2-23-2015
A lot of people on the programming side of radio don?t have the honor and opportunity to live in a world where they have to ?ask for the order.? That may sound rough, but sales jobs are not easy. It doesn?t matter if you think you have the greatest product ever, there are still real challenges in selling it and those frustrations show up every day. Several of the most significant guidelines successful sales people have to master to be really excellent at selling are:
1. Listen more than you talk
2. Make sure you follow up and follow through with clients regularly
3. Ask for the order.
In the programming and marketing departments, we are largely talkers. And we?re good at it! However, much could be learned if we put our social media caps on and used these guidelines for our posts and other activities in social media:
1. Listen to what is actually going on with the local listeners you have and those whom you want most to attract to your brand. See what they are talking about, commenting on, posting about.
2. Make sure you validate them whenever you can as a personality. People look up to you. You are on the radio. That still means something and you should consistently respect that and use it to do good things for other people in your market.
3. Make sure you are consistent in the social media you post, the comments you make to listeners, and the ?offers? you may make them related to your on-air (yes, we should always be doing this).
4. Ask for the order. Don?t be afraid to ask them to listen and use content teases to draw them directly to your on-air. Why not? Social media can influence more people than you think. Our constant goal should be to help our listeners, businesses, and community, and draw them back to our products. We?re radio.
Always be compelling. Photos, video, written word, ideas?but ask for the order. Be consistent. Make sure you follow-through. Listen more than you talk, and when you ?talk,? make it meaningful. Now, go give these people R-A-D-I-O! Local radio, please.
Loyd Ford is the digital revenue, direct marketing, ratings and social media strategist for Rainmaker Pathway and Americalist Direct Marketing. Loyd has programmed very successful radio brands in markets of all sizes, including KRMD AM & FM in Shreveport, and WSSL and WMYI in Greenville, WKKT in Charlotte and WBEE in Rochester, NY. Learn more about Loyd here: http://about.me/loydford. Get his radio-social media content sent directly to your smart phone or email for free here: www.rainmakerpathway.wordpress.com.
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