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Sales and programming working hand in hand seems like common sense, and that is the catch. Everyone thinks the solution to shoring up the broadcasting industry’s current state and survival in this recession must be more complex. The Los Angeles Times ran a promotional ad at the end of April with the tag line, “Sorry, radio, but the numbers send a clear signal.” It was about the supposed greater reach of the big daily paper and claimed that just one ad in print hits more people than drive-time spots on 20 stations.
According to Arbitron and Edison Media Research, which conducted the latest Internet and multimedia study, among people who are employed full-time or part-time and who listen at work, there is a clear up-and-down trend. Their study reports that “the portion of people who listen most often to radio stations through a computer over the Internet has grown from 12% to 20% in on year’s time. The portion who listens most often via regular radio has declined from 88% to 80%.” And if you didn’t see this coming: “After all, on the Internet, the competition is not just the other stations in town. The possibilities are essentially infinite.”
Bottom Line Speculation
In addition, now there is speculation that radio’s spike in interactive revenue is coming out of its own pocket, with double-digit growth in an attractive new category. It was reported that Radio One CEO/president/treasurer Alfred Liggins says he’s seen it firsthand: an advertiser like Toyota saying that, for example, a previous year’s $1 million radio budget for a local market is now $800,000 for radio and $200,000 for interactive.
Not everyone will agree with Liggins. However, his thoughts are shared by other knowledgeable broadcasters.
We all know that doesn’t included competition with MP3 players, satellite radio, HD radio channels and smart phones (e.g., V Cast). If that isn’t enough to have all of us looking up at the skies for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, we still have competition in our markets on a local level with TV, billboards, direct mail ,and door-to-door termite marketing campaigns. Just when we think it can’t get any worse, there’s competition with other terrestrial stations in your market and for the closed-minded general sales managers, stations within your own cluster competing for the almighty dollar from the same advertiser.
Walk into a conference room with programming and management, and most of the time it is Clash of the Titans. Why? The Bottom line is it doesn’t matter how good a sales force you have if you have an inferior product to sell (I didn’t say ratings) and it doesn’t matter how superior your product is if you have an inferior sales force. Sometimes it is a no-brainer to see where the weak links are. The majority of the time, it is the mere fact of the different mind-sets between programming and sales.
The common goal is the same: to have a strong overall brand and brand awareness that can be equated to revenue contributing to the company’s bottom line. But if the money doesn’t come in, that’s when you see that your stations are up for sale, waiting for the next owner to figure out the balancing act between sales and programming.
Tips for Unity
Some of us in the industry have been fortunate to be schooled in programming and sales. Here are some tips I’ve learned along the way from some very smart people in both camps.
• Share the mission: Write a mission statement for your station’s programming and sales teams. If your cluster already has a mission statement, add an addendum to include ways sales and programming can be strength for one another. When strengths are driven by a mission, then strengths will feed the mission.
• Create a new friendship: Relationships are not inconsequential to the bottom line. A 1990 study of stations sponsored by former broadcaster New City Communications of Worchester Mass., showed that stations with the greatest profits have the highest percentage of employees with best friends at work. If you are a programmer, make a friend in sales, and vice versa. Even if it is just for an occasional coffee, the bond and understanding of the other’s world will become invaluable.
• Tear down the myths between programming and sales: Talk openly about expectations between sales and programming when representing the station. This includes on-air, the sales office, meetings, remotes, station events and when selling the station to clients. Assumptions grow from popular beliefs that are inaccurate regarding programming and sales.
• Share the rewards: Share in the pleasure you have with one another, while working toward the common goal, from ratings parties, to landing a big account, to promotions. Peer recognition is the most powerful form of celebration, especially when programming and sales are working as one. This brings the departments closer together with a feeling of respect and a sense that everyone’s work is truly appreciated.
• Recognize good work: There’s nothing better to re-energize a person or build a bridge between people and departments than showing recognition for an old-fashioned “job well done.”
• Share the brain trust: Salespeople can learn a lot about accounts and gain knowledge on prospects from the eyes and ears of the programming department, including hot ZIPs for clients. Programming can learn about opportunities for station exposure and underwriting opportunities for station events and promotions from clients and business connections.
• Give your clients what they want: Always understand clients’ objectives before you walk in the door to make a proposal to them. Make sure you understand what they want to accomplish, and then make sure the information is communicated through sales to programming. The end result should allow clients to hear on the radio what they told sales and see the results from their on-air campaign through increased traffic and/or exposure.
Each day presents new challenges to overcome between programming and sales.
One thing to remember is to keep moving forward toward the common goal, which is achievable by perfecting the points mentioned here. Only when sales and programming are truly working hand in hand is your station going to achieve success.
If you would like to share some of your own key steps that have helped you develop sales and programming teams working hand in hand or are having difficulty with meshing the teams into one, please email me jim@mcvaymedia.com.
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