Sound Advice from Valerie Geller

We are all in sales

There used to be a divide between sales and programming. Not anymore.

With cutbacks and streamlined organisations, talent needs to understand where, how, and why the money comes in.

Ads are part of programming, and a poorly done or boring commercial can be a tune-out. A well-written and

produced commercial, live read, or endorsement not only sells, it also adds value based on the quality of the relationship between host and listeners.

Different Roles, Different Motivations

Salespeople and talent are different breeds. Your station needs both.

While talent needs to earn a living, money often isn’t their main moti-vator. Most chose radio because of a need for creative expression and a love of being in the spotlight. Talent needs an audience to be happy.

Reward and motivation for a salesperson is mainly financial. Account executives might not even have a background in or particular love for radio.

Reasons Behind the Divide If a sales department sees the morning hosts disappear at 10:30 a.m., they may not understand the host’s workday, which began at 2 am with show prep and a pot of black coffee.

Conversely, you have a problem if the morning personality sees an AE as an unapproachable person in $500 shoes.

Salespeople can view talent (particularly big personalities) as liabilities. One careless remark might blow up or damage an account they have been working for months to acquire. Meanwhile, talent may believe that sales staff would be perfectly happy running commercials 59 minutes out of every hour or that sales has no idea of what it takes to build credibility with an audience.

Tear Down This Wall:

A Case Study

One April Fool’s Day, just for fun (and to help address organisational “issues”), our station put the sales staff on the air and sent key talent on sales calls.

The talent came back shellshocked at how much they heard “no.” They didn’t usually hear “no” when socialising with clients in a non-sales context!

Back at the studio, the sales manager had sweat stains the size of soccer balls under his arms within moments of going live. Afterwards he muttered, “But it looks so easy, I mean … everyone can talk.” He had no idea!

It made a difference. The sales and talent teams had new respect for each other and started working together with a “bird’s eye view” from the other side, understanding what it takes to create a show and to get a sale.

VALERIE GELLER is a talent coach and author.
Reach her at [email protected].