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Sales Reps Bucks?
- Thread starter masterg
- Start date
Well, if you listen to WNAK's non-stop "We need reps" spots, you will be driving Beemers the first week and upgrading the third week.
ThomasCarten said:Well, if you listen to WNAK's non-stop "We need reps" spots, you will be driving Beemers the first week and upgrading the third week.
Okay, beat me the hell up if you will, go right ahead - but I had high hopes that this "newer" forum would be more active. Sadly, and here again you're welcome to flame me, but this forum is as damned dead as the last one. What can I do to make it better? I'm not kidding, can we get this thing going? Radio in this market is worthy of more attention than it's getting, past and present. HELP!!!
Well, to answer your question (same answer, different words): If sales reps at WNAK were making any money, there wouldn't be the apparent turnover we're seeing. However, check with someone at the WILK Empire and see if the reps are sticking there; if so, the pay is good.
B
beenthere2many
Guest
unfortunately... it's not the money that the keeps the reps with a station or cluster, the biggest reason they leave is the ownership / management. For the most part, it's the standard 10% to 15%, draw versus commission. However, when the "higher ups" play games with the format / frequency / or whatever, it gets harder and harder to go back to the SAME advertisers and tell them "with a happy face" that THIS CHANGE will be better for them AND THIS CHANGE will be permanent... LOL.
M
marker102
Guest
Most message boards on the internet are very slamming and mainly sarcastic..I think Tom was going with the sarcastic reply. This board tame compared to most, including other cities in this forum. There is the other site out there, but there is absolutely nothing going on there, to the point of being a flop.
My input about the topic in the subject line is that I appreciate their job, but I would not want to be in their shoes. I don't know exact rates, but most sales reps have a good laugh when you mention their six figure saleries ;D
My input about the topic in the subject line is that I appreciate their job, but I would not want to be in their shoes. I don't know exact rates, but most sales reps have a good laugh when you mention their six figure saleries ;D
I was sarcastically serious about WNAK. They run more spots for reps than for any other single advertiser. It makes me wonder if Route 81, as a whole, is looking for reps, or if just the local operation is a revolving door. The way they shout at you in the recent set of promos, you'd think the accounts are there for the picking, even if you are in the bottom 50% of reps at your current job.
But they have fewer and fewer local ads than ever and the nationals appear to be network make-goods. Even the locals are split between the genuine "inside the coverage area" advertisers and those up in Honesdale who couldn't pick up WNAK with a beam antenna cut to 730.
But they have fewer and fewer local ads than ever and the nationals appear to be network make-goods. Even the locals are split between the genuine "inside the coverage area" advertisers and those up in Honesdale who couldn't pick up WNAK with a beam antenna cut to 730.
marker102 said:Most message boards on the internet are very slamming and mainly sarcastic..I think Tom was going with the sarcastic reply. This board tame compared to most, including other cities in this forum. There is the other site out there, but there is absolutely nothing going on there, to the point of being a flop.
Sorry if my remarks sounded sarcastic, that wasn't my point at all. What I was hoping to communicate is, "Where in hell is everyone?" This thread alone has been viewed well over 100 times, yet so few respond. What is up with that? I doubt I'm alone in wanting to see things get more active here, a lot more active.
Plus, there have to be more than a few out there who could actually cite dollar figures in terms of what sales reps are making. I know that I can, but those figures are roughly 15-18 years old. Back in the late '80s or so, some sales reps at, let's say, the top three stations were making somewhere between 60-70K, which was a nice chunk of change at the time.
.
Don't worry about it; I know the feeling. Stuff sits here, gets looked at and picked over, but seldom taken out for a date. You get to feeling like the less attractive girl at the bar.
I was hoping some reps would drop in and give the going range, but so far we've had no luck.
.Sorry if my remarks sounded sarcastic, that wasn't my point at all. What I was hoping to communicate is, "Where in hell is everyone?" This thread alone has been viewed well over 100 times, yet so few respond.
Don't worry about it; I know the feeling. Stuff sits here, gets looked at and picked over, but seldom taken out for a date. You get to feeling like the less attractive girl at the bar.
I was hoping some reps would drop in and give the going range, but so far we've had no luck.
