Quote of the week

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." Thomas A Edison

In the past two weeks I have helped three of our reps secure commitments for over $150,000 in advertising for 2011. In one case we took the business from broadcast TV, another from Valasis and in two of these cases we overcame the bjections of their ad agencies. In all three of these cases the appointments lasted more than twice as long as the customer had originally allotted, not because we ran long, but because the customer wanted more information. How were we able to engage the customers and persuade them to buy from us? Comprehensive planning. In each case we prepared research on the market, on their industry and business and prepared a detailed plan for them including spec ads. In addition to putting together a marketing plan we planned how we would present our information to them. The take away lesson is that in today's market, we need to use every tool to land business. Money is tight and the competition is very tough. In better times planning many be a luxury but in a recessionary time it is a necessity.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim B.