Is Sales Sloth Killing Radio Revenues?

"Eighty Percent of Success is Showing Up"
- Woody Allen

I'm a radio client. As I've mentioned in previous columns I buy local radio as a favor to a friend who owns a small business in my city. In the past I've shared my negative experiences in the process of buying radio. Perhaps they are driven by the fact that I'm only spending about $50,000 a year on radio, and therefore unimportant in comparison to big spenders.

My client had started seeing his results drop off and as a result, against my advice, he stopped running his radio ads. He was, again against my advice, seduced by a PR person for a while who convinced him to spend his monthly budget on PR. Though PR got his business some editorial and television coverage, he cannot track a single customer to it but he liked being on TV. Money down the drain. He then got seduced by a company, which produces "programs" about clients and runs them in fringe times on local cable. Again, I told him it was a stupid idea (I can do that because he is a friend), that he was wasting his money. But he bought into the pitch and spent about $10 grand to be "interviewed" on television, and thousands more to run the program numerous times. He can track three customers only. Again, money wasted.

Finally, I convinced him to go back on radio and stick with it. In this market $50,000 does not buy a lot of media in a year, so I am dominating one day part on one station by saturating spots every weekday. This time I decided to try a different station, so I recently contacted the five stations which fit my client's audience profile, and sent out emails with the exact schedule seeking bids.

Of the five; one station has never yet contacted me three weeks later. One station, which I spent money on last year, has given me super service which is why they got my business in the first place. Another sent me a note on a Friday that I would get a bid on a Monday. It never came, so a week later I sent an email and the bid came in a full two weeks late. (After I had already made my decision.) Another station had phoned me, left a message and I lost the message. I never got a second call and still have not heard from them. The station I bought was super diligent and responsive, which may explain why they are a top market billing station.

If someone sent me a note, which said I plan to spend money I'd be all over them. Recession or not.

This story does not really end here. Only one radio station out of five ever phoned me. Not one sales person asked me who the target was, what we wanted to achieve, how we would measure success. Not one person sent me ANYTHING promoting radio, and in fact not one so much as sent me a one-sheet about their radio station, though one sent me a Tapscan breakout, after I requested it. All communication was through email, and the emails were ineffective. I would get emails that simply said "here is your quote" or "have you decided yet?" Only one station even bothered to ask me who the client was or what business they were in, which would have been an opportunity to share some data on how their station was effective with that industry.

Perhaps I'm old school, but if this experience in a MAJOR US MARKET from radio stations owned by the biggest companies in radio is an example of what is happening across the country, than radio has a serious sales problem. If I had to guess I would say this behavior is a result of heavy sales turnover (lack of experience), lack of training, possibly too few trying to do too much, and overburdened management.

I know budgets have been slashed and people no longer have the money to spend on formal training. But you can still train people. Isn't that part of the role of a sales manager or general manager, or are they so consumed with other problems that training simply cannot take place. Is there so much turnover in sales people that they are assuming they know the basics?

Very basic skills like questioning client needs, sales process, presentation skills, telephone skills, follow up, asking for the order, talking the benefits of a station or of radio seem to be completely devoid in this situation.

Sadly, I'm hearing a lot of stories about "Sales Sloth" from across America and someone needs to address it. Training tools are available from consultants, RAB, video libraries, books, and blogs. I'll start by asking our editors to increase the amount of articles about the basics so Radio Ink can be more of a self-training tool. But for this problem to be solved it must be addressed by group heads,  regional management, and local management.

Had I not already been convinced of the power of radio, and had I been some advertiser unschooled in the benefits of radio, I'm not sure I would have ever been sold the schedule I just bought. I simply had to work too hard to figure things out on my own and to buy. If radio isn't easy to buy, it won't get bought.

Eric Rhoads,

Publisher
RADIO INK

Read my blog or leave comments at http://ericrhoads.blogs.com/ink_tank/

Email me: [email protected]
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Comments

[MillicentSweeney]

I had a dream to start my own firm, but I didn't have got enough amount of money to do it. Thank heaven my friend recommended to take the home loans. Thus I received the sba loan and realized my desire.

[Jack Davison]

Small markets, Midwest, 50+ years.
Often deaf leading deaf...lack of
training (takes time)...lack of good selling calls (takes time)...
lack of discipline to succeed (from top down)(takes time)...too often "keep 'em scared of losin' their job" (scares 'em into leaving their job)...& hypocrisy of telling clients how success is reached, while never following their own advice! Taking time to excel is never a waste of time...