Success breeds success

Kirkland Chappell sells advertising for Neuhoff Media in Illinois. I had the privilege of meeting Kirkland at the Illinois Broadcasters Association convention last week. At RAB, we share the "three nonverbals" that are critical to exhibit to our clients and prospects:

Joy — Different than happiness because it's not conditional on outside forces.

Confidence — You're well trained, prepared and know what you're doing.

Passion — You LOVE your job.

Speaking to Kirkland, all three of those nonverbals were evident. He was excited about his relatively new career in media sales and the impact he could have. During our training session, he was like a sponge with all the information being shared. He followed up with a picture of his workstation with post-it notes to remember the key components of the sales process.

This week, Neuhoff Media President/CEO Mike Hulvey shared an email he received from Kirkland:

Wanted to give you a cool story. This was the Mexican restaurant I was telling you about that was having trouble getting people in on margarita nights, who now have a waitlist at times for the first time in a very long time. They were so pleased. I was able to get them to agree to continue their social media campaign through the entirety of 2023, with a $6,000 social media campaign annually! Along with $2,600 in gift cards for our half-off site for their weather spots. Pretty exciting to see the difference we can make, and how happy we can make our customers!

Can you feel his joy, confidence and passion? Interestingly, what he focused on was not the money he made on the sale, but the impact he was having for that client and the potential to do the same for more clients.

We do important work. Often in the chaos of trying to hit revenue goals and make sure we hit our activity goals, we forget our real job and what should be our focus. Mike Hulvey is famous for his answer to the question, "What business are you in?" Mike always responds, "We sell hamburgers." Meaning we don't sell advertising, we help our clients sell what they sell, whether it's hamburgers, cars, furniture, seats at a restaurant or holiday gifts.

As we head into the weekend, we encourage two things:

Remember the business you're in — helping your clients solve their problems and achieve their goals — and it is important work.

Keep track of your success stories. We encouraged Kirkland, as we encourage others, to keep a "success log" of victories they've had with clients. A success log helps to remind you what business you're in and can motivate you when things aren't going the way you want them to. We do incredible life-changing work and when it all comes together, it's extremely motivating as you can see in Kirkland's email.

Congratulations Kirkland on your success!

Happy Friday!

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can also connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.