It’s time to start focusing on renewing our annual clients. Hopefully, you have been in regular touch with your targets throughout the last 12 months. If you haven’t, the odds of it being an easy renewal are not as great, but we all have clients who don’t want to get much communication from us. They keep on renewing, but for the most part one of the few in-person meetings will be the renewal!
Make a plan for 2023 that includes renewals and upsells. Here are six pointers to review to increase your chances for the renewal or, hopefully, upsell next year.
1. KNOW THE EXPIRATION DATES.
Prioritize clients that need renewing first, AND make sure you don’t forget one. I have done that through the years and been bailed out by my traffic person. Make sure you renew the ones that expire first. Evaluate how easy and realistic the renewal or upsell could be and go after the toughest first. You may need more time with those, and there could be some pre-renewal steps tht are necessary, like finding out their 2023 plans or thoughts on the success of your partnership in 2022.
2. REVIEW YOUR PAST CONTRACTS.
Did you deliver what they ordered? Where did you over-deliver? Were there any bonus spots or on-air mentions made of their business? Provide the evidence. Did you tighten the dayparts for their order? How many scripts did you write, and how many spots were produced? Did you always have spots approved on time? How can that improve?
If you have a good relationship with the client, they take your calls, listen to your advice and trust your judgment; they are prime for an upsell.
3. KNOW WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO GET PAID.
Do they pay their bills on time? Did they have any outstanding invoices? How is the paperwork flow for billing working on their end? Did we handle any billing inquiries they made? Did they get their co-op addressed adequately? Would any new payment terms be attractive to them, like a pre-payment for 2023 or at least knowing they will not pay before 60 days and you can get a callback if they are 61 days late?
If you check all those boxes, it is an excellent time to take credit for that and note that clients who pay net 30 are healthy and running efficiently. Another sign they could be a great upsell prospect.
4. BAKE IN THE BONUSES.
Where did you overdeliver? How many promos or free mentions did they receive? Did they ever reach out for tickets? Did you offer any free perks they did or did not take? Did the client ever call asking for access to an event?
If the client did use tickets or gain access, bake that in the next agreement and make it an upsell. Did you introduce any of their employees to a new business opportunity? Did you do business with them?
5. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE RELATIONSHIP.
If you are in their inner circle, ensure you sell the benefits of doing more with you, like digital and social media. Explain that you are already working with them regularly and you can save them time and effort by handling more of their advertising and give them better exposure. Remind them that they don’t want to add another person to manage.
6. RAISE THE RATES BUT ADD VALUE. If you are not upselling the contract, make sure you add for inflation. Inflation is real. Our cost of living is increasing. Even Social Security checks are increasing by 8.7%.
The feds are telling us inflation MAY reduce to about 3% in 2023. Can you add 3% to your contract total with price increases? Can you sell a $50,000 2022 contract for $51,500 in 2023? If you increase the rate in prime, can you lower it anywhere else and give them more spots? Add streaming, weekends, and Sundays with a unique ad that says they are open or closed or 7p-midnight spots that tell a story about how they are preparing to open at 8 am the next day? Create a campaign to increase their web traffic specifically.
Make sure you offer your renewals or upsells the first crack on new features, promotions, or podcasts they can get on upfront. When it comes to renewals, don’t be late, be great!
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.
