Take the Mystery out of Selling Radio

Never assume that your prospective direct client knows anything at all about the advertising process. Media salespeople tend to forget that most people, including prospective clients, have had very little experience with advertising or marketing and much less experience with your medium. What little media experience most business owners have is usually with the newspaper or the yellow pages.

It's always easier to buy something if you understand how it is supposed to work. You can take away the mystery and difficulty of investing in radio campaigns by explaining the logic and psychology of how and why people listen to the radio.

Use images the client can relate to. Explain that most people listen to a station for an average of 20 minutes or so at a time. Admit that most people use the radio for environment and background and are not necessarily paying careful attention to everything they hear. In fact, most listeners might be dealing with several complicated tasks at one time, like driving and having a conversation with someone else in the car. But then remind the client what happens when he hears his favorite song, even while driving and conversing. That's right: he turns it up.

Because people listen to the radio selectively, we're not in the broadcasting business anymore...we're in the narrowcasting business. The same logic that works with turning up your favorite song also applies to people who are in the market to buy your client's product or service. A group of qualified buyers will pay close attention to a spot when it is directed specifically to them.

Reveal the strategy and psychology of a good spot to your client. Explain how we must get the qualified listener's attention in the first five seconds...then keep their attention by telling them how they win by doing business with the client, and finishing up with a clear, uncomplicated call-to-action. Make sure your client understands that it is confusing to put too much information in a spot. Impress how little sense it makes to mention a phone number in a commercial one time.

Help your client feel more comfortable about a schedule by explaining the logic of owning a day or a daypart on your radio station. "Because people listen for an average of 20 minutes at a time, we'll use a high-frequency schedule to reach those qualified buyers at different times throughout the day." Most people will complain less about the cost of a high-frequency schedule if they understand the psychology of how and why it works.

When you and your client are finally on the "same page", you will run better campaigns and you will better manage your client's expectations. By teaching customers how the radio advertising process works and focusing on how people actually listen, your client will more likely become a teammate instead of a skeptic.

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