Positioning the Borrell COMPASS data
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00:00keep walking at least in other steps. A lot of people got to the top of these pretty tough
00:05mountains and they stopped and turned around and looked back and then it is really hard to keep
00:10going. I know you guys are working hard right now. I know there's a lot of things you're up against
00:15and frankly some of you may feel like wow I've already done so much. You know I've been to sales
00:19for 25-30 years. You know what do I really need to learn here? Well there's always opportunities
00:24to learn. There's also opportunities to inspire. You know you have an opportunity to inspire your
00:30customers by showing them confidence, your colleagues by working really hard making that
00:35extra sales call every day and frankly your company by getting really good results. So I hope to inspire
00:41you a bit today by sharing some of my knowledge and perspective not only about Compass but sales
00:46in general. So first to kind of get us all on the same page what I want to do is get you to think
00:52about different sales approaches that are out there. Of course a lot of us know there's relationship
00:57selling. Forming that relationship with your customers, spending a lot of time with them,
01:02getting to know them. There's another sales approach which is need satisfaction selling.
01:08You know uncovering what your customers needs are, letting them tell you what they need and then
01:12filling that need. But I would submit to you the biggest opportunity for you is what's called
01:17challenge selling and the challenge selling approach is one that fits very nicely
01:22with the Compass data. Really it gets your customers to think a bit differently. It positions
01:27you as the expert they want to turn to and that's what's going to yield the highest growth. This is
01:33what's really going to get your customers and your prospects to engage with you. So I want you thinking
01:39about that. That challenge sales approach is the one that we're going to be employing when we're using
01:44the Compass data. Now when you think about the art of persuasion and how you sell, I mean it goes all the way
01:50back to Socrates, right? It's all about asking questions. And I want you to think about asking
01:56all those right questions in all the right ways and being very practiced at your approach. So when
02:03Ashley said you're going to role play, I was just, boy, that's music to my ears because that's exactly
02:08what you need to do. You need to practice. You need to make sure you're getting really good at it.
02:13Know what questions you're going to ask. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what you say.
02:18It only matters what your customer says, right? You've just got to get them to say it. And you
02:23can't do that unless you ask the right questions the right way. It's important that you know the
02:30answers to a lot of the questions or at least the possible answers to the questions that you ask.
02:36That way you can anticipate what might come up when you ask a question or you go down a certain path.
02:41So again, that's another reason why role playing is so important. We're going to do a little bit of that
02:46with you today just so you get a sense of how you might handle some of the possible answers or
02:51objections. It really is about bringing in new information into this conversation and challenge your
02:58advertisers, your prospects to think a bit differently before you offer solutions. So
03:04just want to make sure we're all on the same page thinking about that. You know, it's a very competitive
03:10landscape. I know you know this, but think about it for a moment. Local businesses are being inundated
03:16with people calling on them right now. Over 25 people a month are calling on these businesses,
03:22trying to sell them advertising. And frankly, for some categories, it's even higher. You know,
03:28they don't have time to talk to that many people. So if you're going to be one of the few that cuts
03:32through the clutter, you got to really have something compelling. You know, those decision makers
03:37really have very limited time. They got a lot of things that they're handling. Marketing is just
03:42one of many, many tasks. And so to the degree you can help them with their time and their time
03:48management, that's going to create an advantage. None of them, think about this, none of them have
03:54100% market share, right? They all have competitors, which means they all have opportunities to gain
04:01market share. And that's what you can help them do. The number one question we get, you guys may know,
04:06we did some webinars, we did some certainly with Beasley, over 65 webinars in the last two months
04:14with over 25,000 local businesses in attendance. The number one question we got, aside from questions
04:22specific to their business category, like HVAC or furniture, was, are we spending the right amount?
04:29How do we know how much we should be investing in advertising? So know that they already have that
04:34question. The data in our survey shows us that 48% of those local businesses, they don't have any
04:42strategy for setting their budget. They don't. There's something you can help them with. 58% of
04:48them say they're unsure they're spending the right amount. And they're looking for guidance, okay?
04:53They're looking for help from you. So that's the backdrop. That's what you're up against. There's a lot
04:57of other sellers you need to be compelling. And you need to be able to help them knowing that they're
05:02looking for help and guidance around their budget and how much they should invest. Again, all that data
05:07comes from our surveys we did just last year. Thousands of local businesses. So pay heed to that.
05:14When you think about how you stand out right now in that sea of other sellers out there,
05:20it really is about asking questions. But everybody does that, right? Everybody asks questions.
