(By Loyd Ford) Everyone you know at work wants to win. Take my word for it. Don’t take my word for it. It’s true. In our country, we celebrate victory, success, and reaching the top.
In sales, winning isn’t about who you can convince to buy. It’s about listening. It’s about knowing when to speak up. It’s about empathy and consistency. And it’s about telling the updated story of local radio today.
It’s also about knowing the power in your hands and the value of what we really offer to customers.
Local radio is unlike any other advertising opportunity.
Trust has plummeted.
People largely distrust politicians, what they see on TV, and almost everything they see on Facebook, Twitter, and other digital sources.
Yet, at the end of the day, being tribal has not changed. People are more likely to trust local than anything else.
Then, if you are selling radio, you are selling something with a known history of trust. People are so into the trust they have in local radio that the number one use of digital listening devices is often local radio.
The value of local radio is taken for granted, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted by us. Local radio should be telling our 21st Century story — the one about trust.
Why don’t we do that? Is it because of the little devices in our hands? Is it because we know our own humanity and that causes us to turn to the new and the tempting?
Even there one of the top ways to promote digital destination is local radio.
So, this causes us to pause and think about how we sell radio. Isn’t it trust? Isn’t it companionship? Isn’t our advantage our people? The humanity of radio?
Of course, it is.
In a world that is becoming more and more distant, cold, fast-moving, technology-based, and isolated, humans don’t change. They crave connection and what they can trust.
Add To Your Advantage
If you haven’t spent time training and practicing your talent on endorsements regularly, I highly recommend you re-think how to utilize the advantage known as your local talent and place your significant advantage up-front in your market: Local trust-building.
Smart people pay for trust. It’s a premium.
Sometimes it’s easy for local sellers to start looking around at objections as if they are the new solutions. It’s our job to tell our 21st Century radio story and it’s a good one.
Connection is more desired than ever. Trust means more and local trust is the single most valuable opportunity advertisers get. That’s our real advantage over everything else.
Be proud of where you work. We are local radio and our value is very much a 21st Century story worth paying a premium for today.
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). They help local radio with ratings and revenue. Reach him anytime at 864.448.4169 or [email protected]. Read Loyd’s Radio Ink archives here.
