A media buyer is currently giving me the business and I'm trying with all my might to win the sale. My questions to all my seasoned cohorts on RSC- are:
- He's looking for :10 sponsorships throughout the day like time and weather. Problem is, we voicetrack and we're in New Hampshire. If we don't like the weather here, wait. We say wait because it'll be completely different in 5 minutes... therefore impossible voicetrack. Any ideas?
-He wants to dominate stations but does not say what that means to him- keeps using vague terms like "frequency and features". When I ask for a budget- no response. When I offer them their own sponsorship spot to be the voice, personality, etc. of their brand- this media buyer tells me "it won't happen" and it's "inconsequential". He does say other proposals have been no-brainers to him. Should I ask him to remove the pricing and send it to me so that I can duplicate it and put my own price tag on those features?
So- I'm looking for feedback- help- and suggestions! He's a tough one- but the R.O.I (hee hee, love this term) could be big for me.
-Thanks so much.
Thanks Jane!
I know we can add in the spots but how do you voice track temperature for 3pm when you're tracking at 10am? What if the hourly forecast for the day is wrong?
He could be jerking me around- but has a budget to put up several billboards and is already with the paper... I think he has the money. What do you think about asking him for a proposal he was happy with and give him a proposal based on that?
I'm ready to say "Next" but not just yet.
I'm going to come up with something reasonable and if he walks, it's his client that will suffer. We are the largest of 2 media outlets in this niche market his client has decided to open up in. If McDonalds is happy with their schedule and added incentives, he should be too. And if he's not, he can "drive thru".
Thanks for your time today Jane.
Seems to me this buyer is giving you the run around but there is one comment that strikes a nerve .. frequency and features .. if it were me I would look at every "feature" on the station .. (time checks .. news .. general weather .. birthday reports .. hog report .. anything) .. find a way to have as many asyou can that can have a :10 second billboard .. give him/her what they want and let them weed out what they do not want. Sounds to me this is a buyer that is attempting to get everything they can for little to no money. Think the key is to give them what they want .. frequency and features. Remember one of they keys to selling success is to listen to what the client says and then give it to them. Since he/she will not give you a budget .. price it and give it to them .. if it is to much then you can remove some of the "features".
Hey Shannon.... first off I sense that this media buyer is yanking your chain a wee bit. If he / she is working in the best interest of the client he/she might want to be more forthcoming with exactly what they are looking for. For a media buyer to reply to a very valid "budget?"question with the sound of crickets is also telling. Most media buyers in Canada are too busy to mess around; which leads me to believe that his client roster is small ( as is his budget). He mentioned frequency, well that is "good media buyer"lingo, so call him on it? Ask him...
Whats the demo? How many GRP's does he need to attain ? He may say its a spot buy, well fine then, ask what type of frequency he wants to achieve? Do a marketron or Aitware run against his target demorequesting a 3.0 frequency. That frequenct should be the niminum he should/ would want weekly,,, especially if he is investing in the market long term. Anything less is a waste of his time and yours. It matters very little if he wants 00:10 or 00:60 second avails... he needs a 3.0 frequency. One last point darl 'in, 00:10 commercials or billboards are absolutley useless if that is all he is running. They are usually used to augment a brand sell schedule of 00:30's.
Share with him your desire to have his radio investment work and deliver measurable results. What he is asking for is a poor start in the first step with his client having an effective relationship with your audience(s) . Get him off what he thinks he wants and sell him on what he actually needs. If you are anew rep, this is sometimes a hard concept to get around. But there is such a thing as bad radio... as long as you aren't the one to agree on the bad radio.. the you have executed your due diligence on behalf of the Cricket Answering Buyer.
failing that ... give me his phone number and I'll call him for you. Whats suggestions does your GSM have?
Cheers Luv! Let me know how it goes!
Darren
He's looking for high frequency :10s. There ARE things in your programming that are comparable to hourly weather or ongoing features thru the day so talk to your PD: station IDs, time checks, headline news, community calendar, etc. Adjacencies to any or all these things are sellable - just tag the spot with 'this WWWW time check is brought to you by ABC CLient, Oak St, in Mason" . Traffic can then run that adjacency so the next thing that airs is " It's 2:17 in the WWWW studios..." We voicetrack after 10a and do this all the time. Ask your sales manager or the GM - everything is for sale.....
and the buyer will appreciate your creativity in trying to meet his goals.
