Innholdsfortegnelse for April 17, 2017 i Radio Ink Magazine

You’re a busy executive, running or operating a fast-paced radio cluster or group. You’re like the proverbial plate spinner on stage, with plates spinning off of each arm, leg, and from your head and your mouth. As you spin, more plates are thrown your way. You catch each one and keep them all spinning. Your plates are projects, people, departments, sales pressure, budgets, managing up, managing down — and if any of the plates fall, you consider it a failure. On top of that, your world of spinning plates is not just for a few minutes on stage during business hours. We’re spinning plates from the first moment we awaken, spinning plates on the phone when we’re driving, spinning plates during lunch, during meetings, and at home for most of…

After putting all your effort and creativity into a presentation, you would probably rather endure a root canal than hear your prospect say no. But understanding what to do after your prospect says no is one of the most valuable steps toward yes in your entire sales process. Before all else, recognize that “No” is a good thing. We often run sales contests where the salesperson who captures the most no’s wins first prize. To qualify, each sales rep has to authenticate the date the presentation was made and the date it was rejected, and document a clear understanding of why the prospect said no. Second prize in our “No” contest goes to the salesperson who captures the most yeses. And here is the thing: The person who captures first…

Congratulations, you’ve been named a market manager! Now what? You have a choice to make, right now. Do you want to be recognized and remembered by your team as the best manager they ever worked for — or the worst? I researched the Web for job listings and descriptions for radio market managers and found that they are mostly the same, except for one thing that concerned me — an important priority that is often overlooked, to the detriment of a radio station. Like it or not, as a market manager, your top priority shouldn’t be to raise the revenue. Your top priority should be to protect the license. It’s not usually the first thing that is brought up, but the usual response, “Well, our attorney handles all that,” can…

In 2017, not only is Radio Ink celebrating its 25th birthday, our Radio Wayne Awards are turning 25. We’ve given out these awards to so many great people over the years. In 2004, Susquehanna CEO David Kennedy won the award for Broadcaster of the Year. And in late 2005, Cumulus purchased Susquehanna for $1.2 billion. Today, Kennedy is co-founder and managing director of Aspire Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital firm. Aspire was founded in 2013 by a group of successful entrepreneurs, operators, investors, and philanthropists to create a new kind of business enterprise, combining the key elements of a dedicated tech company with those of an early-stage venture capital firm. The company has acquired and invested in three principal technologies: mobile, machine learning, and cloud computing. Here’s our Radio Ink…

Provided that you are on the same page as your client demographically and provided the client’s business isn’t seasonal (Christmas trees), you should be asking for long-term (annual) business in every case. Here are four reasons why. FINANCIAL SECURITY. You cannot get rich in this business without long-term contracts. Without them you are starting each month with a big, fat zero and you are always operating in crisis mode. It’s unrealistic to believe that local direct clients you have never met before will just give you $3,000 in the middle of a broadcast month so you can meet your goal. With long-term clients, you start the month at close to budget, or even beyond your goal. And you can look months ahead and rest assured that with continued hard work,…

There’s nothing quite like going out on a high note, and Entercom’s Steve Fisher, who retires this month, has certainly achieved that. As EVP/CFO, he’s helped grow a well-respected company with a solid financial footing for almost 20 years. The recent addition of the CBS Radio properties can only enhance that position, something Steve can take pride in as he leaves. What initially attracted you to the financial side of the broadcast business? I think of myself as a broadcaster first, who gravitated toward the financial side of the business as a way of driving value. This side provided a career path that allowed me to use my tools and interests, yet still be involved in the fun aspects of broadcasting. It is interesting to look back on my career…

When I was a young account executive, business owners used some really weird math “to hold their advertising accountable.” Here are two of my favorites: “The SBA says a business should spend 5 percent of sales on advertising. Therefore, every dollar I spend in advertising has to bring in $20. Can you guarantee me that your plan will do this?” “If I double my ad budget, you’ll double my traffic and sales opportunities, right?” Do business owners still say idiotic things like that? I ask only because I haven’t talked about ad budgets in more than 25 years. These days I tell new clients, “Just tell me how much you want to invest. I won’t have to ask you to increase your ad budget. All I have to do is…

I asked a good friend who deals with high-performing teams how he keeps everyone on his team happy. His answer: “Keeping everyone on your team happy is as simple as ensuring that each individual knows you are there to help them achieve their personal goals. It’s the small gestures that prove you’re motivated for them to win. You can’t rely on the macro conversation of giving a team an overarching message to let the individual know you will ensure their success and happiness.” I think his answer was spot on, because through the years I have seen some of the best leaders leading their teams this way. This leadership style is summed up in the book An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization, by Lisa Laskow Lahey and Robert…

You can have the best on-air talent, the mightiest signal, the tallest antenna, and the biggest audience numbers in town — and still not bill as much as you could. Maybe you even have a superior copy and production team. So what’s the secret sauce you’re missing? Chutzpah — the moxie to tell the client he or she has an ugly baby. No, not their store, their office, or their product line. Their offer. Radio salespeople have to demonstrate enough marketing savvy to tell the client they need a stronger offer. Or don’t take the order — unless you’re satisfied with a one-off. Because weak offers just don’t pull, in any medium. Remember, your station is only the messenger. And the messenger will get shot if it doesn’t deliver. When…

The radio industry cheered when it became known that Ajit Pai would be elevated from FCC commissioner to the chairmanship thanks to President Trump’s 2017 designation. Pai has been a great friend and cheerleader for radio, and an advocate to fix the FCC’s archaic rules governing the industry. Now we wait and see how long it will take for Pai and his colleagues to repair the ailing AM band, to dispose of burdensome and costly rules that make little sense anymore, and to further consolidate an industry competing for ad dollars with the likes of digital, which is all but completely unregulated. Admittedly, there are other things on the chairman’s agenda, like broadband and the massive TV spectrum auction, but he’s made it clear that radio will not be swept…