I'll begin with an overview of the various departments at a newspaper, a description of what other products are out there with which you'll be competing, and a look at your own newpaper's most likely products into which you'll be selling advertising.

The first day or two in your new territory, your manager might ask you to simply service those businesses who might already want to run in your territory, perhaps those who ran last week. You might also be asked to approach advertisers who ran last year in a certain annual section or feature and ask if they'd like to run their ad again this year. Basically, you'll need to stabilize your territory, and this is one of the first things this course will teach you.

Once one of these advertisers say "yes", you'll need to get their ad in the newspaper, and that's why we next teach you what's involved in reserving space for the ad in the newspaper and creating an ad layout that minimizes errors.

Soon, you'll be asked to try to sell ads to people who may know little about your newspapers. That's why the next thing we'll teach you how to calculate ad costs and all the other important things you'll need to explain when dealing with a new advertiser.

Shortly after that, you'll begin approaching businesses who might think advertising in your newspaper isn't right for them. We'll teach you the questions to ask to determine if this is true and the process you'll need to go through to convince them that you and your newspaper really can help them. You'll learn how to give a great presentation and overcome many of the objections they may express.

I'd recommend going through this course once before you go out on the road (if you've been hired as an outside ad salesperson), and then come back after you've spent some time out there. I might also suggest that as you go through the program, make a list of specific questions you have and forms you'd like to see and bring it to your manager or whoever is going to help you through this transition at your newspaper.