Mark Miller is someone I’ve worked with for the past two years at Entercom in Kansas City. Ours is a large, eight station cluster with a dominant position in the market. Along with Rock, Alternative, Hot AC, Country, News and Talk (KMBZ A/F which Miller started selling in 1989), we have two sports stations, the Kansas City Royals, the Missouri Tigers and the Kansas State Wildcats. Additionally, we carry several local high school and college football and basketball broadcasts, most of which Mark not only sells, but also does play-by-play for.
There’s a Mark Miller on every good media sales team in the country. A veteran seller who still has an unmatched enthusiasm for our industry and working with clients. He has several “regular customers” he has formed great relationships with in his long career.
When he closes a good sale, everyone knows about it instantly, but he’s also the first person to congratulate someone else when they do the same. His work area is a shrine to his career, complete with a picture of his face superimposed on to Superman’s body, but he isn’t the least bit ashamed for being proud of what he has accomplished.
When he isn’t out with a customer, he’s in the office working the phones and he can be heard talking about a great business idea for a client or perhaps a team’s Cover 2 defense when he’s talking to a local coach. Whatever the topic, his big booming voice comes through loud and clear. No, really, I mean my office is about 30 feet from his area, and I hear it all loud and clear!
How did you get started in radio?
I was a television news anchor for two years and I had an opportunity to go to work for some radio stations in Garden City, Kansas and I made the switch around 1981. I didn’t think I was the next Kronkite. I got in to radio sales at KBUF AM & FM, they were a big country western station and they were splitting the signals and going satellite country music. To get the job, I had to make a presentation in front of the whole sales team. I did a flip chart presentation of who I was and what I thought I could bring to the team. I walked out of the meeting and the GM said, “We want you to be on the staff.”
People knew who I was from being on TV, so I was able to hit the ground running and sold several annuals in my first two weeks. We traded out some boom boxes at Gibson’s Discount Center, we would cut a spec spot and after I would flip chart the radio station, I would play the spot from the boom box. If they bought an annual, we’d let them keep the boom box and we would trade for more.
I saw the ability to make a ton of money in commission sales by being creative, meeting a lot of people and putting together ideas. I saw money and I’m driven by money.
What do you tell people you do when others ask about your job?
When I’m asked that, I tell them I’m a professional broadcaster. Not just sales, although that’s 95% of what I do, but I do play-by-play, I write copy, I put in my orders, I do production for some of my clients, I do some endorsement deals and while I don’t send bills, I do collect. I do everything under the umbrella of broadcasting, so I’m in the broadcast industry and I’m a professional broadcaster.
When I say that, people perk up. They don’t know us by the name of our company or what an Account Executive or Senior Account Rep means, but when I say I’m a professional broadcaster with 8 radio stations and I sell and create advertising campaigns and do play-by-play, it sounds professional. I think everyone who works in our building is a professional broadcaster. Some think that just means you are on the air, but I think it means you are in the broadcasting industry.
What makes you good at media sales?
I don’t think I’m the Mick Jagger of sales, but I still like the chase and I still have the energy and the drive to make money. That’s what motivates me. When I was hiring people as a manager for a couple of years, I would ask them what motivated them. If the answer wasn’t money, I didn’t hire them.
I am creative, I can present and I’m good at interaction with clients. While I’m always prospecting to find new business, I’m really good at increasing the amount my current clientele spends with me. A lot of my clients started off spending a little bit of money and now they spend thousands and thousands with me. People buy people they like and if you get in there and you grow the relationship, not only business but personal, they’ll trust you and that’s been my formula.
I wouldn’t sell anything else. Insurance, appliances, medical supplies, nothing. This is the only thing I ever want to sell, because it changes. One day you’re talking to a banker, later that afternoon a car dealer and the next day a doctor. I’m not a master of any of those categories, but I am a master of what I sell, and I can match my products up with each of those categories and create ideas for them.
Why do you think there’s so much churn in media sales departments?
I think it’s work ethic. My dad was a railroad engineer and he’d take the passenger train out of Newton, Kansas at 5:05 AM, he would be there a day in Dodge City and then came back the next day. My mom was in politics on a national level, and she had a great work ethic. When I was young, I was a sponge and I soaked that up and saw what they did, and they always went to work and had careers.
Times have changed, and I don’t think a lot of people come in with great work ethics. I also see a lot of rookies who come on board, and they end up teaming with other rookies. They should connect with veteran account executives and go out on the streets with them. If they team up with somebody else who doesn’t know what they’re doing, they both usually end up failing.
You’ve sold a lot of spoken word stations – news, talk and sports. What is it about spoken word that makes it work so well for your clients?
It’s all about recall. People that listen to spoken word formats are listening and are actively engaged. You usually either like it or you don’t and if you do, you’re going to keep listening to hear what the next person has to say on the air. I’ve got their attention in spoken word so I can go to Mr. or Mrs. Advertiser and know that their message is going to get heard. Then, I come up with creative copy that people can remember.
With sports, the key is association. The advertisers love the association whether it’s pro, college or high school, they like being associated with it. The loyalty of the sports audience is a tremendous asset for our customers.
You have carved out quite a niche selling and broadcasting local high school and college sports, as well.
This will be our fifteenth year doing it and management and the advertisers know I have tremendous passion for it. Plus, it does well financially, as it has generated over a million dollars in sales. We may not be doing pro sports teams on our broadcasts, but we deliver a pro caliber broadcast and people like what they hear.
I do a lot of features like player of the game, coach of the game, mom of the week (where we recognize a player’s mom at halftime), scholar athlete, we recognize educators, administrators and school officials. It’s a lot more than just a high school game broadcast. The advertisers love the association.
What They Say…
“Mark thinks big and outside of the box. He’s great at presenting interactive ideas for clients that turn an interesting topic for listeners in to sales opportunities.” – Rich Deutsch, GSM Entercom – Kansas City
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.
