Happy Friday, everyone!
We received an inquiry from someone wondering about the average number of active accounts that a small-market radio sales rep handles.
So for this month's poll question, we'd like to know:
Approximately how many active accounts does each member of your station's sales team handle?
(And if you could let us know the size of your market as well, that would be great!)
Thanks in advance for your replies!
I'm in a small market: town 16,000; county 40,000; population of area where we are dominant: about 75,000. #1 station with 37% of 35+ Adults listening
I maintain about 30 active accounts and call on about 40 others I am in the process of working, building trust or are among the minimum of 3 cold calls I make a week. I insist on 3 written presentations weekly to stay ahead of the old rule that you'll lose 20% of your business through no fault of your own annually. I'm half the station's billing.
Our Operations Manager handles house accounts but admits it's mostly by email or if he sees them somewhere. He personally knows them all and grew up with them...a very different scenario from most stations. That's maybe 25 of the biggest accounts. Not recruiting new accounts. The guy does mornings, traffic, other management duties and sales.
There is a parttime salesperson known by name throughout the community who sets appointments versus cold calls and devotes maybe 10 hours a week. Maybe 8 to 10 active accounts. Claims about 50 more.
I think we miss some billing we could have, perhaps a bunch.
From Kerri Black
We are a small market radio station near Sarasota, FL and on average we have about 15 active accounts per each sales rep. It can vary but that is average on ones that actively spend money every month with us. Glad to be a new member! Happy Friday everyone!
From Lou Vito
Our goal is to have each seller begin with approximately 50 accounts and throughout the next year or two, whittle it down to 30-35 accounts. It is proven (we can substantiate that with our studies) that those that have 30 accounts bill more than those that have 50 accounts. Jim Williams taught me that and I didn't believe it until I actually made it a rule. With less accounts, the seller tends to ask for money, they call on the merchant more often, they present more times, the seller works with their accounts more often because they know that they will not get any more accounts, and this tends to increase their billing. All of this HELPS the merchant because they are getting more attention & they get more ads which in turn tends to get better results for their accounts!
We use a CRM to control OUR account list. (I say the account list is owned by the radio station, not the employees) Typically, our new sales people start with 120 accounts that will be pared down to 85 over time. Our typical seasoned salesperson has 24 on air clients. Our system will take the account away from the salesperson if there has been no contact within 32 days. That account is then assigned to someone else. This assures me that my clients are being serviced on a timely basis.. It also makes sure that the old dogs are not sitting on accounts that they are not servicing properly. Side bonus: new salespeople have an opportunity to acquire new opportunities.
All of this is done automatically and it is done without any emotions involved. Of course, there are exceptions but they will need to have a good reason for not maximizing revenue from my assets.
Interesting responses, all.
Like Lou Vito, I was trained by Jim Williams. First "boot camp" was in Casper, Wyoming in November 1975. After that, the station hired him to come into the market several times a year for additional training and occasional visits to prospects or clients. Our billing rose dramatically over the next few years, as did the number of people selling advertising. Initially, there were only two of us full-time salesmen and our women's director and manager who each handled a few accounts. Within a year, we'd tripled the number of salespeople and when I left the station in 1979, there were 13, as I recall. It was a heady time and as a sales department, we were a cocky bunch. We raised our rates quarterly (!) as a demonstration of our belief that we were continually improving our value to advertisers; the only way to avoid the "rater improvement" was to sign an annual. One time nine or ten of us participated in a group pitch to the local Downtown Association. The other station in town was represented by its owner, period. We'd practiced our pitch using "flash cards" and by the time we'd finished, the competitor, who was up next, was subdued. "How do I follow that?" The Williams method called for pitching high-frequency schedules, persistence, and durability. It was the radio advertising equivalent of a blitzkrieg. We didn't need to be creative or clever, just consistent with a lot of price-item messaging, doing it like the newspaper (the 800-pound gorilla at the time), only with audio.
What was missing for me in all this was an understanding of the art of advertising--what to say in the ads, now that I had the client's commitment to run them. Price and item advertising only went so far, and Jim Williams never taught us much in the area of messaging. This was something I had to learn on my own, and I picked it up over a period of years by studying successful advertising people (think: Ogilvy, Bernbach, Trout & Ries, etc.) and taking advantage of resources provided by Dan O'Day, the RAB, and starting in the late 90's, Roy Williams, who became a mentor and had a profound influence on my work to this day. One Williams taught me how to get the money and the other showed me what to do with it.
In terms of the number of accounts, Williams was adamant that no salesperson should have more than 50 accounts. He insisted that we see every client, every week. Do the math. In a five-day work week, that would mean seeing 10 clients a day. Allowing an average of 30 minutes per visit, that would take 5 of the 8 hours each work day. Add in travel time, lunch, and time for paperwork (including copywriting), and it's easy to see why Jim held to that number as a maximum. With fewer accounts, as Lou pointed out, a salesperson could spend more time with each and develop stronger relationships.
Rick Murphy emphasizes that the accounts belong to the station, not the salesperson. I get his point. But at the same time, I'd bet that none of his advertisers consider themselves the "property" of the radio station. In other words, both the station and the salesperson must earn the trust and respect of the advertiser in order to earn his business and keep it, and this requires a relationship that grows and matures over a long period of time. Salespeople are not interchangeable parts, presumed to deliver the same quality of work to any given advertiser. Salespeople who habitually neglect their assigned clients aren't serving them or the station. But hopefully, everyone's interests are aligned most of the time.
One last observation about salespeople, clients, and the station: when there's a legitimate conflict of interest between the needs of the client and the goals set forth by station management, generally the needs of the client should trump those of the station. For instance, the sales manager says, "Sell sports sponsorships." But what if sports isn't as good a fit for a particular client as something else he could buy for the same money, like a higher-frequency schedule outside of sports? My tendency has been to favor the client's needs over the station's in such a case. Interestingly, because of this, my clients have typically become the top billing advertisers on the station, which, in the end, serves the station, right? :>)
Is this a great business or what?
