Here’s How To Succeed At Selling Radio

Anna Koehler is an experienced account executive who works for Hubbard’s KS95 in the Twin Cities. Anna shared an incredible advertiser success story with us that shows just how important persistence is in the sales cycle. Many AEs would have given up on this client, but not Anna. She worked the account hard and the advertiser went from not even being on her station, to being one of her best accounts.

by Hubbard Radio’s Anna Koehler
Zerorez is a radio Cinderella story. It’s the client that I should have given up on 10 times before they finally said yes. The YES came after multiple meetings in their warehouse’s van garage, sitting on a couch with their office dog. Years later, it’s one of my largest and most rewarding accounts. But it didn’t happen overnight, and we’re not done growing their business yet – not even close.

Zerorez started out with one van, cleaning carpets in the Twin Cities, when I heard their ad on another station. The “other station”

was a Classic Rock, male-dominated station. My station, KS95, is Hot AC, skewing female. I decided we would be a perfect addition. We aren’t cheap. So the selling began. For the first few years, I sliced and diced data every which way I could. On paper, we were a standout. On paper, we made sense. But they were a startup and couldn’t jump in with both feet. We needed to prove ourselves.

After months (maybe over a year) of the data game, and pushing what I KNEW would work for them (morning drive endorsements similar to what they were running on the competition’s morning show), we told them to dip one toe in with a nighttime endorsement – 7 p.m.-12 midnight. Here we are, the #1 station in the market for their demo, with a top-rated morning show, and I’m going in with a nighttime endorsement spec and schedule. I knew our audience would respond.

Zerorez cleans carpets without harsh chemicals…we have moms with kids and pets. Instead of continuing to overthink it with data and charts, TSL, and exclusive cume, I simply said we’d meet them in the middle. You want to test our station, inexpensively…let’s do nights. BUT, I made the owner promise me WHEN (not if) they saw calls coming in, they’d have to expand into drive-time endorsements. We had a deal.

Three months later, they were on the morning show. Fast forward 10 years. They had so much success with morning drive, that, over the years, they’ve added 15’s in afternoon drive, then endorsements in afternoon drive. And, this year, they are my biggest success story of 2018, because after (again) months – possibly over a year – we’ve added digital elements to their campaign, not just in the Twin Cities market, but in all of their franchises’ markets: St Louis, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, and Omaha.

Our social team and I are no longer just selling them solutions, we are a resource. We’ve grown the partnership from a nighttime endorsement into a multi-market integrated campaign which they utilize for data collection, A/B ad testing, and remarketing from other databases they’ve collected. We apply this digital research to our radio campaigns – it determines the messaging, targeting and positioning of the ads, as well as placement. The more well-rounded and integrated their campaign becomes, the higher their numbers climb, the deeper their trust grows with me and my station.

What I love most about working with Zerorez, is not only their team, who are deeply invested in their success, as they’ve nearly ALL been there since the early stages, but their tracking and attribution. There’s really no option to fail…at least for more than a few hours, because they see it. Their call center and digital tracking is like no other client I work with. Because of these proven analytics, we can use their story as a lead generator – as an example of how radio works. Not only do I reference their success to prospects, but Zerorez openly offers to speak to prospects on my behalf. We even have prospects call in and ask to do what Zerorez is doing. All because my team and I didn’t give up, and in spite of their growth, and surpassing their goals, they refuse to coast.

Reach out to congratulate Anna at [email protected]