Managing Client Expectations

Here's a true story.

The owner of a pricey men's clothier phoned a sales manager to say his account executive had been persistent and that he was ready to "give the station a try." He said he was even prepared to spend a thousand dollars on a schedule (the average rate on the station was around one hundred fifty dollars) and that this was his first experience with a radio station in four years. He said the last time he tried using radio it "didn't work", so "it had better work this time."

The sales manager asked what the retailer's average sale was. The clothier replied, "about $800." The sales manager then asked how many $800 sales he would have to make to justify the $1,000 he was going to spend on the station. The clothier responded, "Oh, about 80 or 90."

"Eighty or ninety?" the sales manager asked incredulously. "I mean" he continued, "How many individual $800 sales must you make in order to actually pay for the $1,000 radio schedule?"

"Well, I guess just a couple," said the clothier. The sales manager went on to explain that the station had about 100,000 listeners per week, and that the odds were pretty good that they would, with a decent spot and good schedule, be able to sell at least 1/250th of 1 percent of the station's listeners. If they did that, they'd make about 4 sales of $800, almost quadrupling the client's original radio investment.

At this point, the sales manager suggested that with those numbers, it would seem like a pretty good calculated risk to quadruple the budget and go for 16 average sales. The clothier wound up agreeing to triple the budget. Not bad. Three thousand dollars instead of just one thousand. But the manager did much more than just triple the client's budget. He also effectively managed the client's expectations about results.

Think about it...if the sales manager had not had that conversation with the client to begin with, the client would have felt that his radio campaign had been a failure if less than 85 people had come in spending a minimum of $800 each. In fact, it doesn't matter whether the client's thinking is logical or illogical...the only thing that matters is this is what the client THINKS. And in the long run, the client's PERCEPTION is everything.

Just imagine what could have happened had the sales manager not asked the client how many paying customers he expected as a result of this campaign and what the client's average sale was. If ninety people hadn't walked in paying minimum $800 each, the client would have perceived that the campaign didn't measure up to his expectations. Heck, with a thousand dollars it probably wouldn't have. And again in his case, the client would say that radio didn't work.

Remember that stupidity and ignorance are two different things. You can't blame anybody but yourself when a client's expectations about results are not logical. What you can do is educate and manage expectations by knowing what the client's average sale and closing ratio are. Use those numbers against your station's cume and show the client the odds are good that your station could deliver.





Paul Weyland: 5450 Bee Cave Road, Suite 1-C, Austin, Texas 78746, 512-236-1222, paul@paulweyland.com
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