This time we're discussing mega-markets, the Top 20 or so, where agency-driven, avail business is a way of life. In NY & LA it accounts for 90+ percent of all local revenue. In a market like #20 (St Louis) it might account for 60-70% of revenue. There's a second curve on the chart; demos. Stations ranking high in the sweet spot demos like W 25-44 or A 25-54 will be even more avail centric. Even markets down to #50 (Hartford) have high agency dependence.  

The problem is - agencies usually represent the biggest spending advertisers in a market and those advertisers are not only cutting - but cutting big dollars. So there are fewer calls for avails. What to do?

First consider;

• Large agency buyers don't "buy." They shop. Their job is to shop around for value trying to get the most for least. We are the equivalent to items on the rack and right now that rack is loaded with great stuff and cheap prices. (Excuse the metaphor.)
• With all the mergers, some buyers hardly know who the accounts are.
• Just like us, they're fewer of them - trying to do more.
• When we reach the time where they actually consider stations - the heat of the buy - the battle is all over. It's all down to rate and conditions. There is no more selling per se, but only negotiating.
• It's also the toughest time to sell a buyer because they're frantic and overwhelmed. People calling saying "I can get you a better rate," probably do themselves more harm than good. Not a good environment for selling.
• Everyone is looking for some magic elixir - a bag of tricks to make it easer to sell a buyer. There are some but not the kind you'd think. To wit: using Radio's most ignored selling step - Planning & Preparation.

The selling for the next buy must start long, long, long before the avail call occurs. At the tipping point decision time, Prior Relationship and Trust are the huge tie-breakers. The relationship before the avail request has more impact than anything you can do after submitting. Examples:

We take them to lunch, to concerts, give them tickets, blah, blah. My experience that a media buyer lunch is the branch office for Rumor Central; "Did you hear Heather over at Gross-FM was caught with elephant porno?") Instead, try talking about THEM not US.  Try this.

DURING A TIME OF NO ACTIVITY - NO BUY UP - DO SOMETHING INCREDIBLY STRANGE - ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR JOB!!!

During a time between buys, have you ever sat with a media buyer and said, "Tell me about your last three buys. Especially difficult or out-of-town buys." "What were your challenges?" "What were the client requirements?" "How tough was it?" "What was the toughest one you remember?" "Without naming names, what was one of the worst ___ you got from a station?" "Without naming names, what did a station do for you over and above anything you expected?"

How about that for a wowser? It would be like somebody asking us about sales and actually listening to the answer.

Do you know about www.MediaLifeMagazine.com? There's a bottomless pit of articles about them, their job and how they think. Does your buyer know about it? In fact there's a February 24 article called For Hurting Radio a Glimmer of Light. Click Here for Feb 24th Article.

Do you have a direct account who has no real idea what they're doing? Eating up your time to write copy?  Time you could be using for more selling? That's when I turn that account over to an agency.

(I actually used to do this.) I'd go to my three most productive agencies and tell them I'd be happy to have them meet the (non-competitive) client. Then I tell the client that they ought to be talking to an agency and I'll recommend three good ones. The agencies pitch - the client chooses. Everybody wins on this one; agency client and you.

Sure there's the age old legend of the AE who helped the agency get an account but then the agency didn't buy them. It's a million-in-one shot. It won't happen if you stay tight with the client. It happened to me once. However the agency told me why and more than compensated on other accounts. Even better, become known as a person who can get good leads for agencies. They'll be sending YOU flowers and chardonnay. I met a guy at a party recently, who thanked me for an account I brought him - FIFTEEN years ago.

More of my actual experiences that usually work.

• Need someone to help with a star at a concert? Forget the intern, ask a buyer. Pay them a little bit - but make sure they come in contact with the artist.
• Do sports? The last place in the world I'd take any kind of sports or NTR event would be a buyer. However I'd engage them in the project.
• Bring them in the station during AM Drive (while we still have live, local radio). Again, pictures with jocks.
• Media buyers at station events. A station was collecting blankets for the victims of Katrina. Listeners came to the remote location and dropped off blankets. The station invited a bunch of buyers to help take the blankets. Lots of pictures, a great dinner afterwards. The big dividend - the buyers were blown away by the size, age and quality of the station's audience.
• Make this an organized, methodical program. Keep a chart of your buyers with check-offs of each over and above contact.
• But remember, this stuff pays off BETWEEN BUYS.

Got the idea? It's no magic - just working smarter.

There are so many cheap avails on the street that it makes no sense to (a) concentrate on numbers (b) at the hot-zone of buy time. Invest instead in honest relationships early on. Your avails are guaranteed to be at the top of the stack.