Y
yonkstur
Guest
When I started in sales in 1996, I was given a weekly salary of $350.00 a week at Shamrock. Then if you made goal, you made a straight 15% commission on everything you sold. There were some times when you had a bad month, you'd wind up in the hole but management there understood that and actually "forgave" draw money. If you notice the 107 website, most of the sales reps have been there over 10 years. The reason is the formats have been consistent, management (the late Durkin and now Papperelli) don't play games with accounts, ie people's livlihoods and the entire station (at least when I was there) knew sales and programing were intertwined.
At Citadel, my base was $500.00 a week but you had to compete with 9 stations. Selling WARM exclusively was tough and the GM at the time Regina Todd actually made special arrangements with the WARM sellers because she knew how tough it was to sell the station. She could be demanding and sometimes she put her trust in the wrong people there, but she was fair in understanding that WARM as a standalone was tough to sell. There was a division in the building, programming and sales. And despite the sense that it made for programming to work with sales, every programmer there with the exception of Magic's Stan Phillips was on an ego trip. The sales managers were not given enough time to build a team and rarely lasted more than a year. The major problem with Citadel was they kept cutting commissions, changing formats, changing accounts, giving blue chip accounts to "newbie" favorites and sometimes stripping veterans of their lists. No one wanted to go on a vacation longer than 2 days there for fear your list would be gone when you came back. Corporate also cut health care benefits and raised the goals. They recruited new reps at a furious pace but if they didn't make it after 2 months, they were gone. I was there for 16 months and in that time 68 sales reps came and went. I was number 68 (still have the shirt to prove it). Was supposed to get fired sooner but they couldn't find me so someone else got 66 and 67.
From WARM, I went to Cable Rep and had a base of $500.00 a week plus a gas stipend that I got every month. Was there a year but had to endure many changes when Cox Communications took over. Left in May 2001 to work at the Call Center on S Main in Wilkes Barre.
My top salary was 97-98 when I was over $40,000 thanks to the guidance of Durkin and Papperelli. But I left to go to Citadel because my wife was ill and I needed to be closer to her workplace. I am convinmced that had I had the opportunity to stay at Shamrock, I would be driving an Escalade today. (I love my ragtop but facts are facts!)
Yonkstur
At Citadel, my base was $500.00 a week but you had to compete with 9 stations. Selling WARM exclusively was tough and the GM at the time Regina Todd actually made special arrangements with the WARM sellers because she knew how tough it was to sell the station. She could be demanding and sometimes she put her trust in the wrong people there, but she was fair in understanding that WARM as a standalone was tough to sell. There was a division in the building, programming and sales. And despite the sense that it made for programming to work with sales, every programmer there with the exception of Magic's Stan Phillips was on an ego trip. The sales managers were not given enough time to build a team and rarely lasted more than a year. The major problem with Citadel was they kept cutting commissions, changing formats, changing accounts, giving blue chip accounts to "newbie" favorites and sometimes stripping veterans of their lists. No one wanted to go on a vacation longer than 2 days there for fear your list would be gone when you came back. Corporate also cut health care benefits and raised the goals. They recruited new reps at a furious pace but if they didn't make it after 2 months, they were gone. I was there for 16 months and in that time 68 sales reps came and went. I was number 68 (still have the shirt to prove it). Was supposed to get fired sooner but they couldn't find me so someone else got 66 and 67.
From WARM, I went to Cable Rep and had a base of $500.00 a week plus a gas stipend that I got every month. Was there a year but had to endure many changes when Cox Communications took over. Left in May 2001 to work at the Call Center on S Main in Wilkes Barre.
My top salary was 97-98 when I was over $40,000 thanks to the guidance of Durkin and Papperelli. But I left to go to Citadel because my wife was ill and I needed to be closer to her workplace. I am convinmced that had I had the opportunity to stay at Shamrock, I would be driving an Escalade today. (I love my ragtop but facts are facts!)
Yonkstur
Thanks, Yonk, that fills in a lot gaps for me. Sadly, it sounds like radio reps aren't doing much better than they were 15-20 years ago. I knew Timmy Durkin when he was a sales rep at WARM, a very motivated guy, a real hustler. Tim, along with George Gilbert, created what is now WKSB/KISS-FM in Williamsport, which has been a huge success. They didn't have any equity in the place, they were GM and GSM and took an old tired AM/FM, WRAK, and morphed it into a great radio station, and it still is.
