Ask radio’s salespeople what is holding back business, and one word keeps coming back: attribution. A NuVoodoo survey finds thin staffing and growing admin work competing with prospecting as economic pressure and measurement doubts weigh on businesses.
NuVoodoo surveyed 250 audio sales professionals from mid-August through the end of September, with RAB helping promote the effort.
Account executives made up 55% of respondents, followed by sales managers at 21%, general managers at 17%, and corporate staff at 7%. Fifty-eight percent work in a single market and 42% work regionally or nationally. Twenty-seven percent are in the top 10 markets, and 31% are in markets below number 150.
Fifty-six percent cited some version of “nobody listens to radio anymore” as an objection they hear, followed by cost or budget at 28% and measurement and attribution at 21%. When sellers pitch an upsell, 76% said the most frequent response is that the budget is already capped. Forty-six percent said the most common reason clients cancel or reduce spend is the lack of clear attribution or ROI data, and 26% said clients want to shift budget.
Measurability against digital was the biggest challenge in signing new business, cited by 68% of sellers in the top 50 markets and 60% in markets 51 and below. The economy followed at 59% and 56%. In retaining business, the economy ranked first at 58% and 54%, ahead of measurability at 56% and 47%. Forty percent of top-50 sellers said they retained at least three-quarters of their clients from a year ago, compared with 57% in markets 51 and below.
Sellers believe in the medium. Ninety-eight percent agreed radio influences purchases, 96% agreed it is a great value, and 87% agreed people are highly engaged with it. Eighty percent rated radio “very effective” for a typical client today, down from 85% 20 years ago, while digital rose from 4% to 57%.
Fifty-eight percent of account executives and 48% of sales managers and above split their time equally between radio and digital. Twenty percent of account executives and 29% of managers spend most of their time on radio with some digital, and 12% of account executives and 15% of managers spend most of their time on digital with some radio.
Sellers said automotive is the most underserved category at 46%, followed by retail at 21%, healthcare at 20%, home services at 20%, legal at 17%, financial at 15%, and real estate at 11%. For automotive, respondents pointed to co-op and manufacturer money favoring digital, along with attribution.
Asked what helps most, sellers named RAB tools at 37%, with co-op a standout, followed by research at 30%, AI at 20%, spec spots and creative at 14%, and people and relationships at 12%. Account executives said they most want more people to help develop campaigns (31%), faster proposals (17%), AI (16%), creative ideas (14%), and better systems (11%). For coaching, they want help getting in the door (33%), attribution and proof of performance (30%), objection handling (17%), and presentations and proposals (12%).
Sales managers cited staffing as the top internal challenge at 36%, followed by shrinking support and overload at 27%, internal systems and corporate pressure at 16%, and competition and the economy at 16%. Account executives pointed to thin staffing at 23%, selling time lost to administrative work at 19%, shifting priorities at 18%, and digital complexity at 13%.
On AI, respondents named ChatGPT at 70%, Claude at 28%, Gemini at 19%, Copilot at 18%, and RAB AI tools at 5%. About a dozen said, unprompted, that they pay for AI tools themselves.
