Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our sales meeting where our topic will be the ‘Wind of Change.’ For many of you, you just thought of the famous Scorpions song with the great whistling. By the way, here is a pro tip for you if you like podcasts. There is a podcast series called Wind of Change, which is one of the best podcast series I have ever listened to. It is about that song and a wild rumor the host investigates that the song was written by the CIA. Put it on your list if you enjoy podcasts, it is eight episodes and is especially great for a long road trip.
Ok, back to the lecture at hand (you didn’t think I could work the Scorpions and Dr. Dre into one column, but here we are). The wind of change is happening all around in our business. Most recently there were two major examples with WCBS going away and being leased to ESPN New York and in Kansas City Alt 96.5 was dropped in favor of sports. In both of these cases, salespeople and their clients are impacted. Change is happening, conversations need to be had.
So, what happens when you are the salesperson and change you had nothing to do with is happening and now you have to go talk your client into something else, when you worked your tail off to get them on in the first place? Now you have to go save the account.
Let’s face it, telling someone something is not going the way you or they expected it or has to change is not an easy conversation. But things happen. Things happen to your client in their business, and while they might be a little disappointed if you spent a lot of time narrowing down a target market, came up with a great campaign for an alternative music audience and the sales rep now has to come in and tell you that station will be sports next week.
Heck, I worked for a group once with an AM News/Talk station that spent years selling against the FM News/Talk station in twon. It was a pretty bitter rivalry. I am certain there were salespeople spending time in meetings MF’ing the other station. Then one day, the big corporate group that owned the AM bought the company that had the FM. Now they were together and salespeople who had been selling against the other station, now had to sell that other station. “Hi, remember all those terrible things I said about that station before? Ha, just kidding, they are with us now and what I found out is, they actually aren’t horrible monsters who lie about everything and rip off their clients with overpriced advertising, it’s a great station, want to advertise on it now?”
The truth with change is that a lot of how it is handled has to do with how something was sold in the first place. Sell your benefits and never mention your competitors unless you are asked a direct question and even in that case, turn your comment into something positive about what you represent. Don’t be that person that has to tear something else down in order to get a sale.
When important change is happening, the first thing you need to do is make sure your clients hear about it from you and not someone else. You can’t always control this but do your best to reach out to your people, see as many in person as you can and talk them through what is happening. Explain the why behind it, or as much as you can, and then offer solutions that ties back to your original discussions with the client.
If, for example, Company X was sold on a strong 18-34 station, and you don’t have something else to offer them on radio that can hit that same audience, work on a digital plan or possibly an event. The point is, have something ready that offers a solution. Unless you have done it recently, it is a great time to go over the needs analysis with the client and make sure nothing has changed. Maybe something has and the change you are worried about telling them turns out to be a good thing.
No matter the situation, you are the expert about what is happening at your radio station(s), at least that is how the client sees it. The client, on the other hand, should be more in the know than somebody who doesn’t have the working relationship with your company. The worst thing that can happen is someone else tells them important station news before they hear it from you. Actually, I take that back, the worst thing would be if that someone else is a sales competitor.
Change is never going away in our business. Know that and remember that any situation is ultimately about how you react to it. Always take good notes so you remember why you sold what you sold to someone, what were you trying to accomplish. This way, when inevitable change happens, or for any other number of reasons, you can refer back to the information.
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.
