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Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. We are doing our Show Concept Meeting Series. Lee, we’ve talked about opening the meeting. We’ve talked about painting the room. And, now, it’s time to get into the conversation about return on investment, ROI. Talk us through that a little bit.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] Well, this is a key part of this because this is where you know if this is going to work out financially for you and the prospect. This is kind of where the rubber hits the road. At this point, this is when you want to really understand the lifetime value or the value, annual value of a client to your prospect. And you’ve got to know this because if that number is too low, it’s not going to work out. It’s not going to make financial sense for them to invest the money and time required in order to do a radio show.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:56] So, I’ll talk about what we do in our studio here and the numbers we use, but every studio has a different way of doing this, and they have a different, you know, financial number they’re looking for. And this helps inform you, really, about who the prospects for your studio are. So, it’s very — it’s at the heart of the business part of Business RadioX.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:17] So, now, what we do is the numbers that we use are $1000 a month for a monthly show. That’s, usually, the starting point that we’re looking at. So, we know that going in, and we know that if they pay $5000 upfront, they can get six months of a show. So, therefore, annually, the commitment is about $10,000 to have a monthly series or show here at at the Sandy Springs Business RadioX.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:45] So, we know that going in. The customer doesn’t know that. So, we have to ascertain from them by asking them, “What is the lifetime value of a customer? How much money do you normally make if you can turn a prospect into a customer? And engagement, how much is an engagement worth?” We want to know those type — we ask those type of questions to find out that information.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:07] Now, if they tell me that a typical engagement or an average engagement is $10,000 or more, then I feel that we are a very good solution for them and that we can help them make that happen because I feel very confident that we’re going to get the right people in the room for them, and then they have to believe in this statement. When I say, “If I can put you in front of 10, 20, 30 of your best prospects in a year, is that going to move the needle in your business?” And if they know that they just have to make one sale in a year, then it seems like a no-brainer. They believe that in one year’s time doing this show, which they already know they like and had fun doing as a guest, they’re going to get a lot of content, they’re going to meet a lot of people that are important to them, they’re going to serve the ecosystem. And if they can believe they’re going to sell one thing to somebody, then this seems very doable. It seems like it’s almost a no-brainer at this point.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:07] You mentioned a moment ago that you got to know this. And you do, but you don’t get to tell it. In fact, it is so much more powerful if you get them to tell it. Look, I’ll tell you again, I tell every one of them, this thing of ours, it works. It always works. It never doesn’t work. So, what we do is going to work. The question is, is it going to, as Lee puts it, move the needle in their business? That’s a math question. Put it to them. The return on investment, it can be absolutely ridiculous, but you don’t have to tell them. You can ask them and let them tell you.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:01] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, let’s talk about some disciplines for pricing a Business RadioX show.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] All right. This pricing is important because this is how you narrow down what your clients look like and part of the profile of a client. So, for us, in the studio, the show that we sell the most often is a monthly show, and we charge $1000 a month for a monthly show and as of this date in 2019 . And we, also, give them a break. If they pay $5000 upfront, they get six episodes. So, for $10,000, they can have 12 episodes in our studio here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] So, what we like to do when we’re doing our show concept meeting is to figure out and have them verbally say that a sale to them is worth about $10,000. If a sale to a prospect is worth $10,000 or more, then having a show is kind of a no-brainer because, then, all they have to do in the course of the year is sell one client something in order to pay for the show. So, that makes a lot of sense. It connects some dots for them. And then, it shows an ROI that just financially makes sense.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:18] So, ideally, it would be $10,000 sale annually. But even some people will go for it if it’s $10,000 lifetime value. So, you have to kind of discern whether the sale is an annual sale or it’s a lifetime value sale. But either way, if they’re going to spend around $10,000 by getting a new client, or they’re going to get $10,000, then spending $10,000 with you to have a monthly show makes perfect sense.

