What do we sell? A better question might be, what don’t we sell?
Fifteen-second commercials. Thirty-second commercials. Sixty-second commercials. Live endorsement ads. Open and closing billboards. Sponsorships for the studio, a show, an hour, the phones, the text line, the streaming, the traffic center, the weather center, the sports update desk and on and on. Targeted display. SEM. SEO. Pre-roll. Home-page takeovers. Emails. Events. Promotions. And, I’m sure I’ve missed a few things.
The fact of the matter is, we all have so much to sell and so much to focus on, that it is possible (and maybe likely) to get lost some of the time. We all know the drill, someone from the company flies in to town to train us on the latest product we are going to roll out. Enthusiasm is high, the new product gets some momentum and then in a few weeks something else comes along that takes our attention away. Pretty soon, that product that was hot for a bit is on the back burner and the new one has taken its place.
There was already too much to sell when it was just radio and events. Digital has added a whole new set of tools to our belts, but has also added a lot more information to our already clogged heads. Plus, part of our jobs is not only to inform clients and prospects about our full product portfolio, but also to keep up with the latest and greatest, which can change by the day, seemingly, when it comes to digital.
I teach my teams to take digital a couple of products at a time. Learn them, figure out the best targets for them and then book meetings to talk about them as part of a prospect’s media mix. If you’re lucky enough to have a Digital Sales Manager, take them with you so you can hear several times how those particular products are pitched.
When it comes to learning about new products, training or items covered in other meetings, I always make the suggestion to try and take one or two things out of each. This goes for all of our products, but especially digital, if you try and take in all of the information thrown at you, it will be impossible. Know what problems the product solves for your clients and start there. If that problem comes up down the road, you can pull that solution out of your memory bank and then dig in to its intricacies.
With our radio and event options, keep your customer and their target audience at the forefront. We never want to sell something because it’s what we want to sell, it has to be what helps solve the client’s problem. If you feel like there are too many options of stations or products that could be presented, put yourself in the client’s shoes.
You are supposed to be the marketing consultant, so, assuming you did a good needs analysis and really drilled down to find their key marketing challenges, you should have the information you need to guide them to making the right decisions. If you owned this business and were the one investing in marketing and advertising, which of the products would you buy in order to best reach that target audience?
We have a lot to offer and each product offers a potential solution to a variety of problems. Your expertise should come in to play when deciding which products to focus on for each individual client presentation. Whether it’s fifteens, thirties, sixties, endorsements, sponsorships, digital, events, promotions or any of the other numerous items we have at our disposal, recommend the best path so your client makes good decisions and never feels lost.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
