thedrifter
12-28-06, 07:34 AM
Always faithful, always enthusiastic
Ex-Marine puts discipline into advancing sales career
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Frank Bentayou
Plain Dealer Reporter
After a four-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps in the mid-1990s, Ceron Sims came home to Cleveland, dived into college and got himself a job.
"I didn't want to waste time," Sims, 33, said with a laugh, looking sharp in a light brown suit, striped shirt, cuff links and taupe silk tie.
He also invested some effort back then, at 22, in considering his options and plumbing the depths of what he had learned in the military. His aim was to find and project the qualities that would help in his quest for a career.
An inventory yielded this: He was disciplined, athletic, well-spoken, a quick learner, independent, proud and, frankly, pretty ambitious.
Now, 11 years later, Sims has graduated from college, earned a master's of business administration degree, pulled his talents together and become a well-regarded media salesman at two of Cleveland's four Radio One stations, which target their broadcasting to African-American audiences.
The company, the seventh-largest radio broadcasting outfit in the United States, with headquarters in Maryland, owns and operates stations in 22 urban markets and says it reaches some 14 million listeners a week.
Sims had a good sense his future lay with sales and marketing when he emerged from the Marines' six-week civilian re-entry program, which the corps offers those leaving the elite military branch.
Going through daily re-orientation sessions helped him remember not to swear like a Marine and to keep his voice down below thunder level.
Sims learned to make warm - not menacing - eye contact with people, and actually to smile and say, "Good morning" as though he meant it.
He mastered the skills well. His first civilian boss, Jamie Peltz, now director of marketing at ICI Paints, remembered him as a young man "very eager to learn everything." She referred to Sims as "very nice, very polite, extremely helpful and, especially, eager to learn."
Sims broke into a wide smile when he considered his experience moving from the military to the business world. "Jamie always told me, 'Don't shout, Ceron. We're selling paint, not saving lives.' You can be a little rough when you get out of the Marines."
At first, marketing seemed a good fit. As a Marine in spit-shined shoes and creased trousers, he had found his way into a recruiting film and helped draw other youngsters into the corps in his final year in the service.
Then, as a civilian, he turned what started as a temporary job at Glidden, the paint company, into a staff position he held for four years while taking night classes at Cleveland State University.
"I absorbed everything I could about this product," he said, gobbling up research, cultivating sources at Home Depot and other big-box stores, observing customer behavior.
The idea was to arrange floor displays so that more and more buckets of paint would move off shelves in his territory, from Pittsburgh to Akron to Youngstown.
In 1998, stuck on a plateau at Glidden, he talked his way into a fresh career path. He convinced managers at Radio One's new stations in town to take him on, show him the ropes and send him out to sell air time: advertising spots on urban-contemporary, rhythm & blues, talk, even gospel AM and FM outlets. Clearly, this job would stand a world away from the semi-gloss hues he pushed in suburban home-improvement stores.
Moreover, Radio One was coming into the Cleveland market with no ratings here, no presence, little name- or call-letter recognition and virtually no staff. That was the atmosphere in which Ceron and other green staff members learned the ropes.
"I went out, clean-cut, polite but persistent and started getting people to buy time," he said.
It was his trial by fire, when he made up for lack of experience and the station's lack of a history here with supportive chat and follow-through.
Now, having earned an MBA and studied what he calls his "craft" of selling, he knows there's much more to it than that. Like many effective sales people, he knows and communicates what his "product" delivers.
It delivers the ears of consumers who listen to music and gab and, hence, get exposure to advertising to which they may respond. "That's what you're buying on the radio," Sims said, "a chance to speak to an audience" about your products and services.
An audience at any given radio station generally has its own demographic profile. Radio One targets a black audience, from kids in baggy pants to executives, and its four Cleveland stations all offer different formats to capture subsets of the broader audience.
Nationwide, it has done pretty well. Radio One will sell almost $400 million worth of 15-, 30- and 60-second spots this year at its 70 stations, all to advertisers hoping to reach its mostly urban listeners. Sims sells for WENZ, a hip-hop station, and WERE, a talk station.
Chris Forgy, Cleveland vice president and general manager (and a second-generation Ohio radio guy), focused on Sims' leadership in Radio One's busy St. Clair Avenue office.
"He's created a mentoring program for other sales people," Forgy said, adding that his senior account representative has a future beyond that title with the company.
No wonder. Sims thinks seriously about his work. Good salesmanship, he said, comes from "character, the moral stuff, the experiences that come from childhood, collegiate experiences, the military. Those give you the foundations for any kind of work, sales, marketing, civil service, anything.
"Then it's surrounding yourself with what you want to become. It's really based on your willingness to step out of your comfort zone. That may mean a change of your inner circle and associates."
Sims speaks from experience. He used to hang with a motorcycle club. Eventually, he found such company confining. "There's more to life than motorcycles," he said with a laugh.
Finding success in his career, he said, "has been life-changing, for sure." He commits time to knowing his industry inside and out, always cultivating people skills and managing expectations.
"A disappointed client will say, 'You don't feel the burden of the pocket.' But, in a way, you do. If things go bad, that advertising money doesn't come back. I remember all the time with my clients that we are in this together. I have to convince advertisers that I want your success; I don't just want your dollar."
