Actionable Account Retention Strategies for Corporate Support
I want to start out this blog post by thanking all the wonderful speakers at PMDMC25 in Philadelphia, particularly the speakers who shared ideas in a breakout session called Account Retention: Reduce Attrition and Raise Revenue.
Here are some of the ideas they presented, but the most important takeaway is to create a routine account retention plan to keep those hard-won accounts happy, informed, and supporting your station for a long time.
Seasonal Thank-You Gifts
Hand-deliver seasonal corporate support thank-you gifts like tins of cookies, fruit baskets, or a plant. These can be obtained (especially around Thanksgiving) through a trade with a local partner. A great example of this comes from Greater Public’s Account Retention Contest winner, Trudy Six of WACU, whose team provides sponsors with local, seasonal, and personal fresh holiday florals (e.g., Christmas cactus) with a KACU-branded ornament and a handwritten thank-you card signed by staff and the board. This simple thank-you program has resulted in an 85% retention rate since it was implemented.
Nine-Month Review of Annual Agreements
Central Florida Public Radio – WMFE’s Amy Griffith and her corporate support team meet with annual agreement accounts at nine months to provide a detailed recap of how the schedule is performing. Then they open the discussion to what’s suggested and available in a renewal for the next year. This gives them the opportunity to know in advance what the account is going to do, and approach upselling the renewal. See examples of Amy’s recaps here.
Cultivate Relationships with Agency Buyers
Melanie Dyer of Kentucky Public Radio worked for an advertising agency and was a media buyer before she started selling sponsorship for Kentucky Public Radio.
Melanie suggests connecting personally with media buyers at agencies through shared interests like golf, pets, and experiences. If you work with advertising agencies it’s important to cultivate these relationships and include them when you are giving thank-you gifts. Small Starbuck’s gift cards or halloween candy can go a long way to building relationships with agency buyers and letting them know you care. Melanie also reminded us to ask sponsors: “What can I do to gain a larger share in your communication plans?”
Utilize the Capabilities of Your CRM Software
CRM databases – whether ShareBuilders, Salesforce, Allegiance or others – easily allow downloads of account contacts and their email addresses to create batch e-newsletters or emails as a quarterly or monthly touchpoint to accounts, prospects and agencies. A monthly e-newsletter could include the staff’s favorite seasonal recipe, photos of the corporate support team’s pets (they’re public radio and TV listeners and viewers too) with the inclusion of a fact that conveys your unique value proposition (UVP), i.e. “Did you know our station reaches all of…?
If your station is sends e-newsletters to members only, now is a good time to start sending at least a quarterly newsletter to corporate support accounts, prospects and agencies, too. Chris Koller with ShareBuilders reminds us that we can segment accounts in a CRM by most revenue to least to make sure those larger accounts are getting regular attention. He also shared a matrix of suggested touchpoints with a range of clients. Chris also discussed the importance of having all reps enter their activity weekly and to keep their CRM software well populated to improve database accuracy and efficiency in their work. See how Chris’ plans communication with sponsors in his Relationship Touch Matrix.
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