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Selling Radio’s ROI

Imagine you’re fresh out of college and your best friend sets you up on a blind date. You have a good time on the date, and after a few more dates she invites you to join her on a cruise.

During the cruise you have the time of your life, and you begin dating more seriously on a regular basis.

One nervous night, under a romantic full moon, you get up the nerve to ask her to marry you. She says, “Yes”, accepts your ring, and the sale is made.

Who gets credit for the sale? The best friend who introduced you? The cruise line? The months of dating and getting to know each other?  The ring? Or how about the full moon?

Human perceptions, attitudes, relationships and decisions are seldom based upon one singular event, but rather on a series of events, experiences and influences that form our opinions, biases, and prejudices over time.

For as long as I’ve been in this business, some advertisers have under-estimated the introductory role radio plays in making the sale, and they’ve given credit for the sale to the moon…that last touch-point in the conversion process.

In the old days, it was the newspaper. Some advertisers would proclaim their customers actually came to buy with a copy of the newspaper under their arm. Some even went so far as to say “No one ever came in with a radio under their arm.”  Hmm…imagine that.

Then came direct mail, coupon envelopes, flashing neon signs, huge pink gorillas, and a long list of ‘last-touch’ or last customer touch-points.

Google Analytics now flogs a ‘Last Interaction Attribution Model’ that gives 100% of the credit for a sale, which they call a ‘conversion,’ to the clicks that immediately precede the sale.

And advertisers hungry to measure the ROI (Return on Investment) of every expenditure, are eating it up.

The Google model would leave out the best friend who introduced you to your wife, the countless dates, good times and the cruise, and give all the credit for the marriage to the moon.

The problem is radio salespeople have not been trained to understand, articulate and sell radio’s role in the entire ‘conversion’ process, from introduction, to building a relationship and brand, to asking for the order.

Digital media and last-touch clicks are not radio’s problem, any more than a ‘last-touch-point’ car salesperson who takes credit for the sale or other last-touch-points, like coupons, Yellow Pages and pink gorillas on the roof.

All exposures play a role in what those in search of ROI call ‘conversion.’  In reality, there is no one ‘single source’ that can take credit for the sale and no single source that can make the sale without the influence of other touch points along the path to conversion.

Click here to inquire about facilitating our Radio Works workshop for your annual sales conference or broadcast association to train local radio account executives how to sell Radio’s ROI as the launch on the path to increased conversions and sales.

Where There’s a Will, There is a Way

There will always be some markets that don’t follow the trends of the national economy. They may be hit by a large factory closure, their economy might be affected negatively by low oil prices and some might be delivered a blow by Mother Nature.

But there is one thing that is for certain.  There is always opportunity for those who quit wishing for ‘the good old days’ and those who understand where the ‘new’ money lies.

For example, do you know that no matter what happens to your local economy next year, 60% of the jobs and paychecks in your market are totally bulletproof?

Everyone from police officers to pensioners, and from teachers to neurosurgeons are totally immune to cyclical economies and will receive their paychecks every month.

Do your salespeople know how to help their advertisers capture their unfair share of those paychecks?

And more than 80% of the businesses and institutions in your market have never seen a radio presentation, in part, because we keep trying to draw from the same old wells.

Our Winning In Tough Economies advertising sales workshops can help your sales team capture the new or uncultivated opportunities that exist in your market in 2017 and beyond.

Click here to arrange an appointment to discuss facilitating our Winning In Tough Economies workshop in your market in 2017.

Sales Ain’t Baseball

How many times a year would you welcome your insurance salesperson dropping by to ask how things are going, or worse yet, to ask if you’d like to buy more insurance?

If you are like most people, you are too busy to entertain regular visits from an insurance salesperson unless they deliver helpful or valuable information to you on every visit.

Your clients are no different. They are busy, multi-tasking people, with no time for the amateur salesperson who drops by to “touch base.” Advertising sales is not like baseball. You don’t win by touching base. You win by having a valid business reason for every contact.  A valid business reason is any reason that benefits your prospect or client.

Planning and preparing a valid business reason for every contact will place you head and shoulders above the salesperson who interrupts a business owner to touch base.

Click here to arrange an online overview of how our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system can give you a new valid business reason to contact your clients every week.

Out of the Way Places

Local radio, TV, coupon envelope, Yellow Pages and newspaper salespeople in your market have beat main street retail to death.

But there is radio money hidden in the out-of-the-way industrial and commercial corners of your market.

Many factories, warehouses and other non-traditional retail establishments have something to sell to the public.

Simply drive around those areas looking for their signs. You’ll see small signs in some windows saying things like ‘Open to The Public on Saturdays”

or ‘Wholesale and Retail’ and ‘Factory Outlet’.

Many have occasional product over-runs, discontinued lines, scratch and dent items, or simply need to clear product to make more room. Others will delight in being able to sell to the public for higher prices than they can capture in the wholesale market.

You’ll also see ‘help wanted’ signs in businesses that you can sell recruiting campaigns to.

There are a number of advantages to going where your competitors have not tread.

One is, you won’t get beat up on rate. These businesses are usually shocked at how low your rate-card rates are.

Another is, they’ll get amazing results. Your audience is always looking for bargains, and are delighted to hear about the savings at these factory locations.

You might even consider creating a Factory Outlet Directory or Warehouse Sales Directory on your website for these out of the way places.

These aren’t easy sells, because most of these businesses have not advertised in the traditional sense, and have no ad budget.

But when you do sell one, they’ll get results, and you’ll have a client for life!

 

P.S. Click here to arrange an appointment to discuss how our TOMA (Top Of Mind Awareness) surveys and seminars can also help you find new revenue sources as well.

Stop The Madness!

Imagine you have never done business with me before, and I approach you with an exotic sports car I have for sale. I tell you the car is ‘valued at’ $100,000, but I’m only asking $50,000.

What are you thinking?

Probably one or more of the following;

1.)  Who or what makes the car ‘valued at’ $100,000

2.)  Why are you knocking $50,000 off of the alleged value?

3.)  Is it stolen? Is it defective?

4.)  If you are ‘asking’ $50,000 less than the value, I’m sure you’re open to a lower offer.

5.)  If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

We often see radio presentations claiming a value that is so far greater than the ‘asking’ price, that the offer is not credible.

Here is the thing; when you make a presentation, do you prove and validate the value you claim?  And, when you offer your campaign at a price lower than the alleged value, do you justify that discount?

Or, do you just leave your prospect thinking;

a.)  You’re desperate

b.)  You have misled them and inflated the value

c.)  You have no confidence in your rate card or your value and you’ll do or say anything just to get an order.

Do you want to improve your closing ratios and the size of your average order? It’s all in the way you present your value. Click here to discuss how ENS Media can help you make bigger, better, and more believable presentations.