In WARM's latter glory days, there was palpable distinction between sales and programming, I mean it was right out in the open. Let me put it this way, you'd seldom find any sort of cooperative ventures between jocks and sales reps. The typical attitude from sales reps was, "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't get paid." The typical attitude from jocks was, "If it wasn't for me, you'd have nothing to sell." Looking back, it wasn't a terribly healthy atmosphere and is likely one of the contributing factors to WARM's decline and failure. The GSM at the time, however, was not bashful about interfering in programming matters, Harry would have a few stories about that. Several of us had brushes with the GSM, most of us told him to get lost. In essence, what had happened at WARM was this - they'd lost sight of what their product was. Over time, the suits had come to think that the sales department was the product, and programming was simply a necessary evil, almost an inconvenience. Remember, back then WARM was running 18 minutes an hour whenever they could. There was no attempt to balance commercial content with entertainment, they just loaded up the log to the max.
For a good many, it's all ancient history; for some of us, it's like it was yesterday.
In WARM's latter glory days, there was palpable distinction between sales and programming, I mean it was right out in the open. Let me put it this way, you'd seldom find any sort of cooperative ventures between jocks and sales reps. The typical attitude from sales reps was, "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't get paid." The typical attitude from jocks was, "If it wasn't for me, you'd have nothing to sell." Looking back, it wasn't a terribly healthy atmosphere and is likely one of the contributing factors to WARM's decline and failure. The GSM at the time, however, was not bashful about interfering in programming matters, Harry would have a few stories about that. Several of us had brushes with the GSM, most of us told him to get lost. In essence, what had happened at WARM was this - they'd lost sight of what their product was. Over time, the suits had come to think that the sales department was the product, and programming was simply a necessary evil, almost an inconvenience. Remember, back then WARM was running 18 minutes an hour whenever they could. There was no attempt to balance commercial content with entertainment, they just loaded up the log to the max.
For a good many, it's all ancient history; for some of us, it's like it was yesterday.
The true winners when it comes to sales are people who have some sort of known, but as yet unidentified "sales gene". It's a talent that you are essentially born with. The real pros succeed despite management and programming turnovers and meddling. They seem to be born with a positive attitude and don't fall into a 6 month funk when somebody tells them to get out of their store. The major groups seem to feel that if you take someone with a 2 year marketing degree, give them 3 weeks of watching boring sales training tapes they will magically become a sales wizard. If you have the talent it takes to sell a sandwich in a bag you will make a good living. If you don't have the elusive sales gene..pick another line of work.
MACK184 said:The true winners when it comes to sales are people who have some sort of known, but as yet unidentified "sales gene". It's a talent that you are essentially born with. The real pros succeed despite management and programming turnovers and meddling. They seem to be born with a positive attitude and don't fall into a 6 month funk when somebody tells them to get out of their store. The major groups seem to feel that if you take someone with a 2 year marketing degree, give them 3 weeks of watching boring sales training tapes they will magically become a sales wizard. If you have the talent it takes to sell a sandwich in a bag you will make a good living. If you don't have the elusive sales gene..pick another line of work.
You could call it hard bark, thick skin, not minding having doors slammed in your face, and to maintain while you do it all over and over and over...If you can sell, you'll never go hungry.
Y
yonkstur
Guest
And the key to sales success in radio is this, leave your good sellers alone. Don't try to micromanage them and when they say they can't get one last penny out of a client............believe them. The rep knows the client and understands the nuance that "pigs eat, hogs get slaughtered". If I had a nickel for every manager who didn't understand that, I'd be in a Jamaica villa right now with a Geena Davis footrub.
Yonkstur
Yonkstur
I remember Regina Todd in the early 90s she was at Keymarket I must say I was not impressed
This has to be some sort of landmark event - the resurrection of a nearly three year old thread!
I don't know what kind of money sales reps are pulling in in that market I know from my own experience 17 years ago in the North East PA market I was knocking down around 50 TO 60 g a year until they fire you make your big accounts that I got house accounts(note this is a true statement) and then beg you to go back to work a year latter when contracts expire and stations cant get em back on air.my response to the am fm that begged for my return was stick it up your ass
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