We had a discussion here about that a few months ago. During my short stay there in 2003, the problem was that the long-term AEs were selling mainly KLUV and KVIL, and only sold for The Oasis upon request of a client. The AEs assigned specifically to KOAI were newbies. We did remotes at weird places like some new attorney's office in an ancient building on Commerce St downtown (Dallas
some single-location, privately-owned beauty supply on Walnut Hill and Central; a tanning salon in south Arlington; a model home in Little Elm; and a CPA in that old rent-a-room office building on Forest Central next to Academy. Yeah, some real heavy hitters in there. Yes, those were REMOTES; nearly all with talent on hand.
Naturally, as we discussed before, the AEs, let alone the sales manager, had no clue about how to sell the station and to who. I remember them setting up a deal with a new club called the "Milk Bar" (on Lower Greenville; since closed.) After running a happy hour buffet and drink specials on one given night of the week (as an "Oasis Night" or something,) the Milk Bar management pulled the plug on the deal, *supposedly* and *alledgedly* saying that they didn't know the station catered to 'all these black people' and 'that's not the crowd we want in here.'
Another problem is when you have those aging AEs who have the choice, cherry accounts assigned to them, and they merely sit there and cash the checks. No need to peddle The Oasis to any of them; just keep 'em buying the safest bets (KVIL and KLUV) and laugh all the way to the bank. For every one Red Bird Ford and Massey Cadillac spot on KOAI, there were 10 for "Mega Tan" or "Vo'Nique's Beauty Supply" or whoever.
Selling a smooth jazz format to advertisers takes some work and research. But once you realize you have the affluent white AND black audience to peddle to, it's really not that tough. Higher-end cars...vacation packages...houses...financial advice...nighttime MBA programs...and much, much more.
But the other issue here is that when you bring in a cast of untrained newbies to do your selling, they get discouraged easily, as they are too pressured and focused on making SOMETHING happen quickly that they lose any sense of creativity and the time it takes to "work" an account. Management puts heavy expectations on them to produce NOW, and no matter what ace-in-the-hole you scored yesterday, well...that was yesterday, and what are you doing today? At KVIL, David Henry was giving short-term draws then cutting the AEs off after 3 months and onto straight commission. If you didn't make something major happen in 6-9 months, well, goodbye. Oh, and by the way, here's a list of accounts that are "claimed" and you can't sell to.
Getting no allegiance, no patience, and a constant "what have you done for me lately" attitude...frankly, I'm surprised the suicide rate isn't higher amongst media salespeople.
Back to the point, your typical AE who's selling a Smooth Jazz format had better come to grips quickly with the fact that it's not a 'just black' or 'just white' or a tight age demo format, and go sell it with the same confidence that you'd sell your top biller or top ratings-getter in your cluster. Can it really be that difficult?!?
