Chris Rolando has a great piece on spec spot success.
In the late 90's I took over a position as New Business Development director (a glorified production director position working directly with the sales team) for a pair of start-up Smooth Jazz stations in central Ohio. The goal was to increase local-direct revenue by $250K within the first 12-months.The station had generated 1.2 mil in total revenue in its first year.
Using a well-defined spec spot plan, good creative, and smart targeting - we generated $900K in new, direct business! Each sales person was required to supply 2-spec targets per week - closing ratio always fell between 28-32% on the specs we produced.
We also discovered that regardless of how we "tweaked" the plan (increasing the number of specs per week, etc) - the ratio always remained in that 28-32% range.
One suggestion I always made to our sales folks, particularly new hires - was to take their lunch to the library one day per month. Research last years newspaper, look for "Annual Sales Ads" a month or two ahead. If they had an annual sale last year, odds are the client will have another annual sale this year!
This gives you an opportunity to approach the client as an "enhancement" to their typical marketing approach, with a spec in hand. Should the client turn you down - you have enough time to modify the spec and present to a competitor. "You know so-and-so has a huge annual sale each year, and it must be successful because they're in the x year of doing it! Why not beat them to the punch? We can run this campaign 2 weeks prior to their event..." Dastardly? LOL, I guess. But fair - we offered the main client an opportunity and they passed.
Sorry for the long-winded rant - but yes, indeed specs spots work. It's one of the great strengths of the radio medium, Never understood why so many managers view specs as "yesterday's news" - when they can be tomorrow's revenue.
