ShareThis
I came across a blog post from a guy who sold radio for a few years. Below is his approach. Seems like he’s got the basics covered. What do you think? You can read his full post on selling radio advertising here.
1. Based on the geographic reach and demographics of who listens to your station, make a list of industries and businesses that might be interested in advertising to that demographic. If possible, find out who makes decisions about advertising at each of those businesses.
2. Cold-call the business to find out who is in charge of advertising. If you get them on the phone, convince them to meet with you face-to-face at their office. “Convincing” is basically asking questions and using a script that demonstrates to them that there may be something it for them to meet with you (ie. new customers). Keep calling back until they tell you no.
3. Meet with them and perform a “customer needs analysis”. Basically you come prepared with a bunch of questions that are designed to get them to reveal things about their business, which you can then use as evidence to show them hat should be spending money to advertise. You also have to present:
- the benefits of your station in-depth so they are convinced that their advertising could work
- your experience and expertise so that they trust your recommendations
- examples of similar companies that have had success
Last but not least, you have to convince them to give you another meeting so that you can make a recommendation for exactly how much money they should spend.
4. At this meeting you will present what their commercial will sound like, how many commercials they will get, when their commercials will play, and you will try to get to close them and return to your office with a check/credit card. Most likely they will have a few objections to which you will have to be prepared to overcome.
5. If they agree to advertise, great. You now have to service their account. This means getting their commercial(s) produced, collecting payment, scheduling commercials, etc. This doesn’t sound like a lot but it can eat up a lot of time especially when you are first getting an account on the air.
If you provide great service and the advertising works, congrats, you will get the advertiser to buy more.
Read the full blog post from theupsidedownlife here.
