It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not college football season or the holidays but the annual sales budget forecast season. Around this time every year, the financial gurus at your company are cranking out the 2023 budget. And salespeople are a big part of that.
Last year’s budgeting process was rough with the uncertainties of the pandemic’s effect on the economy. I watched a RAB seminar on budgeting featuring the Audacy VP of Finance and wrote about it here. One of the seminar’s themes was how unreliable sales figures could be passed on from salespeople. It is hard to project what some clients will do and often even harder to ask lest they tell you they are thinking of canceling or cutting back. Nobody likes to hear bad news. Read on for some better news and tips to find 2023 business.
The bottom line is that most salespeople will be handed a 2023 budget that includes an increase from 2022. Most radio groups will scan BIA, Kagan, Miller Kaplan, or RAB forecasts for 2023 and apply that number to your budgets. They hope to see numbers back from us that meet them in the middle, at least. As of September 2022, Kagan forecasts a 3% increase in local spot ad radio revenue, a 4.8% increase in digital, and 3% in off-air revenue like live events. And here is a warning for you if you sell in Dallas, Seattle, Salt Lake, Boise, or Atlanta: you sell in a Top 5 fastest growing markets through 2027, so the heat is on! Kagan is also projecting that the national spot business will continue to decline due to streaming and podcasting. So, if “it’s to be in ’23, it’s up to me,” the local seller said. If you haven’t done so, ensure you continue developing your automotive, travel, entertainment, and retail clients, as they are our bread-and-butter spenders.
Show them the comparison statistics about how radio has a lower ad cost than other media with a higher return on investment and how our audiences are local and can be easily reached to buy from a local brand or storefront. Be sure to stay in front of emerging categories like online gambling if it is legal in your state, and get your hotels, resorts, amusement parks, and health clubs primed for potential increases in 2023.
Inflation and the pandemic have hurt these categories, and if inflation calms down, they could have some pent-up demand. Any industry, like automotive specifically, in which supply chain issues have hit needs to be monitored and can be great conversation starters for you with your clients. And my podcast dropping Monday, 10/17, features Jeanne Marie Condo, the President of Network Partnerships and CRO of Skyview Networks, who discusses two emerging industries she has focused on” Recruiting firms and pharmaceutical advertisers. Both those categories are spending money on sports and play-by-play. Pharmaceutical companies are spending more on marketing and sales than research. Contact the largest employers in your area to see if they want to purchase some digital or over-the-air recruitment ads in 2023. And, since the hiring challenges will continue, make sure you pencil yourself in for at least a 4.1% raise in your 2023 income projections. Everybody else will be getting one. Plan on!
Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on LinkedIn.
