The phone rings.  It’s an advertiser who’s ads haven’t been working.  He wants to cancel.

Good!

Before I tell you the rest of the story, you should know why it’s good.  It’s a lesson I learned – and still remember - from reading a great book a long time ago:  Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude by the late W. Clement Stone, who was chairman of Combined Insurance Companies of America; but, he didn’t start-out that way.   His was a ‘rags-to-riches’ story, starting out literally penniless and ended-up giving millions to charities.

When he was a young boy, his father had abandoned his mother.  Young Clem had to help support the family by selling newspapers on a street corner in Chicago.  He liked that corner because he knew he could sell all his papers by 5 p.m. and that was just enough to buy food for his mom who was home with younger children in their cold-water walk-up apartment.  One day, some older boys decided they wanted that corner; so they beat him up, forcing him to leave.   Dejected, he walked into a little coffee shop and sat there wondering how he would tell his mother what happened.   Then, people started buying his papers!   He came back the next day and found he could sell out all his papers by noon!  Getting kicked-off that corner turned out to be good!  In fact, if it hadn’t happened, he would have never found the coffee shop!

It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.   Always look for what’s good about something that seems bad.

Here’s why that’s important to you:  No one will ever buy ‘in’ or buy ‘up’ in your publication as long as they are satisfied with their present situation.  If you ever want to sell someone UP, they must become dissatisfied with what they’re presently doing.

So, you’ve been wondering how you’re going to get an advertiser to buy UP to a larger and better campaign?  They have to become dissatisfied with what they’re doing!   But, how do you get them to become dissatisfied?

Back to our merchant phone call.  Bingo!  Your merchant has just solved your first problem.

The merchant wants to cancel.  That’s good!

Why is that good?  Because the merchant is dissatisfied…. And so are YOU!  You both agree on something right off the bat:  What the merchant has been doing up to now isn’t what s/he SHOULD be doing!

“Jim, I hate to tell you this, but I’m going to have to cancel.”

“Good!  I’ve been wanting you to do that.”

“What?”

“I said `Good!’  I’ve been dissatisfied with what we’ve been doing, but I didn’t say anything about it because I thought YOU were satisfied.”

“Well, I haven’t been.”

“Good!  Because I don’t want you doing it any more, either!   In fact, I owe you an apology.”

“Really?  Why?”

“Because I KNEW what you SHOULD be doing and I should have told you.  I want you to know that it’s ALL MY FAULT.”

“What should I be doing?”

“I’ll show you.  I’ll be right over.”   I hang up.  I go.  And I show him, clearly, directly - and with confidence - EXACTLY what he needs to do if he REALLY wants to succeed.  I’m careful to point out there are no guarantees… and no free lunches… but I DO know what it takes if he’s serious!

In six years of selling campaign (only) advertising, I didn’t receive that many cancellation phone calls – quite frankly, because I sold them the right way the first time – but, when I did, that was the approach I used and it worked AMAZINGLY well.  

I turned ¼-page cancellations into half-page, full-year campaigns.  I turned half-page cancellations into full page, full-year campaigns.   Once, with a camera store, I turned a 13-week ¼-page campaign into a 52-week campaign of 4-color, 2-page spreads.   The owner was ecstatic!  His sales changed almost immediately and this time he stayed and stayed and stayed – he was STILL running the same two-page color campaign when I sold the papers three years later!

Remember this:  These merchants WANT to succeed.  They WANT to do better.   Often, they’re just afraid.  They don’t have much confidence in ad reps because most ad reps are nothing more than `talking brochures’ who can do little more than regurgitate media kit data.

When they call to cancel, think `Good’ – because it’s an opportunity you didn’t have before:   Now, you have a REASON to sell them UP!   The strategy doesn’t change:  To uncover wants, needs, desires, dissatisfactions, buyer motivations, and use your knowledge to help them achieve the success they want over the next three to five years of their lives!

Pretty soon, you’ll be sitting in the office thinking, ‘I wish someone would call to cancel’, because until they do, you’ll have to dream-up your own reasons to help them become dissatisfied.  

It’s easier when they do it for you.

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