Monthly Archives: January 2017

Your Toughest Selling Job in 2017

Your toughest selling job in 2017 is not selling your advertisers. Your toughest selling job is selling your sellers.

They are beat up on the street every day being told radio doesn’t work, no one listens to radio in the digital age, your rates are too high, the economy is tough and so on and so on.

You know that repetition sells, and over time the repeated arguments your prospects throw at your salespeople, take their toll on their attitudes and perceptions.

What are you doing to sell your sellers in 2017?

Is selling radio, your events, sponsorships, digital products and promotions still fun?

Do your salespeople know how to sell radio’s strengths in a rapidly changing media world?

Is your remuneration package competitive with other business-to-business sales organizations in your market?

Have your salespeople been taught how to sell reach versus frequency as your reach remains consistent but your hours-tuned become eroded?

These are questions that must be answered daily as you compete in 2017.

Our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system can answer all of these questions, for your sellers and your advertisers.

Click here to find out how SoundADvice can help you answer your clients questions

When Fair Isn’t Fair

Good in-bound leads today are hard to come by. When you do get leads, distributing them equally or in turn, does not always equal the best results.

 

You have some account executives who, when told the new lead’s budget is $10,000, come back with a $10,000 order. You have others who turn a $10,000 budget into a $20,000 order. You’ll even have some who will come back without an order!

 

Some sales managers distribute their leads equally among their account executives, in part, because it’s easier than doing some research to fit the right rep to each lead. Some also distribute leads ‘in turn’ under the guise of appearing to be fair to all.

 

Giving a lead to a rep because it’s “their turn” certainly isn’t ‘fair’ to the client, or the account executive, if there isn’t a style and strategic fit.

 

Last but not least, not managing leads with a view to a strategic fit isn’t fair to your station!

Beyond Average

Do you know what the average invoice for each of your stations is?

Knowing how much your station’s average invoice is, can be a great management tool.

First, your average invoice tells you what the market believes your advertising to be worth.

Reviewing your average invoice per account executive can also tell you what each account executive thinks your stations are worth.

Some other uses for average invoice:

  1. Every account executive should be required to present a minimum of one 52-week average invoice or greater proposal per week. Based upon a 10% closing ratio, they’ll have 5 good long term clients by year’s end. (By the way, if their closing ratio is higher than 20%, they’re not super-stars; they’re merely picking the low hanging fruit.)
  2. If you’re creating sales ‘packages’, they should always be above or at average invoice. Average invoice has told you what your account execs and your clients have told you what you’re worth. If your ‘package’ is really outstanding, shouldn’t it be perceived to be worth more than the average?
  3. A focus on even the slightest improvement in average invoice each month, over time, will produce huge results.

Averages can be deceiving, but understanding your average invoice and managing your average invoice, will yield revenue results.

It’s Good To Be Canadian

Sometimes, we lose sight of some of the huge advantages Canadian broadcasters have versus our friends south of the border.  As we consult stations on both sides of the border, we know the competition for radio audiences and radio revenues is much tougher south of the Canadian border.

On a per capita basis, Canada has an audience of 50,000 people per licensed station, opposed to the U.S., where there are 28,000 people per licensed commercial radio station.

Comparing markets like Chicago and Toronto, both markets have similar size populations. But audiences can receive 110 radio stations in Chicago, versus 52 in Toronto. Of course, we recognize you have more competition for audiences and for dollars than just other radio stations. But your salespeople and your advertisers should be made aware of how much more influential each station in Canada is, compared to stations in the U.S

More Local Revenue in 2017

Your clients and prospects are being ‘cold-called’ by more and more traditional and digital salespeople every day.

They’ve seen gimmicks like sending half a lottery ticket and promising to deliver the other half if they make an appointment.  Or how about the old  claiming to have a great idea for the advertiser even though the caller doesn’t know the advertiser’s objectives.

They’ve also been called about ‘special packages’ or ‘limited time offers.’

Then of course there’s the traditional, “I’m calling to make an appointment to learn more about your business…”.

There is no better way to capture an appointment than to tell your prospect you want to share the results of a local marketing study that revealed competitive information about their business, and their competitors’ businesses.

Our TOMA (top of mind awareness) surveys are proven to open more doors for radio and TV sellers.

In his Monday Morning Memo, Roy Williams wrote, “I’ve long suggested that radio stations fund a TOMA study every two years. Few things are as valuable in the eyes of advertisers as these revealing market snapshots.”

Here’s how a Top-of-Mind Awareness (TOMA) Survey can help you capture more 52-week business in 2017 and beyond.

8 Things a TOMA Survey Can Do for You

1. Our local TOMA surveys consistently prove that creating Top-of-Mind Awareness is the domain of intrusive broadcast media. Strong broadcast advertisers will always have higher TOMA scores than advertisers who rely on print or digital to brand their businesses.

2. Your TOMA surveys will always prove that the best way to ensure consumers click on a business when they search online is to create a pre-need TOMA and preference for the business with intrusive broadcast advertising.

3. It’s much more powerful to make an appointment to talk about your prospects’ ratings and their competitor’s ratings than trying to get an appointment to talk about your ratings.

4. If you have done local Top-of-Mind-Awareness surveys in the past, your survey can prove that businesses that began using radio/TV after your last survey actually increased their Share-of-Mind score.

5. The most important findings will be uncovering ‘open’ categories. Categories with no strong TOMA leader are very easy, and very inexpensive, for new radio/TV advertisers to capture the dominant Share-of-Mind and Share-of-Market.

6. In most cases, if a generalist leads the category and there is a relatively high ‘no answer’ score, the generalist has won by default and a specialist can quickly and efficiently become the category leader. For example, if Home Depot leads the windows and doors category, or the flooring category, advertisers who specialize in those categories, and use intrusive broadcast as a pillar of their promotion, can quickly capture Share-of-Mind and Share-of-Market While the Home Depots of the world have to divide their budget to cover dozens of categories, a specialist can dedicate their entire budget to their category.

7. Your survey will also prove that the only SURE way to be found online is when prospects search for a business by name because many businesses have fierce online SEO competition for first-page positioning if consumers search the category generically.

8. Our Selling With TOMA Surveys sales training will teach your team how to prove the vital link between Share-of-Voice, Share-of-Mind, and Share-of-Market and sell more 52-week advertisers for you.

Click here to inquire about facilitating a local TOMA Survey and TOMA Sales Training in your market.