Selling Radio Direct with Pat Bryson
Two or three times a week I get a call from one of the people I coach bemoaning the fact that one of their clients has cancelled because “No one is telling me they heard my ad.”
Sound familiar?
One example this past week was a bar and restaurant that told the rep no one mentioned her ads. Can’t you hear the conversation? “I want to order a burger and a beer because I heard your radio commercial.” Real customers don’t do that!
Another was a garage door company. They had agreed to a long-term schedule but wanted to cancel after 3 weeks. My first question was, “How long do people think about buying a garage door before they do?” Unless their current door malfunctions and their car is stuck in the garage, the answer is several months. Why, then, would it make sense to expect phone lines to light up in three weeks? It doesn’t, but our clients don’t understand that. In their heart of hearts, they expect to air a commercial today and have the teeming masses show up tomorrow shouting our call letters.
Which brings me to the point of this newsletter. How well do we manage expectations UP FRONT with our clients? Do we quantify what they expect? Example: ” I want more traffic in my store.” OK, how much more? How much traffic do you have now? How long did it take you to achieve your current level of traffic? How quickly do you expect the additional traffic to happen?
We need to quantify their expectations. And, if those expectations are entirely out of whack (that’s an Oklahoma term for “ridiculous“) we need to tell them. We know how advertising works. We know the process to educate potential customers. And, we know how long it takes. We need to explain the recipe for effective advertising:
- Enough repetition per week to reach an OES Schedule
- Consistent enough ( at least 52 weeks)
- A relevant message
Results will build over time. Depending on the product and the product’s purchase cycle, results will come sooner or later. Usually, advertising has ramped up to generating great results between 6 and 9 months into the campaign. This doesn’t mean your clients won’t see results before that, it simply means that peak momentum will not have been reached yet. Think “train” starting down the tracks and gathering speed till it is running at full velocity.
The way to keep happy clients is to educate them on what their advertising can and will do if done properly. This education must be done at the time you are selling them, not later when they want to cancel. At that point, it sounds like we are making excuses. If done up front, you sound like a marketing genius as you accurately predict the trajectory of their campaign. And, if after preparing them for delayed gratification, their ad happens to hit a 2%’er who is buying today and comes in immediately, you look like a hero.
I’m always happy to work through a forensic analysis with you to determine a strategy to save business and hopefully, to resell these clients. My thanks to the salespeople who have reached out to me and provided the inspiration for this newsletter. I hope other readers will benefit from their experiences. We get better by analyzing our wins and our losses. That’s how we improve!
Happy Selling!
Pat Bryson is an internationally known speaker and trainer specializing in training salespeople and managers. She is a regular contributor to radioinfo.
Pat has consulted stations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and Central Asia. Her career has included on air, salesperson, sales manager and general manager. Since opening BBI, she has travelled extensively and has spoken at most major radio conventions on three continents.
Pat is the author of two books, “A Roadmap to Success in High Dollar Broadcast Sales” and “Successful Broadcast Sales: Thriving in Change”.
Pat has five times been named one of Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women in Radio.