Welcome to the Local Direct Chronicle

"In the broadcasting sales game, the days are tough, the nights are long, and the work is emotionally demanding. But it's all worth it, because the rewards are shallow, transparent and meaningless" - anon.

Dear broadcast salespeople, managers, owners, broadcast associations, Chiquitas and Crapmasters,

This is our first Local Direct Chronicle for the new year, so it is fitting that we should discuss New Years resolutions. Please read the attached article and take it to heart. This edition also contains some good tips on selling overnight spots and other neat stuff.

Thank you for the wonderful receptions in Nassau, Nashville, Indianapolis, Warsaw, Terre Haute, Jackson, Athens, Albertville (Albertville is a big little town in Alabama), Des Moines and at the RAB in Dallas. My pleasure. I loved being in every single market.

We have been working our rear-ends off on E-Lessons™, second edition. They are finished and are being distributed by broadcast associations now. If your broadcast association is not subscribing to E-Lessons™ ask them to. E-Lessons™ contain 26 local direct sales meetings, with subjects including prospecting, getting appointments, writing good creative, managing client expectations, handling call reluctance and much more. Each lesson contains a facilitator's guide to help managers properly conduct the meeting, a general agenda for salespeople and a quick accountability worksheet. Click here for more information on E-Lessons™

The Professional Mediator™ is in it's final stages. We will let you know the very minute we get it on the website. You're going to love it, I promise. Meanwhile, the FREE Mediator™ is still available.

As always, your comments, observations and tips are much appreciated.

Happy New Year and best of luck with selling more local direct and remember. "If you don't change bad habits into good habits, you'll have a long past to look forward to."

New Year's Resolutions for Broadcast Sales
by Paul Weyland

We are coming off another tough year in broadcast sales. Hopefully we have all learned something from year 2003 and with a little luck and a lot of common sense, we will increase our revenues and achieve our goals in the coming year.

Here are six important New Year’s Resolutions you might use to make sure you are starting the New Year off on the right foot.

"At the risk of coming off like a "boot licking lackey" who loves everything you do, I do love the new E-Lessons which began a week ago here in Nebraska. The consistency of having our sales meeting dovetail with the "Paulspeak" which we have learned over the past two years is great."

~ Craig J. Eckert, Executive Vice President and General Manager
KXPN-AM/KKPR-FM, Kearney, Nebraska

"I have to confess I'm going through Weyland withdrawal since I haven't seen a new newsletter in several months. I believe that it won't be long before I succumb to dt's. Using your methods and having God's blessings on my business, I was able to turn January around from a meager $17,000 on the 15th of the month to finish out at about $43,000. I have overachieved for February and I'm working on March right now. I appreciate your valuable training. I wish every local direct seller could be exposed to your training. Keep up the good work."

~ Mike Copeland
Salem Media of Georgia

"I sat in on your seminar in Terre Haute on Friday. I wanted to let you know that I have been to many sales seminars in the last 25 years of broadcasting both in TV & Radio, yours has been the most educational, and you carry the program very well, with exciting emotion, stories and information. I will use the mediator and invest in a PDA so I can take it out on the street with me. Thank you again, for your insight. I am the top grossing sales rep at our stations, but I still learned more from you than most others. Keep up the good work. I will be looking for your book to come out."

~ David Valandingham
Terre Haute, Indiana

Production is almost completed in the first in a series of creative compact disks entitled Spots Before Your Eyes. This CDR will contain at least 17 audio commercials along with their scripts from various product and services categories. Before or immediately following each commercial, producer Jimbo Kipping and I will discuss the logic and the thought behind the writing and production of each commercial. This will be an excellent resource for radio and television account executives, managers and production people.

You will be able to order Spots Before Your Eyes on line at my e-Store, Weyland's Web Store or pick one up personally at my seminars.

Better, more logical spots will break through the Craposphere™ and make it much easier for your listeners or viewers who are ON for your client’s product or service to remember your client’s product or service. For everybody else, we are starting the BRANDING process.

Sample Spots

Auto Parts
Here is a cute auto parts spot.

Updates & Notes

A heads-up to those of you running your computers under a Microsoft-based operating system. Before getting the Microsoft "stamp of approval", software developers for Windows- based programs are now designing their work using the Microsoft .net Framework, a Windows-wide standard. This is a good thing as it should help to standardize the development of some of those crazy, memory-eating algorithms that will eventually eat your computer and then your mind. You can download Microsoft .net Framework to your desktop or laptop at any time by going to your Start button and click on your Windows Update
icon. We suggest that as a practice you go through this update procedure on a regular basis in order to get the patches you need for your computer's protection, security and your privacy. The .net Framework should load along with the latest Windows updates. Note: Please allow an hour or so if this is the first time you update your Windows system. All subsequent updates will be completed fairly swiftly.

If you have trouble with agencies asking you for added value, click on my business card to the right and send them what's hidden.

What? I have not been in your market for a while? Let your broadcast association and your station manager know that you want Paul Weyland back in your town. Here is a link to the seminars that I offer. Weyland's Seminars

Check your calenders and call (512) 236-1222 or e-mail us to get me into your market! 2004 is booking up -- CALL US!

The Professional Mediator™ is in its final development stages. We should be ready to launch soon. The Professional version has a built-in proposal writer including a variety of proposal formats, can print and export!

The hand-held version and the original Mediator™ are still available free at The Mediator(TM)

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