Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. This is our final segment in the Show Concept Meeting Series. We have covered opening the meeting, painting the room, establishing ROI, and we talked about the three disciplines, but we really didn’t dive into this third discipline. We talked about landing on a show title and a time slot, so you would have something to protect for the client and candidly something to take away. It is key that before they walk out of that room, you establish a confirmed release date, a specific point in time when they are to get back to you with a yes or a no.
Stone Payton: [00:00:37] And it can be teed up very easily. Most people will not hand a credit card to you across the table during that meeting or write you a check; although, I must say, it has happened on more than one occasion. Most people need to check with their spouse, their business partner. They need to think about it. All of that is fine. You should make that very comfortable and, perhaps, suggest, “Terrific. Today is Thursday. How about, you know, by next Wednesday, you think you’ll have that figured out and know that this is going to be a good opportunity for you?” Typically, most people are reasonable. They’ll say yes. They’ll appreciate the breathing space, if you will. That day, that next Wednesday, that is your confirmed release date. Here is the key though – you need to be prepared to do the release part. Lee, talk to that a little bit. And I will swing back around on this because this is very key, in my opinion.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:29] Right. So, the mechanics of doing this properly, we believe, is once you have the photo of the studio that you built, the show concept that they’ve agreed on, that they are all excited about, that they’ve co-authored, you send them at the end of the day a note that kind of recaps the meeting, right?
Stone Payton: [00:01:48] Yes, yes, that’s a great idea. It’s good discipline.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:50] So, now, you show them where they are in the process of having a show. They’ve already completed the bulk of the work, right. We have a name, we’ve got a date, a time. We know that there are studios available. We know that there is an ROI here. We know we’ve identified the key guests. The show is 80% there, right?
Stone Payton: [00:02:11] Yeah.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:12] So, now, we’re checking boxes, “Done, done. This part’s done. This part done.” We’re literally waiting for this one last element, this confirmation that they’re in, and they want to do this.
Stone Payton: [00:02:24] Absolutely. And key to me is we’re not waiting. We’ve provided the opportunity. We’re giving them the breathing space to make an informed decision based on the conversation we’ve had. From our perspective, we just invested the time and energy to design a great show concept that is going to move the needle for someone’s business. We hope it’s them. And so, to me, that is the tone and the tenor. And if the confirmed release date is Wednesday, here’s the human nature that I’m going to encourage you to try to resist, don’t wait till 5:00 on Wednesday, don’t wait till Thursday, because maybe they got busy.
Stone Payton: [00:02:55] No later than noon on Wednesday, if you’ve not received a confirmation that they’re going to move ahead with this, you send the release note, and you very nicely say, you have a subject line that says, “Releasing your show concept and time slot.” And you put down in the body of the other note, “Jill, sorry it didn’t work out for you to sponsor the Bumpity Bump Show on the Business RadioX network at this time. If circumstances change,” and they often do, “we’ll look forward to entertaining a similar idea in the future if the category and the show concept are still available. In the meantime, we’ll look forward to having you back in the studio some time when we have an episode focused on your area of expertise,” or something with that tone.
Stone Payton: [00:03:42] Here’s a couple of things that it does for you. That’s not going to run anybody off that really wants to buy. The person who doesn’t want to buy and maybe doesn’t feel comfortable telling you, you know, you’ve given them a nice face-saving out, you’ve left the door open for them to come back another time, and you’re not waiting on that phantom phone call, and you really have a show concept that you can take to the open market. That’s my take on it, Lee. I can’t stress how important this is.
Lee Kantor: [00:04:15] Yeah. This is — and it’s important, in order for this to really have the impact you want to have, during the course of doing the episode, you have to get them to understand and agree that this show would be great for anybody in their industry, and it sure is lucky that we came up with this together that’s going to work for them. So, they have to feel a sense of ownership of this concept and feel that this concept has value, and they don’t want to risk letting this slip into the hands of a competitor.
Lee Kantor: [00:04:47] So, you really have to make a point during the building of the show to say, “Man, if this would work for you, man, this probably would work for anybody in financial services,” or whatever their industry is. So, you have to make it clear that when you are taking it away, there is a real chance that a competitor is going to get their hands on this and execute the show that they spent a lot of time and effort co-authoring.
Stone Payton: [00:05:11] And I will say this, maybe one of the biggest mental shifts that we ask our new studio partners to entertain this strategy, tactic, technique, this discipline, if you will, it works. And if they really want to buy, how many times of the year, Lee, have they come back very quickly saying, “No, no, no. I just hadn’t had a chance to talk to my partner. Can you give me another couple of days?” or “Oh, I’m so sorry. Yes, I want to pull the trigger.” You’re not going to run off. You’re not going to cause a problem with the person who genuinely is interested, and you’re going to provide a great face-saving way for the person who’s not ready for whatever reason.
Lee Kantor: [00:05:46] Right. And you know, on that date, you’re going to know one way or another if this is a go or not.
