Since I last posted (and it was a while ago. Oops!) I have entered the big, bad world of radio sales. It’s a tough old role and has really opened my eyes to what goes on behind the scenes to get Trevor to tell you where you should go to buy a car. I’m still working my way into the position and looking to improve so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve experienced so far and hope to get some hints and tips from those in the know.
Mountain FM is located in Ebbw Vale’s Festival Church
Having left university in July with a 1st class BA (Hons) Radio degree, I went out into the ‘real’ world to find a job in the medium in which I studied. After a number of weeks applying for jobs, getting interview and getting knocked-back I finally found a job through the Jobs Growth Wales Scheme at Mountain FM. The commercial station has been broadcasting via the internet since 2010 and began broadcasting on DAB in July 2011 and my role was to be part of a two-man sales team and search out potential advertisers.
I took the role as, despite having no sales background, I wanted to be part of a professional station and as my contract is only 6 months long I thought it was a great chance to learn some new skills and hopefully help the station improve. I may have been very naive going into the job as I assumed my friendly, approachable persona would help drive my sales and that marketing jargon and tricks of the trade wouldn’t be needed. However, as radio blogger Simon Rushton declares: ‘Radio Sales is a tough profession. Only a handful of people in my experience really excel at it’ and having been in the job for just over 2 months I quickly realised this is the case.
In the interview for the role I was told that I would get one sale from every 100 phone calls I made and though it seemed like a big number, I was sure I could get that number down as I also helped improve the output and profile of the station.
Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that 1 in 100 calls was wishful thinking as made close to 1000 calls in my first month and only managed to accumulate a meagre £50. I wanted to change tack and head out to meet businesses but unfortunately there’s no petrol allowance in the role and as I’m only on national minimum wage I simply can’t afford the risk of driving around in the hope that someone will take up one of the station’s packages. Not only is meeting new people something I relish, I also know it is the best way to strike up the sort of business relationship as ‘there’s nothing more powerful than a face-to-face meeting when you are trying to win over a customer’ (The Marketing Donut, 2010).
When speaking to businesses on the phone or face-to-face there are a number of reasons/excuses why they do not want to advertise. Here are the top 5:
- We have spent our budget for the year.
- We are not aware of your station.
- You’re not on FM? We can’t listen to you in the car? No thanks.
- I’d rather put an ad in the paper or put up posters.
- Radio advertising doesn’t work.
I have been given these answers tens maybe hundreds of times and I have an answer to all of them yet the best interest I’m given is ‘Can you send me an email?’ I send an email. I hear nothing. I send another email/call. Ignored. I’ve tried all the great tips from Michael Hyatt’s ‘10 Strategies for Getting a Faster Response to Your Email’ but I still all to often find my inbox empty.
Even the best salesman in the world would find it difficult to sell to a never ending dial tone or an email response that never arrives.
My job was made harder a few weeks ago when my fellow salesperson left the station and now I am a one-man sales ‘team’. To battle this seemingly impossible task of selling Mountain FM advertising space I have tried all sorts from drastically reducing the costs, giving away free DAB sets, using sites like SlideShare and GetMeMedia as well as boosting the social media profile of the station and using that as another way to lure businesses.
So as I continue to try and sell Mountain FM’s advertising space I would love for all those with far more experience in this field to help me out with some tips or point me in the way of some good advice. I am not the type of person to sit back, make unsuccessful phone calls and take my money at the end of the month and so I’m calling on radio salesmen/account executives/sales managers to help a guy out.
DaveKWilliams 