I used to be a buyer and Tom Collins (above) is 1000% correct. Buyers have goals. They are working for the client. The way they keep their job is to get as much as possible for the client so the agency looks effective and worthwhile to the client. Sounds like this buyer sees you, Shannon, as unresponsive and unwilling to work with him. In the end this buyer will be in a position to throw things your way in the future and with other clients if he sees you as understanding his goals, flexible, creative. The key in negotiating with anyone - agency included - is getting something for your effort, e.g., you tell the buyer that you don't normally sell time checks but can do this for his client... will you get 100% of the buy? or can you get 9 months instead of 6 months for the buy? Tit for tat - you help him, he can help you.
Shannon -
Duplicating other proposals might peg you as a "me, too" follower, rather than an innovator. Not something I'd want to do, unless the client specifically asked for it.
Hard to comprehend that your station doesn't do weather forecasts or updates, regardless of the frequency with which conditions may change. It's easy enough to add: "...a service of YOUR CLIENT, slogan/offer/call to action" to tie your sponsor to it. (I have a car dealer that owns the :05 weather update 24/7. He may be the only advertiser on the station for whom I'd feel comfortable saying that he reaches the station's entire audience.)
What he means by "dominate" (an unfortunate expression We Radio Folks like to bandy about with our clients) is simply that he wants as much repetition as he can get on a daily basis...like the car dealer I mentioned previously, getting a :05-second spot every hour of every day.
What other programming does your station offer, to which the advertiser could attach his name? A few possibilities:
1) "Community Calendar" If your station does a daily CC, chances are it runs at least several times a day. Is it sponsored? (No reason it can't be, right?)
2) Public Service Announcements (PSA's) No station is required to air these for free, though typically that's how it's done. Some broadcasters paint themselves into a corner in this area, airing non-billable PSA's. But there's absolutely no reason why you couldn't append them with, "brought to you as a community service by ___________________."
3) Want to have some fun? Invite your advertiser to sponsor "Be Nice To ________" salutes. Simply pick one or more individuals (could be listeners, clients, civic leaders, or even complete strangers) and your voice-tracking DJ would say something like, "Today is be nice to (so-and-so) day. If you see (so-and-so) today, be nice to him, OK? A friendly reminder from Magic 104 and ______________." Before long, your listeners will be calling/writing to nominate "be nice to" candidates on their birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
4) Pick a high-school athlete of the week...or a senior citizen of the week...or a "hometown hero"...etc. to recognize, sponsored by your advertiser.
These are just a few off the top of my head, Shanon, but perhaps they'll serve as idea-starters for you. Let us know how things shake out for you.
First, let me thank you all for the time you took to write these responses. While I know your days are all so busy I absolutely appreciate your wisdom and ideas. They are completely invaluable to me for this particular instance and to take with me in my profession.
Here's what I've done-
I've listened to the client- he wants frequency and features...
On our AAA station I offered him a 5 day a week sponsorship of the weather which also comes with a 15 second intro plus a bonus ad. Then I added 2 additional ads a day M-F and 4 on Sat and Sun with a 7-12a 7 days a week. That's frequency. Besides the feature of owning a sponsorship spot, I also offered him free sponsorship of our Accoustic, blues, and Grateful Dead specialty shows (3 nights per-week). Each are 2-3 hours long, and have pre-recorded billboards 3x's a week and live mentions during the shows. Hopefully that satisfies his features criteria on that station.
On our Hot AC station I offered him a 5 day a week sponsorship of our comedy minute which he asked for... I guess it goes along with his stichk that "pain isn't funny", whatever. This sponsorship comes with an intro, a bonus ad, and a 7-12a freebie. I added in the same 2 ads m-f and 4 on Sat. and Sun. Then I added in 4 billboards per day. 2 in the am drive and 2 in the pm drive.
The proposal is pricey, but I listened and gave him what he asked for- isn't that what we're supposed to do? When calculated, the extras add up to 61% of the contract price so I hope this number isn't "inconsequential" as he likes to say. Taking all your advice into consideration, I will hold back some of the :10 spots of this, that or the other thing for final negotiations. In my email, I mentioned if he wasn't happy with my proposal to send me the ones he did like so I could duplicate them to take out the guesswork and save his time.
The proposal went out Friday and all I've heard since is crickets. I'll probably call tomorrow to get his thoughts.
