If you have been on our website you know our motto is “Helping media companies and advertisers to establish stronger more profitable relationships.”

    But there can be a downside to ‘relationships’.

    I talked to a radio salesperson last week who had left the competition’s cluster to join my client’s station cluster.  Upon arriving at the stations we consult, he was shocked to learn that a client, who had spent $1,000 a month with him at his previous stations, had been spending $4,000 a month at our stations. When he asked the client why he hadn’t been spending $4,000 a month with him at the other stations, the client said “You never asked me to.”

    Many account executives confuse ‘relationship’ with ‘friendship’ or become protective of their relationships and fear asking for more. Often they become ‘too close to the forest to see the trees’.

    Your clients are all adults. They are perfectly capable of saying ‘No’ when you’ve reached their budget threshold.  Your clients are in sales too, and they respect salespeople who have enough confidence in their product to ask for more.

    I’m not proposing you gouge or over-sell your good clients.  But your relationship can be more damaged by accepting token buys than it would be by presenting solid plans to increase reach and frequency to help improve your clients’ R.O.I. (Return on Investment).