What should you do when bad news hits your radio station? You lose the big play-by-play contract, your morning show breaks up, the ratings tanked, or you have a rate increase. Maybe your program director is retiring, and the station’s direction is up in the air.
Here’s what you do: be the first to tell your clients!
You call, email, or see them first before anybody else does. First impressions matter, and nothing travels faster than bad news. A good percentage of your clients will believe that whatever negative information they read or hear about your station is accurate. And, you know if whoever delivers that bad news wants to hurt you. Especially your competition. So, make sure it comes from you first.
Bombproof your clients.
The next time you are in a competitive sales situation with two or three other stations pitching the same business, lead with the negative! Todd Caponi has written an excellent book, The Transparency Sale. Caponi says we are wired to read the lousy Yelp reviews first, and until we know the downsides of doing a deal, we can’t process the upside.
Do you believe the 5-star reviews online? No? You aren’t alone.
Here’s an example that illustrates Caponi’s approach. You are pitching a sporting goods store. They feel the target demo leans women but is 25-54 Adults. You tell the buyer you don’t reach women because your station is too busy conversing one on one with males. That’s why your station has so much exclusive cume and loyalty. So, why doesn’t the buyer purchase your package for males and find a station that is heavy in females like station KYOU? When the AE from KYOU says they reach males and females, they will be surprised at what the buyer spits back at them. And, according to Caponi, you will have disarmed the buyers’ resistance to being “sold,” and you will gain their trust and speed up the process of getting the buy.
Caponi writes that if we are transparent about our weaknesses, we can speed the sales cycle up because our approach will help the buyers’ brains better predict what they will gain by buying from you. AND, by being transparent upfront, if you lose the deal, you will do it faster and be able to move on to the next sale.
I agree with Caponi and have long held that all the research projects we roll out to clients that show radio reaches everyone all the time are falling flat. It’s like we are leading with our 5-star review that our boss wrote, or we asked an excellent client to submit. The buyers know this and, the younger they are, the more likely they won’t trust our perfection approach.
I always liked to ask a client how many customers they would need to buy from our radio campaign to make it successful? Say that number is ten buyers. Who cares how MANY listeners we reach? They just told you they want 10 BUYERS? So, admit there are stations with more overall listeners but not BUYERS!
If you liked Caponi’s approach, check out his new book coming out in the Spring of 2022. Pre-order here.
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.
