Ask a room full of broadcast-first sellers to pitch programmatic or Amazon DSP, and confidence, not know-how, is usually what’s missing. The finalists for this year’s Radio Wayne Digital Sales Manager Award told Radio Ink how they’ve built that confidence inside their own sales teams.
In our upcoming October issue, Radio Ink asked the 2026 Radio Wayne Digital Sales Manager finalists what it takes to build a digital sales culture inside a traditionally broadcast-first environment.
Some pointed to buy-in from the top down; others to the moment a nervous seller closes their first big digital pitch. What each finalist described wasn’t a training program. It was a habit of working alongside their sellers, client by client, until the confidence became theirs and not just the manager’s.
Here’s what they told us:
“The key to building a digital sales culture in a traditionally broadcast-first environment is creating genuine buy-in across the entire organization. Digital success doesn’t happen because of one person. It happens when everyone understands its value and works together toward the same goal. I have been fortunate to work in a market where our Market Manager, General Sales Manager, Account Executives, and even our on-air talent all recognize the importance of digital solutions. That support has been critical to our success.”
“When you are working in a traditionally broadcast-first environment, the biggest barrier to digital adoption isn’t technology. It’s confidence. I challenged a veteran radio seller to trust me and pitch Amazon DSP to one of her largest clients, a client who had never purchased digital from us. The salesperson was nervous about asking for the significant investment. Instead of leading with the product, we built the pitch around the client’s needs. They said yes, and we launched the campaign. But the sale itself wasn’t what made me proudest. It was watching that salesperson realize, ‘I can have this conversation.'”
“Build a culture by showing people what they can’t yet see. You can’t just ask broadcast-first teams where their gaps are; if they knew, there wouldn’t be gaps. Confidence comes from making something complicated understandable. Get in the work with them. Show them how it works for a real client, in real language, not a deck. Do it across enough clients and situations, and the pattern becomes theirs. That’s the aha moment: when they realize they can explain it themselves. And for what it’s worth, the best digital culture may be one that eventually stops calling itself digital.”
Radio Ink‘s October issue, featuring the Radio Wayne Award finalists, comes out on October 5 ahead of the Radio Wayne Awards presentation at NAB Show New York. Click HERE to subscribe today for as low as $3.33 per month.
