Monthly Archives: August 2016

Every Dog Has Its’ Day

It seems the glimmer is already beginning to dim on the early front runners in digital media.

Once the fore-runner  in ‘new’ media advertising, online display advertising’s share of digital ad spend  is predicted to decline by 12.4% over the next four years, according to a recent Ad Buyer Survey conducted by Cowan and Company.

And the runner up, Search, is forecast to post a .4% decline in digital spend share.

Both of these early digital stars are giving way to the latest ‘new’ media. Social media’s share of digital spend is forecast to grow by 14.9% and online video, is predicted to increase their share by 11.2% over the same four year window.

‘New’ continues to be a powerful word in the media sales business. For advertisers not using radio, radio can be ‘new’. Positioning radio as a new way for local businesses to reach their prospects can be appealing. Radio as their ‘new media’ can be easier to buy and understand than the increasingly complicated and fragmented digital options.

Contact [email protected]  to learn how our TOMA Surveys and SoundADvice radio e-marketing system can sell your prospects on the strategic role radio should play in the new media landscape.

Job One For Sales Managers

As a sales manager, the list of activities, tasks, and paperwork you face everyday is daunting.

But there is only one job, your toughest job, that will dictate your success.

That job is selling your sellers.

They’re beat up on the street every day. They’re being told everything from your rates are too high, to nobody listens to radio anymore, and from the economy is tough to radio doesn’t work. And you know repetition sells.

Over time, your account executives can begin to believe all of the advertiser excuses for not investing with them and lose confidence in radio.

It’s your job to counter balance all of those negatives and never quit selling your sellers.

You had to sell them on a career in radio sales, and the merits of your company when you recruited them, and you have to keep selling them every day.

A few things you can do to sell your sellers:

  • Create internal systems and venues, online, in sales meetings and more, to share sales success stories.
  • Celebrate EVERY order… without exception.
  • Capture and use advertiser testimonials on air, online, in sales meetings and in presentations.
  • Actively search for and distribute good news on the economy, business, your market and radio.
  • Recognize the contributions to your success from every department… not just sales.
  • Negatives should be shared one on one, behind closed doors, positives need to be shouted throughout the building.
  • Last, but not least, when launching new systems, packages, programs or initiatives, focus on the benefits from your customers’ point of view, not just from the station’s vantage point.

My favorite Henry Ford quote is, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right!”

The best sales managers have cultivated the art of helping their sales people ‘think they can’ every day.

All of the training, systems and tactics in the world will not produce more than the enthusiasm and confidence you can build.

Choosing to Win!

Fragmentation and competition — they can destroy your business, or make it stronger. The choice is yours.

McDonald’s didn’t pack up their bag and go home when the Burger Kings, Wendy’s, Harvey’s and a long list of other competitors sprung up to eat their lunch (no pun intended)

And the auto industry’s ‘Big Three,’ Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, rose to the challenge to build better cars when dozens of manufacturers from Germany, Japan, and other countries began exporting their products to our shores.

In fact, General Motors continues to consistently be among the top three automakers in global sales.

You’ll hear and read a lot of doom and gloom about radio and TV as the number of new competitors we face mushrooms every day. By the way, those same new competitors are facing more new competitors every day, too.

So the choice is yours. You can make excuses for lack-luster sales, or you can choose to stand out in the crowd by being the best that you can be.

According to the Kauffman Foundation’s Index of Start Up Activity, small business growth is on the upswing. New and existing small businesses are looking for a star media professional like you to guide them through the confusing array of advertising and media choices they have and to improve their ROI (Return on Investment).

While many of the purveyors of new media are still selling their ‘platforms’ you can stand out in the crowd by selling results.

The choice is yours. You can be a shooting media star, or be a falling star. I don’t see why anyone would choose the latter.

Making Radio Tangible

The dictionary defines ‘tangible’ as; ‘able to be perceived by a sense of touch‘.
Radio is only an intangible if you let it become so. And if the only ‘tangible’ your clients receive from your station is an invoice, you’re headed for trouble.
At cutback time, the media with the most tangibles in your clients’ files often wins and escapes the knife!  How thick is your client’s file of your tangibles?
  • Do they have a presentation on file that clearly outlines what you proposed to do for them and how you would achieve their objectives?
  • Have you delivered trade articles about marketing your customers’ categories?
  • What about wrap-up reports with testimonials from their customers, a summary of what you delivered, and of course, an outline of how you over-delivered?
  • Does your client’s file include all of the scripts you’ve delivered, audio copies of their commercials and proofs of performance?
  • Do they see your station-logoed swag every day, or do you make your presentations against a backdrop of your competitor’s swag?
  • Do you conduct post-campaign analysis and deliver written summaries of those analyses?
  • What about regular helpful tips and branding tools like our SoundADvice, complete with your photo and station logos?
  • Have you used your cell phone to forward pictures of their customers lined up at a successful event or remote?
            At cutback time, the media with the most tangibles in the advertiser’s files wins!  Don’t let the newspaper tear-sheets, or the billboard tent-cards and photos ‘out-tangible’ what you do, and certainly, don’t let an invoice be the only tangible advertisers receive from you!

P.S. If you don’t have a post-campaign analysis process, or want to learn more about our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system contact [email protected].