Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's poll question was inspired by a recent post by Kathie Easton of Monroe, NC:
Does your station employ a telemarketer as a part of its sales team? What types of packages does he or she sell? What incentives help keep your telemarketer motivated?
Looking forward to reading your replies!
I have had telemarketers in the past. They usually just sold specialty packages like holiday salutes. I have found that they don't usually last long, but they do usually get some clients that we have not thought of and some end up being good customers.
Haven't ever. I'd consider it if it was the right professional person with the right sellers on board to follow up.
Our sales assistant is good at making calls, and functions as a telemarketer as part of her duties. She's knows our ecosystem, and it works out pretty well.
We had an in-house telemarketer a few years back. I wouldn’t want to repeat that experience. She sold mostly awareness sponsorships, like anti-illegal drug use, anti-drinking and driving messages and alike. Two main challenges came from that. First, we as reps would approach a client that was not necessarily high potential client, and they would tell us, “We tried radio, didn’t work, and it was your station.” Trying to reverse the experience the client had with what they feel was radio advertising was almost impossible. Second challenge was the telemarketer began to use lines like “If you don’t purchase this program, you must support illegal drug use.” Those type of things created bad will within our market. I don’t believe that she would normally take that approach, but sales were not as good as expected and, desperate people do desperate things.
We just took a look as some past numbers this morning and it was sobering. A few years ago over 30% of our customers were spending less than $1,000 per year. It costs the same in time and expenses to write the ad, schedule it and bill it. Doesn't make sense to do telemarketing.
The answers so far must disappoint Grace Broadcast Sales thus far.The scripts that Grace sells are designed for NTR Campaigns to be sold in small packages that would most efficiently be done over the phone rather that use a motor marketer.Other industries find that a inside sales force better for selling all products.Radio was been attracting people to advertizing sales that worked in other industries in sales before coming to Radio. They bring their bad habits with them. Management is ill equipmented to train new recruits, nor has the will to hire someone with the skill set to give proper training. The catch 22 of Radio. Not all radio companies are run and staffed by people in a default job, but it is easy to spot the companies that can use career radio people that took the time to educate themselves about Radio.
The most formative five-and-a-half years of my now 42-year career in radio sales were spent working for Jerry Papenfuss' KAGE AM-FM in Winona, MN (population then: 26,000). It was there we received training from Jim Williams and grew our sales staff from two to fourteen active sellers in the space of a few years.
Telemarketing was integrated into our sales process, with regular "phone blitzes" (scheduling a day or two for concentrated calling) designed not only to add to our monthly billing, but also to identify and cultivate prospects that were not active as regular advertisers. This didn't seem at all foreign to us; after all, we were supposed to be experts in audio communications and the telephone was an efficient way to reach a lot of people in a short time.
I'm familiar with a number of highly successful broadcasters (including members of the IBIB) whose full- or part-time telemarketers provide a significant return on investment. Want to hear how one sales team in Fergus Falls, MN brought in $56,000 in additional summertime billing as a result of a single phone blitz? (Follow that link down to the second item on the page.)
Jim Williams believed in keeping things simple. When asked about what one should look for in a successful sales candidate (for telemarketing or otherwise), he boiled his answer down to just two factors: "Can Do" and "Want to Do." Sounds simplistic, doesn't it?
Maybe that's why I've never forgotten it.
I should correct Victor on a few points:
1) GBS sells mainly produced features, not scripts.
2) Not all of our station clients use these features for telemarketing. In fact, many use them as an easy way to sign one or two category-exclusive advertisers to large-dollar, longer term contracts--"signature campaigns," if you will.
3) Those who do offer smaller packages usually sell so many of them as to yield a substantial return on their relatively modest investment of time and money; they welcome the extra 5 or 10 grand in monthly billing.
I'm with you, I too felt that we were suppose to be audio communication experts.I still enjoy hearing a prospect say"that sounds good, how much is that" after I've read them a live spec spot on the phone. The idea of making more calls per hour also is very appealing.It's pretty much common sense that your best salespeople or going to use the phone more and be excellent communicators. CALLS- PRESENTATIONS- CLOSES