05:25But you're going to ask really good questions, right? Okay. But if you ask unique questions,
05:31that's going to help you stand out. If you ask really informed questions, you're going to look
05:37prepared, right? When you know what's going on in the market, you know how much their category is
05:41spending. You look so much more prepared. When you ask really high value questions, you're going to
05:46become informed. You're going to learn a lot about that business and what they're up against.
05:51Ask provocative questions. You can get them to think when you do that. You can challenge them.
05:58Ask them personal questions. That's how you're going to be able to connect and show that you care.
06:03That's what the relationship side of it's all about. And consequential questions. What will it mean
06:10if? Okay. Those are things that will create a little bit of healthy tension in the conversation and get the
06:15customer to think differently. Why am I saying all this? Well, it's pretty simple. Todd mentioned it
06:20earlier. If you take this data and you just send it to people, you never get to have these questions
06:25answered. You never get to ask them. So we want to make sure you're prepared and you're thinking
06:29along this lines. And then, and only then, can you really ponder, now how can we help you? Instead
06:35of leading with a solution, we don't even know the first thing about them. You instead prepare,
06:40get in the door. So think about this. There are two things they want from you. Really two things
06:45they want more than anything else. And that is they need you to help them compete and help them
06:53sell stuff. That's what they want, right? So if those are the two main things that you know everybody
06:58needs, then you can come at it from that perspective. Now, a little bit about Compass. Again, I know some
07:04of you are familiar with it, but just to reiterate to those of you who have heard of it before and
07:10what's new to some of you is this is a database of advertising and promotion spending for your
07:16market. We have it right down to the market level based on your counties. So we've got specifically
07:22down to the county level and it's based on what those advertisers are spending on various types of
07:30media. It's not what the media companies in the market are making. It's an important distinction,
07:35you guys, because we don't really care where the media company is located. If it's a business that
07:40happens to be located in Tampa, then we want to count the money they're spending on advertising,
07:46even if they're spending it on Facebook or with a media company that's not local to Tampa, right?
07:52So we're focusing on the advertising by the advertiser, not by what's being received by the media
08:00company. We measure all media. We measure all categories. Consequently, when you see these numbers,
08:05they will look different than Miller Kaplan or some of the other data you have. It's a different
08:10methodology. So it would make sense that it looks different. And again, it's a holistic view.
08:15Beware, it's an average. When you're looking in the compass data, some of the numbers may look a
08:21little odd to you. It's because they're all averaged together. So let me give you a quick example.
08:26If you're looking at, let's say, attorneys. Well, most attorneys really do not spend much money in
08:32advertising. But those who do tend to be those who are in, you know, maybe family law or personal
08:42injury attorneys, but they're actually a small percent of all the attorneys in the market.
08:47So when you see the numbers, they'll look a little bit low for a category like that. Now,
08:52if you take a category like furniture or heating and air conditioning, well, all of those are consumer
08:57oriented businesses trying to reach consumers. So they tend to spend, you know, about the same.
09:02So just be aware that when you're looking at the numbers, the real focus is something called
09:06inside the market. These are the businesses, again, physically located in the market. It's the money
09:12they're spending to reach people in the market. That's what you're going after. The value in this
09:17whole tool is its relative comparison of one category to another. And frankly, one media to another.
09:24So it's going to give you a good sort of starting point to understand how much is really in the
09:29market. I tell people all the time, we joke about it. It's called Compass. It ain't called GPS. It
09:34isn't perfect. As soon as you get past trying to make these numbers be perfect, the more valuable
09:40they're going to be. They're directional, but they're directional and very helpful if you can use
09:45them the right way. So how do you use a compass? There's some strategic uses. What we really want to
09:49talk about though is the tactical. Okay. This is about getting in the door with your prospects,
09:55figuring out what their budget is, winning competitive media dollars. Think about this,
10:00you guys, your customers and your prospects are not coming up with any new money to spend on any of
10:05the stuff you're selling. If you're going to get them to spend money with you, it has to come from
10:09somewhere, right? And chances are, it's going to come from some competitive media that they're spending
10:14on that maybe they're not getting as good of results from. You can't get it if you can't identify
10:19it. That's what Compass helps you do. And it's going to help you change that dialogue to focus on a much
10:24bigger marketing picture and how to get results. So I'm going to go through these things. I'm going
10:30to show you how to get in the door, how to figure out the budget, how to win those competitive media
10:35dollars. But first, you got to get in that door. And I will just, you know, this isn't related to
10:40Compass so much as it's born from my desire to help you get in the door. And, you know, I know
10:45some people are better at this than others, but it can be a challenge to get somebody to want to
10:49meet with you. Do you know exactly what to say when you pick up the phone? I mean, exactly word for
10:56word what you're going to say. If you don't, you want to practice that role play it. Okay. One of the
11:01things that's always worked for me is, hey, did I call you at a good time? And do you have just a
11:05minute? And of course I introduced myself first, but did I call you at a good time? And do you have
11:09just a minute? There's only two ways they can answer that question. They can either say yes,
11:14which is great. And I'll say, good. The reason why I called is, and I'll go into it, or they'll say no.
