The best initial prospects are those who are recognized as business leaders in your community. They are perceived as someone the business community respects and who influences others’ decisions. They don’t have to be the biggest local retailers. They can be those whom the business community respects as good business leaders. Many local advertisers will ask the question, “Who else is doing it?” If you get the leaders first you’ll get the followers.

You currently have a credible relationship with the decision maker. The initial participants should have either a positive attitude toward growth and a good relationship with your stations. You don’t need to try and reform hostile advertisers at this time.

They are willing to change old habits and attitudes to meet today’s new marketing and advertising methods.

They are growing or at least maintaining their market share. They are motivated to grow even more. They need to grow; are often frustrated with advertising and are looking for ways to increase their sales with more effective marketing and advertising.

They are working at their business. They have goals and the business acumen to achieve them if they improve their marketing and advertising.

They have complete control of their advertising budget. They don’t have to get permission from 500 miles away. They should be able to make a decision to invest all or a major portion of their budget with one or two of your stations.

They can pay for a sustained advertising campaign without having to increase their income. This relieves the pressure for new or immediate income that may be anticipated by the advertiser. Many businesses are spreading their ad budgets all over the community. They can usually find the increased radio budget by cancelling most or all of their currently questionable media or non-media expenditures. 

The decision maker (or a frontline associate or manager) should be willing to use his/her voice on the radio ads. The advertiser may use his/her voice on the entire ad, on ten seconds or a single sentence of the ad. This is essential for producing traceability or feedback that allows time for radio to produce results.

The decision maker (or internal support team) should be internet savvy. Much of the marketing and advertising information necessary to keep the advertiser sold on radio will be delivered through email or other Internet programs.