This week I didn’t just talking to one salesperson for our feature, I talked to several salespeople who sell sports media. I want to bring perspective on what is happening out in the field, what the sellers who are grinding each day are thinking or struggling with.

I asked several people who are living the day-to-day world of sales the same question, ‘What is the hardest part about selling sports media right now?’

Now, of course the sellers I have asked are people that I know, which in most cases means I managed them at some point. And that means they know my spiel. I always say there are six things you must do as a sports media salesperson and those are prospecting, getting meetings, doing a client needs analysis, presenting a great campaign with creative ideas, closing the sale and then super-serving your client and their buy. I generally add that the job itself is hard, but understanding the job is easy.

“Prospecting, I feel like the number of categories willing to spend what they need to is dwindling,” came the first response.

This is not a new thing to hear. We used to have more bread-and-butter categories and we all know the change in the auto business and retail and how that has affected sports media sales over the last few years.

This is where you must get innovative and bring new categories into sports media that may not have been in the space before. Easier said than done, but digital offerings also allow sellers now to prospect any company that has the money to spend and to get a relationship going with a client where they can then get them to try radio or television, or whatever the core product is, after trust has been built.

Which leads me right to the second response I received, which came from a really good, experienced, salesperson.

“Closing. And what I mean by that is my closing ratio is way down with digital. I have found it easier to get appointments, but because everyone and their brother is selling it, closing that deal has become much harder.”

The struggle is real. And I feel especially bad for those that work for companies that just figured radio sellers were already out in the market and they would just teach you a little digital and off you go. It’s not easy and it takes extra effort to understand it and be able to present it in such a way that you can compete against people who have been trained from day one to sell it.

I was in a meeting with a senior seller a few years ago where I had to apologize to the client because the seller was trying to talk the digital game but had about 60% of the information correct.

Some of this of course falls on the seller. If this is your career and something you want to excel at for a long time, you have no choice but to put the time and effort into learning it, asking questions, doing whatever you need to do to become as close to an expert as you can.

Two sellers answered that they are not having problems getting meetings, but they are struggling with the quality of the meetings. I put that under prospecting.

Prospecting the right way can be tedious but it’s worth it. It is one thing to see a new business pop up or, more likely, someone who did some form of advertising. The problem is, we make too many assumptions at both ends of the spectrum. On one end we assume someone advertising in the Daily Bulletin has money to spend on advertising and on the other end we assume all companies think small and we don’t pitch them enough.

Whether it be looking up information about the company from what you can find online, doing the digital diagnostics or simply going to their website and seeing how they present themselves, you have to take the time to make sure a prospect is worthy of your time. A great resource for this is the Radio Advertising Bureau website.

Another response was, “All. The Things. But, if I had to pick one of the six, I would probably say trying to service and execute because that includes writing copy, dealing with billing, dealing with traffic, digital and everything else. Plus, this new client is now incredibly important, and I feel like I have to entertain them and do everything in my power to make this work. It’s a lot of pressure.”

Haven’t we always been taught to under-promise and over-deliver? It’s tough to do, especially when you are trying to do everything you can to win business. Something else you have heard before is, “the work begins when the client says yes.” Now, it is time to execute and some things, especially when it comes to digital, are completely out of your hands. The best way to look at this is to control what you can control and limit the chances for mistakes. Don’t cut corners, especially with copy.

None of the answers surprised me and so much of it goes back to grinding it out and continuing to work those six important steps. It used to be a simple numbers game where the more you pitch the more you sell. That still holds true today, but nowadays you have to spend more time preparing or working each step, in order to continue to win business.