Avail requests aren’t flying into your lobby; “ups” are down, all while your company is pushing sellers for more gross revenue. Whether DOS or seller, on a given day it can seem unfair. What’s this? Programming Consultants commenting on Sales? Well, once having experienced the thrill of ownership in several markets at a very young age, I’ve never left my passion for Sales and Sales people. Even today in our programming roles we stress our real objective: gross revenue!
While this comment may surprise you, your skeptical view of “sales” might even be analytically correct. Your projections can seem unjust; “they just don’t make sense” and if you look hard enough, there are numerous impediments. Some mega groups are actually cutting commissions (brilliant strategy, right)? Well…maybe sellers will “make it up in the volume.”
Simple solution: Don’t go down that corridor!Consider this fact: a number of radio’s billionaires started their careers as account executives. They faced a lot of barricades not unlike yours. So let’s recreate a page from their past; then, let’s pivot in the opposite direction. We can’t do a damn thing about media group stock prices or Wall Street opinion. But we can go down another road: reinvent with full attack, get a lot more creative and meet your clients’ uncertainty with confident, imaginative and different solutions. Sound too easy? Well, the true Blue Ribbon sales execs have been doing it their entire career and why most are still on top.
Start by getting a lot better at “Direct” selling competence. We’re referring to accounts that may have an agency commission but are controlled by someone higher than a Media Buyer. Ad Execs in current times still have more influence with those businesses; fewer spontaneous cancellations, etc. They often buy longer schedules and are less affected by Nielsen trends. That’s “Direct” in 2020.
Also, begin at the end: take some time to look forward over the next nine months and proactively consider account categories that may have a tougher road ahead. Which categories really need strong creative, fueled with your cluster’s format tonnage? Someone you know (or once called on) needs your help today!
Old business: not just “new business.” Who haven’t you called on in a year or more; clients who just slipped through the cracks? What’s changed with them? Be assured, something has.
A great manager-colleague once remarked, “We don’t get paid for what we don’t close, we get paid for what we do, so let’s spend a lot more time thinking about what we can sell instead of what we can’t.”
ADG colleagues agree: even though programming got us here, supporting sales teams is as much a part of our job as designing music schematics, assessing Nielsen or developing air talent. In the end it all falls under attitude and outlook, more important even than ratings or empirical data.
Do “creative” and “emotion” matter? I assure you, no massively successful marketing decision has ever been made by someone wading through ten pages of analytics.