Stone Payton: [00:01:45] Well, and I like that whole framing because I like to focus on ROI, return on investment, because I can tell you, virtually, anyone else in the media world, they’re going to talk about anything but return on investment. They’re going to talk about every other cosmetic metric, key indicator you could possibly think of. But I love the idea of boiling it all down to actual green dollars in return on investment. And so, doing what you just described, Lee, lets you do that, lets you have that conversation. And in almost every situation, it does end up being an absolute no-brainer.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:18] Right. So, I like to say these words, “If I can put you in front of 10, 20, 30 of your best prospects, is that going to move the needle in your business?” If the answer is yes, then they should have a show.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Studio Partner Pro Tips. Lee Kanter, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we often experience, and we certainly hope that when we do this with our clients, it’s going to work out exactly the way that we planned and we’re going to deliver tremendous ROI. But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. What really is the worst case scenario if a client works with us, and maybe put it in context, versus maybe what’s the worst case scenario, if instead of that they do, I don’t know, a traditional media ad buy.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] This goes to the heart of what we do here and this is why we differentiate ourselves from traditional interruption advertising. An ad buy, there’s an old saying, I have a degree in advertising and this is what I learned, whatever, 30 plus years ago, 50 percent of your advertising dollars is wasted, you just don’t know where, what, 50 percent that is. So a lot of advertising is throwing stuff against a wall and hoping that you get a response or a response that is valuable to you. The worst case scenario in ad buy is that you didn’t create any leads, you didn’t get any attention, and now that money is just kind of in a pile and lit on fire. Our worst case scenario is they have content that’s created, literal content that’s repurposable. They have interviews with people that are important to them. They have actual relationships with human beings that they decided were important to them. So, even if they didn’t get any clients today or during the course of their sponsorship with us, they have relationships now that they didn’t have before. They have deeper relationships with people that they’ve known before, but now they know even better and they have a boatload of content they can repurpose and use for months and months. So our worst case scenario, they’re gonna get something in their hands, whether they’ve got a client or not, they’re going to end the day with stuff. The worst case scenario of an ad buy is you have nothing. You literally have nothing, except the hope that somebody bumped into your message during the time that it was around. It’s perishable. Our stuff lives forever.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:02] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, I wake up every day, I know you do as well, thinking of and sharing reasons to have a Business RadioX show, but what are some reasons not to have a show?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Sure. Occasionally, we get a person that comes in the studio, and we’re talking to them about what we do, why we do it. And then, sometimes, you can tell right away, it’s not going to be the right fit because their expectations are a little out of whack of what a show is and what it can be. And I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but if they’re coming in here trying to become famous or trying to get rich quickly, our platform is probably not the right fit for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] I’m not saying it’s impossible to become famous through this, or it’s impossible to get rich quick. It’s just that that’s not what I feel confident that we can deliver to a client. It might happen. It’s kind of a lottery ticket, and all the stars have to align in order for them to get the traction they need, in order to become famous or rich quick. But it’s not something I feel confident we can deliver, kind of, reliably and predictably. If they want to dominate their local market, if they want to serve their community, that I feel pretty confident that we can deliver. If they want to meet hard-to-reach people face to face, I feel pretty confident we can deliver that. But to become famous, a lot of things have to align in order for that to happen.

Stone Payton: [00:01:34] So, two reasons that come to mind from for me, one is value system. Look, if you’re not genuinely invested in supporting and celebrating the local business community at large and really want to help people day in and day out, this thing is going to wear thin really quickly. People are going to see through it. You’re not going to have fun. You’re not going to deliver value. You’re not going to get ROI. And that’s the second thing.

Stone Payton: [00:02:02] Another reason not to do the show is math. Look, do the math. Think through return on investment. And I’m not talking about just the money that you invest but, also, the time and the energy. And you’ll think—I mean, you’ll be able to see pretty quickly if you just do some simple math. And if the ROI isn’t just in your face, obvious right out of the gate, then don’t do it, forego it, and do something else.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:00] All right. Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. This is our Show Concept Meeting Series. We’ve already spoken opening the show concept meeting. Now, we are prepared to paint the room. We do this with flip charts sometimes. We do it on a piece of paper there on the table sometimes. Walk them through it, Lee. And I’ll chime in if I think I have something to add there.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] All right. So, whether we’re doing it on a sheet of paper or flipboard, what we do is we like to draw a rectangle, and then draw circles around the rectangle. Usually, four circles around the ,rectangle two on each side. And we’re putting the guests in the room, and we’re really trying to visualize a studio. We want the prospective client to see a show being built. So, one of those seats around the table are going to be them, the host of the show, which is our prospective client. And then, we’re going to go around the table, and then fill the rest of the seats.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:56] One seat is the person that writes them checks. This is their ideal client. And we start. So, we identify them as one of the seats. And then, not only do we just put ideal client there, we get very granular. We want to know who they are. They are vice presidents of manufacturing firms. We want to know the names of people that they want to put in the room: Bob Smith, Mary Jones. I want to know the companies that those people are with. We want their dream list to start kind of being fleshed out here. We want to know either the companies, the names of the people, the titles. We want to get very specific who that ideal customer is for our sponsor. So, that’s one of the chairs around the table.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:47] Another chair around the table is referral sources. Who are the people that refer business to them that fit into the ecosystem of this show that we’re building for them? And these referral sources could be other professional service firms. They could be complementary businesses that touch this group. So, then, we start listing those out by name and by company.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:13] Another chair around the table is associations, trade associations, business groups. We start listing them out. Most of the niches that we go after, there is some sort of a trade group, or there’s a group that serves that same group of people. And we start listing them. Who is the leadership on that? We get very granular. The more specific, the better. And at this point, you even want to get your perspective customer on the board with the Sharpie, writing their ideas down, and let them kind of co-author this at that point.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:47] The last chair at the table is the kind of micro celebrity or the influencer. And this is the person that might be a blogger. They might have written a book. This person is — this is kind of a warning sign for this kind of person. Since they are kind of the celebrities in that niche that your perspective customer wants to immerse themselves in, they can, all of the sudden, get star struck and say, “Oh, look, I’m interviewing these famous people. And then, I’m famous. And I want to be more famous.” So, you want to just do this a little bit. This is kind of a spice. This is not the entrée. The entrée are the people that write your customers, your prospective customers checks, that’s who you want more of all the time. You want to make sure that somebody in the room always represents that group. The micro celebrity or the influencer, if you do that occasionally, that’s probably enough.

