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iHeartMedia, Inc., New York, NY

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2014 American Business Awards

Company: iHeartMedia, Inc., New York, NY
Company Description: iHeartMedia, Inc., was founded in San Antonio, TX with the purchase of a single radio station in 1972. After decades of growing media assets globally, the company has become one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, operating as iHeartMedia, Inc. iHeartMedia, Inc., consists of two main media businesses: Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings and the wholly owned iHeartMedia.
Nomination Category: Business Development Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Business Development Achievement of the Year - Media & Entertainment Industries

Nomination Title: IHeartMedia’s National Sales Team

Tell the story about this organization's business development achievements since the beginning of July 2013 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

iHeartMedia is the largest multi-media company in the United States, reaching 245 million monthly listeners and 97 million digital monthly unique visitors. We serve over 150 markets through 850+ radio stations, along with our streaming app, iHeartRadio.com. One of iHeartMedia’s biggest strengths is being proactive in the marketplace. A perfect example of that is the expansion of iHeartMedia’s Inside Sales Team.

The Media industry has historically been challenged, and non-responsive, to business development opportunities due to three main obstacles- time, territory and talent. The typical salesperson manages a limited list of accounts that require a substantial amount of time to maintain, making it difficult to focus on new opportunities. The salesperson is also assigned to a specific territory based on their location, having them restricted to only business within that region. Most importantly, the industry has tended not to groom new talent to proactively overcome the current challenges within the marketplace. iHeartMedia’s Inside Sales Team has aggressively dissolved all of these challenges by removing the restriction of territory, focusing solely on new transactional business development and making sure we hire the proper resources for this specific role. It’s literally unlike any other sales division within the industry, and especially at this scale.

Created in January 2012, iHeartMedia’s Inside Sales Team is unique, not just to iHeartMedia, but to the entire advertising industry, where we have full national capabilities, as well as work across all divisions within our company- local, regional and national. Out of thousands of salespeople within our company across the country, we are the only division within our entire organization that has no boundaries and can attack our client’s needs on all three levels.

IHeartMedia’s Inside Sales Team has been effective at being completely disruptive in nature to our industry’s overall business, and in fact, controversial internally and external with our innovative approach. Our model is counterculture to decades-old approach that isolates consumer advertisers. Traditionally, advertisers that didn’t have the knowledge, resources or a certain budget level, had nowhere to go and felt intimidated by trying to do the same things as larger more established advertisers. This was leaving potential new advertisers under-served, as well as valuable new business dollars on the table.

Our team has been successful in generating new business across industries including recruitment, retail, healthcare, financial services, political, travel, education and more. The far majority of our business development revenue is 100% exclusive to iHeartMedia. We build partnerships with our clients and deliver tangible results.

iHeartMedia’s Inside Sales Team generates new national business with resources never used before in the industry. For example:

• Partnered with an IVR vendor to record inbound calls and launch online real-time live chat
• Launched new CRM for lead gen, activity reporting and data management
• Go-to-Market included first ever vanity toll-free for new advertisers to reach iHeartMedia
• Enhanced online submission form for new advertisers to request information
• Procured an automated solution that enables email blasts, proposal generation and view alerts
• Created, from scratch, a new online tool for moving our unsold remnant inventory

iHeartMedia’s Inside Sales Team has generated tremendous results:

• 2014 finish of $15,026,023, increase of 1,782% vs 2013 ($798,305)
• YTD ROI of 564%
• 32% increase in quarterly revenue
• Average monthly order size increased from $10,536 in Q1’14 to $13,285 in Q3’14
• Huge success rate with advertisers, resulting in 50% of revenue from repeat business
• Transitioned over $11.8 million in active billing to other niche divisions within iHeartMedia to manage for better alignment
• Launched iHeartMedia’s first ever quota-accountable sales team

iHeartMedia’s National Inside Sales Team has created a unique business model that drives accountable results balanced with a fun place to work. It’s revolutionary in the Media industry to sell across all types of inventory and it’s proven to be a disruptive, yet scalable approach to moving assets. We believe we’re working hard to be the best every day in generating new business, and we hope you agree.

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