that can play several positions can pay huge dividends as well. While a utility player may not be an all-star player at any one position, it’s the player, or in a business’ case, the employee that can fill in in a pinch without missing a beat.

Lesson #8 is: Create Fans. Fans just don’t happen, they’re created. Baseball players will tell you that it’s much easier to get hyped up when you have fans cheering you on.

Teams that have the best fans sell the most tickets, t-shirts, and logoed products. True fans are fans that cheer and promote the team, or your business, whether they are inside or outside the stadium. Do you have a plan to create raving and vocal fans/customers that not only root for you when they need you, but will root for you between purchases as well?

The similarity between a professional baseball team and your business is that you want to create a team that attracts a lot of fans/customers that are so thrilled by your product(s) or service(s) that they not only come back time after time, but they bring friends with them.

The ultimate goal is not just to win, but to be successful on and off the field.

To see the 10 Lessons from Baseball on Building a Successful Business, click here.

8 Principles to Improve Your Life and Business

by Scott Howard | Aug 11, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an article on Medium.com titled: 8 Pillars of a Satisfied and Happy Life. Here’s a link to it: https://medium.com/mind-cafe/8-pillars-of-a-satisfied-and-happy-life-847d98707e81

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon as I read it and decided that I wanted to add my spin on the 8 Pillars with both insights on how to apply this to you business and also reflections on how I do it personally.

On the business side of my life, I am the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I lead and coach 6 full time advertising sales people on our Local Sales Team. I moved into this position at the beginning of 2020, a few weeks before Indiana went into lock-down due to the pandemic. This is my 8th year with WOWO and I’ve been in the media and marketing world most of my life, although I do know how to drive a forklift and run a thermoformer too.

On the personal side, my wife and I have been married for over two decades and our 5 kids from our 1st marriages of made us grandparents multiple times. The people on my Local Sales Team at WOWO range in age from my age to my kids age and so I know most of what they go through both personally and professionally. The term, “Been There, Done That”, applies however the world has changed since I was a new Dad, some for the better, other changes not so much.

Pillar Number One from the Medium story:

1. Allow Yourself To Be Happy Before You “Succeed”

Absolutely. As you grow, you need to learn to enjoy the journey. Starting a new business is challenging all the time, not just in extreme circumstances. Give yourself credit for doing the work. One of the ways I measure the activity of the sales team I work with is the types of activity they are doing and how much they are doing. I know that if they do certain benchmarks, success will follow.

Similarly, my wife likes gardening and it makes her happy. It is hard work and the rewards take time to grow, but in the meantime, she is happy doing the work. How about you? Do you have benchmarks in your business or life that you use to measure success before the financial success comes in?

2. Have A Clear Vision

Goals need to be both short and long term. My team has a big picture goal that I shared at the beginning of the year, and then each month I break it down into smaller chunks for each person. Together I work with each of them to help guide them to achieve those smaller goals which will add up to the original long term goal for our team.

I’ve worked for others who had no vision or they were continually changing course which creates frustration and confusion. As a business owner, make sure your team understands the vision for your company too. When my wife and I plan a trip either for ourselves or to visit family, we agree on the important elements and then also plan the details. I learned several years ago how we best travel together and perhaps you and your spouse have learned what works best for you too.

3. Devote Yourself To Something Meaningful

I really dislike most advertising salespeople. At least the way they do business, too many are focused on themselves, not on their clients success. That has been the secret to my success. To help others succeed, using the wisdom, knowledge and experience I’ve learned. That’s one way I devote myself to something meaningful. I also am involved serving on a non-profit organizations board to give back to the community. How do you and your employees give of yourselves?

4. Become a Lifelong Learner

The day I stop learning is the day I stop living. My formal education is not documented with college degrees but I keep getting invited to speak at numerous higher education colleges and universities. Be curious. Learn from others, listen and ask questions and figure out how to apply it to your life, your business or the people around you.

5. Do Not Settle For Less

I’ve done this a couple of times. I’ve walked away from the world of advertising and took a break, but then I returned. Some people decide not to return to their dreams and by doing that they never know if they could accomplish what they once sought. On the personal side of life, this is very personal. On the business side, you are going to have to decide what is important and what isn’t. I used to work with an auto repair shop that was going to be open 24 hours a day. Then when the owner discovered that it wasn’t a sustainable way to run his shop, he settled for less hours. He also discovered how to merge what his customers really wanted with his vision and came up with a business plan that was unique, and he’s doing great now.

6. Remember To Have Fun

I took my WOWO Local Advertising Sales Team out for a morning of golf and lunch last month. It was a team building event but it was more than that. It was a time to set aside time to just have fun. It wasn’t a reward for hitting a certain goal, it wasn’t earned based on performance, it was simply a guilt free way to hang out on a day when others were working and have fun.

At work, at home, having fun is something we all need to include in our lives regularly, not just special events. How do you accomplish this?

7. Take Care Of Yourself

At the end of 2020, I decided to improve my health by dropping a few pounds and lost 20 pounds in about 6 months. I’ve maintained that and am slowing dropping a few more this year. Stress is the silent killer for everyone it seems. 99 out of 100 people you see this month have something stressful going on in their lives that you may never know about. You need to take care of your health, and encourage those who work for you to do the same. Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual health are all needing our attention. The H. R. Department at WOWO’s parent company, Federated Media sends out reminders about this and also provides resources that members of my team have made use of.

