Case Study

From Manual Sponsor Spot Planning to a Repeatable Sales Workflow

Life FM's first workflow implementation in a broader sponsorship sales and operations program brings sponsor campaign pricing, scheduling rules and customer-ready schedules into one guided workflow, with estimated savings of up to four hours per customer onboarded.
Life FM Adelaide Community radio and sponsorship sales First implementation in an ongoing sponsorship sales and operations streamlining program
Illustrative radio sponsorship scheduling workspace with a campaign calendar, microphone and headphones.
Life FM Adelaide / Sponsorship sales workflow
Named client engagement / Work ongoing
Life FM

The first implemented workflow in a broader program to streamline sponsorship sales & Operations.

Preparing a Life FM sponsorship campaign meant bringing package pricing, sponsor spot rules, dates, budgets, exclusions and production costs together before the customer could receive a clear schedule.

ExIQ turned that rules-heavy work into a guided Excel workflow. The Life FM Spot Calculator is the first delivered implementation in an ongoing sponsorship sales and operations streamlining program, with the relationship continuing through ExIQ's role as a station sponsor.

Estimated benefit Life FM estimates up to four hours saved per customer onboarded. Across four salespeople, that can return roughly one to two working days of team capacity in a typical week, depending on onboarding volume and campaign complexity.
Up to 4 hours estimated saving per customer onboarded
4 people across the Life FM sponsorship sales team
1-2 days estimated weekly team capacity returned
First step in the ongoing sales and operations streamlining program
01 / The sales bottleneck

A sponsor schedule is a commercial promise, not a simple count of spots.

Each campaign had to coordinate placement windows, spot lengths, package pricing, monthly targets, campaign dates, allowed weekdays, production costs and GST. Public holidays, Christmas Day, fundraising periods and other blackout dates added another layer of checking.

A change to the budget, dates or placement mix could send the team back through manual calculations and schedule checks. The process needed to become faster and more consistent without removing the human judgement required to shape a useful sponsorship campaign.

Repeated calculation when campaign details changed
Rules-heavy rates, packages, lengths, dates and placements
Exception-led holidays, blackouts, bonus and filler spots
Customer-facing the final schedule still had to be clear and printable
Life FM presenters wearing headsets at a branded community broadcast desk.
Life FM presenters on location. Image courtesy of Life FM.
02 / The implemented workflow

Enter the campaign once. Generate a schedule the team can still shape.

ExIQ designed and built the macro-enabled Life FM Spot Calculator around the team's existing Excel workflow. Staff enter the core campaign details through a guided Quick Fill sheet, then refresh the workbook to rebuild the editable schedule.

Commercial logic lives in one configurable rate-card and package area rather than being repeated across the workbook. The output keeps formulas protected while leaving the schedule open for the human adjustments that real sponsorship campaigns require.

  1. 1 / Capture Campaign details

    Customer, package, dates, budget, spot lengths, placements and allowed days.

  2. 2 / Apply Commercial and schedule rules

    Rates, multipliers, holidays, blackout dates, bonus spots, costs and GST.

  3. 3 / Review Customer-ready schedule

    Editable year view, campaign totals, placement summary and print-ready output.

What the calculator handles
  • Configurable rate cards and sponsorship package templates.
  • One-click schedule generation and refresh.
  • Recurring sponsor spot patterns and weekday rules.
  • South Australian public holiday highlighting.
  • Christmas Day protection and placement-specific blackouts.
  • Bonus, filler, GST and production-cost calculations.
  • Contract, campaign and placement summaries.
  • Editable schedules with protected formulas.
Life FM terminology

Life FM offers sponsorship packages and sponsor spots. This case study uses that language throughout rather than describing the spots as radio ads.

03 / The expected capacity gain

Up to four hours returned for every customer onboarded.

The calculator creates a repeatable path from campaign requirements to a reviewed, customer-ready schedule. Pricing and scheduling rules stay together, manual recalculation falls away, and the team gains a clearer view of sponsor spot allocation and campaign value.

Estimated per customer Up to 4 hours
Across four salespeople 1-2 team days each week

The weekly estimate varies with customer onboarding volume and campaign complexity; it is presented as Life FM's estimate, not an independently measured result.

04 / The ongoing program

One bottleneck solved. The next sales workflows can now connect around it.

ExIQ's work with Life FM is continuing. The calculator gives the broader sponsorship sales and operations streamlining program a practical first foundation, with the next workflow opportunities spanning the records and handoffs around sponsorship campaigns.

  1. Next workflow CRM and sponsor records

    Carry clean customer and opportunity information into the campaign process.

  2. Next workflow Campaign management

    Improve visibility from agreed package through scheduling and delivery.

  3. Next workflow Finance handoff

    Reduce re-entry between campaign totals, production costs and invoicing.

  4. Next workflow Customer handover

    Make responsibilities, approvals and campaign-ready information clearer.

Start with the work that slows sales down.

Practical transformation begins with one repeatable workflow.

ExIQ can identify the highest-friction step in your sales process and turn it into a focused first implementation your team can use.