Thanks again everyone.
-Shannon
way to go Shannon... now just keep on him.. as features have a tendency to "go away or get sold." So the proposal opportunity is a moving target and won't remain in th eform that you presented it for ever.
Darren
In the future if at all possible please try to make these kind of proposals in person .. so easy for a client to "read" what they want into any proposal. Nothing sells like a face to face meeting .. you can sell the "sizzle" and your enthusiasm .. think you are working this right and hope you will keep us informed as to the out come. Remember agency people are paid to try and get the most they can for the client and give as little as possible to the station. We all wish you well.
Had to run to a meeting, but just a few more things...
Our weather is voice tracked and we do have regular sponsorship spots for it. I wasn't clear on that- what I was looking for was hourly :10's. A generic weather spot is different because it isn't hourly, it's daily, a few times a day. What I needed was more creative sponsorship spots outside of what we normally do to create them (the beauty of being independently owned and operated). Thank you all for your ideas.
As a side note- the client of this buyer is PainCare, pain management centers in NH. They just dropped $7k to purchase fireworks for our town's first night celebration when local government dropped it from the budget. I think they have the $...
And, he had no interest in meeting me- just wants the bottom line. He most likely sees it as a waste of time- at least that's my gut feeling.
Darren, you're completely right- these things are moving targets and without a signature everything is just up in the air.
We sell our top of the hour Id's excusivly (1 business per station).... Its a 7-10 second liner at the top of the hour, every hour. 24 hours a day. It sounds like this... You're listening to ABCD-FM. Your Town. and then after that the client message. great way to build Top of mind awareness. You have to run your ID's anyway.. may as well make some money off of it!
The latest response (ug)-
Shannon:
I met with the client today and expressed my frustration with putting together something with your stations.
The suggestion of spending $1,176 per week with your stations would be more than we spend on the biggest stations in the state per month.
We tend to be an “every week” advertiser so (1) week a month would not do it for us.
Client has suggested that we try one last time and then move on.
We have identified an additional budget for your market of $1,000 - $1,200.00 per month. This can be for radio, print or the new Transit Opportunities that we were pitched yesterday that will be coming soon to the market.
If we like what we see, we will be making a multi-month commitment to whichever is chosen.
If you feel that you can put together something that will “blow us away” to secure this budget for yourself , let me know.
We would like to finalize our choice next week, with an expected start of (1) of the (3) opportunities in January.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Rick
At least I have a budget number now... lol.
Okay he's got a ridiculously small 300 Bucks a week. What category of biz is the client in.
what are your spot rates? Frankly if this buyer thinks that newpaper, billboards , buses will replace the impression levels that radio can deliver.... he should probably re-think what line of biz he's in.
Here's what I would do........ tell him that his weekly budget is too small to "Blow away your audience."
However,, he wants something from you, so you get to ask something of him. Tell him that you will take his meagre 300$ and double it to 600$ (300 paid and 300 bonus) ONLY if..........
His client is an outpatient facility for pain care- they use any combo of treatments/meds to manage chronic pain. At this point, I think I need their "hard goods" to deal with their buyer. HA!
Thank you for the ideas!
so the client should be rolling in it then!!
Forget the hard goods then ... and give him the deal...get his dough
So presented another great proposal (last one) that was worked out by me and the station owner, all within his budget. Included :10's, sponsorships, and bonus ads. Brought us down to our political rate. He wanted to haggle more- was calculating when the political rates ended because he wanted our "unsold inventory" for free or $2 a pop like cable does. Being a resort ski town, our first quarter inventory can be sold and we can't afford to give it away and I told him that- I also told him it was a precedence we didn't want to set because it was unfair to our other clients and that if he felt like there was a place for him to use his $1200 that would produce greater results in this area (he's been threatening to give the money to buses that will be running during the first of the year) we'd just have to respectfully part ways. I'm spent.
He did however tell me that he admired my "blind" enthusiasm for my product. Gee thanks.
Did I mention we recently found out this guy used to own a station himself?
used to......... lol!
Ha ha ha! Thanks for following...
what stations do you work for.. I blow through there every summer on my way to Ogunquit....and no I'm not gay..lol!!
Guess we won't be shoe shopping then, darn!
You could be if you wanted to... makes no difference to me.
LOL... I just wanted to qualify that allthough I go to Ogumnquit... I'm not that way...LMAO!!