11:21And I'll say, well, when would a better time be? Right? Because I asked them two questions and I'm
11:25going to assume they're saying, no, I don't have a minute or no, it's not a good time. Right? So
11:31from there, what are they going to say? They might say, well, what's this all about? Well,
11:36I'm glad you asked. The reason why I called is, and I go into it. Right? Or they say, yeah, you
11:41know, a better time would be tomorrow. I'm just swamped right now with my phone's ringing off the
11:45hook. Great. Would tomorrow afternoon three be okay? All right. That's the kind of approach you
11:50need to be very exacting about when you're setting the appointment. So again, this might be something
11:56many of you are familiar with. If you aren't, get practiced at it. Okay. You're setting the appointment.
12:02So here's one of the things that I would suggest you do. Here's the script, if you will. Great.
12:11The reason why I called is my company, Beasley Media Group, invest heavily in research to help
12:16local businesses just like yours to be more competitive. In fact, one of the things I can
12:22do is show you just how much money furniture stores, whatever the category is, are investing
12:28in different types of advertising and marketing right here in the Tampa market. Okay. Or whatever
12:33market you're in. Now, a couple of things I want you to think about. Let me step out of the role
12:38play for a moment. I've underlined. We invest heavily in research. Okay. It's an important word.
12:45And to be more competitive. Remember, those are two things they want. They want to help you want you to
12:51help them be competitive and sell stuff. All right. So those are two very important words.
12:56I also used the word investing instead of spending. Again, words are important. You know,
13:02you're trying to get them to invest in advertising, not see it as an expense. So again, let me go
13:07through this. The reason why I called is that my company, Beasley Media Group, invest heavily in
13:12research to help local businesses just like yours to be more competitive. In fact, one of the things I
13:17can do is show you just how much money furniture stores are investing in different types of
13:22advertising and marketing right here in the Tampa market. Not only how much they're investing in
13:27total, but how that they're applying those dollars to different marketing and media tactics and how
13:32that's changing over time. Would you like to take a look at it? Okay. So you get real practice. It
13:38doesn't have to be word for word exactly how I said it. Although I could tell you, I can say this in my
13:44sleep. I've said it a million times and I know exactly how to say it. I've got a cadence down.
13:49You want to do the same. You don't want to sound like you're reading it. But the point is you're
13:55letting them know that you've got research, help them be more competitive, show them what their
14:01category is investing right in your market. Not only how much, but where and how it's changing and end
14:08with would you like to take a look at that, right? Now they might say yes. They might say no. There's
14:14going to be different things you're going to hear. Here's one. Taryn, what do we often hear? What's one
14:19of the objections? So a lot of times you might hear customers say, you know what, Jim? That sounds
14:24really interesting. I just have so much going on right now. Can you just drop something by?
14:30Okay. That's a great objection and you're going to get it a lot. How do you handle it? Well,
14:34here's one way. And I'm going to suggest you have a fallback plan. Okay. Because there are a couple
14:39different things that could be said. Because if she says, no, you know what? I'm not interested at
14:45all in that data. What are you going to do? Okay. Do you have something else you can talk about?
14:52Have something else lined up. It might be, well, you know, if you're not interested in the ad spending
14:56data, I can show you some insights as to what consumers are spending right now on furniture.
15:01Okay. Whatever it might be, have a fallback. But if they are interested and they say, send me
15:08something, here's how I might handle that. Look, I could drop something off, Taryn, but frankly,
15:12I think that might waste your time and mine. I'm guessing you're saying that because you're
15:17concerned I'm going to waste your time. Am I right? Look, I promise I'll be brief. And if you don't find
15:23this helpful in the first five minutes of our conversation, let me know. I'll be on my way.
