Radio Sales Books

[news2sales]

Hello, friends. After more than 30 years in television and radio news I'm embarking on a career in small-market radio sales. My training begins this week. As a supplement to that training, I'd like to read the radio sales books which you sales vets consider the best of the lot. The two recently-published books most prominently featured in an amazon.com search are "Selling Air" by Bob Diamond and "Successful Local Broadcast Sales" by Paul Weyland. Your thoughts on these and other books are most appreciated by yours truly. Thanks in advance.

 

[bturner]

I got started in small market radio advertising sales. I was handed a list of 40 people that had been on the air at one point and told to 'get out there'. No books or special training.

I was told to go out and meet these business owners, consider them friends and work for their success. The idea was to build trust, make them like you and never put yourself above their needs. After about a year I was making good money. In 4 years I had some clients who wanted me to tell them where to spend their advertising dollars (print, cable, radio).

Sales is really not that complicated. It's simply being honest with the business owners and trying to help them with the challenges of running a business. You best sales technique might simply be listening to them.

I never try to sell anything until I understand a little about the business and what the owner wants to do. Everyone got a proposal based on what they shared with me. I kept the dollar amount within the amount they said they could comfortably spend. I really did have people who stayed with me for years.

 

[news2sales]

bturner... excellent advice for the rookie. I plan on taking it. Having done the "meet and greet" with business owners and civic leaders in my years as an anchor and broadcast executive, the listening/understanding part won't be a stretch. Thank you so much for your thoughts.