Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's poll question is from Rod:
Your biggest client is currently spending $10,000 a month with you - his whole radio budget - for which he gets 75 spots per day on your station. He's just told you that the rep from a competing station told him he's running too many ads on your station and has recommended that he divide the budget between your station and theirs. (They play country music, which you don't, and therefore can offer him a new audience.)
How would you respond? What do you say to this client?
Looking forward to reading your answers!
(Incidentally, we're not making up any of this. It really happened. We'll share the salesperson's story and her response next week. Stay tuned.)
Sounds like they have a point.
75 spots a DAY!! Isn't that complete overkill?
Even if that's 30 second spots that's 2.6% of your entire output. I assume listeners are starting to get fed up of those ads.
Show the client other ways of spending 5 thousand on your station... or start looking for clients to make up for the 5 thousand a month you're about to lose.
And next time, sell sensible effective schedules.
First I might question the number of spots (75 a day ..3.125 per hour .. and 2,350 a month) for $10,000 .. that averages $4.44 a spot. While I am the first one to be exctited about an aggressive advertiser I might have to question this situation: listener burn out and stale commercials. Way to many spots for one client! Personally I feel a station woudl be hard pressed to refut the new station's suggestions to the client however, I might start asking questions like: is your return on the investment working for you .. are you selling more product .. seeing new customers .. and continuing to increase cash flow. I might also suggest to the client that the station become his/her agent and place the monthly business .. setup an inhouse agency and if necessary place some advertising on other a venues and at least collect the commission on placement from the competition. Personally this is a rediculious situation but if you know the salesman's name I'd like to talk to him (LOL)!
I agree with finding another way for them to spend money on your station. Radio Remote, commuter cup giveaway, etc. But, I am a rookie so to speak! And yes, keep looking for those other clients.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. 75 a day??!!!? Ridiculous.
Great response David .. this is a basic how to screw up a good radio advertiser!
Everyone thinks that this is overkill, and the suggestions to put some of this budget to other things, a comprehensive presence on your website with consumer interaction, some in store promotion that will drive traffic, a streaming campaign with video pre-roll, listener e-mail campaign for special sale or event,
eliminate the overkill and get back to what we should be doing, be a marketing partner not a Robin Hood radio guy,
In this situation, I'd ask myself what does "sales" mean to me...yes, we all have bills to pay, But part of sales is what we project about ourselves and our stations... In this situation, being a resource how to allocate $5000 so it helps the client reach their goals is, in my opinion, the road to take.
I 100% agree with the OTHER rep. Just because someone is willing to spend too much in one place does not mean you should take the order!
We all know that 8 to 12 ads per day is plenty, but only if you are changing copy every few days! In addition I cannot imagine the fatigue factor on an audience. Thus I cannot figure out how I could possibly defend a position of not taking a good chunk of that budget and moving it. The fact is none of us has more than a 15 share (more likely an over 6) in our markets. That country station WOULD bring him more people, enhance his business and make sure he is around into the future.
I'd like to see how this ended up.
I hope this discussion doesn't get crazy. I come here to express opinions - not get called names. We have a client who runs 3 spots per DAYPART - it sounds like they run every hour, and some listeners say they get tired of them. So when you have a client who acually DOES run more than once an hour it can do more harm than good if it's driving your listeners away.
Anyway, IMHO - I'm wondering if the station this $10K client is on, has another sister station to appropriate these extra spots to - they don't have a country station, but it didn't say if they had another station. Another option could be remotes, digital offerings - sometimes this can include a blast to the station facebook page twice a week. Paul Weyland, who is very aggressive in placing schedules, doesn't place more than 15 spots a day.
Happy selling.
Sales rep is doing the client a disservice. Focus on the client's best interests, not the commissions, yourself or the station. Poor programming / brand control as well. This would drive listeners nuts. And at the very least, raise the rate.
Best option is to act as a client focused consultant. Help client with more efficient options, it will pay back in the long term.
BTW, client will eventually figure this out, likely with the help of competitive stations. He/she will then feel burned, used, and pissed off.
I am making the assumption that this client is either a grocery store or in the automotive industry! Being in every break in every hour needs to be very creative. If you are changing them out every three to four days or running a short term blitz.... it's fine. We do this with concerts comming to town to get the cume audience attention. My recommendation would be based on the ROI factor... are they getting results quickly? Are they getting the business that a ROI calculator would predict? Are you staying in constant contact with the client and do they sound like it's exciting or overkill..... the creative is the main thing to consider. Sounded like a smart thing to say as a competitor, and if they're needs not being meet by you then you have a problem. I would be interested in the clients feedback more than the sales person response.
Yikes, 75 ads a day is too much. I don't know about you but we don't even have that many breaks open, so he'd have multiple ads per break. I think too many ads IS true. If you only care about losing revenue, so you're not servicing that client properly. A good media rep is a resource for their client, and will answer honestly when a client asks a question like that. You could also consider NTR promotions to change things up.
