Radio Sales Café

I found this very disturbing. This car dealer dropped their advertising. What are your thoughts. How do you stay in touch with your client.

Video interview from Radio Ink magazine:

Harsh Words from a Former Radio Advertiser

Interesting. Out of all the media he mentions, the the most expensive one is radio. being the most expensive; it would be the first thing to go when comparing relative costs. Here's some interesting trends, facts and observations within this category of business and personality types that buy radio.

• When many car dealers over extend their budgets or simply are " worried" about sales and back -end service numbers; they "suspend radio."  The station freaks out, and starts to uber- service the dealer principal, he now has the upper hand in all subsequent negotiations. He states he's not happy, it's not working, wasn't getting stroked enough for the money he's paying yada, yada, yada. Seen it hundreds of times. There 's a reason he canned his radio and it's not because it wasn't working. Could be the creative absolutely sucked. But consider this, a car is a radio on wheels; and radio is a lifestyle medium. Meaning that it is " self-tuned" without anybody telling the prospects or listeners to do it. It's not that they aren't hearing the clients commercials; they just don't care. Perhaps he's somebody that scans what radio stations are preset or tuned in to what station when they come in for service; and considers the finding to validate the medium as a whole. More likely, the majority of tuned in cars weren't tuned into the stations he was buying ; generally because of rate. And the top stations for his primary demo should be the most expensive and that could be the reason he's  not buying them or potentially getting measurable results
• How often have you come across a car dealer that thinks he knows absolutely everything about marketing, radio marketing particular. He's probably suspending or bitching to eventually get a better rate.
• He also mentioned that he wasn't getting the service he expects from the radio station; that may be true. That's who he is... he needs to be stroked.
• He'll be back, and want a better rate or a value added program that he didn't have before.  
• He also said that he would prefer to sell on relationships.... and although radio talks to potential " UPS" while they are in their cars ; this cat thinks it's of no value at all. This dude is an exception to the rule based on what he is saying. He wants to go more institutional radio for his dealership once he feels stroked enough to come back.
• Car salemen MUST ask for the order from every single UP on the lot. That's what radio is supposed to do for this category of business. If his reps never asked business everyday ... his doors would be closed.
• He also stated he wants to focus on website......... so how does he " create traffic" for his website? The website is a virtual Lot. You still have to make sure you get traffic today.
• End of the day and I could write a book on this category of business and radio; this guy doesn't know what he doesn't know. And clearly, by cancelling his radio,has just taken himself or created an on air importance leve for his reps and dealership of zero to any potential ups and radio listeners.... let the other car dealers get em?
• Heard it a hundred times!!
• Radio Reps need to know how to deal with this category of business and the personality types that flourish in it. They aren't university grads in marketing or radio...... they've been in car sales as lifers... and the world has changed from a consumer communication standpoint and the saavy required to effectively market to new clients.

 Here's some suggestions for this cat....

• he could lower his prices on his vehicles by ordering them with NO radios in them. No one wants them anyway.
• He should realize that if he's checking what stations are tuned on to the cars in his service bays...... duh........THEY ARE ALREADY IN YOUR SERVICE BAY EINSTEIN!   and these existing clients maybe telling you ( through their personal choice of station tuning) that you have been investing in the wrong station(s)!!

This isn't rocket science.... and the dealer principals should stop pretending that they know what really sells cars; as we all know, it's a mix of well thought out media choices and campaigns... they are salemen-types with bad reputations...

He should call up GM national and save them millions of dollars .. by telling GM National to stop all advertising on radio... it doesn't work. Same thing with McDonalds and Coke. This guy is groundbreaking  brilliant.

What I will say is that in my market .. car dealers first choice for a media to move units on their lots.... RADIO. They are all a smart bunch or have been turned to the right side of why radio is an important medium to sell cars. Love my car clients.

Only a small select few tried what this cat is doing with my stations..... it didn't last long ( LOL)

When he did come back, his rate went up because he blew up ( cancelled) the annual contract rate

 we had negotiated for him at the beginning. Best rates are for consistent disciples of radio; and as such are advocates for their personal success of using radio in growing their own  business.

What about the fact that the dealer didn't feel what he bought matched up with what he was paying for?  How many times did he get a different rep from the stations?  That makes it hard to maintain trust and confidence in the stations.  They have every right to want to be "stroked" they are the customer.  

In my opinion, That is our (radio) biggest weakness. Not only do we own a radio station, we have a retail store in another town. I see it from both sides. I see a different rep once a year at the store from the biggest cluster in the market. When they stop by they throw a 35 spot $350.00 package my way, or a business card and never return. They never ask questions about the store. We never see one of the smaller stations stop by.        

Having a sustained and positive relationship between the rep and client is basic and rudimentary radio sales 101...To MJ's answer... if it was working to his expectations he wouldn't be suspending it.

and yes, turn over in sales people creates a very, very bad optic and perception of the professional marketing status of a given radio station and it's ability and even desire to create measurable results for the client.. When the client feels like he's a commodity.... to be traded at will... you've already lost.