
Happy Friday! For this week’s Radio Ink Blast From The Past, we’re sharing a column we published 30 years ago this month. We thought it might give you a few chuckles and more than a few memories.
Cyber Sales – Tomorrow’s Billing Star
by Corey Deitz
Tired of not getting your calls returned? Having a problem getting past the receptionist to an important prospect? How would you like to get the attention of that potential customer long enough to present some great facts about your station? What if I told you there was a way to get a private audience with one of your biggest clients? You can — when you use E-mail.
What is E-mail? It’s electronic mail generated from your computer and sent through an on-line service like Prodigy, CompuServe or America Online to the recipient’s electronic address. E-mail offers opportunities for aggressive salespeople to invite themselves into a client’s office and lay out the information they want them to see. When you contact a client electronically, he has an opportunity to read your message at his leisure, at the office or at home. E-mail is also cost-efficient, rivaling standard “snail mail” postage rates. In some cases, as on America Online, there is no surcharge for E-mail within the service and to other commercial services and Internet locations.
Say Good-bye to Phone Tag
Using E-mail to contact and stay in touch with clients and prospects can send an impressive signal. It demonstrates your willingness to grasp the latest and most innovative resources in your pursuit of customer service. It also gives your clients an easy and fast way of reaching you. Have we had enough phone- tag for this century? Are we beeper-burnt yet? Is your “Copy From Hell” scrap book of smeared faxes with urgent copy changes filled up by now?
Think of the applications of E-mail: contracts, copy changes, rate cards, promotional pitches, and thank-you notes are just a few. There are a gazillion E-mail messages traversing the country as you read this article, and only a handful are originating from Radio stations. Several million individuals and a small percentage of businesses are well-entrenched in this form of expression. Radio should be. After all, isn’t it our business to communicate? If so, why are we still using the technology of the ’80s when the ’90s offer such new and powerful alternatives?
Ask and You Shall Transmit
Ah, but you say to yourself, “How do I know if my client has an E-mail address?” Ask! If they do, he or she most likely will be pleasantly surprised that you are savvy enough to inquire. In addition, by asking, you’ve already established a common ground with another computer enthusiast. What if they don’t have an E-mail address? Why not buy them one? Look at it this way: If you’re willing to take a client out to lunch once or twice to close a deal, you’re going to spend anywhere from $40 to $100 anyway. For less than 10 bucks a month, you can buy them a one-year subscription to Prodigy, CompuServe, or America Online. Giving them access for 12 months works out to be about the same you would have spent on a couple of decent dinners — and it’s less indigestion, too!
It might seem unorthodox now, but you know darn well you’d pay $100 in a heartbeat to close a $50,000 account. This information superhighway you keep hearing about? Right now it’s a dirt road compared to what it’s going to be. If you don’t learn how to drive on it now, by the time it’s an eight-lane highway you’ll be too scared to even leave the shoulder. Get your learner’s permit soon — before your competition steers right around you.
Corey Deitz is a morning air personality at WRVC-FM Richmond, VA, a software developer for Radio, and a computer consultant for Radio stations.
2025 footnote: Corey would become a well-known voice in Central Arkansas, including a tenure at mornings on iHeartMedia’s 100.3 The Edge (KDJE) in Little Rock. He retired in 2023 after 50 years in radio.
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