Stone Payton: [00:03:45] I like what you said about co-authoring this. I think that is so key. And yes, when they can get up at the flip chart or on the piece of paper, and they have the pen in their hand, that’s how you know you’re doing it the right way. And I love to ask them, even though I know where I want them to land, and I may have to nudge them a little bit for proper hosting mechanics to get the most out of the platform to truly grow their business, we might ask them, “Well, you know, what do you envision as the format? Like, what kind of questions are you going to ask?” And let them, you know, begin to shape this thing. So, I love the framing of co-authoring. And when you’re doing that, and they are participating at that level, it really sets the stage in a marvelous way for us to begin asking them about return on investment. And that’s the next piece in this series is ROI.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you this afternoon. Lee, in this series, we’re going to talk about the show concept meeting. And one of the first things we want to address is how to open the meeting effectively. When we do one, you typically open the meeting. Walk us through that a little bit.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] At the beginning of a meeting, what I’m trying to do or what we’re trying to do is to get to the heart of who the ideal prospect is in the room. And that is really the reason that the client wants to do the show is to reach this group of people or this type of person. And we go through a series of questions and really, kind of, peel back the layers of the onion to find out who is the person that writes them checks; who is the person that if they met more of those people, if they met 10, 20, 30 more of those type people at the end of the year that that would move the needle in their business. So, then, the way you uncover that is by asking kind of a series of questions at first. The prospective client likes to think their show is going to be about them or some specialty they have to work through that.

Stone Payton: [00:01:10] Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:10] That’s normally the — they think, “Oh, I’m an accountant, so I’m going to do a show about accounting.” And then, we have to kind of go, “Okay, that’s good. That’s a possible idea. Let’s kind of put a pin in that. And then, let’s hold that over here.” And then, we work through to really understand their business and to get down into the heart of who they do business with, who they like to do business with, who they want more business from.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] And once you start asking those kind of questions, “Who is the person that writes your checks? Are they in a specific industry? Do they have a specific title? Are they in this specific area of town?” and you just really get to know their business and understand, “Okay, who’s your perfect client right now?” Your perfect client is a woman entrepreneur? Are you sure? So, you get most of your business from women entrepreneurs? Are you sure?” And then, they say, “Yes, I get — if I can have more women entrepreneurs, that would move the needle on my business.” Then, once we kind of understand their business where we can put their ideal customer in a bucket like that and say, “If you want to reach these people, we can reverse engineer a radio show that puts you in front of those people on a regular basis.”

Stone Payton: [00:02:27] Well, what I love about the way you open a show concept meeting is we get drilled down on who they need and want to serve, where they’re hanging out, and it just provides such marvelous foundation for the balance of the meeting is going to be grounded in how they can serve the people who are important to them, and like you say, who write them checks. And this first step is so critical. They’re doing most of the talking, I love everything about the way you open this stuff, and it sets the stage for the next part of the process, which is painting the room.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:02] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you, Lee, it’s the heart of our process. This is what I think puts us in a position to genuinely serve our clients. How do we help a new client design the right show concept?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] This is one of the finest part of the job because this is where the potential client comes in and, invariably, they want to do a show about whatever they do. If they’re an accountant, they want to do the accounting show. If they’re an insurance person, they want to do the insurance show. One of the first things that we like to tell them is the great idea, let’s hold that idea over here to the side, but let’s dig into who your best client is. Let’s try to understand and really kind of articulate the ideal client you’d like to clone. Who is the person you want more of? What client would you like to have over and over again?

