He also simplifies things down to three simple rules  paraphrased in some cases:

1. Do the right thing – if you make a mistake say you are sorry and move on. No one is perfect but always try to do the right thing to begin with.
2. Do everything to the very best of your ability within the time allotted. Not everyone will be an All-American, not everyone can finish first, and not everyone can be great at everything. But give it your all in the time allotted and move forward.
3. Show people you care – really care. Ask how you can help them and mean it. If you are a consistent reader of my blog you know I write about this a lot!

He also says people have three basic questions:

1. Can I trust you? Without trust you have no relationship. Period
2. Are you committed to excellence? Best way to prove that is to do everything to the very best of your ability all of the time.
3. Do you care about me? Caring about others is not about making their lives easy or being their friend. It is about enabling them to be successful. a FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SUCCESS.

Think about someone you have a problem with and ask these three questions – is there trust, a commitment to excellence, and do you care? If any of the three are missing you have a decision to make. You can change it, live with it as it is or move on.

Much of this came from a recent column written by Harvey Mackay. It struck a chord so here it is with my twist. I think Lou Holtz and Harvey Mackay are both remark-able.

We all know those days are in the rear-view mirror and guess who were the game changers? A bunch of “whipper-snappers” who all had one thing in common. Courage. Some of you may remember when Dan Rather signed off every night after delivering the news he always said just one word. Courage.

What does this have to do with us? Sometimes it takes courage to go against the grain and become a game changer. Courage to make hard decisions. Courage to ask ourselves if we are doing what we want to do with the people we want to do it with. Courage to say “no” when we must. Courage to try something new and fail. Courage to speak up even if you are laughed at. Courage to question rules and look beyond them. Courage to move to what can be rather than what is.

It is easy to stay in the pack – never really making a difference, following the status quo, emulating the person in the next cube because she follows rules so well. It is so easy to template our proposals and go from one client to the next telling them how wonderful we are and hoping some will believe us. It is so easy to sit in the same chair every Wednesday morning in the sales meeting! It is easy to follow the pattern day in and day out. And that false sense of safety will be that pit in your stomach every day.

It is easy to be ordinary.

But those with courage? They are game changers and remark-able.

That got me to thinking. I talk endlessly about being generous with giving and expecting nothing in return yet do I live that philosophy? Why do I have expectations of others when I preach daily customers (whether they be vendors or advertisers) really only care about themselves?

And then it hit me – when someone shows they truly care about me I find them remark-able. They stand out from all others. In this case, I thought this vendor and I were equals but there is no such thing. It was up to me to be remark-able and generous with no expectations and that is how our customers feel every day. It is up to us to focus on their success and expect nothing in return. When we do this, from their point of view, we are remark-able and isn’t that enough?

Maybe I am naïve but I truly believe good things happen to good, giving people. I intend to continue being generous with a focus on your success and will only hope you find that remark-able. Care to join me?

Well, guess what? Your advertisers don’t care. They have their own problems! And they are looking to you to help them.

Here are some basic suggestions (frequently violated when under pressure):

1. Stop assuming a “no” before you really “know”
2. Be prepared, knowledgeable and eager to learn
3. Stop talking and start listening
4. Don’t be afraid to ask researched questions
5. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something
6. Never cut corners – do your very best on every call, proposal, email

Be honest with yourself –

• Are you spending time preparing for each call? How much?
• Are your questions thought-provoking or blah, blah, blah?
• Are your proposals about you and your station or about them (remember, they only care about themselves)?
• What do you do daily to grow your capabilities and knowledge?
• How valuable are YOU (not your station’s audiences) to your advertisers? Would they be affected if you went away?

Introspection isn’t a fun exercise but we can all improve. Excuses are easy – our advertisers need and deserve the best we can give them every day, all the time. Providing that will make each of us remark-able.

SMB’s need a marketing strategy with time set aside to execute it. I don’t care what the strategy is as long as they have one and it doesn’t have to include Television or Social Media (although I strongly believe in both).

To “do” social media doesn’t need to take up more than 15-20 minutes per day if you are set up with alerts for updates, comments, etc. You can think of Social Media as a new telephone line coming into your business – another communication lane. But if you aren’t equipped to “answer the phone” don’t install it!

What does this have to do with being a TV Account Executive or Broadcast Sales Rep? Everything! Do you have a marketing strategy for yourself? After all, you are a small business owner and many of you are responsible for millions of $’s. Most of you are bigger businesses than your local direct clients you advise every day! Yet, I would bet most of you have never even thought about your own marketing strategy.

Make the time – develop your strategy and devote just 15-20 minutes a day to execute it. Please don’t say, “I don’t have time.”

If you make the time you will be truly remark-able.

• Scheduled to start at 830a  (actually starts at 840a)
• Billing and Pacing
• National Update
• Inventory – current and upcoming specials, etc
• Competitive
• “Housekeeping” (the catch all)
• Recent success story
• Scheduled to end at 930a ( actually ends at 945a)

Pretty close? If you answered “yes” I encourage you to re-look at your meeting because this is an actual agenda from 1990!

