We all face a continuous set of challenges. In our personal lives we do the best we can to be a productive member of society, to create positive experiences with our families and along the way work to maintain good friendships with people we trust and enjoy good company with. Each of our challenges is relative to real problems in the world. In America our worst day is way better than those who face ongoing war and disaster. Afghanistan and Haiti come to mind without thinking.
So our challenges are miniscule.
In our professional lives it’s our responsibility to be productive citizens. The industries we’re in and the companies we work for create expectations that we’ll do what’s necessary to advance ourselves, our companies and our customer’s experience.
As a sales coach and business consultant, I’m fortunate to work with many people who have vision, and are pursuing growth by providing products or services desired by their customers. The real challenge I think has become how to balance the day to day operations and deliverables with the necessary drive to increase performance.
That’s why I teach. That’s why I coach. That’s why I consult. To help the business owners we’re in partnership with create a positive balance between the daily challenges that exist and how they can look ahead and design their business practices in a way that supports employee growth and development.
I’m in the early stages of developing a radio advertising sales training program with Radio1 Broadcast School in LaCrosse. They’ve been focused on the broadcast side for 7 years and just this week won awards presented at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Student Awards for Excellence event. They are good at training prospective announcers. Now they want to develop a quality radio sales training curriculum and I’m honored to be involved in the creation of this new professional development series.
The radio industry like many media today faces significant challenges adapting and evolving to stay relevant with changing technology. One thing that has not seemed to change much is how broadcasters train their sales people. I was fortunate to be the recipient of the best sales training in the world from my very first day in advertising sales. The companies I worked for were adamant about having the best people and the best training to keep their revenues chugging along to reach goal. My experience is the exception to the industry. Most radio stations leadership is so busy fighting fires internally and with corporate investors that they lose sight of what is really happening on the street with their customers and their sales people.
Radio sales people come in three categories.
1. Experienced veterans that bill 80% of the stations revenue. (top performers)
2. Novices who are learning and committed to their careers. (mid-level performers)
3. Beginners who may or may not make it in the business. (entry level learners)
If the radio industry wants to continue as a viable advertising and entertainment medium, it must look critically at how seriously it’s committed to training.
Sales managers are the individuals charged with running the sales operation, managing people, taking care of key clients, going on sales calls and training the sales staff. Only the finest broadcast companies have the sales management experience to support the daunting challenges sales managers face day to day. These radio groups are rare indeed.
We’re developing this new radio advertising sales program to help the companies that don’t have the experience and budgets to train their people properly. So the process has begun. We’re customizing our sales training curriculum to fit perfectly with the challenges that radio stations and radio advertising sales people face today. Having been in radio advertising sales, sales management, sales training and having been on the buying side as marketing director and as a consultant that still is involved in buying media for my clients, I’m excited to be able to fill a huge void.
In the days ahead I’ll begin to share the resources I’ll be using to help me become the best radio sales trainer in Wisconsin.