6 Lessons Learned From Surviving A Pandemic

Now that we’ve made it this far in a once in a century pandemic, I thought I’d share with you a piece that I wrote for radio insiders.

First, the backstory.

This summer, radio consultant Loyd Ford reached out to me to be a guest columnist on his website that is designed for people in the radio industry.  People who work at radio stations on the air or behind the scenes.  I’ve done both but for the past couple of decades, what I do is not on the radio with the exception of a few ads I voice on WOWO radio where I am the General Sales Manager.

So what I am about to share was written for a very specific niche audience, however I believe you too will perhaps get some insight and ideas for you and your business.

6 Lessons Learned During A Pandemic was first published earlier this month at https://rainmakerpathway.com/free-blog/f/6-lessons-learned-from-surviving-a-pandemic

At the beginning of 2020, none of us thought that Surviving a Pandemic would be on our to do list, but sure enough, it rose to the top of the surprises for the year.

Now that we are in year two and continuing to battle the lingering effects of the Coronavirus that still rears it’s ugly head and will impact the communities we work and live in, I’ve got a few hints on how to move forward, no matter what happens next.

1. Pivot for your people. Pivot was an overused word in 2020, but it was appropriate. We are in the people business, otherwise we would not be needed. When our radio stations needed to allow our air talent to broadcast from home, our engineers made it possible. When our sales and office support staff needed to stop coming to the office and needed some leeway to accommodate kids at home instead of in school, we worked with them instead of being inflexible.

2. Don’t dwell on the past. In Northern Indiana, we saw our weekly revenue reports going from our best ever, to being cut in half, and then negative numbers. Weeks went by with only a fraction of the new business that we had been used to and had budgeted coming in. Instead of getting stuck there, our company made some cuts and also adjusted. When we closed the books on 2020, we finished further ahead than we thought we would when everything hit the fan in March 2020.

3. Create a Plan B, Plan C & Plan D. This is a lesson that I’ve had to relearn and apply more than ever. If you never have to use the alternative plans, fantastic. However the process of creating the alternative plans helped us leap forward and update practices that needed to be revised.

4. Care about your business partners. I gave my sales team the latitude to do what they felt was needed to help their customers. Some got reduced spot rates, some received extra no charge ads. Some had to suspend their ads because they were shut down and had no way to make money. We ran free ads informing our listeners and their customers what was going on. Meanwhile we heard about other local broadcasters that stuck to the letter of the law and refused to help their advertisers because they were trying to hang on to their radio revenue. In the end, the business owners remembered who cared and we have stronger and more robust relationships with them.

5. Adapt to the new ways. Video conferencing was never really on my to do list for 2020, although I was familiar with Zoom because of a client I meet with who does a weekly Zoom meeting with her marketing team across the country. Now video calls are another tool for connecting. In the retail world, they adapted to curb side pick-up and delivery. What ways can we adapt to make life easier for people to do business with us?  We also added an online payment portal in 2020.

6. Follow the Basics. No matter what the circumstances there are basics we need to do every week, like prospect, meet, present, sign, and service. Repeat. Business owners need and want our help to make bring them customers.

Our Guest Expert

Scott Howard is the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, one of 6 local stations owned by Federated Media. WOWO is nearly 100 years old and continues to be both the most listened to station and top billing station in both our company and also in Fort Wayne.

Scott has been with WOWO since 2013 and his background includes sales and management positions in both Indiana and Detroit after starting his broadcasting career on the air and in programming a few decades ago.

Since 2004 Scott has been writing and publishing media and marketing insights every week at https://www.scotthoward.me/and launched the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast also updated weekly with over 200 episodes under 10 minutes each at https://podcasts.federatedmedia.com/show/scott-howard-media-marketing/

You can find him online by Googling, “ScLoHo” which is his online persona. Besides leading, teaching, training and mentoring the WOWO Local Sales Team, he also is called upon the guest lecture at area colleges and universities annually.

 

Thank you Loyd for the opportunity and I will be contributing to his website regularly in the future.