Make sure your sales staffs read this one!

Top Five Digital Excuses from Radio Sellers

Forty weeks out of the year, I am on the road visiting markets large and small to work with media companies that are making moves forward into the digital marketing space.

Now and then, I'll encounter a Sales Manager or Account Executive who is being dragged along for the ride with the company's digital ambitions. I enjoy these encounters because the conversations they spark are critical to turning a "legacy" operation into a digital-age operation. The only way for us to get past the objections of our clients is to get real about our own objections and barriers to understanding digital.



This week in Radio3D, the top five excuses I hear from sellers when it comes to offering digital marketing solutions to their clients.

>> “I don't do computers.”

In an age of new technology, "not doing computers" is an unfortunate career strategy. Virtually everyone in today's workforce uses the internet enough to experience the profoundness of how it has changed business. If you don't, how can you possibly understand the business of any of your clients? In nearly every industry, 50% or more of industry revenue now comes from e-commerce. If you "don't do computers," you won't understand how over 50% of some industry's buyers think. You might as well go work somewhere else.

>> “I'm a marketer not a technologist.”

You'll succeed at selling integrated marketing (radio and digital campaigns) BECAUSE you're a marketer. You don't have to be a computer programmer to sell digital marketing. You simply need to understand how it motivates consumers and how it can be used to market a product. How many radio sales reps ever understood how RF works or the difference between a Class A or Class C license? The bottom line is that you understand your marketing product's capabilities, features, and benefits.

>> “We’re a radio company, and that's all we do.”

No radio company with a serious future sees themselves solely as an "AM/FM" license holder. We are local marketers and relationship builders. We reach local consumers via AM/FM, Web, and Mobile, and we specialize in branding and marketing local businesses.

>> “I've never had success with digital.”

This is like saying, "I've never had success marketing with radio." It calls into question what you've done in the past that "didn't work." Did you run enough of a campaign for the results you were anticipating? Was your creative right for what you were trying to accomplish? Did you have a real plan for the campaign--or were you winging it?

Every day, companies large and small experience success marketing their products through web and mobile.

If it works for Coke, Evian, Old Spice, Verizon, and thousands of small and medium sized businesses, why didn't it work for you? Could it be that you need more training or understanding of how digital works and produces results for clients, so you have a better informed idea of how to construct a campaign?

>> “Selling digital just means that we are trading dollars from broadcast.”

There is plenty of digital money in most markets to prevent the phenomenon of "trading dollars."

When we hear from managers that they are concerned about "trading dollars," here are the shenanigans we usually discover: The General Manager or Sales Manager has no idea how to prospect for digital dollars, pitch a digitally "integrated campaign," or produce results for clients using digital. So, in an attempt to hit their digital budget for the company, they pitch a display ad, audio streaming ads, or some other digital product as part of every sale. There's no intelligent strategic planning behind incorporating digital into the client campaign and there's little or no explanation to the client. The end result is that the client pushes back to take digital out or the rep "throws it in" to an existing spot buy. Then, in a further attempt to hit budget, the seller, Sales Manager, or General Manager allocates a part of what was in reality only a broadcast order into their digital budget line. That's not digital sales. That's creative bookkeeping.

In your market, there are businesses that only buy digital advertising. Those are buyers whom you can upsell to more effective integrated campaigns that drive reach/awareness using radio and engagement/database using the web. No trading dollars necessary. 

About the Writer

Future-minded and passionate, Daniel Anstandig’s experience includes developing digital business strategies for media companies, designing content strategies for broadcast and interactive, and coaching executives.

As the President of McVay New Media Consulting, Anstandig has advised The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Clear Channel R&D, The White House Commission on Remembrance, Glencoe-McGraw Hill, and various broadcasting companies in the USA, Canada, and Europe.

In 2009, Anstandig founded Listener Driven Radio, a software company that develops interactive programming tools for broadcasters. The company’s premiere “crowdcasting” product, which integrates real-time audience voting into a radio station’s live playlist, has already been utilized by Citadel Broadcasting, CBS, Virgin Radio in Europe, Harvard Broadcasting, and several other major broadcasters around the world.

Prior to joining McVay Media in 2001, Daniel’s experience includes stints as General Manager, Network/Syndicated Program Director, and On-Air Personality. In 2001, he was named the #1 Young Entrepreneur by Young Entrepreneur Magazine, in recognition of an internet-radio company he founded. Daniel is also a proud two-time recipient of Edison Media Research’s 30 Under 30 Award.