Next: The Brander, product strategist Rosemary Breehl.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
fbentayou@plaind.com, 216-999-4116
Ellie
Ex-Marine puts discipline into advancing sales career
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Frank Bentayou
Plain Dealer Reporter
After a four-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps in the mid-1990s, Ceron Sims came home to Cleveland, dived into college and got himself a job.
"I didn't want to waste time," Sims, 33, said with a laugh, looking sharp in a light brown suit, striped shirt, cuff links and taupe silk tie.
He also invested some effort back then, at 22, in considering his options and plumbing the depths of what he had learned in the military. His aim was to find and project the qualities that would help in his quest for a career.
An inventory yielded this: He was disciplined, athletic, well-spoken, a quick learner, independent, proud and, frankly, pretty ambitious.
Now, 11 years later, Sims has graduated from college, earned a master's of business administration degree, pulled his talents together and become a well-regarded media salesman at two of Cleveland's four Radio One stations, which target their broadcasting to African-American audiences.
The company, the seventh-largest radio broadcasting outfit in the United States, with headquarters in Maryland, owns and operates stations in 22 urban markets and says it reaches some 14 million listeners a week.
Sims had a good sense his future lay with sales and marketing when he emerged from the Marines' six-week civilian re-entry program, which the corps offers those leaving the elite military branch.
Going through daily re-orientation sessions helped him remember not to swear like a Marine and to keep his voice down below thunder level.
Sims learned to make warm - not menacing - eye contact with people, and actually to smile and say, "Good morning" as though he meant it.
He mastered the skills well. His first civilian boss, Jamie Peltz, now director of marketing at ICI Paints, remembered him as a young man "very eager to learn everything." She referred to Sims as "very nice, very polite, extremely helpful and, especially, eager to learn."
Sims broke into a wide smile when he considered his experience moving from the military to the business world. "Jamie always told me, 'Don't shout, Ceron. We're selling paint, not saving lives.' You can be a little rough when you get out of the Marines."
At first, marketing seemed a good fit. As a Marine in spit-shined shoes and creased trousers, he had found his way into a recruiting film and helped draw other youngsters into the corps in his final year in the service.
Then, as a civilian, he turned what started as a temporary job at Glidden, the paint company, into a staff position he held for four years while taking night classes at Cleveland State University.
"I absorbed everything I could about this product," he said, gobbling up research, cultivating sources at Home Depot and other big-box stores, observing customer behavior.
The idea was to arrange floor displays so that more and more buckets of paint would move off shelves in his territory, from Pittsburgh to Akron to Youngstown.
In 1998, stuck on a plateau at Glidden, he talked his way into a fresh career path. He convinced managers at Radio One's new stations in town to take him on, show him the ropes and send him out to sell air time: advertising spots on urban-contemporary, rhythm & blues, talk, even gospel AM and FM outlets. Clearly, this job would stand a world away from the semi-gloss hues he pushed in suburban home-improvement stores.
Moreover, Radio One was coming into the Cleveland market with no ratings here, no presence, little name- or call-letter recognition and virtually no staff. That was the atmosphere in which Ceron and other green staff members learned the ropes.
"I went out, clean-cut, polite but persistent and started getting people to buy time," he said.
It was his trial by fire, when he made up for lack of experience and the station's lack of a history here with supportive chat and follow-through.
Now, having earned an MBA and studied what he calls his "craft" of selling, he knows there's much more to it than that. Like many effective sales people, he knows and communicates what his "product" delivers.
It delivers the ears of consumers who listen to music and gab and, hence, get exposure to advertising to which they may respond. "That's what you're buying on the radio," Sims said, "a chance to speak to an audience" about your products and services.
An audience at any given radio station generally has its own demographic profile. Radio One targets a black audience, from kids in baggy pants to executives, and its four Cleveland stations all offer different formats to capture subsets of the broader audience.
Nationwide, it has done pretty well. Radio One will sell almost $400 million worth of 15-, 30- and 60-second spots this year at its 70 stations, all to advertisers hoping to reach its mostly urban listeners. Sims sells for WENZ, a hip-hop station, and WERE, a talk station.
Chris Forgy, Cleveland vice president and general manager (and a second-generation Ohio radio guy), focused on Sims' leadership in Radio One's busy St. Clair Avenue office.
"He's created a mentoring program for other sales people," Forgy said, adding that his senior account representative has a future beyond that title with the company.
No wonder. Sims thinks seriously about his work. Good salesmanship, he said, comes from "character, the moral stuff, the experiences that come from childhood, collegiate experiences, the military. Those give you the foundations for any kind of work, sales, marketing, civil service, anything.
"Then it's surrounding yourself with what you want to become. It's really based on your willingness to step out of your comfort zone. That may mean a change of your inner circle and associates."
Sims speaks from experience. He used to hang with a motorcycle club. Eventually, he found such company confining. "There's more to life than motorcycles," he said with a laugh.
Finding success in his career, he said, "has been life-changing, for sure." He commits time to knowing his industry inside and out, always cultivating people skills and managing expectations.
"A disappointed client will say, 'You don't feel the burden of the pocket.' But, in a way, you do. If things go bad, that advertising money doesn't come back. I remember all the time with my clients that we are in this together. I have to convince advertisers that I want your success; I don't just want your dollar."
Next: The Brander, product strategist Rosemary Breehl.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
fbentayou@plaind.com, 216-999-4116
Ellie