Lee Kantor: [00:01:00] When you have conversations about that, you can move the sponsor into thinking, “You know what, it is better if I focus in on my best client or my best prospect because if I had more of those, that would move the needle in my business. It is less important for me to show how smart I am about whatever topic I have. I have plenty of time to do that, but what I don’t have and most of them don’t have is a machine that brings the right prospect in front of them in a predictable, reliable manner,” which when you host a show about the specific niche, about a specific group of people, that does that. It becomes a machine. And then, now, they have a tool they can use to go out to the marketplace and request more of these type people because your company is sponsoring a show that is putting the spotlight and celebrating the work of this individual person, this type of person.

Stone Payton: [00:01:53] So, everything you’re saying is right, of course. But I think one of the things that we do to serve people particularly well in this regard is the process of landing on that right show concept. It really does need to be a process of mutual discovery, a co-authored show concept that they really embrace and buy into. And I think you do that particularly well. But I think just going into it with the mindset of co-creating a show to deliver desired outcomes is so much more powerful than “Sit down, shut up, give me your milk money, and let me teach you how to do this.”

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Stone Payton: [00:00:02] Welcome back to Business RadioWorks Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, for today’s topic, why develop a show, sponsor a show if that’s not going to focus on the listener?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:16] Focusing on the listeners kind of a — it’s a dice roll, and it’s something that sounds good on paper. And in the minds of a lot of people, they think that that’s going to build them some passive income. In our model, we focus in on the outcome that the sponsor desires. And in most cases, it’s to get more clients. So, we find that it’s more profitable, it’s more predictable, it’s more reliable to focus in on your guest as the audience that you care about and just create a show that brings those guests, which are your best prospects in the room in a very predictable manner.

Stone Payton: [00:00:55] So, you really are focusing on the listener, you really are focusing on the audience, you’re just redefining the audience and, specifically, gearing this thing to serve them.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:06] Right. Otherwise, you’re trying to create a large number of kind of anonymous people that may or may not like the content, that may or may not like you as a host, that may or may not like your guest or the information that’s being there. So, if you focus in on the guest and create an environment that they’re happy to come in, they want to come in, they want to share their story, they appreciate you for making it happen, we find that you’re going to have a better ROI for the activity.

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Stone Payton: [00:00:01] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, as we are beginning to build this thing out, this idea of being a Business RadioX studio partner, what we’re beginning to realize is that it really can be a marvelous complement to your existing business. Let’s talk about that a little bit.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:21] Sure. I believe it’s a perfect complement to any professional service business in any local market, especially if you’re the challenger brand in that market. If you’re not the kind of the one with the deepest pockets, this is a very affordable way to really separate yourself from other professional service providers. One of the reasons that having a—being a Business RadioX in your local market is good is it’s demonstrating. It’s not giving lip service. It’s demonstrating that you’re a good corporate citizen. That you’re there, a force for good, helping support and celebrate the work of business in the market. And one of those—the benefits of doing that is you get to be a mega connector. This puts your Rolodex on steroids. You’re going to meet so many different people in so many different diverse parts of the economy that you never knew and are going to be able to kind of connect those people together. That is super important.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:16] Another thing, another benefit of it is this is a great tool to nurture your existing clients. What better way to say thank you to your clients than giving them an interview, and letting them tell the story, and publicize it around in the studio, and then throughout the network. Another way is to meet new clients. This is a great tool to meet existing clients. It’s a great way to explore new verticals. By being this kind of de-facto media outlet in each of those niches, it allows you to have the authority and influence in the business community that your competitors can only dream of. You’re going to be totally different. You’re going to be the only Business RadioX in town. And that is just—it should be money in the bank.

Stone Payton: [00:01:58] Well, I’ll tell you two of the things that I really like about it is they come to you, which just creates an entirely different dynamic. Also, I can remember when selling high end, you know, pretty high fee consulting services and speaking services, sometimes, it was difficult for me to live into this value system that I genuinely had and those around me genuinely had of trying to serve the entire local business ecosystem, but it was hard for me to really do a good turn for the printer, or the dry cleaner, or the local business person. But if you have your own studio, you can actually live into that value. And so, to me, that’s one of the greatest gifts is that you have a way to actually live into this value system that you say you espouse.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:47] Right, and reciprocate for all the people that are doing good deeds for you.