President's Message: May 2008
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Where To Look For New Business
Recently, during a sales meeting at our paper, we ran a short session where we asked the following question: Where can you look to find new business? I thought I would share the results with all of you.
Other Papers
Daily Newspapers: Always a great place from which to steal leads
Community Newspapers: Other papers like ours
"Town Papers"- Those small ultra-local monthly papers provide lots of leads
Rack Papers- Many niche publications that you can pick up around town.
School Newspapers-
Trucks
People put their phone numbers on their trucks for a reason.
We think that it is for us to use to sell them ads.
Referrals/Word Of Mouth
Be sure to ask your customers if they have any friends that they can refer to you.
Radio
Be sure to listen to the local stations, even if you don't like the format
Especially important to listen during drive times
Yellow Pages
Good place to look. They even categorize the businesses for you
Important to not use phone book ads for ad copy. You'll want to add to the copy .
Lawn Signs
Good to use and refer to your prospect about a specific job that they have done.
Mail
Go through your junk mail and gleen some good prospects from it.
Internet
Google the type of business that you are looking for in your town/area.
Also, look to local websites for ad ideas
Billboards
A good place to find people willing to invest.
Use the idea on the billboard and present a more complete spec campaign
Restaurant Placemats
Be sure to ask for a clean one before you leave.
Your gravy from the night before will not impress a client or an artist.
Chamber Events
Be sure to work the room when you are there, rather than spending too much time at the buffet table. These are business people who need your help.
Town Maps
Check out the maps that seem to find their way into your town.
They sometimes provide good coupon leads.
Cable TV
Be sure to look at networks that you may not normally watch.
Examples: ESPN, DIY, Oxygen, HGTV, Weather Channel, MTV, Lifetime
Food Network, A&E, History Channel, etc.
Network Television
Look for the local breaks and especially during morning news.
Venue Signs
They might be on the walls or even in the bathrooms.
"Walk-Wait"
These are customers who are within a 5 minute walk from your existing customers who always make you wait. Awesome opportunity here; and, your existing customers might realize that you are a busy person if you are not just sitting there waiting for them.
Grocery Store Receipts
The back of your grocery store receipt is a good place to find prospects.
Your Internal Software
Find out what kind of reports that your system can generate.
There may be an "inactive" report that will prove invaluable
"Your People"
Are you really prospecting the people who you deal with to the utmost?
We all have oil companies, doctors, etc. that we deal with. They should deal with you.
Well, that is quite a list. Remember, to be an awesome champion for new business you have to look in places where other people don't. I hope this list helps you find that extra new relationship that turns into a long term customer.
Happy Sellin'
Doug
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