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In for the Kill...
How do you cold-call an advertiser and walk away with a sale? Some tips and tricks to help you on your way..
Make a simple ad rate card that has a couple of packages on it and the benefits of advertising on your station. Then hit the phones - phone up every company you think might vaguely be interested and ask to speak to someone who deals with their advertising. If they say they are not interested, then find out who their manager is and send them an rate card anyway. A lot of companies will fob you off with "it's the wrong time of year" so find out when the best time of year is and phone back then.
Then send your rate card with a covering letter addressed to the person you spoke to / got the name of. Two days later follow it up with a phone call. If they say they are not interested ask them if they'd mind telling you why they are not interested. If they are busy ask them when is a good time to call.
If they sound vaguely interested then secure the sale. Use the suggested techniques of knocking the price down until they are happy bunnies and always end with "I'll put the contract for you to sign in the post straight away" Send it first class. If you're within walking/driving distance deliver it there and then.
If you go and met clients to discuss terms, always wear at least a shirt and tie. Take a copy of the contract along with the blanks to fill in the details. Take along a ghetto-blaster with a cd of a minute of highlights from your station (which sound professional - not which you think are funny) plus some examples of other clients who have advertised. Small-business people love the idea of having their company being advertised so exploit that.
The most important thing about ad sales is know your client and make sure they get the best deal. The best sales people are not the ones who screw the most money out of a gullible advertiser; but they are the ones who deliver the largest profits to the advertiser (without obviously losing the radio station money). The reason is that the advertiser is far more likely to return to advertise on the station than the guy who paid thousands and saw no-one extra walk through his door. And once you've got a client base it's a lot easier than having to go and find new advertisers each week.
In student radio terms, if you convince the local chippie to splash out three hundred quid on an advertising package, he will want to see at least a three hundred quid increase in profit to justify that expenditure. Assuming he's working on a 10% profit margin, it therefore means that the campaign you've sold him has got to generate £3,000 worth of new sales!
If, however, you'd sold him a £50 package then the campaign only needs to raise sales by about £500 - and as long as its well thought through that shouldn't be a problem. So he will return the following month and spend another £50, perhaps even more, and then keep returning - spending far more than the £300 you could have charged him. And no doubt he'll mention your station to his business friends, and bob's your uncle...