Charlie Mizer recently joined Sandler Chattanooga to assist the company with the growth of the Outdoor Sales Mastery class. The program has grown to include nearly 50 outdoor companies and their sales teams from all over the country. In order to serve those clients and continue to be responsive to the training needs and coaching requests, there was an immediate need to bring in an experienced professional that already knew the OOH business and was deeply experienced in applying the Sales Mastery curriculum for the industry.
Charlie grew up in his family’s billboard business. Prior to joining Sandler, Mizer managed a sales team in charge of 500 billboard faces for East West Media. Billboard Insider talked with Mizer about selling out of home.
What’s the out of home sale you are proudest of?
It would have to be my long-time blue-chip client that informed me that we would NEVER get the rates we were asking when we converted 8 static boards to digital in one of our markets. He had to see some competitors up in lights to make his decision but, did become a digital client at our initial rate offering on multiple boards. His business had much success with dynamic ever-changing campaigns and became one of our biggest advocates. Consider this a plug for my friends that sell digital units!
Talk about a time you made a mistake selling out of home and what you learned?
I had been in sales for a couple of months when I landed a new account and could not wait to tell my boss “I got one!” A couple of months later I saw my jewel of a new client go up on multiple competitor boards. Even worse, they used my design ideas. At that time, I had not uncovered the full scope of my client’s ‘pain’ and what they were prepared to invest. Later in Sandler training I learned to not only uncover the struggles my prospects were facing but also the budget it would require solving these issues. Sandler has a rule, No Pain No Sale. Their pain is how they will feel if they don’t act to fix this need. It gets down to true core of the motivation to resolve the problem. Once your salespeople are proficient at getting prospects to reveal their true pain and personal motivation to buy, it is simply a matter of helping them intellectually justify the purchase with a budget adequate enough to fix their issues. Easy, right? Well, it is if you know how!
What traits separate the high performing out of home sales reps from others?
Simply understanding your own behavioral and communication style first, and learning how to adapt it to communicate with other behavioral styles can really level the playing field for salespeople with a diversified range of prospects. A proven systematic process that allows you to self-discover through our behavioral assessments makes this process easy to grasp and apply. When I learned to put this into practice, I had major growth in my book of business without any prior sales experience. (If you’re curious, +44% to be exact.) Prospects buy from people like themselves. The more we can match and mirror in the bonding and rapport phase, the easier it is to uncover that pain we discussed earlier that is what creates a sense of urgency to act.
What is the OOH Sales Mastery Program and how can it help an out of home company?
OOH Mastery is a program that outdoor sales professionals from across the country participate in to hone their very specific selling skills. We often help companies and salespeople who have struggled with things like:
-Getting in front of decision makers
-Shortening the sales cycle
-Not getting enough quality referrals
-What to say to get annual deals closed
-Being uncomfortable with renewal conversations and avoiding ongoing client dialogue
-Reaching or maintaining occupancy rates at 90%+
-Learn more about OOH Sales Mastery at oohmastery.com
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