Radio Sales Café

Hello,and Merry Christmas!

I've been have a hard time convincing this client. He runs a business that prints t-shirts, banners, and the vehicle "wraps" you may have seen on some cars or station vehicles.

His main point of contention is that he is in the promotional business, therefore, he is already doing his own advertising. He claims he can bring in more business from passing t-shirts around at an even than advertising in any medium. He also gave me the old "I tried radio once, and it didn't work" line.

I need a different perspective on this. How do I counter his objections?

"I-tried-radio-once-and-it-didn't-work" usually translates into one or more of the following:
1) his message was ineffective;
2) his schedule was anemic;
3) his previous radio rep let him get away with #1 or #2.

You, of course, are not going to let any of these prevent him from realizing the potential offered by you and your station.

If passing around t-shirts provides him such an effective return on his investment, why isn't he passing out 1000 a day, every day?

Fact is, you bring several things to the table that he can't duplicate: 1) your REACH: at any given moment, you're talking to hundreds or thousands of prospects; 2) affordable REPETITION: you're able to talk meaningfully with each of your listeners several times a day for less money than he can with his t-shirts/banners/vehicle wraps. 3) YOU SELL THE WAY HE SELLS - by *talking to his prospects*. Whether he does it on the phone or in person, there's probably a significant amount of verbal communication taking place between him and his prospect, prior to making the sale.

At this point in your relationship, this fellow probably views you as an adversary - someone trying to raid his till - rather than as a trusted advisor. The only way to overcome this is to bring him ideas that can help him grow his business - ideas that may have nothing to do with your radio station - thereby demonstrating both your interest in helping him as well as your competence, i.e., your understanding of how to help him grow his business. (In my experience, there is no substitute for genuinely caring about your prospect's business.) Over time, this approach should open opportunities for you to present solutions that do involve your station, benefiting his interests and yours.

Hope this helps.

Have you tried asking him how many people he hands t-shirts out to at a single event? Is it 50? 100? 200? Then take a Maximiser report and show him how many listeners you have in a single daypart- maybe morning drive (It doesn't have to be your best time, just something to demonstrate some listenership.)

Say you have 5,000 aqh listeners in your AM Drive time slot. How many events does this business owner get the opportunity to hand out 5,000 t-shirts?

I would also look at the cost effectiveness of this angle as well. Let's say these t-shirts cost him $10 each. By handing out 50 t-shirts, he's already accumulated an expense of $500. I would point out to him that for that much money, he could have an ad "x" amount of times per week and reach a greater number of potential consumers.

I would also ask him how many of those people who received t-shirts actually become customers. I'm curious about this- you know at live broadcasts you always have people coming up and wanting t-shirts- some don't even listen to the station, they just want something free. I'm thinking his return on his investment would be better with radio than handing out t-shirts, but that's just my humble opinion.

The first thing I would recommend is resisting the urge to "call his baby ugly." He obviously feels that what he's doing is working for him, and it probably IS -- at least to the extent that he doesn't feel the need to increase his efforts. The second thing you might consider is asking him how many shirts he gives away at an event in order to capture new business. Let's say he has to hand out an average of 50 shirts for every new order he receives, and the average amount he earns from a typical sale. Then ask him how much each shirt costs to produce and to estimate the cost in man-hours to be present at an event to distribute the shirts. With this information you'll end up being able to calculate his cost per sale. Once you have these numbers it should be as simple as showing him that using traditional media can "hand out a lot more shirts a lot more quickly" (make impressions on your listeners and website visitors) and result in realizing those incoming orders much more quickly. A third approach is to appeal to his own experience and expertise iin pitching HIS services to prospects who are probably telling him that they're really happy with their print ad, tv spots, and radio schedules and don't see a need to hand out t-shirts or wrap their vehicles with graphics. Ask him how he overcomes these objections when he is faced with this similar situation -- and then use his very same answers to help convert him to adding your media to his marketing efforts. Bonus idea... If he experiences such success in handing out t-shirts, why not think outside the box of radio spots and create an NTR campaign that puts him at every station event, van stop, and appearance so he can hand out his shirts with your own promotions team? Once he starts getting some business from the shirts he's handing out to your listeners at events, it should be much easier to reach more of them faster by adding in an on-air component. Keep thinking big... ~DON Get more great ideas at http://www.DonTheIdeaGuy.com

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I haven't had the opportunity to try them yet (I'm the only sales person on staff, so there's lots of people to see), but I will. I'll let you know how it works out!