Here are some suggestions to freshen your meeting and make them more effective:

1. Ask why you have this meeting. Is it for the Reps? For the Sales Manager? What do you need out of the meeting? What do you need to get across? Notice the word “need” not “want.”
2. Build bagels and coffee into the agenda and allow some social time for those who wish to attend. Agenda item #1 Bagels and coffee from 830-840a. Actual Meeting starts at 840a sharp for all. Start at 840a – no exceptions.
3. Last one in is required to be the note-taker. No one likes to do that so chances are people will show up on time
4. Do the meetings with everyone standing – trust me, they will go quicker and eliminate unnecessary banter and there is a different energy in the room. Yes, I’m serious!
5. Conduct the meetings in different places if you can – not the same conference room with people sitting in the exact same place week after week. Go outside, find a stairwell, use a different conference room if you have a larger facility
6. Set a time limit and stay within it – no exceptions
7. Stay on topic – no exceptions. If another subject comes up find another time to address it or choose what you will eliminate from the current agenda to make time for the new topic. Do not extend length of meeting to accommodate new topics.
8. Make sure everyone comes out of the meeting wiser and better prepared than when they entered. Otherwise, the meeting was a waste of time
9. Study your agenda before distributing and ask why every item is on it.
10. Distribute some information via memo, email, etc. If it is proprietary information and you can’t trust your employees you have a bigger problem than boring, ineffective sales meetings. If you fear the memo/email won’t be read you also have bigger problems than your sales meeting!

Meetings can be a necessity and valuable. Eliminating boring, ineffective meetings will make you remark-able.

We are all afraid – afraid of making a mistake, afraid of being seen as a fool, afraid of public speaking, afraid of death, afraid of what might happen. All of us have fears and many are ashamed of them or think we are alone with them. We look around and everyone appears so confident and without fear. That’s all a sham! And have you noticed that many of the things you feared turned out to be nothing at all? What you thought might happen didn’t?! And you reprimand yourself for spending so much emotional energy being afraid when you could have spent that energy positively and productively! Yep, we’ve all been there.

Look, some fears are good and protect us from harm so don’t eliminate them all!

But here are a few things I have done to deal with my fears:

• I talk about them with people I trust – somehow that releases me and I also find out I’m not alone
• I write them down – another release, forces me to clarify them which usually dissipates their force
• I allow myself only so much time to think about them – no obsessing (I read about someone who would write them down and put them in a box only to be looked at on “fear Wednesday” and, by then, he realized most of his fears were nothing to be afraid of!)
• I face them head-on as often as possible
• Positive self-talk and visualization
• Tell myself I can handle whatever comes my way – amazing how freeing that is and usually I can handle whatever comes my way!
• Realize that most of what I fear is temporary and won’t matter a month from now anyway.
• The big ones like fear of death or something happening to someone I love? Well, they remain but I do my best to understand much of that is out of my control. I can choose to allow those fears to run my life or to live my life every day like it is my last because some day I will be right. Most of the time I choose the latter.

Living with fear-less will help make us even more remark-able.

Here are just a few we broadcasters might relate to:

• “Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing to do”
• “The best way to sound like you know what you’re talking about is to know what you’re talking about”
• “Change your thinking and change your life”
• “If you want to be heard you must know how to listen”
• “Even the turtle knows you have to stick your neck out to get ahead”
• “People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be”
• “My goal is to be as good a person as my dog thinks I am”
• “The person who asks may feel like a fool for five minutes but the person who does not ask remains a fool forever”
• “Be prepared, or be prepared to fail”
• “If you want to be successful you must practice reciprocity without keeping score”
• “To get what you’ve never had you must do what you’ve never done”

Thanks Mr. Mackay!

Any resonate with you? All of them will help make us remark-able.

Their talents complimented each other perfectly and their billing soared with happy clients who renewed consistently. They were able to divide tasks to fit their strengths which made them happy doing the work they enjoy. The process was streamlined for efficiency so more good work could be accomplished. The key words here are “more work” “happy” “efficient” and “renewals!”

That got me thinking about structure and hiring practices at TV stations. ALERT, this is a change which is uncomfortable and requires work!

Should we hire and structure in teams? Not job shares in the traditional sense but teams of AEs whose natural tendencies complement each other to produce more work, increase efficiency and renewals and attract new and happier employees?

It’s hard attracting good new talent to our business as we continue the churning of AEs bouncing from one station to the next. Clearly, we need to do something different?

I know this idea is out there for many of you who have been in the business for awhile – but as we focus more on local direct business we will need to become more nimble than ever before and we will probably have more active accounts than ever before. Hiring in teams may be an answer.

The business is changing but most TV Sales Departments haven’t changed their structure since 1990. A change in how you look at hiring and structure could make you remark-able.

First, “social” media is anytime there is an opportunity for a two-way discussion. That includes email, voice mail, and networking. And TV Sales people do that every day so start easy with Facebook and Twitter? They can also be used to deepen your relationships. You have the opportunity to ask questions, to learn, to give information, let people get to know you, and to show you care.

Have fun!! Connect with business 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 consistently!

So here are some rules and hints for TV Salespeople:

1. Keep it social and GIVE of yourself
2. Use SM to learn, share information and build business relationships
3. Do NOT use SM to sell or promote your station!
4. NEVER post anything on any site you wouldn’t want your Mother to see!
5. Connect with your advertiser’s competitors to keep up with them
6. Connect with many major brands that mirror some of your local accounts to get ideas. Listen and learn, learn, learn
7. Follow/friend people in selected industries. Learn what they are reading, articles they are posting/ tweeting, the issues they are reporting. Learn and share that knowledge with others.
8. Is your client on Facebook (business pages preferable) and Twitter? If she is, when? What time of day? What is she saying? Can you “meet” her on Facebook/Twitter and begin your relationship there? Use “search people or pages” to find her.
9. Offer information and become a trust agent (read “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan if you don’t know what I’m talking about – fabulous book).
10. Provide GREAT information — what is going on in your market that will affect business. Any little known fact about new laws, zoning, businesses entering the market or new store openings, hospital expansions, housing starts, gas prices affect them and they are interested.
11. Twitter and LinkedIn are a great way to stay in touch with people when they change jobs! Many announce their job changes on these sites. You won’t lose track of them again.
12. 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 and provide value back to them. Great and consistent use of Social Media will make you remark-able.

What more help would you like me to provide? Oh, and please “Like” me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter!