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Why Can't We Sell Our Way Out of This?
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How come the five (or how many?) largest groups can't each come up with GIANT, BLOWAWAY, KILLER SALES INITIATIVES? Just like the NTR engines that keep small markets PACING AHEAD for 2009. Repeat - pacing ahead. I truly believe that besides staggering debt, the absence of these kinds of initiatives is a significant reason for all those Inauguration Layoffs and the ones to come from other groups.
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Old Saying: When Wall Street Gets In - That's the Time to Get Out.
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How we got into this position is a matter of record. As we've noted before, our public companies are now under the control of the financial sector. Their boards are typically populated with those from large corporations, government, education - but above all the financial sector. I'd love to do a study to find out how many board members have entrepreneurial, non-corporate backgrounds; how many have a background in marketing, advertising or sales. (That's later.)
One of the core values of Radio is it's legendary history for selling; by sellers who have sold billions in intangible products. High energy, highly motivated selling is our DNA. So how come we're so concentrated on cutting expenses and not increasing revenue?
Financial people know only one way to increase earnings and shareholder value - cut costs - spend less; the poor math of Saving Our Way to Profit. The industry has been doing it for ten years and it hasn't seemed to help. Neither voice tracked programming, syndication nor automation has improved ratings or our relevance. Quite the opposite.
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Selling to a Buyer isn't SELLING
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Before 1996 companies could own only 12 total stations and no more than two per market. The de-regulation act of 1996 enabled the creation of large local clusters. That produced never before seen cumes and AQH numbers. With these new numbers we became more attractive to agencies and that begat our believing that agencies were our pot of gold. Nope. It was similar to the real estate run-up; everybody (for some godforsaken reason) thought that the bonanza would never end. My father (a cop) and my son with a Masters in Business or Economics (or something, which I haven't actually figured it out, but he can actually explain what happened to the economy) both say, If it seems too good to be true - it is. The large market addiction to agencies was too good to be true. The mass of transactional money went away and there we were - standing naked with nothing on but our Tapscans.
Worse, many who came into the industry in the last five years think that agency selling is actually selling.
The words, Is anything going on, isn't prospecting. Negotiation perhaps, or witnessing a purchase - but not selling. Now we're reducing our sales ranks - less calls, less pitches and guess what?
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Why Not Sell Our Way Out of This?
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So let's return to that first question. Why can't we (on a station or cluster or regional basis) come up with a couple KILLER GIANT NTR AND ONLINE MONEY MAGNETS? We have the ideas and we have the inventory. We have the talent.
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Radio Jihad. Stimulus Package. Radio Hail Mary. Radio Raiders.
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Starting with YOU, consider not only taking part in but crusading for the creation of your entity's Creative-Based NTR Initiative with extraordinary billing. The number of spots is no problem since most everyone has unsold avails, which at the moment, are selling for . . . zero, zip, nada. The insanity; watching our customers cutback, cancel and go out of business - when we have unsold avails. What are we thinking? No customers equals no business.
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Resources
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The opportunities are endless for Problem Solving Solutions for our customers.
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Start with the independent innovators - the kick-starters led by Kevin Sweeney and Ken Greenwood then people like Chris Lytle, Chuck Mefford, Dave Gifford, Erwin Pollack and Paul Weyland. (I'm sorry if I left out your favorite. Didn't mean to.)
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Clear Channel has a little known division outside of CCU called the Creative Services Group. That small team has produced jaw-dropping amounts of revenue. There's Clear Channel University. There's AIMS, Idea Bank - to say nothing of the RAB hangin' in there year after year. (I swear, I think George Hyde has been in every (yes every) station in America carrying the torch for Radio.)
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There are medium market groups in decent shape because they create NTR initiatives every day. Federated, Cherry Creek, Three Eagles, Forever, South Central, Delmarva, Triad - just to name a few.
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The smalls and mediums are in nowhere near the trouble of the Big Three or Five or Seven, or whatever. The irony is that these groups have the people and firepower to come up with their own Over-the-Top Revenue Offense - but seldom do.
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These NTR initiatives work perfectly in the Top Ten markets - but so many cling to avail business. (I'll have a great story about that Monday.) In the meantime . . .
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Let’s Do It!
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Remember the historical words of John Belushi in Animal House . . .
Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...the tough get goin!' Who's with me? Let's go!
[Runs out, alone, then returns.]
Bluto: What the ___ happened to the Delta [Radio] I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Oooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ___ from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer...
Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these ____. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let's do it.
Bluto: LET'S DO IT.
Taz: Amen.
You: Amen.
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