Radio Sales Café

BNI is my biggest client. I've been in radio sales since July 2, 2007. I joined BNI in April of 2009. I don't cold call anymore. www.radioheardhere.com has a nice power point presentation and the audio signature at the front is very effective. You're selling solutions to problems. Business people don't care about your format, the latest station promotion or special, etc. Here's a shock statement I've used to get buy-in. "The truth is you don't care what I do or what it costs. The only thing you really care about is can I drive more traffic through your door." Start by acknowleding that times are tougher but point out that this is an opportunity for smart business people to actually increase sales. Reluctant business people will lose out. History shows that aggressive advertisers win. American Business Press analyzed 143 companies during the economic downturn in 74-75. Companies that advertised in those years saw the highest growth in sales and net income during the recession AND the two years that followed. McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies during the recession of 1981-1982. By 1985, sales of companies that were aggressive advertisers rose 256% over those that did not keep up their advertising. What do GE, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft have in common? They were all created during tough economic times. Have a current customer in the group (or bring a guest) that will stand up and sing your praises. Define market share. Ask them (rhetorically) what their market share is? How can you increase it? How can you track it? Awareness increases market share. People have to think of you before the say yes to you. #1 in awareness equals #1 in sales by a 5-1 margin. Explain reach, frequency, motivating offer. Ask for a 1-2-1 with 2 business people over the next 7 days and use it as a CNA. Don't be nervous. Command the room. You're in charge. You know a lot more than they do about advertising.

Karen:
A looong number of years ago, I was at an RAB presentation in Dallas where someone did a presentation called "the Power of Sound". Instead of talking about radio, the presentation is just about using sounds. It takes 17 minutes to do it correctly and all that is required is a laptop connected to a PA system. Let me get with the people here on the site and I will find a way to send up the power point and the audio files. I GUARANTEE you that at the end of this presentation, if done right, half the people in the room will have tears in their eyes.

That sounds great! Thank you.

Chris,

I vaguely recall that presentation. Do you have access to it? I'd be happy to poke around the RAB member site (and/or ask Mark Levy or Dave Casper about it). Wonder if it's something that could be converted to a You Tube-friendly video format...?

-Rod

Would love to hear that...hope there is a way to share it with those that show an interest!

Karen, I was quite involved with BNI for a few years it was very beneficial to me. One of the presentations that I did for our group was about commercials. I put together different types of commercials... straight read, hard sell, conversational, etc... using businesses FROM THE BNI group. I then had one of our DJ's help me put together a cool sounding CD that had examples of each kind of commercial with "clips" from those that we created. I focused on showing the group that there are different ways to get your message accross in radio so no matter what type of business you have... we could come up with a stratagy that would work. It was a FUN way to get people to pay attention. I made sure that the "clips" included their business names. I went one step further and gave "spec-spot" CD's to the businesses that I had created commercials for. I made several appointments that day and closed a good portion of them.

Another presentation that I thought was fun... I went on line and found a bunch of familiar slogans (ie: melts in your mouth not in your hands, have it your way, we'll leave the light on, etc). I showed up armed with lots of mini candy bars. I would say a slogan and whoever shouted out the business first got a candy bar (I tossed it to them and kept going). Many times more than one person would respond with the correct anser at a time but pretty much everyone went home with chocolate. I started this presentation out by telling the group how important top-of-mind awareness (toma) is and even explained toma. I then told them that radio is the most effective and affordable way to create toma. It was a lot of fun and it really hit home with the audience. By the way, my "kicker" at the end was, "who can tell me what's on a big mac?" Most of the audience literally SANG the song. I hope this is helpful to you. Just remember, make it fun and you will get your message across. Good luck!

Karen, sorry for such a late response its been one of those weeks. What I would suggest is a video (yes a video) do a little research on your audience are they mainly small business owners? Then tailor to them. Show them with pictures, (If you don't own a VFLIP camera go buy one) and interview your clients why they use radio and how its help them (keep the video down to 2 minutes or less and make it dynamic) don't forget to have someone who has a pleasant voice do the voiceover. If you send me your email I will send you an example of one that I did....

Buena Suerte (Good luck!)

That would be great, Thank you! My email is [email protected]

Hi Rod,
Here's one you may not have heard and the talent is a bit more contemporary than Stan.

okay sending it to you in a yousendit.com file...should get in a few minutes good luck!

It can be and I do have it. I have updated it time and time again over the years and whenever I am asked to speak at a service club, I love dragging it out. eMail me directly and I will get you the parts. There are 23 sound files and a power point script that go with it.

Chris:

Can you send me a copy 23 sound files and a power point script that go with it?

Jack Walker
[email protected]

Jack:
I am working with the people here on the site. I'll get the thing uploaded here soon and everyone can grab it and use it.

Delores,
Where did you find the statistics for spoken word vs. written word?

Thanks,
Cindy

Angie,
Can you send that to me also?

[email protected]

Thanks!

Cindy, Don't know if this is Delores' source, but if you're able to secure a copy of the March 14, 1983 issue of Advertising Age (perhaps online?), you'll find on pages 27-28 an article by Jack Trout & Al Ries (co-authors of the seminal "Positioning: the Battle for the Mind") entitled "The Eye vs. the Ear." In it they presented scientific evidence that the mind "works by ear, not by eye." The research they cite was conducted by psychologist and memory expert Elizabeth Loftus of the University of Washington, whose experiments proved that the ear responds to information faster than the eye (22% faster), and the human brain retains information from the ear 4-5 times longer than it does information from the eye. There was so much good stuff in this article, I had it laminated to preserve it. Subsequently, Jack Trout published an updated volume entitled "The New Positioning." The material on the eye vs. the ear appears verbatim as Chapter 14 (Minds Work by Ear). You might even be able to secure permission to reprint the article or chapter with appropriate attribution, to hand out to prospects and clients. Good luck...and good selling! -Rod

This will not respond directly to your question, but Roy Williams had an article on MMM about two years ago answering the question of print vs radio. Roy was working with a client on a weight loss product. He ran a nice print ad for the client, got good results but wanted more. He looked for a definitive study for print vs radio and there was none. So, Roy decided to conduct the experiment. He waited a few weeks after the print ad ran (to eliminate residual benefits), picked the same day of the week and spent the exact same budget on that day on one station as he did with the print ad. He ran the exact same copy with no professional announcer. Radio beat newspaper 14x1! He wasn't surprised by the result but was a little by the margin. So, he did it again and got the same results: Radio beat newspaper 14x1!