By Ryan Ghidoni
PSR Contributor
Thursday August 25th, 2016
Audio Active Advertising – Episode 4: Gathering Great Client Info:
I’ve heard this many times from my good friend, successful business owner, and radio advertiser Jim Brousseau of Super Lube Auto Centres:
“Ryan…it’s an absolute shame. Most radio sales reps will spend 80% of the time talking about their ratings and rate and only 20% of the time talking about my message.”
Then we both laugh and agree that 20% is being very generous.
A well crafted message will bring more business to the client.
A well crafted message will guarantee the renewal for the sales rep.
So why do most reps spend so little time on what will benefit both the client and themselves?
You can be different!
You can transform yourself from “pest like the rest” to “trusted marketing consultant” by learning how to gather great info directly from your clients.
There are two types of radio ads…Short Term Promotion and Long Term Branding.
Each require a different approach.
This week, I’m going to start with Short Term Promotion because it’s the easier of the two and takes less time to execute.
Short Term Promotion is when the client has a time sensitive offer they need to promote for two to three weeks leading up to an event. It can be for a sale, a concert, a product launch, a new location, a fund raiser, etc.
Want an example?
Listen to your station.
Short Term Promotion makes up 80 to 95 percent of the ads you hear on the air.
To gather GOOD information, you need to ask the client the Five “Ws” (and one H):
WHO is going to be at this event? WHO should attend this event?
WHAT is going to be taking place?
WHERE is this event happening?
WHY should people attend?
WHEN does the event start and finish?
HOW can a person participate?
To gather GREAT information, you need to dig down deeper with one more question:
Tell them: Your potential customer is planning on cross country skiing OR going to see a movie OR shooting pool with friends OR curling up on the couch with some wine and a good book.
Then ask: WHY SHOULD THEY CANCEL THEIR PLANS AND ATTEND YOUR EVENT INSTEAD?
This forces them to realize that the answer needs to be better than “free hotdogs” and “5% off outdated shoes”.
When you get a good answer to this question, tell the client that you need to focus as much of the ad as possible on this information to be effective.
If at this point you are thinking “This is a waste of my selling time. This should be the writer’s job”, please consider this:
The writer is not going to be asking the client for the renewal. YOU ARE. You need to establish yourself as someone who will listen to their needs and solve their problems if you want them to trust and value you.
Plus…you are with the client right now…closing the deal. You could get the same info in 10 minutes that could take the writer 3 days of client telephone tag to acquire.
Next week we’ll continue to talk about “Gathering Great Client Info” but with an emphasis on what is required for a Long Term Branding campaign. Have a great week!
Ryan Ghidoni is an 18-year veteran of radio advertising and has worked with some of the most creative sales reps, writers, producers and voice talent in the business.
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I was turfed (frog-marched out) as Creative Director at a major Rogers 5-station cluster for asking sellers to provide useful client info. 95% refused and bitched about it 24/7. It was beneath their important positions! Good advice dept: I quickly pivoted back to technology and never once posted “looking for new opportunities” on LinkedIn. Now happily semi-retired with fine benefits and sufficiencies.