This is an opportunistic time to muscle build your local OOH sales organization.
The two immediate prime areas of local OOH sales recruitment are local radio and local cable TV sales reps. The reasons these reps are so valuable are:
- Radio/cable TV have focused on developing local direct advertising business longer than OOH.
- Many radio/cable TV companies have invested extensively in training their local sales staff.
- Many out-of-home companies have a great history of propelling the careers of former radio and cable TV salespeople.
Radio/cable TV sales reps need not feel guilty about leaving their industry for a career in OOH sales. The unfortunate truth is their industry has left them. Radio companies are slashing their air staff because their ad revenues and profits are shrinking so quickly. Successful radio sales reps didn’t sign up to sell for a robotic radio station; they wanted to sell a vibrant exciting entertainment medium.
A tragic part of radio and TV’s downsizing is the constant cutting of sales commission. Point out to potential radio/cable TV recruits, it’s almost impossible to grow your career in an industry that can’t grow. Recruit them to sell for you because out of home media is one of only two media (the other being digital/online) that are growing. OOH sales were up 4.5% in 2024, reaching a record 9 billion dollars in total industry sales!
Penetration of traditional cable TV is now down to 42% of all households; down from 73% at the end of 2017!
Virtually every radio group across the US is downsizing their staff:
- IHeart Media: laid off about 5% of its workforce in late 2024.
- Audacy: filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, laid off over 6+% of their work force.
- Cumulus Media: had a significant round of layoffs across many of its markets in Fall 2024 and is about to take a number of stations off-the-air entirely.
- Beasley Media Group: May 2024 had an overall 7% staff reduction.
- Townsquare Media: Feb 2025 had a round of staff cuts. Townsquare Media CEO Bill Wilson says: “radio is not a growth driver.”
- Salem Media Group: suffered an approximate 8% revenue decline in 2024.
Simply putting up “now hiring” ads on your OOH units isn’t going to accomplish your recruitment mission. Recruit competing media reps using back-to-back spaces on your digital with creative messaging. Possible layouts could be “Radio reps make awesome OOH sales reps!! Let’s talk (confidentially),” or “Sales Commissions cut? Sell OOH. Let’s talk (confidentially).”
Google search the average annual income of media sales reps (or salary income in general) in your market and compare to the average income of your OOH reps. Use this as another benefit headline driven ad; “Our reps make X percent above average income in XYZ town.”
You may find some radio/cable TV reps are bound by a non-compete contract with their current employer. It isn’t necessarily a recruitment deal breaker.
Five states; California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Colorado ban the use of non-competes. There’s significant activity within the Federal Trade Commission to create a federal ruling banning non-competes. Many non-competes do not apply to taking a sales job in out of home media and some only prohibit the reps from calling on “existing accounts.” The devil is always in the details. These rules are ever changing and subject to court interpretation in many cases. The best way to navigate this is to get a copy of your potential hires’ non-compete contract, make sure it is legal in your state (many large media companies put out a boilerplate non-competes without regard to its enforceability in individual states). Review it with your legal counsel for options.
Let’s flex our OOH industry, seize the opportunity, and grow our local sales staff.
If I can help you grow your OOH sales faster in 2025, contact me at 612-387-5349 or visit my website: OOHSalesFaster.com.
To receive a free morning newsletter with each day’s Billboard insider articles email info@billboardinsider.com with the word “Subscribe” in the title. Our newsletter is free and we don’t sell our subscriber list.
Paid Advertisement
