Beasley's Bob McCurdy: "Great Managers Attract Great Talent”

There are a lot of conversations about radio as an overall industry, but local markets are comprised of individuals. From your vantage point, what makes a great sales rep?

Bob: It always starts with a strong leader. Great leaders/managers attract strong talent who want to become better.

Great salespeople aren’t the same rep this week that they were last week; they are better. Great salespeople are constantly evolving, not allowing themselves to become complacent in their jobs. Great reps keep learning and modifying their approach, trying different things. Great reps are constantly challenging themselves to narrow the gap between what they are currently accomplishing versus what they are capable of accomplishing. It’s the same formula in sales, programming, athletics or any other profession.

For a sales rep who wants to get better, what's the first step?

Bob: It is all about priorities. We find time to eat and socialize; we can find time for self-improvement. The first step is turn their home into their “university” and recognize that they don’t take control of their own professional “life” until they take control of their own learning.

Devote time each day to self-improvement. If it means you get to the office 30 minutes earlier each day, do so. My Saturday blog is titled B.O.M. for Better on Monday for a reason. When we walk into work on Monday, we should be a more knowledgeable professional than the one that walked out of the station on Friday. So allocate some time for self-improvement on the weekends. It doesn’t have to be a lot; 30 minutes would do the trick.

There’s a big difference between being “interested” in being successful and being “committed” to being successful. Those who are “committed” find the time to improve themselves. Next, develop a system to retain and access all that you are learning. Then practice, drill and rehearse it so that you are able to share what you’ve learned with your clients in a fluent, professional manner. Network, find people who are more successful and smarter than you, and learn from them. People like helping other people. This has served me well over the past four decades. Also make sure you are accessing all of your available resources -- the RAB, Nielsen, subscribing to the various industry and advertising publications.

As an industry, do we have enough of the necessary reps to carry out all of this education, first with ourselves, then with our clients?

Bob: We do if we all commit to what was written above. We are literally sales athletes. Athletes need to constantly improve and so do we. It’s where the PDR (practice, drill and rehearse) comes in. The one who works the hardest and truly cares the most usually wins. Doctors are even required to go back to school to ensure they are up-to-speed on the latest medical developments. Would we want to be treated by one who didn’t? We need to think of ourselves as marketing doctors.

In fact, self-improvement can never be boring. Helping existing and new clients can never be boring. Watching a client’s business thrive knowing you’ve played a role in their success can never be boring. Anyone who is bored in this business has stopped learning and improving.

You’ve certainly laid out a clear vision for what it takes to succeed. What inspires your belief in radio?

Bob: We’ve got the greatest of stories and so much good stuff going on that needs to be promoted, starting with the fact that we’re very profitable along with the powerful results we produce for clients.

With all the buzz about emerging audio platforms, the profitability of radio often gets overlooked, in particular because we’re worried about a variety of issues, such as high spot loads. As an industry, where does responsibility rest?

Bob: All broadcasters have a stake here. It is something that will need to be addressed. We can only raise rates to reduce spot loads if there’s an increase in demand, and this will only come about by having AEs who possess compelling marketing savvy, who are capable of crafting effective cross-platform marketing solutions while providing data to substantiate proof of performance, which we now have at our fingertips.

With radio consumption dominated by employed persons, who has money to spend with advertisers … what’s the best opportunity for radio to accelerate its momentum?

Bob: We must pivot from being just salespeople to marketers that happen to sell. Advertisers are looking for solutions. Marketing expertise is required to deliver these solutions. Practice, drill and rehearse your cluster’s story and the industry’s story. Develop an elevator pitch that flows off your tongue. Penetrate the key decision making levels of your clients. Be worthy of their time. Got to get to the decision makers.

In your experience, what are the key elements to articulate a compelling cluster story?

Bob: First, it’s about results. Be able to demonstrate how your cluster performed for similar clients; testimonials are not generally used as much as they should be. Know who your cluster reaches. Be able to summarize the listeners of each station in a simple sentence, but this sentence must be based on fact. This requires some work, digging into Scarborough, etc.

A good story also requires some emotion. I would be sure to chronicle all of the amazing things listeners have said about our personalities, positive sentiments advertisers have expressed about our stations impact on their business, community involvement, etc. I would keep these in a file; they could be your most powerful closing material. Keep them top-of-mind and communicate them.

With Nielsen adding radio data to local and national planning tools, how does radio fully utilize this opportunity to grow core revenue?

Bob: Nielsen’s introduction of radio on to their NMI platform has the potential to bolster radio spending, particularly at both the local and national level. The key is getting it in the hands of national advertisers and the local stations. It is an exciting development.

Growing core revenue consists of having better educated sales staffs comprised of professionals who are not adverse to change and are committed to continued professional growth, communicating the benefits of the medium until the agency or client is tired of hearing it, providing proof of success, penetrating key decision making levels and then doing the same thing week after week.

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