15:27But if you're like most folks that I work with, you're going to find value right away. Does that
15:32sound fair? You know what, Jim? If you can just come by tomorrow before I open, I think I could
15:37give you 15 minutes. Okay. Great. So she's just said, yeah, okay. I am interested. You can come by
15:44before I open 15 minutes. Here's how I'd reply to that. Sure. You know what? I have some flexibility
15:50in my schedule tomorrow. I'll happily stop by in the morning. All right. I underline this.
15:57One of my pet peeves and salespeople saying, yeah, oh, I can be there. As if you have nothing
16:02else going on. All right. Yes. I have some flexibility in my schedule tomorrow. I can
16:07make that happen. Don't make it sound like you don't have anything else to do, right? You're
16:11busy. People want you. They want your help. So the way I would position this is sure. I've
16:18got some flexibility in my schedule tomorrow. I'll be happy to stop by in the morning. Hey, look,
16:22so that I can be as efficient and effective with the few minutes we do have tomorrow.
16:26Would you mind sharing with me? How many employees do you have? 75. All right. 75. That's a critical
16:34number. Why do you want it? Here's why. There's a direct correlation between the number of employees
16:40at a business and how much a business spends on advertising. That's going to help you figure
16:45out the how much they're spending where and why. Okay. So now that I know it's 75, I can
16:51take that information and we're going to show you how to plug that into Compass and get at
16:56that budget. So before we show you that live, let me show you this. You're trying to uncover
17:03the budget, right? So you want to know how much they're spending, where they're spending
17:07it, why they're spending the way they are. That's really important so that you can find out
17:13what's vulnerable. Remember what I said, you know, they, they are not coming up with new
17:18money. So you're going to have to figure out where could you take that money? All right.
17:22So think about this. Okay. According to this research, furniture stores of your size, 75 employees
17:31uh, here, uh, invest about whatever Compass tells you, $350 million, $350,000 annually. Okay.
17:41Whatever the amount is. Does that sound right to you? So when I say that to Taryn, according
17:49to this research, it looks like furniture stores of your size with 75 employees in Tampa are spending
17:56around $75,000 a year. Does that sound right to you? Yeah. She, she's got a couple of ways
18:02she might go with it. So listen to how she responds. Looks way off, Jim. Where'd you get
18:07those numbers? Well, how far off is it? Um, probably about half. It's been about probably
18:14half that. Okay. So it sounds like, uh, you're probably spending what, maybe 175,000, uh, annually.
18:21Um, well, look, this is just an average. Nobody by definition is average. Uh, but what I really
18:28found interesting is your category is now spending 45% of their budget in digital advertising
18:35or online advertising. I'm curious, how's that compared to you? Okay. So let me just stop for
18:41a moment. What you're doing is trying to understand, is it too high? Is it too low? How far off is it?
18:47That's how you would answer that objection when you get it. The point is not to say this is the
18:53right number. Okay. Um, it's not to say that that's what Taryn should be spending. It's to find
18:58out what she is spending. And I just found out she's not spending 300,000 or 350,000. She's spending
19:04about 175,000. Now I know. Okay. So I hope that's really clear that that's how you want to, you want
19:11to approach it. And again, you don't want to try to defend the number. Look, this is just an
19:15average. Nobody's average. But what I really found interesting is, okay. So you want to compare
19:21their spending with competitive averages. You want to ask if they're increasing or decreasing
19:26something, whether they're keeping it the same, because what you're really trying to do again is
19:31find that other media. Think about it for a moment. They have three choices. They can either increase
19:37the investment they're making if they're not happy with the results they're getting, or they can change
19:42the mix of media, or they can change their message. And chances are, you know, it's a combination of
19:48all those three things. You're trying to diagnose that. You're trying to understand, is it the right
19:53media? Is it the right message? So it's not enough to just understand how much they're spending. You
19:58got to understand why they're spending the way they are and what might be vulnerable. Now, if I ask Taryn,
20:03you know, I say, hey, it looks like the number one area of spending for your category is online at 45%.
20:09How's that compared to you? I'd let her tell me.
20:13We actually spend a little bit more than that. Our budget for digital is about 50%.
20:18Wow, 50%. Okay, great. So what would the next biggest thing besides digital, what's the next
20:24largest thing you spend money on? I'd say billboard.
20:30Oh, okay. Out of home, billboards. Yeah. What percentage of your budget is that?
20:35Really probably about 8%, 9%.
20:39Okay. So now I'm learning even more. I see she's spending 50% online, 8% out of home. So
20:49those are two biggest. Then I might say, well, what else? What are the other things that you're
20:54investing in?