I'd rather have my clients do every radio station in town, and get great results. When radio is used properly, it creates lifelong customers. For all of us. When you're honest with a client, and keep THEIR best interests at heart (not your wallet), you create a lifelong customer for yourself.
Thinking of the future (way beyond current use) I would hand him a copy of Roy Williams "Wizard of Ads" ... He really does have the answers.
Anna: You really hit the nail on the head:
"..........keep THEIR best interests at heart (not your wallet), you create a lifelong customer for yourself."
They won't expect you to take this attitude and they'll appreciate and respect it and you gain a lifelong account and a great reference.
Client, would you agree that the exposure you are getting with my station is working for you? You would not be spending all that money if it were not working for you right? You obviously see the value and return on your investment with me. If it is not broken, let's not fix it. Now if you have capacity to serve more customers and would like to invest additional budget to expand into a new market, perhaps with my competition, let's run the numbers and see how many of their listeners you need to convert to do business with you in order to justify the additional investment. I have negotiated with my competitor in the past and I get favorable rates with them. If the math works out, I can have you sign an agency agreement with my girlfriend (aka lamp, sofa, favorite ink pen, off shore shell corporation, Swiss Bank account etc…) and I can place your additional budget on their station on your behalf. That way you only have to deal with me and I have the influence to get you the best deal possible. So we already know how much each of your new customers is worth, how many customer's are you hoping to recruit from this country station?
I wish I had read this before I posted. Great job Joel.
The first thing I'd need to know to answer this question is, is the client telling you this because he now thinks he's running too many ads or is he just telling you this because he wants to let you know what the competing station is saying?
If he's just telling you because he wants to let you know, then you must have a good relationship with the client. You've already explain the reason for the schedule and his ROI.
If he how thinks he's running too many ads, you have a problem.
This is why it's important to explain to the client why we're recommending a schedule and how it will increase their business at the beginning of the relationship.
$10,000 may be the right budget but 75 ads a day is too many. What premium products, presenting sponsorships, remotes, digital, etc. do you have to keep as much of the budget as possible and get the ad count down substantially. Spending the same amount on a station with a good track record with the client and an untested station seems overboard.
This kind of schedule will lead to listener burn-out and has got to be a scheduling nightmare for traffic.
What a wonderful problem to have! I do think 75 spots a day is overkill and will lead to audience burnout. That being said, I have to look at the total revenue and would attempt to keep it. In this day and time a station should have other options in addition to spots. Several folks have mentioned remotes and after a while they too will also lose their effectiveness. In addition, I assume you have a website and can put ads on it. And with the kind of revenue mentioned the client can partner with the station in other promotions such as doing station mailings which would give the client direct mail as well as also promoting the station, and an added bonus would be the station producing more revenue from other non-competing advertisers piggybacking with the mailing. Sponsorships of weather with a 5-10 second mention. I remember back in the sixties and seventies WBT in Charlotte sold the top of the hour time signal to a regional grocery chain, and every hour before going into the news & ID there would a ten second spot “its 11 AM Park & Shop time" and then 1 item on special (I know selling weather & time signals is so lame). And then how about off air promotions such as having listeners nominate a volunteer of the month and doing a presentation of a prize at the dealership, using one of the previously mentioned remotes. Think about the goodwill that could be generated! Connect the client again with 5 -10 second mentions to anything positive or helpful to the community. The community would think this client was responsible for all these things being on the air. Attempt to reduce the heavy redundant number of spots, but do your best to keep the total revenue. And it goes without saying to keep whatever spots that are left and all their advertising FRESH. I just can't see agreeing with the client that he or she should reduce their advertising by half with out attempting to be creative. Too many time broadcasters have a large advertiser such as this and they don't attempt to do anything to earn their business. If I had more time I'm sure there are other ideas to keep this advertiser relevant, and totally enthralled with you and your station. Special apps with the iphone and all the other new technology. And it goes without saying to keep the client’s management and average workers happy with the usual freebies as they become available. Earn their business and give them added VALUE every single day.
With all the talk about what could be done to keep the revenue, my question is why wouldn't you have already talked to the clients about these things. To come back now and tell the client all of these things just makes you look bad and puts doubt in their mind if you're really trying to help grow their business or are just concerned about the money.
Dean, I agree. I would hope they haven't been sitting at Starbucks and just thinking of ways to spend the commissions. I also wonder how long the client has been on the station spending this much. Is this the sales person sharing this info with us, the SM, GM, OWNER? I'm looking forward to hearing all the nice and nasty details of how this turns out. Like most questions this one can have several correct answers. One thing I have seen is when a station has a large account like this, the client is usually not offered any of the deals or promotions the station uses to attract new business. The powers that be, don't want to do anything and upset the apple cart. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen! You see this everyday when you see the cable company offering special low rates for new customers and you're paying 2 or 3 times the rate they are offering. Sometimes you can get the promotional rate, but you have to fight for it and it sure makes you see how sleezy the business operates.
BR
