To you, can small market radio be a career or just another job (depends on how a person looks at it)?
thank you,
Austin
Depends on what one makes of it, Austin - not on how one looks at it.
That said, I'd have to answer in the affirmative.
In order to be successful, you must MAKE it your career and give it your full commitment. If you look at it and treat it as just a job, you will get just a paycheck (and a small one at that).
I have a career in small market radio. I live on an island in Alaska with a population of just under 14,000. To be affective in radio sales, you must treat it as a career and have a certain mind set. What has made me successful is that I treat every client like they are my biggest and best client. I don't care if you spend $100 per month with me or $10,000, I give them the same level of service. Also, remember that in a small market...there is often only one degree of separation so you must be very careful about what you say. I standardized all of my rates and everyone gets the same great rates when dealing with me. The people you are selling to today are the same people you are going to see in the grocery store this afternoon and at your sons teeball game tomorrow. Think of yourself as a consultant...you are there to help them grow their business thru creative radio advertising. Best Wishes Austin!
I remember meeting a man in his jewelry store who had spent many years advertising in large newspaper ads. The idea that a particular radio station appealed and targeted the young, hip people in their twenties started to make more sense to him than staying with the old newspaper ads. He changed his routine and he must of liked radio. Some 30 years later I still hear his store advertising for sales at his jewelry store on FM stations, and also as he added a second store in a town 100 miles away whenever I drive long distances I hear his radio ads also on the radio stations where he added a second jewelry store. It feels so good to know that years ago a nice conversation with my briefcase exciting him about how big city jewelry stores have done very well with after midnight radio ads converted this man away from constant newspaper ads to radio ads. Amazing. I am an older guy now and his son is still using the radio.
I'll take small market any day. It is easier to sell and less turbulent. Fewer competitors after your dollars and such. The living can be financially comfortable but never expect a jag in the driveway of a million dollar home you can call your own.
As Julie says, it takes making people feel they are the most important even if they don't buy. Small towns talk and I have had some tiny businesses grow to afford me and others tell their friends who had larger businesses what a great guy I was and how I'd do them right. If you were too small I still shared ideas and treated them as a potential customer. I think that paid off for me.
The big drawback to me was the chewing out when I'd get home after my wife asked me to drop by the store on the way home. I'd see so many clients in the grocery store, it would take 45 minute to an hour to get home with that gallon of milk or loaf of bread. I'd shrug my shoulders and say "If they wanna talk, I talk because they are my paycheck!" That was usually met with, "Well dinner was ready at 5:30 and it's cold now." I understood her frustration.