20:55Well, we've been doing some newspaper, but I'm just not really sure how I'm feeling about that.
21:00Not seeing the ROI that we want to with that. Yeah. And of course, my rep keeps telling me that
21:05it's all about the frequency and continuing that campaign, but I'm just not seeing the results so
21:11far.
21:12Okay, great. So again, I know it doesn't always go that easily. We're role-playing here.
21:17But she could now divulge something that's helpful to me that, okay, I'm spending a newspaper. I'm not
21:23sure I'm getting what I thought I would or what I could get. One of the questions to ask is,
21:28Taryn, when you think about that out-of-home spend, what you spent last year versus what you're
21:34planning to spend this year, would you say that's increasing, decreasing, or about the same? What's
21:40going on there?
21:41We've actually increased the budget for our out-of-home this year. Just a little bit. Of course,
21:47not aggressive as online. We are moving some things over to online as we're able to track those
21:53efforts easier.
21:55Great. Thank you. So what she just did is let me know that out-of-home is probably a thing that's
22:00working pretty well for her because she's moving more money towards it. The bigger opportunity is
22:06the newspaper money. So again, that's what you're trying to do. Again, I know it sounds a little
22:11theoretical, but what we're trying to do is role-play this so you understand the nature of the questions
22:15that you're going to ask. So look, based on this research, it looks like your category is investing
22:2142% of the budget on online advertising. I'm curious, how does that compare to you? Aside from
22:28that, what's the next biggest area? What's your number one area of investing? You know, are there
22:34others? You're going to kind of go down a list of these types of questions. Not too many, you know,
22:40three or four questions. You're going to quickly start to understand what it is they're doing and
22:45you'll find out, you know, what's vulnerable. You'll find out, you will hear them tell you,
22:50you're going to be amazed, you guys. You're going to hear them say things like, yeah, you know,
22:54I just don't know if direct mail is working the way it once did. I'm thinking about doing something
22:58different. Boom. That's your opportunity. Okay. But you won't get there if you don't have that
23:03conversation. One of the ways I like to do it again is pretty benign question. When you think about
23:09how much you invested last year and how much you plan to spend this year, are you increasing that?
23:13Are you decreasing it? Are you keeping that investment the same? That's going to help you
23:19get a lot more insight than, you know, just coming out and ask them direct questions because you're
23:24not going to find out if you say, oh, how much do you spend in this? It may not tell you, but you
23:29ask them if it's going up or down, that's going to be a good indicator. If it's going down,
23:34it's a likely indication that they're not getting what they want or need from it. Okay.
23:39You know, here's the next step I would take here. Now I've already gotten Taryn to tell me how much
23:44your budget is. I know there's some money there in newspaper that's vulnerable. I need to approach
23:51her with that. So now Taryn, I'm not certain of the details quite yet, but what if we were able
23:57to take some or maybe all of what you've been investing in newspaper and we reinvested that in
24:03a more productive campaign using the power of radio combined with some other ideas I have.
24:08Would you consider that? Well, sure. I'm always open to hear ideas. Absolutely.
24:13Okay. That's where you guys are going. You get that question out there, you get the customer say
24:18that, then you're gold. Now you've identified they've got money and they're interested in doing
24:22something different. And at that point, you've now got an opportunity to sell something to them.
24:27So great. Look, you know what, Taryn? It's been my experience that it's as much about what you say
24:33is where you say it. I did some additional research into the promotion side of your business.
24:40And I was actually a bit surprised to see just how much your category, furniture stores,
24:44are spending in the form of discounts, or it could be coupons or event marketing, a program,
24:50whatever it is. Okay. It looks like furniture companies are spending as much as $200 million
24:56combined last year in the form of discounts to drive people in the door. Could you tell me a little
25:02bit about your discount strategy? I mean, is that driven by the manufacturers? Is it driven by co-op
25:07dollars? Are there certain products or services for which you have a greater margin than others?
25:12You can afford to discount more. I wonder if you could tell me a little bit about that.
25:16Sure. Yeah. Some of our products, we do have a higher margin. And so we may offer, you know,
25:20some great discounts to get the foot traffic and get people in the stores. And, you know,
25:26sometimes we get a surplus shipment of something. So we're able to discount the products.
25:29Um, again, people like to come in for a deal. So we try to get, to keep some type of, of promotion
25:36going on, um, to get people into our store. Great. That's really helpful. Thank you. Okay. That's
25:43the end of the role play segment, you guys. But I hope what you just saw was I uncovered the budget.
