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Behind the
SALE
Sealing-the-Deal Strategies From Local Sales Pros
Story Amy Roach Partridge Photography Darryl Estrine Makeup Rosemarie Pomila, NY Prostyle and Charlene Armstrong, Lash to Lens
Hair Peter Heimgartner, NY Prostyle and Melissa Greene
ancy sales tactics have a lot in common with diet fads—they work in a few cases, but not for most. Just as eating right and exercising are the real keys to keeping in shape, the true way to make a sale is no secret: It takes hard work, honesty, determination, and persistence. While that formula may not nab a quick sale, it’s the time-tested approach that works. Here, seven of Westchester’s top salespeople share their winning strategies
for boosting sales.
RAobert Bongiardino PAMAL BROADCASTING
nyone who works in ad sales has heard the claim that Westchester favorites 107.1 The Peak and 100.7 WHUD. “advertising doesn’t work.” When a prospective client “I’ve gone into sales calls where I made the assumption that tells that to Robert Bongiardino, he knows the client someone would be a great fit for one of my radio stations, but, hasn’t been using the right ads at the right time in the more time I spent with the client, I saw that was not it at the right place—and he knows how to fix that. In his all,” he admits. When meeting with one Westchester day spa, for
20-plus years selling radio advertising, Bongiardino, who lives in example, Bongiardino figured it would be best served by Pamal’s
Hawthorne, has learned that commercials must resonate with the right demographic in order to be effective. How does he determine what makes a good match?
“Sales is all about understanding what your clients’ needs are, and then finding the best solutions for them,” says Bongiardino, a senior account executive in the White Plains office of Pamal Broadcasting, LTD, which owns and operates seven New York
radio stations, including
The best measure of your success is not your billing numbers, but how long you retain a client and the refer- rals you get to develop new clients.
female-skewed radio station, since the spa caters to women. “But the owner explained to me that they wanted to advertise on the radio to sell gift certificates, and men are the ones buying the gift certificates,” recalls Bongiardino, who ranks consistently as one of Pamal’s top three reps and brings in more than $1 million in sales each year.
Bongiardino also puts creativity to work when it comes to boost- ing sales. Instead of always trying to sell a standard radio spot, he will steer clients toward options such as sponsoring a concert series or promotion, or suggest they advertise during months when there are fewer commercials on the air. “Helping them to stand out can help boost their business and mine,” he explains.
And while boosting business is, of course, the end goal for all salespeople, Bongiardino evaluates his own effectiveness by slightly different means. “The best measure of your success is
not your billing numbers,” he says, “but how long you retain a client and the referrals you get to develop new clients.”
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