Written by: Dan Halyburton, VP New Media, McVay/Cook & Associates
Two things have always fascinated me – flying helicopters and radio stations. Both appear simple on the surface, but have a deeper, fascinating complexity. I have a little time at the controls of a Bell Jet Ranger and with a patient instructor I can just about hover the thing. It’s a long way from proficiency. Hovering a helicopter is difficult. There is an old saying that learning to hover is like standing on top of a greasy ball while patting your head and rubbing your stomach.
Mastering digital sales at a terrestrial radio station represents some of the same fascination, challenges, and it too requires special skills. Thankfully radio lets you walk away where flying can be fatally unforgiving.
We insist that our sales teams master the art of selling two very different mediums and be a financial success at both. That’s no easy feat.
First, radio dynamics are pretty simple. Radio is a medium with lots of history. We know how to buy it and sell it. We sell commercials. The systems, people, and approach are virtually unchanged since the 1950’s. The measurement of the audience, while in flux, is still focused on how many - for how long - and how much will it cost to reach that audience. The inventory is fixed. The market is competitive, but fixed, at the number of broadcast signals in your market area.
Digital is the greasy ball for radio broadcasters. The inventory is impression based and potentially unlimited. The marketplace and the number of competitors are virtually endless. Measurement is precise. Pricing is all over the place with low CPM’s. The buying and selling processes are new to us and the procedures on both sides are not clearly established.
One description of a helicopter is 10,000 moving parts, flying in close formation. It’s not surprising that we are struggling with all the moving parts of digital sales.
The biggest difference between digital and radio sales are that radio is “value based selling.” We have always done an excellent job of creating “VALUE” in the minds of the sellers and buyers. The best example of that are “remotes”. We sell them by the truckload. Their real value is uncertain in terms of their metrics, but we created their “value” in the mind of the buyers.
Digital has been purely metrics driven and that’s where we have to focus our efforts. We have to establish “value” based selling in our digital sales operations. We can do that if we truly understand the needs of the customer. When we understand their needs we can create truly custom applications, using our digital tools. When we create “value” in the buyers mind, we will be less dependent on price.
Digital sales will always have to deal with metrics, but when we work hard to create “value” in the mind of our sales teams and their clients we will be on the path to financial success in the digital space.
Contact Dan Halyburton at:
dan@halyburton.com