Kevin Gephart recently retired from a 35 year career selling media advertising including 12 years at Clear Channel Outdoor in Minneapolis and 8 years at Clear Channel Radio.  Clear Channel honored Kevin by putting him on a digital billboard in the Twin Cities (see picture).  Kevin will write a column for Insider on out of home sales.  Today he talks about getting into out of home and his most satisfying sale.  You can reach Kevin at kevinjgephart@gmail.com.

How did you get into out of home?

I started in radio on the air and then got into sales and then went to work for Clear Channel in radio sales…I was there 8 years with iheart in Minneapolis…We did some cross selling.  Minneapolis is a very strong market for both the radio and the out of home group for Clear Channel and we did some cross selling back in the day.  And one of the top people at the out of home office here in the Twin Cities, Amy Burckhard…she said why don’t you come and sell billboards with us.

What was your most satisfying out of home sale?

Clear Channel has four units which are 28′ by 60′.  They are at the confluence of the two biggest freeways in the twin cites so the impressions level is off the chart.  When I started in out of home those things sold for $20,000-35,000 a 4 week period.   I would love to at some point sell one of those.  Fast forward a few years, I sold one on an annual contract to a local advertiser.  That was a pretty cool day.   It was a short sales cycle because I was dealing with the owner of a company.  He had the checkbook.  There were no marketing people in the way.  He negotiated hard.  I went in there knowing that I was going to have some room to move in the deal which I did and then of course he tried to more me even more.  It was late on a Friday afternoon.  I’d had surgery on my eye and I thought I’m not going to miss this appointment with this guy.  I can barely see in my one eye.  My boss had to leave the office early.  I tried to reach him to get the final piece of the deal approved.  Couldn’t reach him.  Reached our local sales manager.  He said, “Kevin.  Do it.  Get it done!”

Are there sales topics you’d like Kevin to address?  Let Insider know using the form below or email billboardinsider@gmail.com.

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