Radio Sales Café

I am looking for new ideas or suggestions on recruiting account managers. I need ways to zero in on candidates with the aptitude to be succesful in this business. I can get a lot of resume's but its very hard to get qualified people.

Any suggestions? Any one interested in exploring opportunities in Jacksonville Floridia?

[email protected]

Bob,
My first suggestion is to go outside the industry. I came into radio with no sales, no marketing, no advertising, no business experience and my owner (Norton Warner) said, "Good, you don't have any bad habits. Just do what I tell you." I did and made him and me a lot of money. He now owns my current company MarketingFirepower.info.

Our advice has been to go to the young professionals in your community and paint the picture for them. Don't wait for them to seek you out. You know who speaks well, who presents themselves well. If they are doing a great job somewhere else, create the desire within them to do a great job with you. I can't think of a more exciting and profitable experience than selling in radio.

Have your candidates call me, I'll sell them on the idea!

Roger Utnehmer has posted a number of relevant items at his stations' website, under "Employment." I recognized a simplified version of the old Jim Williams/Jay Smith salesperson recruiting template (modified to pass muster under EEOC regs, no doubt). Since it's published there in a public area of the website, I assume Roger won't mind my sharing the link with you: http://www.doorcountydailynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=62

I'm a fan of Predictive Index for personality surveys to see who is a fit. ([email protected] John Tischer) We've picked up one from the other company's stupid layoffs. We've done a lot of radio advertising for our positions. Mostly GSM or a successful AE talking unscripted about the career -- making it seem interesting, challenging and financially rewarding (also sharing what's hard about it, to make sure it's believable.)

Bob, since Jacksonville has a lot of agencies, mention the opening to agency friends. If one of your agency pals thinks highly enough of a sales person to give them a recommendation, to me, that is a great reference! As an FYI. . . sometimes folks at the agency turn out to be applicants!

I usually preface that we are looking for someone selling for something like at a penny saver, or at a station with high turnover. I do not go gunning for the area’s batting champion, only because their biggest accounts are also serviced by our sales staff. . . .no need to bring on the drama!

As far as picking the right sales person. I know one major conglumerate spent major money for “Gallup” to be the their gauge for selecting the right person for the job. . . . while Gallup is very good, I don’t think that it worked out all that well. Years ago when I first asked the question, a long-time successful owner told me that it was a 50:50 crapshoot. I think his answer still stands.

Clone Phil?

I've gotten more response from my latest attempt.

I find in most employment ads, businesses tend to tell people what they are looking for- but do very little to sell themselves. I approached it in the opposite manner. I sold the prospective applicants on why they would want our station- the benefits of the station, the job, what we value, where we stand, etc. I have received more applications from qualified people based on that ad than I have at any other time.

Leslie -

I'd love to hear the ad you created. Any chance you could upload it here?

Thanks!

-Rod