The Radio Sales Playbook: Take a Good Look
By Harmony Tenney, MBA
It’s budget season. Your clients are planning next year’s spending right now, and your rates should be set before they do, not after.
I help three LPFM stations bring in a few extra underwriters. One of the first reports I requested, before making a single sales call, was their entire account list, sorted by annual revenue, with monthly columns. I winced. Their rates were far too low.
I immediately set my own pricing, about 50% higher than their rate card, with a per-station minimum. I also turned their perceived weakness, a 100-watt signal, into their greatest strength: “Our coverage is focused entirely on the Charlottesville and Albemarle County.”
Prospective underwriters signed, and revenue per underwriter went up without more calls.
Where have you set your bottom line? What’s your average monthly order? How many community events is your station sponsoring, part cash and part trade?
- Start with a baseline. Use your Monday–Sunday, 6:00 am to midnight rate to put a dollar value on every PSA, promotional announcement, and extra mention.
- Value everything you might give. List every station asset that can land in a proposal (bonus ads, streaming, community calendar listings, stacks of postcards in the lobby, ticket giveaways) with a value and purchase price next to each. If part of your support isn’t written into the proposal, you’re shortchanging yourself. The client either doesn’t know what you’re doing behind the scenes or assumes it’s worth nothing. Ensure nothing goes into a proposal as “free.”
- Ask for reciprocals. If your valuation meets their “Silver Sponsor” level, make sure they have what they need to deliver: your station’s logo for their website, social media, print pieces, and event banner, plus signage at the event. Value should run both ways.
- Sell annual promotions in advance. Book next year’s event or station promotion before the New Year. Start at this year’s price plus 5% and confirm final numbers and dates once the details are set.
When advertisers follow your lead, you set the price. Make it count.
Harmony Tenney, MBA, is the author of The Ultimate Radio Sales Playbook (Amazon), connecting communities through radio’s superpowers. She’s spent more than two decades selling local radio in the Charlottesville, Va., market, working with small business owners, local governments, and area non-profits; twice named a Top Ten U.S. Radio Marketing Consultant by Radio Ink. Email Harmony@UltimateRadioSales.com or phone 540-255-5686