Usually, when I talk about sales mixing with programming, it’s directed towards the on-air talent. I am often encouraging them to understand our business better and know that everything, in the end, comes down to how much revenue you or your show drives for the company you work for. This week, I want to talk about sales mixing with programming, but I want to talk about it from the other direction.
Let me let you in on a secret, first. On-air talent are generally thinking about one of 4 things: their next show, their next meal, their next check or themselves. Most air talent (and I said most, not all) do not care about your client’s needs and wants nor do they think about ideas that could help you make more money – WITHOUT BEING PROMPTED.
So, prompt them. Do you know your air talent? Do you know if they are married or if they have kids? What part of town do they live in? Do they frequent any local businesses? Where do they shop? Where do they get their hair cut? Do they want or need anything from a business that might make sense to advertise on our sports station?
If you don’t know these answers about everyone you sell, stop right now. Send them an email that says you want to take them out to breakfast, lunch, for coffee, for a cocktail, whatever. Spend some time with them somehow, someway, before the end of this week. Initiate the conversation and get to know the people you sell.
When a rep starts, within the first week or two I’ll have them sit in the studio, with the hosts, for a couple hours per show. This way, they’ll have all met, the new seller will hear each show completely uninterrupted and during the breaks, hopefully they get to know just a little bit about one another.
The talent that get it, like to be engaged and they like to be part of the planning process versus being told they’re to be involved in something without having given any input. This gets back to my earlier point that it’s generally the sales team that will need to engage with talent to pull the ideas and leads out of them. I’m not saying this is how it should be, I’m just telling the truth, they are willing to help, if you are willing to come to them.
Then, once you have them engaged, and they believe that you’re out promoting them as a brand for endorsements and selling the ideas they come up with, they could end up becoming your best lead source. It is simply human nature for the talent to want to work with those that are working with them, those they trust, those they’ve seen take care of other clients they might know personally.
So be that guy or that gal, the one who is working with the top talent in the building and getting them all the endorsements that sky-rocket their incomes. Ask them questions, ask them what they are working on or what is coming up that you may be able to get out in front of. I can assure you, if you are the rep who is known as taking care of talent, you are the rep who is getting leads when they come from talent. And we know those leads are the Glengarry leads.
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.
