Sally with WXYZ radio calls on a prospect and say’s, “Your business should really be on our radio station.” She keeps coming back (like her sales mgr taught her) to develop a rapport with the client. The advertiser is a little wary, because he’s purchased advertising before on TV, billboards, newspaper, radio, and yellow pages. None of them brought him the business he expected. He didn’t get the results he hoped for, and he felt the cost was more than value. The business owner does listen to her radio station though and would like to advertise more but it’s expensive. The proposal looks good and shows how he could get a good ROI.

One day Sally comes in with a great radio promotion and he says, “OK, I’ll take it.” Then she says the thing that causes some major problems: “What do you want to say in your ad?”

The business owner knows what an ad is supposed to sound like. He says, “I want it to say that we’ve been here 20 years, put our phone # in there, tell them the brands we carry, where we are located, and we have this new Widget on sale. As matter of fact let’s really push these Widgets.   They are new and different and very efficient.   I bought several and need to get rid of them.”

The very nice sales lady sez, “Thank you so much. I appreciate your order.”

She assures the business owner he’s made a good decision to advertise on WXYZ Radio. She says, “ I’ll email you the ad copy first and have you approve it, then we’ll come back in a few days with your finished commercial.” He says, “OK.” and signs the agreement. He agrees to a schedule that is going to cost about $3000 a month. He hears the ads on the radio. All his friends say they’ve heard the ads and say they are great!   A week goes by, and Sally calls to ask if everything is ok. He says yes, “It’s OK.” Everybody is happy.

About 12-13 weeks go by and Sally gets a call to come in and see the client.

He says, “This ain’t working at all!   I just got your latest bill and realized we’ve spent almost $10,000. I looked at my sales of those Widgets and we’ve sold only $4000 worth of those. Something is not right. We gotta cut back on this advertising. I’m really sorry but we are going to have to stop this radio advertising for now. Maybe we can come back on again later. We have so much work anyway we can’t keep up.”

Sally apologizes that it did not work like he had hoped and assures him he should continue because it’s not really been a long enough time to tell. He declines and says he can’t afford to buy something that is not giving him a return on his money.

With some variation, this scenario happens daily, everywhere, with all kinds of media, all across the world of advertising and business owners.

Several things could have or should have been done differently so that the business owner does not wind up disappointed and thinking that advertising doesn’t work or that radio is no good.

The radio rep was thinking she had a new client and would make money and the client would be happy. The business owner was thinking the advertising would “work” and bring him people through the door that would buy his product.

Unrealistic Expectations in advertising can be avoided.

Anytime a business owner buys advertising and there are unrealistic expectations of the outcome, there will always be frustration, stress, disappointment and sometimes anger at the sales rep and the media source. There should always be a discussion of what to expect. And it must be done up front.

By clarifying the expectations up front you can avoid disappointments. The sales person should always say, “Mr. business person, how will we measure results?

What will be a happy ending? What are you expecting to happen?

If he says “Well I think for spending this kind of money we need to sell 10 of those new Widgets.” There is a problem because: If he sells 7 he will be disappointed. (Now…it doesn’t matter if it’s # of dresses sold, refrigerators, tires, heads of hair that were cut, meals served, pizzas sold, cars, tax returns filled out, or plumbing service calls.

If on the other hand he sells 15 there is a different problem. When the sales rep comes back in the business owner says, “That worked great! Let’s do this again next month. Now the poor sales rep has to pull another rabbit out of her hat. What worked well the first time will work less well the second time and will be pitiful the third time. You can see this happen with stores that regularly have the “Biggest sale of the Year” or   “Our Big Blowout Diamond Sale” or “We’re selling these cars below dealer invoice to make room for our new models”
Another problem in the true story above (names were change to protect the individuals involved) is assuming the business owner knows best. Many times they don’t know what is best because it’s hard to read the label when you’re on the inside of the bottle. If the business owner is not a professional copywriter they should hire one. What the ad says determines the success of the campaign. Great advertising just makes what was going to happen anyway to happen faster and more efficiently.

The desire for instant gratification on the business owner’s part is a huge problem when buying advertising. Because what’s best in the long run is hardly ever the best in the short term.

I like the story of the guy who goes to the doctor and says, “Doc, I feel terrible. I wanna lose weight and feel good.” The doc says, “Ok you need to exercise and go on this diet. That’s best for you in the long run.” The guy comes back in three weeks and says, “Doc, I’m so sore I can’t move and I’m starving every day and I do not feel good. The Doc says, “OK then, you can snort some Cocaine and in the short run you’ll feel fabulous; just like Superman, and you won’t be hungry, but it’s not good for you at all, but it will give you instant results.”

Plan to use radio for the long term not the short term. It is the tortoise of the tortoise and hare fame.
Carefully statagize what going to say in your ads. Say something that matters to the customers and plan on it taking a while for them to get the message.

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