8. Cherish Those You Love

This is the last pillar from the Medium.com article, but it’s not the least important. I’m blessed to have loving relationships with my family and we work at making sure we stay in touch and express that love.

While the dynamics are usually different in a business setting, how would the culture improve if you really told your staff individually what you appreciated about them?

They need to know that they are appreciated and why. The companies that have problems retaining employees are the ones that have the worst company cultures. As a business owner or manager, you set the example. A genuinely positive work environment is also appreciated by your customers and clients too.

I hope you’ve learned a few things today, and perhaps go back and answer those questions I mentioned to see how 2021 can be even better for you and those around you.

Transactional vs Relational Customers

by Scott Howard | Aug 4, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

One is more profitable. One is more needy. Both are important to the overall success of a business. Understanding how to identify each type and how to turn transactional customers, when possible, into relational can be a huge boost to your business.

Every business has basically two types of customer profiles:

1.) Transactional Customers
       – Only care about price
       – Have no brand or business loyalty
       – Demand more, but pay less
       – Consider themselves buying experts
      – Often return merchandise or complain about service when they discover the “cheapest” solution was not the best solution.

Warning:
Don’t confuse “traffic” with sales. Because transactional customers contact you so often per purchase, their “traffic” can cause you to think the majority of your customers care only about price. Seldom is this the case.

2.) Relational Customers
     – Want a salesperson or expert they can trust
       – Need help and advice
       – Are more loyal to brands and businesses
       – Are less demanding and more profitable
       – Become repeat customers

Relational customers make fewer visits per purchase than transactional customers but generally account for a minimum of 50% of sales and more than 70% of profits.

The Bottom Line

We attract the kind of customers, relational or transactional, by design. If you would like to design a more profitable business and attract more relational customers, click here to see our Profitable Customer Marketing Checklist.

What I just shared with you arrived in a few hundred peoples email this morning. It’s this weeks edition of my Sound ADvice newsletter and you can have it delivered to your inbox too by filling out the info in the Sound ADvice newsletter box below.

Let me take a moment add a few more insights.

All of us have a little bit of transactional and relational buying habits in us as consumers. All depends on the item or service we are considering spending money on as to what our priorities are. The problem I see that too many businesses don’t understand is that they think price is a higher priority than trust when we are spending money.

Several years ago, I was doing a Customer Needs Analysis with a HVAC dealer and he was talking about their quality and experience and all these great things that were relational. But his marketing was focused on offering discounts and I asked him if he liked giving away money. He was a little insulted until I challenged him to market his company the way he talked to me. He was afraid to because his competition advertised price discounts and he was playing follow the leader.

I talked to another HVAC dealer and got them to minimize the discounts in their marketing and focus on trust and expertise. They took my advice and saw their sales double over time.

Want help figuring out how to market your business and you are in northeast Indiana? Contact me. I’ve been doing this successfully for years and am currently the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio. My team and I will be glad to help. Scott@WOWO.com is my email.

Radio is Back On The Road

by Scott Howard | Jul 28, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s back.

Radio is back on the road.

In case you haven’t noticed this summer, a lot of us have been doing what we were discouraged from doing last summer.

Spring and Summer 2020 was the year of cancelled vacations, limited gatherings and working from home.

2021 has been much different. Forbes magazine proclaimed:

As The Country Opens Up, Radio Listening Is Returning To Pre-Pandemic Levels

And it’s true. Here’s more:

The pandemic forced millions to stay-at-home as businesses were temporarily closed, curtailing commuting hours. As working-remotely became a way of life, some office workers moved away from central cities to sparsely populated outer suburbs and second homes. These workers relied on Zoom calls, emails, chat rooms with more “personal time” to consume media.

I decided to ask my team about the way they have been doing meetings now and 90% of the meetings that they would have done in person in 2019 they are doing in person in 2021. What about the other 10%? Zoom meetings have created another option that they can used for meetings that is convenient in situations where time is a premium and distance would be challenging.

The Forbes article also addressed another issue that I’ve been hearing for years.

Even with the increase in web enhanced connected cars, the most popular source of audio infotainment in cars remains AM/FM radio. According to Edison Research in first quarter 2021, terrestrial radio accounted for 87% of all ad-supported in-car listening, followed by SiriusXM (6%), podcasts (5%), ad-supported Pandora (2%) and ad-supported Spotify (1%).

Our Federated Media radio stations, including mine, News/Talk WOWO have multiple methods for listeners to listen. WOWO can be heard on 1190am in the Indiana, Ohio and Michigan Tri-state area and if you are local to Fort Wayne, Indiana, you can also listen to WOWO at 107.5fm. Streaming online is another way WOWO listeners tune in, either on the WOWO App, or any of the other popular audio streaming apps, or by going to WOWO.com and click on the listen now button. There’s even a WOWO Skill for Alexa and our other Federated Media stations.

Yes, I’ve wandered off the subject of radio is back on the road. When you going wandering on the road this year, turn the radio on like nearly 90% of Americans are doing. And if you run a business and want to explore how to get these commuters to drive to your place, contact me, Scott@WOWO.com