To all radio sales professionals....your clients do not have a budget! If they do, they can always find money for something that appeals to them. You wanting to talk to them about their budget is a zero based conversation. For the most part, they don't want to spend money on radio or any form of advertising. It's a necessary evil to most. However, if you create a way to view radio that they have never considered, you can increase their budget without ever having to discuss their budget. Here is how you do it.
I have found that most small business owners don't know how amazing their "story" really is. They truly believe they can say all they need to say in a few messages. If they feel they can say all they need to say in a few messages.....your "budget" will reflect that reality.
It's why you need to approach this from a different point of view. We have become skilled in uncovering specifics about a business they have never or seldom shared in their marketing and advertising. The key is to ask the right questions and not allow the client off the hook when they give you generalized reply. Ask them, "why should I spend my money with you instead of any of your competitors?" You'll either get a blanks stare or a very general reply. Prod them. Poke them. Don't let them off the hook. Each minor element of what they do and why they do it can and should be a radio message.
Ask them what they say in person to a customer. The detail they go into one on one dwarfs any detail they offer in their advertising messages. Why? Wouldn't more people want to do business with them if they knew all the amazing things about them?
We helped a small used car dealer who was using radio. He'd feature a few vehicles in his message and then say, "come on down and let us show you all the great things we do". I asked him, "what are all the great things you do?" 45 minutes later he was done talking. I suggested if people knew those things ahead of time they'd be more apt to visit his lot regardless of the specific vehicles he had for sale. They'd want to buy from him! I wanted to buy from him!
His response......"I've been in business 35 years and have never thought about it like that".
Here is your chance to grow your sales business radio folks:
1. Uncover the specifics of this business and point out elements the owner may not even see.
2. Create very specific messages, one topic per message on your way to creating a "library of messages" for your client. (Ask me if you need more guidance on this)
3. Present these to your client as "his story". They will be amazing and excited about the story they have to tell.
4. Now the fun part....simply ask...."how often can we share your story with our listeners?"
No more budgets. No more percentages. It's simply a matter of "how often" would they like to share their story knowing the more your listeners hear their story the more they understand why to do business with them.
Now go and create some libraries! And stop using the "B" word!
Sounds good. But how many messages can you rotate at any given time and how long should you run a particular message before you run the next message? A day, a week, a month? If the client gave you 45 minutes of material, how do you condense that down to 30 or 60 second spots?
Great questions Larry. This is where consistency and frequency come into the conversation. You can rotate as many messages as it takes to tell the clients story, one concept at a time. There is no message "fatigue" by using this method. If the message shares a key benefit of that business, it can run and run. We've rotated messages for years if that benefit was still intact. The condensing of the material to messages is really quite simply. One client who offered carpet cleaning and water damage restoration always ended his messages with, "and we are available 24/7". That tag became white noise in the message.
I asked him, "why are you available 24/7?" His reply became one of his best messages. He shared with me that where they lived there were a lot of exposed pipes and when it gets cold, as it did in that region, those pipes can burst. And when you have a pipe burst at 11pm you can't afford to wait until 8am to call someone and hope they show up later that day. So, that's why he has his phone with him 24/7.
I told him, "that sounds like a great commercial message" and he said, "yea, it really does".
We took one small but very important benefit of his business and created a powerful message that broke through the listeners reticular activating system (if you don't know what that is...ask me) and became a valuable tool for attracting and keeping customers.
Larry, if you'd like more specifics on how to make this work....text me and we'll set up a call. I'm at 402-817-4864. Thanks for your thoughts.
Thanks for the prompt reply. I will get back to you after I digest some of this. By the way, I believe "reticular activating system" is jargon for "don't put the listener to sleep". Regards,
