Spec Ads Introduction Best Accounts to Choose Common Mistakes Gathering Info Securing Artwork Determining Ad Size Attention Grabber Benefit Headline Copy Other Elements Producing the Ad 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

Up until now, we've talked about working with businesses that are already interested in advertising with your newspapers. But some of your best prospective customers may initially not welcome you with open arms at all.

In fact, you may find quite a few local businesses who have spent a lot of money on advertising with your publication (or others) and experienced little results.

From their perspective, you're just another ad rep who's going to take all their money, lose all their artwork, and never get them a response.

Just keep mind that this problem is not your fault, despite how they might make it seem that way. First, it was probably the ad that the customer ran that was ineffective, not your newspaper. Secondly, you're not the one who suggested the previous ad or even accepted the ineffective ad for publication in the first place.

But telling the customer that his ad was to blame is not the smart approach–it will only make him angrier. That's because most people incorrectly believe advertising is an art form, so they assume the process of making an ad is a creative and subjective one, similar to drawing a picture. Any criticism of their past ads is often interpreted as a personal attack on their own creative abilities, kind of like telling them what an ugly child they have.

You'll be able to trace almost every objection back to this problem (in fact we've built an entire ad sales course around it). If former advertisers believe their ad was effective when it wasn't, then of course they're going to believe your newspaper was too expensive, ineffective, or had too little or too much circulation. As I've had advertisers tell me in the past. "your paper doesn't work, the other paper doesn't work either, but at least I get no response cheaper in the other publication."

But this doesn't mean you shouldn't suggest something new. On the contrary, properly creating and presenting a more effective ad will be your most valuable selling tool when combating the majority of roadblocks your prospective advertisers will throw up.

These ads you'll create on speculation, before any sale has been made, are better known as a spec ads, and this chapter will show you how to make great ones.

Next: Best accounts to choose