Radio Sales Café

Hello all! I have an oil field business on my stations right now, but would like to increase their air time. I would like to help them do this by presenting facts on how radio can help the oil field industry. . . only problem. . . I can't find any specific oil field companies that are heavy in radio.

So my question is "Any ideas where I could find information on the oil field industry and radio advertising?"

Any ideas would be very helpful!!

You may want to expand your search to include energy companies in general. I am aware that an electric company in Ohio teamed up with a radio station to give out tickets to the local minor league team. The team also participated and bought more air time. I think mostly the focus is drawing the company closer to the people it serves and the area it's in. It would be more of a public service campaign where you find out their interests and develop a campaign around that.

Thank you for your input David. I had a jingle company create an awesome jingle for them and they are really happy with their first large radio advertising purchase. I was just thinking of different ways to increase their current advertising campaign. I can include] your suggestion in their proposal. I also included a recruitment portion since the oil has started flowing again in this area. . . finally. I also based the campaign on the fact that they deal with many other local companys in the area. So it is in the realm of business to business advertising where they are increasing their familiarity with the other businesses they are either not currently working with or may have lost due to problems in their management, which have now been fixed since new owership. Thank you for your input, it gave me another direction to approach!

Hi Wendy, I feel your pain and would love to punch a button and be able to pull those numbers out of a magic hat, but in the 18 years I have been doing this, I have found but one button that works and works well. The "Hot Button". Alaska, is currently in a down cycle in regards to oil with much talk of a future gas pipeline. However, with current maket conditions and all the politics involved, it is a long haul that, to those of us who live here, seems may never end. I have gleaned a few things over the years though that may help you in your current quest (and congrats for thinking outside the box).

First, as David said, do not limit yourself to just the oil industry / related services. We have a local energy co-op that provides our electricity and by developing a solid relationship with their PR Journalist, I discovered that Member Safety is an importantant and integral part of their overall marketing strategy (customers getting hurt by electricity is bad for business) and have developed an ongoing safety campaign with them that has been in place for years now. The ads are seasonal and pertain to safety issues such as Call before you dig in the contruction season.....Downed trees and powerlines in the fall / winter....Overloading outllets during the Holidays....just to name a few....They are also required by law to advertise their General Election and Membership Meetings which are included in the overall plan. They also like to particpate in certain community programs such as a local scholarship and our annual Home Show so I pitch them on these ideas as well.

Second, Getting back to the oil industry / Support Services, try to find out who handles their PR and invite them to lunch one day WITH ONE GOAL IN MIND..... learning more about the oil industry and their services / roll as a whole. Come prepared and ask lots of related questions and work into such topics as "What is the biggest misconception regarding your industry as far as the public is concerned"? What type of community involvement do they currently have? What theire take is on any recent publicity (negative or positive) and any issues that have come on in the local news regarding their industry. If executed correctly, and you spend more time absorbing their answers than talking or asking questions, you will undoubtebly come away with a better understanding of what that person's / company's hot buttons are and be in a better place to present a proposal at a later date custom tailored to their perception of what may be in their company's best interest. Basically, you are selling them on their ideas. It is also a good idea to qualify them as the buyer in the process. If they are not the buyer, I will still pitch them on the ideas I have formulated and get them on board and then ask them if they would be willing to help set up a meeting with the person I need to meet with.

I know that may seem contrary toconventional thinking but remember, we are outside the box on this one, and if I can get this person on board and refer or take me to the person within their orginization that I have targeted, it bears much more merit than me walking in and asking for the appointment unannounced and trying to sell this person on the idea I presented to someone else (usually under them) in the company. Remeber, we are making inroads into an uncharted industry and looking for the path of least resistance.

Good luck and let us know how things progress.

One final afterthought on the above post Wendy.

Your goal is to make inroads into the industry. By presenting in this manner you have the possibility of achieving one of two goals.

1. Hit the decision maker with your first contact.

or

2. Get to the decision maker through your first contact. Both are good but sometimes the latter is even better because if the decision maker likes the idea, he is reminded every time he hears it who brought it to him...thus, you have helped your initial contact make the decision makers radar with a good idea garnering him /her with the credit for the idea which in turn can help solidify your relationship with the first contact which is never a bad thing when you are working in uncharted waters.

In the end, the two of you have won and nothing is as sweet as a victory shared... after all.... a party with just one...really isn't much of a party.

So in this case, I say shake conventional wisdom and sales techinques and go girl.....

Thank you all for your help with this topic. All of your great ideas have helped me lock in my biggest client yet! This site is the best I have come across. If RAB.com doesn't help with some of the basic stuff you all hit a homerun for me with your great ideas. Thank you all for being such a great resource for radio sales people and our stations!