25:48I figured out, um, where she's spending, what might be vulnerable, got her to admit, yeah, I want to do
25:55something different. I'd be willing to talk to you about that. And now I've gone down a little bit
26:00different path to understand, you know, what I might bring as a solution. You see, I've got to get
26:06her a result. And I just learned a little bit about her discount strategy. That's going to help me do
26:11that. So I know when we're role playing these things and they're a bit practiced, you know, of course,
26:18I've got the right answer, but, and it doesn't always go that way. But if you understand sort
26:24of the theory behind it and you get practiced and you know what some of those answers might be,
26:29you can be prepared with the answers. Remember your goal is to help them compete,
26:34right? And sell stuff that promotions data. It's golden. It can help you have lots of conversations
26:40about the creative, about your, um, your promotions, about, um, whatever product offering you think
26:48you can bring to the table to drive business. Um, because at the end of the day, again, you've got to
26:53get results. Uh, many of you have probably heard us say this before at Burrell, we look at the, we think
26:59about the lions on the Serengeti and the ones who survive, you know, um, or the ones who are getting
27:06results for customers, right? If you want to make sure you survive, you got to get results. If you're
27:13not, you're the vulnerable, uh, wildebeest out there. Um, and somebody is going to pick you off.
27:19All you really have to do is outperform the weakest thing that that customer is investing in.
27:25And if you do that, uh, you're going to win rights to that money. So now we want to show you real
27:31quickly what this looks like. Um, uh, we've got this in a handout, an Excel file, as Todd said,
27:39we don't necessarily need you to dig into the compass. There's a ton there and you're certainly
27:43welcome to do that. But what we put together for you that might be a bit easier is a spreadsheet.
27:49You guys all should have these. Um, and they are, uh, they're handout makers designed specifically
27:58for your market. So let me see. Um, are you guys seeing, uh, the spreadsheet right now?
28:09Taryn, do you see your PowerPoint? No, just still the PowerPoint. While you're pulling that up, Jim,
28:13I do want to mention one thing to everybody. I think, you know, as you were, as we were role
28:17playing, you were able to kind of build that trust and credibility because you weren't talking
28:22anything about your products. You weren't talking about your media and you weren't scared to ask how
28:27how I was spending or how my comfort level was with other media. And I think that that's so
28:32important as a media seller that you are not afraid to talk about with the competition. You're
28:37not bashing the competition. You're asking how the performance is going. You know, you're asking about
28:42how things are going for their campaigns. Um, and you know, as you saw, Jim didn't say anything
28:47about his media product at all. And I think I would just encourage you and remind you that that's
28:52very important. It has great weight with your clients. So just keep that in mind.
28:56Great. Thank you, Taryn. So, um, here's what I've got. The, the handout maker looks like this.
29:03Again, I hope this is familiar to you. Um, the way it's designed here is there are a couple of
29:08different versions of handouts that you might use in a sales call. A word of caution. Don't bring out
29:1520 sheets of paper. Okay. One, maybe two, if, if that, and remember you're prepared. I asked how
29:22many employees. Taryn told me she has 75 employees. I plugged that in here, update it, and I get a new
29:31value that tells me what the budget is. Uh, hopefully you guys can see that. Let me make it
29:36bigger here. Okay. So what you see is I plugged it in and it tells me her budget is somewhere around
29:44$855,000. Um, what this shows you is the total spend in the category, $156 million. This is Boston,
29:54by the way, I think is the market I've pulled up, but we have them for all the markets. And, uh, the way
30:00you, you use this hand make handout maker is you can select whatever category it is you want to view.
30:06I looked at furniture, um, from our role play, but maybe you're talking to, um, I know heating and
30:13air conditioning company. So when I click heating and air conditioning companies, now when I go to
30:18that handout maker, guess what? It's HVAC companies. All right. And the mix changes a bit and the amount
30:25of money spent by HVAC is a bit different based on number of employees. So that gives me the total
30:32amount spent 47 million. I can see a business of this size with 75 employees. The average is about
30:38$663,000 a year. And I can see how those dollars are being allocated. Very simple. You can print this
30:46out on one page. Now, if you want, there's another version of this handout that shows you, uh, gives
30:52you a little bit of a narrative. All right. It tells you how much is spent, um, overall in the category.
30:58It tells you how it's growing. Um, you can still see the breakout here. Um, you can also see the
31:05online format. So if you're talking to somebody who's investing quite a bit in online, this might
31:11be really useful to see how much is going, for example, into online video and how much that's
31:17growing over time. Again, depends on the situation or the client. Uh, handout three. I like this one
31:24because if you do have that customer who's really heavily into online and you want to better diagnose
31:30where they're spending, you can see how much is going to all these formats and real dollars.
