Sales

This session alone was worth the trip!
Again this year, the NAB Show included the RAB’s “Small & Medium Market Idea Exchange,” and it was was one-money-making-idea-after-another, imaginative concepts and packages that fuel radio’s minor leagues and seem to elude stations in the majors. For example?
BethMannBeth Mann manages in a small Kentucky market, and does something that more big-market stations should: a title-sponsored audio page. “The Toyota of Hopkinsville Audio Rack” gets mentioned every time the station plugs podcasts, etc.
Why this is smart, other than the do-re-mi it brings the station, and the frequency it delivers the sponsor?
Station web sites aren’t destinations, they’re archives; and what’s there is a convenience to listeners, who expect content-on-demand.
Want more? Read my May newsletter.
And here are the NAB Show and RAIN Summit notes I’ve already posted.

Best car spot I’ve heard in a year…
You’ll hear a bold concept, but you won’t hear the hollering that’s so typical in car commercials.
Heck, the conversation Tyler Ford‘s David Irwin has with listeners is so engaging and familiar that he doesn’t always bother saying his name!
But you will hear him make an offer you’ve probably never heard another dealer dare to.
Listen:

PS: As with any advertising, the product has to live-up-to the claim. And this guy walks-the-walk. I’ve met the man, and if you’re in East Texas and in the market for a car or truck, go see him. You’ll end up sending your friends.

“Once upon a time I had the good fortune to promote Holland Cooke to a major league programming job. He took WTOP Washington to incredible heights…he set the sails that began the station’s rise to the leading biller in America!”
Dick Rakovan, now Senior VP, Radio Advertising Bureau; previously radio group head, Outlet Broadcasting

How big would the new local direct order have to be…ipad
…for you to bonus the seller — in-addition-to commission — an iPad?
Think big, then dangle the offer, with a deadline.
Note: Your top biller probably already owns one. Most go-getters do.
And iPad is the smartest way to present spec spots, something top-billers also do.

So, if she already has one, no problemo. She’ll spiff the prize to an account that commits big. ;)

Do the math.
How big would the order have to be to warrant another $500 in commission?
REMEMBER, it’s not just $500 cash, awarded-then-invisible.
The winning rep will now be toting the prize, as other reps will see.
They’re social animals.
You might want to repeat the contest.

Talk Radio: Hug a lawyer…
…and pet a vet!
You’re leaving-money-on-the-table, without these 2 weekend sure-shots.

Research data affirms:
Radio comes closer to the cash register…
…according to a Council for Research Excellence study.

“Advertising that works is free. It makes more than it costs you. Advertising that doesn’t work is ‘overhead.’”
Talk radio’s super-successful Dave Ramsey, speaking at a luncheon my client stations WPTF/Raleigh and WSJS/Winston-Salem held for advertisers.
“You’re trying to sell ‘a contact,’ not a product” when you advertise, in Ramsey’s view. “Don’t try to say too much in 60 seconds,” he cautioned.

Every Sales Buzzword Ever Spoken…
…is decoded in 9 pages of Universal Radio Buying and Selling Terms

Thrill to…
“The Incredible Vanishing Stopset!”
Here’s an excerpt from a presentation I’m making to several state broadcasting association conventions this year:

Use syndicated how-to shows to up-sell local retailers who broker time.
Example:

  • At a client station which airs Real Estate Today with Gil Gross, we already had a local Realtor® buying a weekend hour, to field questions and tout her listings. We offered her right-of-first-refusal (catnip, because brokers are so competitive) to re-sell the station’s in-program inventory. Her prospects: landscapers/plumbers/painters/other punch-list vendors she has on speed dial.
  • The station wholesales 10 spots (5/hour X 2 hours) to the Realtor® for $X. If she re-sells ‘em for more, she can keep the change. In the process, the station exposes new advertisers without the cost-of-sale. In the process, all those new advertisers’ competitors awaken to the power of radio advertising.
  • And the agent gets a 3-minute local content window in-program, to tout listings.
Admittedly, this model might not scale-up to major markets, where a single agent can’t afford to eat-the-whole-thing.

Because this particular station also airs The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show, other value assets include:

  • Sponsorship of The Money Pit Minute, a daily shortform feature which contains a local avail, and no national spot or sponsor. Because both shows are about home ownership, they’re both warm environments for pitches to homeowners.
  • Sometimes, the best Sales message isn’t a pitch, but rather a chance to hear the advertiser simply talk shop. And this is one reason I like working with Sales in small and medium markets. The advertisers we work with aren’t cubicle-bound Sally Timebuyer agency drones…they’re CHARACTERS, dogged entrepreneurs working 14 hour workdays on Main Street USA. These small business people fuel our retail economy; and they’re lots more important to stations since the transactional business Sally doles out tanked.
  • Let them also tell their story on-air, in-program, in the 3:00 window @ 26:50 in “Real Estate Today,” and by using the entire 3:00 local avail @ :51 in The Money Pit.

Example of this advertiser interview technique, a spec that I personally produced for an advertiser on client WPTF/Raleigh: