> Hi all -- I just started with a new station here in
> Maryland/virginia. I figured I'd come to the experts.... I
> have done some door to door and called some national
> accounts - finding that's hard- and also call businesses out
> of the phone book to get appointments.... our target is 30+
> and we carry nfl game of the week and the navy games.. I
> have a WIDE open market --- what's the quickest sale and how
> do you pitch????? ok alot of questions but I'm new... any
> help would be really appreciated!!!
>
>
> Dawn
>
First of all, congrat's on the new gig!
Monitoring the other radio stations in your market is definitely the easiest way to go... since they're already sold on radio, all you have to do is sell them on your station. Easier said than done, I know, but at least you won't have to spend months trying to convince a prospect that a well-planned radio schedule would be more effective than an ad crammed into the local paper.
You mentioned that your station carries a weekly NFL game and Navy games... do they have any sponsors you might be able to tag along with? For instance, if Toyota is a network sponsor of the NFL games you carry, you might be able to approach a local Toyota dealer with a promotional campaign of some sort to draw traffic to their location.
Another good plan would be to find a general category that matches up well with your station and target businesses in that category. For instance, financial is always big for the news/talk stations and entertainment is huge for CHR. I'm a bit of a research nerd, so I recommend taking a look at any qualitative data you might have on your station (Scarborough, Media Audit, etc.) and see if anything jumps out at you.
Local chambers of commerce meetings and trade shows can be good places to network, too. And going to station events/remotes around town can be valuable... you can see your audience (what do they wear? what do they drive?) and, if it's a success, I'd imagine neighboring businesses would be interested in talking to you.
Finally, you can also keep an eye out for prospects while you're out and about... new businesses opening, seeing things when you're driving through a new neighborhood, etc. I would drive my family crazy when I did this, but it worked.
Good luck!