If you’re a veteran broadcast seller, you already know sales is hard but also incredibly rewarding work. If you’re a new young professional in broadcast selling, you probably think selling is nearly impossible even in perfect conditions. Enter pandemic here.

Broadcast sales is hard, selling as a new young professional in the industry is even harder, but having to navigate learning this new trade in nearly impossible circumstances is a challenge unlike any we’ve faced in this business. We don’t succeed if our local business partners are not succeeding and a lot of our local partners are struggling.

However, selling in a pandemic doesn’t have to be impossible. With any action, positive or negative, there is opportunity. The pandemic has allowed broadcast sellers to grow and evolve the way they think about their business. As a YP, you’re less resistant to “throwing out the playbook.” You’re not afraid to change it up and go against the grain. I’ve seen some sellers really prosper under these tough times by being innovative, resourceful, and strategic. Here’s how they do it:

Identify Hot Categories

Manufacturing recruitment, eCommerce, home improvement, HVAC, furniture, and many more are all categories that have boomed during the pandemic. These are not necessarily the “traditional” broadcast categories that we’ve relied on for so many years.

Innovate

Broadcasting virtual high school broadcasting ceremonies, sponsored salute to local COVID-19 frontline workers vignettes, #TakeOutTuesdays, are just a few ideas to help you find new and non-traditional revenue during this season. The old “sell a spot in a football game” mentality still applies but innovating is where you can uncover untapped new business potential in categories you never dreamed of as broadcast partners.

Stay Positive

Particularly when client-facing. Your positivity and optimism is reassuring to your clients and colleagues.

Listen

Listening is an incredibly important trait for any seller, but often overlooked. Listen to your clients and their challenges so you can provide solutions that make sense. Listen to your leaders, as they try to put you in positions to succeed. Listening is more important now than ever before.

Use Your Resources

As broadcast sellers we have an unbelievable suite of resources at our disposal. Most (perhaps all) of you have local websites and offer extended reach digital opportunities. As customers are sheltered in place, this remains a great time to use all of our digital offerings. Beyond selling, what value are you bringing to your clients? Most of us have access to things like comScore, Nielsen, Scarborough, etc… and that data is more important than ever. Your clients need to be more strategic with their advertising dollars than ever before. This means you need to also be more strategic than ever before. If you aren’t capitalizing on all of the research tools at your disposal, then you aren’t putting yourself in the best position to win.

Stay safe and happy selling,

Cory Gylock
General Sales Manager, FOX 25/48 La Crosse