You Are NOT Selling Cars
It never ceases to amaze me how many of the major broadcasters think business to business sales is like business to consumer sales. It’s not. We’re not selling cars. There’s a huge difference between selling cars and selling advertising.
You see, consumers can only drive one car. So selling cars is a dog eat dog world. If I buy the Ford instead of the Chevy this week, the Chevy dealer doesn’t get another kick at the can for four years.
But advertising is different. Advertising generates customers. And as long as the advertising is working, businesses can always use more…. more customers and more advertising.
Perhaps that’s our problem. We don’t believe our medium works. It’s a question of confidence in radio or TV advertising that causes us to combat other stations rather than combat other media.
Do you believe a radio ad campaign works better with more stations, more reach and more frequency? Or would you rather be the only station in town on the buy, and see the rest of the ad budget go to other media?
There are those who believe that radio ad budgets are a finite number, and they have to kill their radio competition to get their ‘share’ of radio budgets.
But here’s the question; Who creates that radio budget?
If we’re doing our jobs, the person who creates that budget is the person we are calling on!
And who can make the radio share of the total ad budget larger? That same person!
To my way of thinking, we must do what’s best for our clients. What is best for the client? To see them dabble in a wide range of different media from an ever-growing list of web malls and social media, to buying every dwindling circulation paper, OR…to see them put a larger share of the budget into one media, radio or TV, with more stations or heavier schedules for better reach and frequency?
I tell advertisers that a typical station has a reach of at least six radio reps. And every one of them will call and tell the client they bought the wrong station or they have a ‘better deal’ (i.e. car dealer mentality) when they hear them on another station.
Harassed advertises will find it much less confusing to buy any media but radio as long as we keep telling them the other stations suck or we have a better deal!
Late in 2010, we embarked upon a campaign to get radio stations to work together in 2011 to improve the profile, image, understanding and revenue for local radio.
It’s been challenging to say the least. The car dealer mentality has limited our success so far, but I’m not ready to give up.
I, for one, believe that more radio works! It works for clients, and certainly works for radio.
Admittedly, we’re a for-profit organization and our quest to get stations to work together in markets could turn a small profit. But the health of my business depends upon the health of the radio and TV business.
I believe the broadcast industry’s health is reliant upon radio and TV capturing larger ‘shares’ for the broadcast industry in the face of increasingly fragmented digital competition and over-valued print competition.