He was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted the plane warming up outside a hanger.
He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go’.
The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off.
Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, “Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.”
When the pilot asked ‘Why?’ the photographer responded, “Because my TV station wants some close up shots for the 6 o’clock news.”
After a strange silence, the pilot stammered, “Ss so, you…you’re, NOT my flight instructor?”

All too often, in our hurry to capture a sale, we make dangerous assumptions. The only way to avoid making dangerous assumptions is to ask questions.

Never assume that you are talking to the decision-maker, nor assume your prospects see value in advertising or that your proposal solves a problem your prospect agrees is a problem. You can’t even assume your client will keep the appointment you made without first calling to confirm the appointment is still on.

Ask questions each step of the way and you’ll have a happier landing.

Having a sales conference or convention? Consider having our ‘Becoming a Master Questioner’ sales workshop as part of your agenda to help your team develop superior questioning skills. Contact [email protected]

In game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants. If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero.

Radio is not a zero-sum game.

It’s time our industry recognized that radio is an infinite game. There is plenty of room for more advertisers in our media, and there are more than enough advertisers to go around. In fact, our research reveals that slightly over 80% of local businesses in most markets cannot even recall having been contacted by a radio account executive!

Creating more radio advertisers would be better for all of us, than fighting for share of existing radio advertisers.

Author and internet guru, Seth Godin says that authors recognise reading is not a finite game and that more reading, is better than less reading, even if what’s getting read isn’t  theirs.  Seth says “Authors often promote each other’s blogs and books, and tweet each other’s handles to their followers.”

Godin goes on to say “It turns out that in most industries in the connection economy, that’s precisely what works. When a business that’s comfortable not having 100% market share happily recommends a competitor, they’re sending a signal about trust and confidence and most of all, about feeding the community first.”

Are you feeding the radio community first? Are you making the radio pie bigger, or are you fighting for share of a shrinking pie to the detriment of the radio community?

Your competition is not other radio stations. Your competition is everything from direct mail to social media, and from newspapers to yellow pages and SEO consultants.

Our Winning in the New Media Economy local advertiser seminars and SoundADvice inbound marketing system are creating  more new radio advertisers every week…. to the detriment of other media, not to your radio brothers and sisters.

If you want to send a signal about the trust and confidence you have in radio, and create a bigger radio pie in your market in 2015 and beyond, contact [email protected]

One of my clients told me last week that “ENS Media is the closest thing Canada has to the old RMB (Radio Marketing Bureau).” Sadly, that’s probably true.

I’m sure the data in the Wall Street Journal article below,about the enduring value of radio, would be similar for Canada if it was available. If you have any data similar to this article, please forward it and we will gladly disseminate it for all to use.

In the meantime, I’m sure you can tell your clients they can assume the data in this article would be similar in Canada.
Thanks for your input.

 Radio Remains King of the Road 

Despite Rise of Digital Music

People increasingly get their music through services like Pandora or iTunes, but that old codger – the radio – still rules the road.

More than half of Americans listen to AM/FM radio nearly every time they get in the car, while 86% listen to it at least some of the time, according to a poll conducted earlier this year by Edison Research and charted by Statista.

That compares with just 13% who say that most of the time they listen to some form of digital music, such as through an iPhone or MP3 player. More people – 15% – still listen to CDs when they’re driving. Digital-music use is higher when you look at people who say that they “ever” listen to it, but radio and CDs still outpace all forms of digital music.

Radio also remains the most common way for people to keep up with new music. Some 75% say they listen to the radio to stay up to date, while 66% get new music from friends and family. YouTube and Pandora come in third and fourth with 59% and 48%, respectively.Younger people, though, are more likely to use digital sources. YouTube takes the top spot among 12-24 year olds, with 83% using the site to keep up with new music. Friends/Family and Pandora are tied for the second spot with 71%. Even among young people, 65% still use radio to stay up to date

Radio’s dominance in the car probably has a lot to do with its ubiquity and cost. The average age of a vehicle in the U.S. is 11.4 years, the oldest ever. That means most cars on the road were built when digital music was in its infancy. The iPhone was only launched seven years ago, and the first Android phone came out less than six years ago. The standard radio in 2003 may have come with a CD player, but it probably didn’t have an auxiliary jack for an MP3 player.

Consumer’s tastes in car stereos and what they can expect as standard are surely changing. As more cars are built with stereos that are made to connect with smartphones, digital music and Internet radio should start to be more popular on the road.

While your salespeople are boating, golfing and enjoying the summer weather, it can be difficult to have thoughts of sugarplums dancing in their heads. But, your clients and prospects are planning their Christmas campaigns NOW.

You know, “the early bird gets the worm.”

Yet many media account executives will be panicked and running around like frantic last-minute Christmas shoppers, trying to pick up the crumbs left by other professional account executives who captured their prospects’ Christmas budgets while they were still in the planning stages.

I can still recall my rookie days when I called on my prospects with our newly released ‘Christmas package’ only to hear, “Sorry, but we gave our budget to the newspaper just last week.” While it might no longer be “the newspaper”, you can bet there are countless traditional and new media reps who will be pounding the pavement around mid-October in the hopes of capturing lucrative Christmas advertising dollars. If you want your competitors to hear that you have already captured their prospects’ Christmas budgets, you need to have your Christmas sales meeting NOW.

You can see our Radio Ink tips on facilitating better Christmas sales meetings by clicking here.
A properly planned Christmas Sales Meeting can put your sales team in the mood to be the early bird, to be the first in the door to talk to their prospects about the important Christmas selling season.

P.S. Don’t forget the two worst months of your year, January and February, when you present your holiday season proposals. You’ll find it easier to book the post-season sales and events as part of your package NOW. Once the harsh reality of winter sales slumps set in, it’s much more difficult to talk about optimistic sales projections.

If you want to increase your local-direct revenues in 2015, contact [email protected] 

Many of the stations we consult are surprised when they discover the number one reason advertisers don’t often schedule 52-week campaigns.
The average radio rep would make her annual budget if she simply had 20-25 accounts advertising at rate card with 30 commercials a week for 52 weeks.
So, what would you guess is the number one reason advertisers do not schedule 52-week campaigns?
I’ll give you a hint. It’s not because they don’t have enough of a budget to advertise 52-weeks of the year…
Reason number 4 advertisers give for not booking 52-week campaigns is that they believe their business to be seasonal and want to invest their budget only during peak sales periods.
Reason number three is because they’re not sure what their inventory levels will be, or what they’ll have to sell, ten or eleven months from now.
The second most popular reason they don’t book 52 weeks is (and this is often disgustingly true) because they believe radio stations will offer much better “deals” on sold inventory if they wait until the last minute to schedule each month.
But, seldom do stations understand the number one reason advertisers do not schedule 52-week campaigns…
The number one reason is, “we don’t ask them to.”
Advertisers tell us that most radio account executives have never shown them a 52-week plan or validated a solid benefit to booking 52-week schedules.
So, there you have it, the number one reason you don’t have more 52-week business is because you don’t ask for more 52-week business. It truly is that simple.

Are you planning a company sales conference or association convention? If so, click here to inquire about scheduling our Selling Advertiser Annuities Workshop to help your salespeople capture more 52-week business.