1 of 1- Andy McNabb
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Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
In his pre-game interview with Jimmy Johnson, a smiling Bill Belichick gives the practical and inspiring answer to Jimmy’s first question. It’s one of the rare things in life – other than holding a Super Bowl trophy – that causes Belichick to grin.
Johnson (0:41 mark of the interview): “What are the critical things you look for in bringing in a player?”
Belichick: “Love of football, hard work, unselfish.”
Another radio-relevant part of the interview (1:04-1:13), shows what type of player can do the job and why they simultaneously invigorate the rest of the team.
Our game in radio sales is making the bigger dollars by moving measureably more products and services for advertisers; so insert for “love of prospering advertisers” for “love of football”, and there’s the parallel that we can all take to the bank.
Should radio take the lead in giving advertisers what they tell us they want (but radio doesn’t give them); and in creating and selling advertisers the customized-to-their-opportunities-and pain-points marketing (not limited to radio) strategies that do that, our industry's relatively flat-lining revenue will begin a significant upturn.
It not only generates more revenue per hour of preparation, pitching and servicing - it's a heck of a lot more fun than just limiting ourselves - and our advertisers - in cranking out another 52 week schedule proposition with three commercial spec spots filled with (easily remedied) platitudes and generalities with a side-dish of "me-too" digital marketing.
It is time to shake radio out of its status quo, meet our industry’s challenges head-on, and make far more money than all of us have been making, by giving advertisers exactly what they tell us they want: unbiased, over-arching marketing strategies (not limited to our stations) that provide documented sales results that advertisers can measure to the penny; all attributable to their media spend with us.
That increases the size of the advertiser revenue pie - and our slice, in so doing. The odd thing is that broadcaster after broadcaster says "we already do that"; but ask our industry's advertisers, and they vehemently disagree.
Here's the Johnson-Belichick interview.
Andy McNabb
AndyMcNabb.com
- Doug Thompson
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
But Andy, you also need really creative commercials, not laundry lists of features, specials or USP's. In most cases, clients will want the kitchen sink in their commercials...and often, the client DOES NOT REALLY KNOW what they want. They may say they do, but when you give them exactly what they asked for, they want something else. I;'ve been through this for decades with local and national clients. Commercials have to be entertaining (and by that I don't mean funny necessarily). A funny commercial works once, maybe twice, after that it's annoying and a tune out. A humourous commercial (not jokes) can wear a whole for longer. Commercials on any radio station need to be as entertaining (and yes informative) as hopefully your air talent is (maybe a little more so). Sadly, that is not what radio is airing today. Salesmen/ saleswomen allow clients to read their own spots. Tune out if not crafted correctly. It can't just be in the marketing plan. It has to follow through into the creative and that's only as good as your creative staff.
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- splunge
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
Doug, are you suggesting the poster is "wrong"?
Andy is funny. He raises questions that have potential for validity,,, yet provides no concrete answers. Perhaps he is a philosopher. Perhaps he is offering snake oil. I shall not posit either way....
- Doug Thompson
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
Yes that was a criticism of clients reading their own scripts. It's one of my pet peeves. Even the legendary Saul Korman, the master, is a tune out for me these days. When Saul has or had, a live, even pre-recorded conversation with the talk show host or when Tom of Tom's place does it, it works so much better. Pat Cugliari (formerly Creative Director at Standard/Astral/Bell) had a great technique where he would interview the clients and cut spots around the interview. There are dozens of creative ways to make those kinds of commercials work and splunge, I wasn't saying Andy's 'wrong', I was saying that you could have the greatest marketing plan on earth but if the creative is crap, it's all for nothing. It's hand in hand. Sales and creative. The listener wins if the creative is worth listening to (but it still has to work for the client) and maybe, just maybe your station's TSL goes up.
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- Andy McNabb
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
Doug, you're right: "It's hand in hand. Sales and creative."
As marketing strategy is almost always foundational to helping generate the ideas for great creative, the onus is on the rep to identify and quantify the client's opportunities, objectives, pain points and resources.
Then it's time to develop the overarching, unbiased marketing strategy that produces documented, measurable sales results attributable to each dollar of the media spend (those of us who do that already, hands up, please), and increases the client's revenue. That most often comes from increasing the marketing dollars pie that feeds the strategy.
It's the responsibility of management and ownership to help the sales staff continually grow and sharpen their skill sets in so doing. Those skills go beyond sales training, and they're often honed and made more fruitful in group strategy sessions with confidential, client case-study by confidential, client case-study, as they're occurring, so that those clients can also benefit from the process.
As per Gord Borrell, who knows the needs of local/national advertisers better than anyone: "There's one more thing I should mention about broadcast media. Today's advertisers are clamoring for a sales rep who possesses marketing savvy, someone who can help them not only create a campaign, but also breathe life into it across various media channels."
That means if advertisers are clamouring (now I'll use our Cdn. spelling) for something, they're not currently getting it. That gets more than a few folks rattled - even angry - as it challenges the status quo that limits our industry to inflation-adjusted, flat-lining revenue.
The best thing is that it propels those who are willing to set aside those all-too-common, less-than-bountiful advertiser outcomes, and commit to doing what they're not doing (but should), to produce radical revenue growth for our advertisers, ergo, our industry.
Fact - not just philosophy: The reciprocal action by the client is almost always a larger allocation of dollars to the media rep who makes that happen.
As for tying radio to Belichick, the greater point is found in the analogy of finding people/teammates who embody the character traits that radio sellers - and all business' sales staffs - need: “Love of football/love of helping advertisers/love of helping clients, hard work, unselfish.”
Last edited by Andy McNabb (February 21, 2017 11:48 am)
Andy McNabb
AndyMcNabb.com
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Thread Starter- Doug Thompson
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
Agreed Bentwater, but even in the big conglomerates, there are sales and creative people who really care and do amazing work. Rogers has them, Corus has them Bell has them. I know a lot of them. When I was Production Manager at CHUM, the most commercials I ever had to do in one day was 31. That day was a sausage factory (and finding announcers to read them was even harder at the time). But you still try to do the best for the client and the listener. You CAN'T ever forget the listener in this process. EVER!
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- StevieB
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
Charlie wrote:
I'd listen to rambling old Saul read the phone book, before I'd stomach 'Fred' and Junior turning off customers in the latest awful spots.
^^^This^^^
I am Here, just not all there.
- the original hank
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Re: Bill Belichick and Radio Sales
i still run across "order takers". they do a run on a reach plan and present it. meanwhile, at some of these stations, copy is cranked out without a lot of thought while the production manager gets bombarded every afternoon with "last minute" copy. i knew one manager who preached "integrity" yet if, by mid-month, the possibility of reaching the month's budget looked grim then "integrity" was soon forgotten (and no, that manager wasn't me).