Sales

Pending Business: The ‘Who Cares?’ Test

By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President

 

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Time to sharpen up, drill down and pass the “Who Cares?” test. This is where we take a hard look at how you present your on-air talent for host reads.

If you are like most sellers or managers, you look for a comfortable rhythm in your proposals that works for your style and now fits the cut and paste culture. There is nothing wrong with time-saving technique — except when the shortcuts take you to an outdated comfort zone. In radio sales we all get hypnotized by what worked for years. After all, we are creatures of habit and why mess with past success? It’s a challenging but important part of radio sales strategy.

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Sales

Pending Business: Keep It Simple

By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President

 

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The thing about great leaders is their ability to keep the mission simple.

I once asked a Super Bowl champion coach how he coached temperamental wide receivers earning millions of guaranteed dollars each season. His answer was elegantly simple. I tell them, “You get paid to just catch the ball.” Sounds simple, right? Except when two opponents are coming for you at Mach 4 speed, trained to deliver that bone crushing collision to make you regret even thinking “just catch the ball.” The mission is simple yet executing the mission, not so easy. And so it was with the legendary Lowry Mays, founder of Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia.

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