Media Selling. Warner Charles Dudley

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might think that performance comes about as the result of attitudes; but to the contrary, we tend to form attitudes because of how well we do things, because of our actions. Research has indicated that performance, which is a series of successful behaviors, often precedes attitudes. In other words, if we do something well, we tend to have a favorable attitude toward it. For example, if you are successful at a job, you are likely to have a favorable attitude about the company for which you work. In contrast, having a positive attitude about your company does not necessarily mean you will perform any better, because what determines job performance is mostly your internal drive or motivation to perform well, not external factors such as a pleasant work environment or company picnics.

      I include attributes in this section about attitudes. Attributes are somewhat like attitudes in that attributes also have a significant impact on job performance. Attributes are inherent talents, characteristics, or qualities of a person. You are born with attributes, but you develop attitudes as you experience life. You can change attitudes, but you can only improve or enhance your attributes, you cannot change them. For the purpose of this book, we are combining the concepts of attitudes and attributes into one broad concept – attitude – to avoid confusion and so that the AESKOPP mnemonic is no longer than seven letters.

      Attitude control and enhancement in sports is an obvious example of the importance of mental attitude. Experts estimate that sports performance is determined by about 75 percent inherent ability and about 25 percent attitude, with ability consisting of such inherent elements as size, speed, coordination, quickness, and endurance. Attitude is the head (or mind) portion of sports performance. Sales performance is also determined by ability and attitude, but, unlike sports, is split equally between the two.

      While skills and knowledge are vital in selling, the following attitudes from the core competencies listed in Exhibit 4.1 are even more important. Successful media selling requires you to be the following:

      Honest

      Honest is technically not an attitude, it is an attribute – it means behaving with integrity and in an ethical, straightforward, morally upright, and truthful way. You trust honest people and feel that their word is their bond. Because so much media business is conducted by verbal agreements and not by signed contracts or insertion orders (IOs) (contracts sometimes do not get signed for weeks or months after an advertising campaign has started), being honest in media selling is of primary importance, which is why it is listed first.

      Positive/optimistic

      Committed

      Confident

      Feeling confident is vital in selling. Without confidence, or belief, in yourself, your product, and your offer, you cannot generate the enthusiasm required to reflect a positive image of your product to buyers. All training, all knowledge acquisition, all practice, all planning should be aimed at one thing – making you feel more confident about what you are selling.

      Courageous

      Being courageous is a vital attribute for salespeople. Courageous does not mean you have no fear, it means you have the ability to overcome fear. You need courage to stand up to managers and others who might pressure you to do the wrong thing or to be dishonest. You need courage to set out every day to make 10 calls when you know you will probably face 10 rejections. You need courage to tell your boss the bad news that you did not get an order on a piece of business you had been working on for months. You need courage to be honest and tell the truth to your customers and to your management.

      Competitive

      Being externally competitive means having a strong desire to beat the competition, those direct competitors in your medium and competitive media. If you are a television station salesperson, you want to beat the salespeople from other television stations to get higher shares of business and get higher rates, while pulling advertising dollars away from websites and Internet platforms, newspapers, radio, and outdoor. Being externally competitive means winning by playing the game fairly and by the rules and not becoming overly competitive either within or out of your own company, which can lead to dishonest and unethical behavior, as described in Chapter 3. This attitude is probably better described as being ethically competitive, externally competitive, and self‐competitive, and is exemplified by being a member of a 400‐meter relay race in the Olympic Games. You cooperate with other team members on passing the baton, as you perfect your own running technique and set increasingly lower lap‐time goals, while your overall goal is for the team to win the race.

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