3-1 at the end of the 2nd period. The dreaded two goal lead in hockey. The St. Louis Blues, a team I’ve followed for forty years was twenty minutes of game time away from doing something I’d never seen them do – make it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
My wife couldn’t take it. She wanted me to text her updates, but she couldn’t watch. They start the 3rd period and the Blues looked like they’d decided to try and play defense for twenty minutes and I couldn’t sit still. Five minutes passed and I texted my wife: “Fifteen minutes away!”
A few offensive zone trips for the Blues, but still mostly playing a defensive game. Another text to my wife five minutes later: “Ten minutes away!”
I’m pacing, my stomach is in knots and I’m now yelling “C’MON!” over and over again. Then it happened – Tyler Bozak put the ol’ biscuit in the basket and put the Blues up 4-1 with 6:55 to play. They’d add an empty net goal with 2:15 to play but I already knew it was over.
THE ST. LOUIS BLUES WERE HEADING TO THE STANLEY CUP FINALS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE!
I can’t even believe I just wrote that sentence. And you’re probably now wondering if I’m going to write any sentences about selling sports radio. Alas, I shall.
You see, after the emotions of the game wore down and there was zero chance I’d be able to fall asleep, I started thinking about how stations and sales reps benefit from these situations. As a sales manager, these opportunities don’t come around often, and the opportunity I’m talking about is sellers being naturally excited.
We sell our best when we’re most excited and passionate about what it is we’re selling. Sports radio can often be a “passion play,” where a business owner wants to show support of a team or just flat out likes the tickets and amenities that sometimes come with sports sponsorships.
But what about when we’re trying to sell something we don’t think is a big deal? I notice this a lot in selling events. In sales meetings, I can pretty much tell who’ll leave the meeting and make calls for a new event and those that didn’t buy in.
The ones that didn’t will eventually be asked why they aren’t pitching it and will make a few calls and pitch it with about as much enthusiasm as when you’re about to get a root canal. There’ll be no excitement in their voice and they won’t give the prospect the feeling this is something they have to jump on. Chances are no sales will be made.
You’ve heard the expression before that “people buy people,” and a lot of that is how we approach the original pitch. Are we smiling, are we excited, can we explain it well and make it sound larger than life? And if that excitement comes naturally because you’re genuinely excited about it, that usually comes through.
Back to the Blues. For those that don’t know, the team was in the Stanley Cup Finals three years in a row, 1968, 1969 and 1970. They were swept in all three series and haven’t been back to the finals since. So, as you can imagine, the fans and the city are fired up. For those in our business, it’s time to put the creative cap on and come up with anything and everything you can to tie in to the madness of this Blues run.
If you’re excited, the client or prospect will most likely get excited and your chances of selling what you’re pitching, go up considerably. However, the window of opportunity is a short one. So it’s a race to get in front of as many decision makers, during that window, as you can. With the excitement level this high, you should have some sales out there that’ll feel as simple as an empty-net goal.
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.
