Most stations are not prepared to capture the growth caused by the pent up demand created by a long hard winter.
Are you planning to grow substantially?
The problem with planning is it’s often based upon forecasts, which in turn are based upon statistics. Statistics, however, are only a rear-view mirror picture which has been impaired by a long hard winter.  The forecasts which spring from that rear-view can actually become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Broadcaster Allan Waters once said “Our problem isn’t that we aim too high and miss, it’s that we aim too low and quit when we hit our target.”
Are you planning to help your advertisers capitalize on the pent up demand created by a long hard winter? All of the stars are in alignment to do so.
Consumer confidence around the world is on the rise, unemployment continues a steady, however slow, decline, interest rates continue to be very attractive, and most of the leading economic indicators are inching forward. In terms of pent up demand in the U.S., home building is far behind the needs of the population, and resale inventories are getting low. Many consumers who have been driving clunkers can now afford to move into a newer vehicle.
All of this, coupled with longer days of sunshine, combines to create a brighter future than you may have forecast. Cautious optimism is understandable considering the battering of our weather and our economies in the past, but we shouldn’t let history cloud our windshield view.
Enthusiasm can be contagious and can drive the growth that is sitting there waiting to happen. As Henry Ford said “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right!”
I, for one, know we can finish this year with a bang and I’m planning for growth. Will you join me?

Do you remember how you felt when you scored your first radio job? Your friends couldn’t believe you were in “show biz”. You were in the mass communications business, working with well-known personalities, getting back stage passes, creating ideas for clients, and learning something new every day. It was FUN and you got paid for it!
And what about the first broadcast order you filled out? Was it more exciting than the daily grind today?
I happened to be at a client’s station the other day when a listener came in to pick up a prize they had won. One of the station’s staff asked if the winner wanted a tour of the station.
I couldn’t believe the response. You would think they were just offered an all-expense paid tour of Europe! “Really?!” she said excitedly, “I’ve never been in a radio station before!”
At that moment I quietly admitted to myself that I had become so close to the forest that I wasn’t in awe of the trees anymore.
Maybe it’s time for all of us to revisit our careers with the same enthusiasm that I witnessed in that radio listener.
Sure you’ve got budget pressures (you used to call them “challenges”) and your clients are cutting back or demanding competitive proposals and rates. But there’s a lot of sizzle to selling radio that many of us have forgotten.
Are you using the emotional power of music or the compelling sound of the human voice in spec spots to put the excitement and sizzle into your presentations?
Have you offered the services of your personalities to M.C. events at your client’s club? Is your station aloof or do you offer your audience station tours like the station I was at?
Do you offer your clients opportunities to sponsor exciting on-air contests?
While you might think all of the buzz today is around new media, there’s a lot to be said for local people being able to call their favorite station and talk to a real live person.
Your music inspires them and your information, contests and humour still evoke conversations around the water cooler. Radio advertising is just as effective today as the day you started in the biz. For you to be as effective as the media you represent, you may have to mentally fire yourself, and start over with a whole new attitude. Enthusiasm is contagious, and adding new-found sizzle to the steak you sell can make you the winner in an over-crowded new media landscape.
P.S. While you’re having fun again, I’m betting you’ll also make more calls and more sales.

Many of the biggest business success stories have sprung from models more focused on adding value to peoples’ lives than on the dogged pursuit of profits.
Henry Ford’s mission, for example, was to create a car the masses could afford. Google’s mission was to make information universally accessible and useful, and of course the profits followed.
While profits are a great gauge of the value delivered by a company, I submit that the heart and soul and attitudes within any business must spring from a greater purpose than the almighty dollar.
This particular ENS on Sales blog was sparked by the co-incidental number of heart-felt thank you calls I’ve received recently.
One person who I hadn’t been in touch with for years called me out of the blue last week. He had simply called to thank me. He said that even though he’s not in our industry any longer, he is a leader in the food service industry; his success in that industry stems from what he learned from me in radio sales years ago.
Shortly after that call, I was gratified to hear a regional radio and TV manager tell me “you were the one who taught me to sell 52-week campaigns, a skill which still serves my company well today.”
After several of these calls back to back, I thought about the indebtedness I have to these successful sellers.
I estimate that only 20% of sales people really aspire to our message and principles. But, it is that 20% that is responsible for 80% of the success at their respective companies, and it is that 20% that makes what we do at ENS Media so rewarding.
So thanks for the memories and thanks to that 20% for “getting it.” Seeing you succeed makes everything we do worthwhile!

You’ve often heard people like me, or the Wizard of Ads Roy Williams, and even some of the Internet gurus say “copy is king” or “content is king”.
 But copy can’t be king without royal input! I’ve often counselled advertisers that “There is no such thing as a media which does not work; there are only messages which do not work.”
Working with creative and production people is much like working with a computer…..garbage in = garbage out.
If most radio account executives would devote a fraction of the time they spend in pursuit of an order to completing a proper Creative Brief, your team would be happier, your clients would get better results, and your attrition rate would drop dramatically.
Alternately, I’ve seen where alleged copy information is scribbled on the back of a napkin, or the only information provided is a clipping of a newspaper ad; or ‘see client’s website’.  In case you haven’t heard, in the media mix, radio and TV perform totally different, yet compatible roles, from that of websites. Broadcast should inspire, while Internet informs.
So here is your Creative Brief challenge. Pick a number of previously-completed Creative Briefs or copy information sheets your team has given to your writers in the past. Pick one per account executive.
Then pass them around in a sales meeting so that each account executive has a Creative Brief from one of the other account executives.
Now ask each of them to write an award-winning sales-producing spot from the information they have.
Be prepared for them to look like a deer caught in the headlights!
Content can be king only with royal input.
P.S. You are welcome to use the Creative Brief on our website at http://www.wensmedia.com/files/6313/6995/0229/Creative_Brief.pdf

“Native advertising”, advertising that doesn’t look like advertising, is all the rage with the online folks in their attempt to capture the attention of consumers in an increasingly fragmented and cluttered world.
Native advertising is the integration of marketing content in any media in such a way that it is not distinctly different from the rest of the media’s content in terms of format, style or placement.
Native advertising is not new and was proven to be effective long before the arrival of the internet. Newspapers and magazines, for example, called it “advertorials”, and attempted to make the format, feel, design and content of a paid ad fit the editorial style and content of the publication.
Radio has a long list of under-utilized native marketing opportunities, and it’s time we stood up and told the world so….and charged for it accordingly.
When a marketer samples her product or service via giveaways in radio contests, for example, that’s native advertising. The announcer generally elaborates on the merits of the product being given away on-air as part of the station’s content or format.
In many instances the product is included in numerous station promos and live on-air contests that dovetail naturally with what the station’s audience tuned in for – fun, contests and entertainment – rather than interrupting the station’s programming.
When a station is giving away Coke instead of Pepsi for example, the listener’s perception is that Coke is the preferred beverage of their favorite station. That’s the equivalent to a “like” in the online world.
Even simple on-air sponsorships, where the advertiser takes credit for presenting valued station content like weather or traffic, is native advertising. It does not interrupt the content; the advertiser presents the content seamlessly as a service to the audience.
When an announcer ad-libs or in some cases delivers a clever live read, that too can be native content in the minds of radio listeners.
Of course, when we air slick produced spots, with music that does not fit our format, that’s NOT native advertising.
It’s time for radio to show advertisers how to go native on radio, and charge a premium for it because it does fit the format and the listener experience.
So come on guys and gals, let’s jump on the native advertising band wagon and show our clients the value of going native on radio!