31:35And you can see the percentage in this case, HVAC, it's really general paid search gets 41%
31:42targeted display and so forth. Um, and you can see that graphically as well. This is just useful to
31:48be able to compare where dollars are moving. So I see both not 2019 and 2021, I can see general search
31:57while big 41%, it's actually going down by 17%. Meanwhile, check out online audio. While small,
32:05it's actually growing quite a bit by 43%. Mr. Advertiser, what do you think is happening there?
32:12What do you think is going on? You use this again to have that dialogue to get them to say things,
32:17tell you what they're thinking. You know, they might say, yeah, that, that doesn't surprise me.
32:22We're starting to do a little bit about that, or we don't know much about that. What is online audio?
32:26And you then can tell them, answer the question and help them. So again, depends on how you want
32:32to use this. Uh, handout four is just another version and it gives you the charts, um, as well
32:37as a table. So you can see the actual dollars and then handout number five, another version of it,
32:43where you can see what's going up and what's going down. Um, so again, you want to, you want to use
32:48whatever's most appropriate. The business category definitions are also located here. So you can see
32:54when we say contractors building, this will give you exactly the description of what's included.
33:00So I encourage you to get familiar with this, you know, categories are not as precise as we all like
33:07them to be sometimes. Um, and they're not always named in a way that's super intuitive. For example,
33:13food stores, retail, that's grocery stores. Okay. Why it's not called grocery stores? Because
33:18it also includes things like fruit markets and bakeries and so forth. So that's why it's termed
33:24a little bit differently. Get familiar with these, look through these. Um, I've had salespeople tell
33:29me, Jim, Jim, just by reading this list, it got me thinking about some categories I hadn't spoken
33:34to in a while and, and once I wanted to pursue. So again, that's what this is, uh, this is for, um,
33:42Taryn, any, anything I missed on that you wanted me to point out? No, I don't. Let me jump in real
33:49quick to just say, um, we had 30 minutes booked and folks might be needing to leave. So I just want
33:55them to know, uh, if anybody wants to leave, feel free to take off. If you want to stick around and
34:00you want to do some Q and a, we can do so, but don't need to have everybody hang. If you had
34:05somewhere to go. So go ahead, Taryn. Thanks, Todd. Yeah. Um, I was going to mention that too. I think
34:10we've covered everything again. Um, myself and Jim are here to, to help and assist your team in
34:15whatever ways we can. You can reach out to us. Um, we did have one question, Jim come through in
34:20the chat box. It was from, um, Larry and he asked, what if someone asked you about where the research
34:24actually comes from? How is it collected in a short manner? How would I, as a media seller,
34:31how would I describe what compass is and where the data comes from? Yeah, I'm glad you asked that
34:37question and you will get it occasionally. I want to make two comments to you. And this is really
34:42important. You guys in sales, you're trying to control the dialogue. If your customers,
34:48even all the asking of questions, you've lost control, but there are times where they'll ask
34:53questions and they're legitimate. Uh, so what I would say is how do you handle that? I would say,
34:58um, it comes from a national research firm. They get data from lots of sources, including the IRS to
35:04help them get their arms around how much is being spent. We use them to help us help customers just
35:10like you. That's it. If you go into much more detail, you're probably going down the wrong path.
35:15Again, it's not to say the numbers are right or wrong. It's just to use them to have that conversation.
35:21If you can tell that they're, they're irritated somehow by the numbers, don't go any further. I mean,
35:27go, go in a different direction. You know, it's not about winning. It's not about being right or wrong.
35:32It's about using it to uncover the information. So I hope that helps. Um, Todd, I will send you a
35:38description, uh, or a little bit of a, um, uh, I guess how I would answer that question. So you've
35:45got it written out and you can provide that to the sales team. Jim, I think you said it. I think
35:50you said it so well too, Jim, that a very concise. And I think as a, as a media seller, that's what we
35:55need to focus on and try to, like Jim said, take control of the conversation. It's not, you don't need
36:00to go into all the specifics about the data. It is there for you. It's also encompassed. If you want
36:04to spend time on it, it's very in depth, but again, it's all about controlling that conversation and
36:09dialogue and to get them talking about what they're doing and where the opportunity is that absolutely.
