6-3-2014
Do you remember how you felt when you scored your first radio job? Your friends couldn?t believe you were in ?show biz.? You were in the mass communications business, working with well-known personalities, getting backstage passes, creating ideas for clients, and learning something new every day. It was fun and you got paid for it!
And what about the first broadcast order you filled out? Was it more exciting than the daily grind today?
I happened to be at a client?s station the other day when a listener came in to pick up a prize they had won. One of the station?s staff asked if the winner wanted a tour of the station.
I couldn?t believe the response. You would think they were just offered an all-expenses paid tour of Europe. ?Really?!? she said excitedly. ?I?ve never been in a radio station before!?
At that moment I quietly admitted to myself that I had become so close to the forest that I wasn?t in awe of the trees anymore.
Maybe it?s time for all of us to revisit our careers with the same enthusiasm that I witnessed in that radio listener.
Sure, you?ve got budget pressures (you used to call them ?challenges?) and your clients are cutting back or demanding competitive proposals and rates. But there?s a lot of sizzle to selling radio that many of us have forgotten.
Are you using the emotional power of music or the compelling sound of the human voice in spec spots to put the excitement and sizzle into your presentations?
Have you offered the services of your personalities to M.C. events at your client?s club? Is your station aloof or do you offer your audience station tours like the station I was at?
Do you offer your clients opportunities to sponsor exciting on-air contests?
While you might think all of the buzz today is around new media, there?s a lot to be said for local people being able to call their favorite station and talk to a real live person.
Your music inspires them, and your information, contests, and humor still evoke conversations around the water cooler. Radio advertising is just as effective today as the day you started in the biz. The only difference is you now have more competitors vying for your sponsors? attention, and your biggest competitor, print, is hugely vulnerable. To win, your presentations need to be more professional and more exciting.
Your clients have a lot of media choices today. And you do have to deliver the competitively-priced steak they want, to get the sale. But if you?ll fire yourself and start your ?new? career with the enthusiasm you had when you launched your radio career, the sizzle you add to your steak can be the tie-breaker to help advertisers choose radio over another media.
P.S. While you?re having fun again, I?m betting you?ll also make more calls, your enthusiasm will be contagious, and you?ll make more sales!
Wayne ENS is president of ENS Media Inc He can be contacted at wayne@wensmedia.com
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
