Hello, everyone! I am posting in behalf of an RSC member who wishes to remain anonymous, but who would really value your input. This individual writes:
I am in the process of taking over an existing independent station in a small market. There are presently two elderly salespersons and the station manager who participate in the sales process.
The station has significant potential but is operating far below its capacity--basically just breaking even. Each of these three has persons been with the station for more than a few years and is content to just "get by". The people and the processes have remained virtually unchanged for decades.
I personally have a strong business background--but have absolutely zero experience in radio. I want to make a number of changes to the sales process to improve efficiency and accountability. The changes I am envisioning are not Draconian. They involve things like implementing a CRM system for prospect, client, and contract management; developing a high quality media kit (as the current one probably loses more business than it attracts); setting actual sales and activity targets; and adjusting the payment terms for new customers.
I am concerned that if I implement the changes I have in mind, the sales force and the station manager will just leave. They seem to be creatures of habit. I am afraid their reaction is going to be "What does this young whipper-snapper know about radio? I have been doing this since Methuselah was a boy. Who is he to try and tell me how to do my job?"
If they do leave, we possibly lose our relationships with the clients, any knowledge of how the station actually functions, etc. It could really be catastrophic. I am prepared to help aggressively grow the station, but I need to do it without killing the station in the process.
What advice would you have for someone in this situation?
This response may seem a little harsh, but if the current sales reps and manager haven't been performing why does it matter if they like the new procedures or not? This is your business and your livelihood on the line. If they can't perform the way you need them to perform, then find new people. Really new employees might just help turn the station around.
Our station is in a small market as well and it's disappointing when we lose long time employees, but its the relationships that you build that will help you through those transitions. You need to go and start building the relationships with clients, so that if and when you do lose staff, the client knows you and knows that you are there to help the new staff member get up to speed.
Best of luck!
I agree with Adam to a certain degree. But you are smart to realize that there is a lot to learn about a radio station that a business background does not necessarily cover. If you can afford to, (and if you can bite your tongue that long), I would suggest you give yourself six months with the current staff and current systems in place. Give yourself the time to learn what you need to know about the radio side of the business before you make the obviously necessary changes. You may find that with some new enthusiasm some of your people may step up. If not, they need to go. We have found that many times after a long time salesperson has left the company that our fears of lost sales were just fears. Several clients were happy to get a new, excited rep who wanted to really grow their business. Do not let fear manage your station. Good Luck and Happy Selling!
This is always difficult, especially when you are trying to be kind to the people who are there, which I applaud. As a former owner-manager, I took over situations like yours and really tried to build on what existed first. If someone did not "come on board," they generally left on their own. Start recruiting right away and keep recruiting, because you will have some turn-over. And....since YOU are the owner, YOU are the man. Be sure to get active in your community and develop relationships with key clients. If you live there, get into your chamber, service club(s), etc. Radio is not rocket science, but it's a combination of show business and advertising business. Have fun, treat people they way you'd want to be treated, network with other successful managers, and you'll do fine. Good luck!
I understand about your concerns - you're trying to avoid a big problem if they stay and a big problem if they are 'asked to leave'. My suggestion is that you switch their compensation to straight commission or base salary plus commission. Using either compensation system, set the system up so that they are making the same (or slightly lower) income as they were earning just before you purchased the station. If you choose to use the 'base plus commission', set the base as close to the equivalent 'minimum hourly wage' as you can, while setting the commission ALMOST as high as you can. This should ensure maximum performance, if they still have a bit of sales hunger in them, otherwise it will ensure that they take care of your station's existing clients.
Finally, offer bonuses for high outstanding monthly sales, using the small pot of money you set aside from NOT setting the commission structure as high as you could have. Your current geriatric sales staff will probably never reach a monthly bonus level, but a high-achiever bonus structure will encourage your new, younger sales staff. OH, YEAH .... don't forget to hire one or two new sales staffers! Your complacent older sales staff has probably left a lot of 'acorns' laying around and you'll want somebody young and hungry to go out and start growing these future clients into money-making oak trees!
Holy S**T man.
That's a huge question. Before you bought in.... did you have a good crawl through Format? It's position in te market. What radio needs are NOT being served by existing stations? Ratings? relative audience size to your competitors? target demo from a programming standpoint?
The first thing to assess is how to grow your loyalties to the format. Or I does the format need tweeking changing? Whats the quality of the on air staff? Are you a rated market?
What is your base rate compared to the market average?..... Geezz that's such a bag of questions that make up 100 white elephants in the room!! lol
The sales department is not the place to start dude; you need to protect the revenue streams that you currently have.
Change can be perceived as a bad thing ..... but it is always necessary if you want a different or better result. how you go about managing it and the perceptions that spin back from it are KEY........ walk
slowly grasshopper.... much learning and work to be done. Sales software and the like are internal; your ability to garner more revenue is an external issue. You need to assess what those issues are.
as an aside... if you have " older sales reps" you really have to realize that older reps eventually lose their legs as their complacency grows. They may be financially were they are "okay" with what they are earning... but clearly you are not.
" Times. they are a chang'in"
~ Bob Dylan~
Love to help man... drop me an email... and we'll keep it all on the QT..
You're getting some good advice. Possibly, the existing team wants to be led and not managed. I would ask everyone on the staff to name three things they would change if THEY owned the station. You'll find some things you can implement and build some loyalty during the transition. These will help you learn as much as you can. Meet all the clients personally. Thank them for their business. Get active in the community. Be on the lookout for new talent from Day 1 but don't pull the trigger on any for at least 90 days.
Your proposed changes would be life-giving, and it is so easy for us veterans to get lazy. I know this from experience. However, there is only one constant in media sales and that is change. So, the true mettle of these existing sales folk is their flexibility. Okay, enough of that. Functionally you could hire another sales person who gets some existing accounts as his/her list coming in. If you hire well you just preserved some of that list especially if the end-result is the reps going elsewhere. In my experience I have seen less sales-rep loyalty, than format loyalty. It sounds crazy, and I hate to say this, but in the end, as entrenched as I might be with my list of contacts, if I left here and went to sell for the Sports station the amount of advertisers that would follow me would be surprisingly few. I have seen this happen to two other people who had great relationships and fully expected their list to follow them be very dissapointed when it did not. The media kit is an over-rated, and increasingly less effective tool. When we sell in a small market with any real reliance on a media kit to sell for us we are not taking complete advantage of relationship selling, and unjustifiably placing the onus on information to do the work. The request for a media kit is often analogous to a pick and roll in basketball, it is the prospects attempt to distract, or displace you. It does so by placing something in your way that takes your eyes off the ball. All the same, I do recognize they have limited use. For what it's worth.
Don't waste a lot of energy implementing a CRM system. It takes diligence to maintain and no one is ever diligent about it. They're novel out of the gate but the upkeep is more than anyone is willing to do....Something a little better than Outlook will serve you just fine.
Hmm, elderly to me is 75+..is that what you're talking??? You can teach old dogs new tricks...if they're open minded.
If they're not hungry to make money, then you've got big problems. It's your station, you can do what you want. They may be content to get by but show them that the books show otherwise.
Sound like you need to have some candid chats starting now. What's the risk/reward if you lose these elderly reps. What's the billing like now?? If their billing is pretty low, you may have nothing to lose at this point. Start getting your annuals laid in.
Start introducing some gradual changes, make sure the changes are logical and that you can get the reps on board to implement. Keep the reps happy.. It's all in the positioning. Add a few new ones to the mix while you're in the process.
If you're about to take over a station you can't be afraid. Start interviewing and getting some great candidates in cue, ready to move in. Make some changes now and start visiting the exisisting advertisers.