36:16So Jim and Taryn, if you have a couple of minutes, um, we can certainly open it up for any Q and A that
36:21anyone would like to ask, um, folks who've had to step out, totally understand that folks who've stuck
36:26around. If you want to ask a question, feel free to go ahead and ask. So I guess, Kimberly,
36:30if we can maybe unmute so folks can do that.
36:43Just unmute yourself. Like you have the ability to unmute yourself now.
36:52Except for Todd. Todd doesn't have the ability to unmute himself. Sorry.
36:56There he is. Don't do the stupid thing I'm doing right now, which is talking while I'm not muted.
37:02Unmute yourself and hit them up with a question. Anybody have questions for Jim and Taryn?
37:10I have a quick question. Um, so have you, um, encountered, um, prospects who are hesitant to
37:20give you the number of employees that they have and how do you handle that?
37:26Um, very rarely. Um, if you think about it, number of employees is pretty benign.
37:31You know, it's, it's when you ask them how much revenue they make,
37:34then I, then they usually don't want to answer that number of employees. Most of them will tell
37:39you. In fact, small business owners will brag about that. I mean, if I'm employing 40 or 50 people,
37:44particularly right now, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I'm doing that and I'll be willing to
37:48tell you. However, if they do come back and say, well, why do you want this information?
37:53I would tell them quite simply, well, what we found with this research is there's some correlations
37:58between the size of business, number of employees, uh, that gives us an idea how much you might
38:03be spending or how much your competitors are spending based on their size. So that's how
38:08I would overcome that, that particular question. And Laura, let me add to that because the way Jim
38:13does it in his, uh, his cadence is really good. Notice that he, as he said in the appointment
38:19for tomorrow morning, he's saying, Hey, how many employees do you have? For me, when the, uh,
38:23advertiser says, well, why do you need to know that? Well, when it come out tomorrow, I want to be
38:27really prepared. And so I'm going to be bringing some numbers and it's driven by the number of employees
38:31that you have. So if you can help me with that, I'll be prepared when I get out there. Or if I'm
38:35actually face to face and I'm pulling up the spreadsheet, it's the same thing. Well, I'm going
38:39to put in a number here. That's going to give me honed in on, on you. So I think that helps.
38:44I think one other thing to add to that too, Todd is in our research, there's really a direct
38:49correlation between the number of employees and what they're spending on advertising. So just keep that
38:53in mind. That can be part of your, your answer. Um, that that's how the research is. It's based on the size
38:59of the business. Any other questions?
39:06We must've done a really good job. You have no questions.
39:09One question that did ask Jessica asked, uh, whether or not we'd have the deck and
39:13actually we'll get that from, uh, Jim. So we've got that taken care of. Uh, we have the workbooks
39:19that we talked about last week. Uh, I think it was last week when Maria covered those. And I just want
39:23to make sure that everybody knows that, uh, we are going to also produce some infographics,
39:30if you will, they'll be templated. Um, something that we can help out with that, uh, can give you
39:36some top line stuff. It's not necessarily what you'd hand out to the advertiser cause that comes from the
39:41handout maker there. But, uh, I think we're going to on a quarterly basis provide to each of the markets,
39:47some highlights of what's going on, because one of the things compass will tell you is what media is
39:52being spent more on, which helps you to know where the money is going. So you can go after that,
39:57but which media is being spent less on. So you also know what to attack. So if you know that
40:02newspaper in Augusta is going down by X, when you're talking to advertisers who are spending on
40:08newspaper, you should know, okay, they're spending less on that. That probably means that that's
40:13uh, for grabs for you to go after. Uh, let me, let me jump in one quick thing. I didn't get this
40:21question, but I expected that I might. And, and that question is, gee, why would I want to show this
40:26data that shows my medium way down? You know, we, we get that for example, from out of home, uh, where
40:34it might be 3%. And they're like, I don't want to share that. Well, look, the data is benign,
40:39as you've heard me say before, it's all what you do with it. So, you know, it may be that your
40:44category, frankly, is not spending a lot of money in radio. And I got to tell you every day, you're
40:48not on the air. They're pretty happy. You're not on the air. Let me show you how we can help you stand
40:53out before everybody else's is crowding the airwaves. So it just depends how you look at it,
40:59right? So don't be afraid to show them the information. If you're using it to have the right
41:04conversation, and you're prepared for what they might ask, you're going to be in better shape.
41:09Todd, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Ashley, thank you. I will make sure you have that deck.
41:14And by all means, if you guys have additional questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.
41:19Thanks, everybody. Thanks, guys. Have a wonderful week, everyone.