Managing Your Territory Introduction Go where the money is Those running elsewhere Prospecting sp. sections Time mgt. mistakes A little each day More on special sections The fastest way to increase sales! Participate in this award-winning, newspaper-specific ad sales course on-site or in a Webinar.  • Get past upfront stalls and objections without any pushing  • Make the account believe he really needs you  • Get better information from your prosepct  • Develop quick ad strategies that work the very first time  • Eliminate size, frequency, content, cost and most other objections before they ever arise  • Get dramatic responses for all kinds of advertisers  • Never have to push an advertiser to run again click here

It's far easier to get businesses to advertise with you when they are about to advertise somewhere else because they are already planning on spending money on advertising. This is easier than convincing businesses who have no plans to advertise at all to advertise with you.

Not that this second group is impossible to sell into your newspapers, but it's always easier to get people who are about to advertise to run with you rather than where they're currently running. Then the battle isn't convincing them to spend money on advertising but instead convincing them why your paper is better than the competition, or at least, why your paper would be another effective medium in which to advertise.

Look at the other publications in your market, ask around your office and drive around your territory looking for anything that circulates in your area that contains advertising. These include, but are not limited to, daily and weekly newspapers and shoppers. You might even want to get into the habit of listening to the local radio stations when you drive around to see if there's anyone in your territory advertising on these stations. You might also want to check out cable TV as well at home.

Another good source for leads is the Yellow Pages and other similar directories. Sometimes it's not difficult to show these advertisers they could be better off investing some of the huge amounts of money they spend in the Yellow Pages with your paper, because the Yellow Pages won't be read by the vast majority of consumers who may already have an idea where to go to buy a particular product or service. The newspaper, however, does reach these people.

But don't just limit your prospects to people who are advertising somewhere you can easily find. Many advertisers are using direct mail or on the Web. If you don't live in the territory in which you sell, you might want to try to find someone who does, and ask them to save any direct mail piece that they get from someone in your territory.

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