One of our earliest -- and most fun -- Friday Poll Questions asked: How Did You Get Into Radio Sales? The variety of answers we received -- and still receive -- is epic. We're a pretty diverse bunch!
In this week’s Poll Question, we'd like to learn about members who had sales jobs in other fields before getting into radio advertising sales.
Did you sell cars? Insurance? Real estate? Tangible retail goods? Something else? (For instance, waiting tables can definitely involve selling.)
So, here’s this week’s Friday Poll Question:
What other sales experience have you had, besides radio advertising?
And how did this experience help you in radio?
Look forward to reading your answers below.
Hello Everyone,
This is a great Poll Question!
I had been in Restaurant Management (Pizza Hut) for over 12 years. Then in 1993 my now General Manager came up to me and told me She could double my income with-in 3 months with my out-going personality.Well being in Restaurant Management taught me how to go out and meet and speak to people I don't know. I have to say after 23 years in Radio Advertising it was a great career move.
Thank you
Sylvester Paquin Sr.
I enlisted in the USMC ("Semper Fi!") right out of college and spent 4 years as an Air Traffic Control Officer talking to pilots on the radio. Back in Minnesota I went to work as a Dairy Field Rep for the National Farmers Organization signing up members (selling), inspecting dairy facilities and managing a Dairy Reload Operation in east central Minnesota.. I drove by WKPM Radio in Princeton, Minnesota every day for almost a year and one day I stopped in and told the manager that I always thought I'd like to work at a Radio Station. He said "Doing what?" I asked :What have you got?" He said "Sales." I said "Selling what?" I started part-time a week later and went full-time 4 weeks after that, on October 1, 1975. 2 years later ! became Sales Manager and 2 years after that I moved to Montevideo, Minnesota as GM of KDMA. Never bored and learn something new every single day.
My first sales job was in high school, behind the cash register of a neighborhood drug store on the corner of 87th and Ashland in Chicago. I'd occasionally have to help guys looking for a gift for their wives or girlfriends, and learned the power of making recommendations and, in the case of fragrances, providing samples to close the sale.
After I was married and we moved to Springfield, Illinois, I worked at a music store selling guitars, pianos, and organs for a while. I learned that getting a customer to agree to an in-home trial of a piano or organ for a week or so, they'd usually end up keeping it. ("Get the puppy in the home...") I also sold print advertising for some weekly neighborhood papers for a few months, but there was no future in it.
One day, scanning the classified in the local newspaper, I saw an ad placed by one of the local radio stations, looking for an advertising salesperson. I applied but the manager wasn't much impressed by the kid with the Afro, wearing one of his dad's old suits. It was during the process of pursuing this job, making repeated calls and visits to the station over the next few weeks, that I learned an important lesson on the value of persistence. Eventually, they gave me the job -- I later realized that this, too, involved me making a sale -- and in January 1973 I embarked on what has become a lifelong career in radio advertising sales.
I tried selling cars for about 3 months. I quit and went back to radio. Last year I retired for 2 months. I went back to radio.
I was on the air for about 25 years but I have found sales to be much more profitable. But it is a fine art that too many people do not understand. The book that opened it for me was Herb Cohen's You Can Negotiate Anything..
I worked in Grocery Management early in my career while training in radio, but I had THE WORST sales job ever, at one time: Selling Solar Panels in 1985. It was horrid.
30 years ahead of your time, Ric?
I suppose so, I sold only ONE in a three-month period. They were very expensive back then.
I sold furniture. Then got into radio 1989. Left the business in 2002, and purchased a group of retail stores, and returned to radio in 2013.
The retail was the best outside radio experience. Many radio people stopped by to sell me a "package" which they usually never followed up with, or left me a price sheet and a bunch of printed stuff which usually ended up in the circular file.
The retail experience was great. It allowed me to improve my customer service, deal with clients in a positive way, and handle objections.
It helped me see radio sales in a whole different, and showed me what I wasn't doing right, and what I could improve on.
