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

So let's get back to managing your territory. This chapter will give you tips on the best way to approach your new territory as well as how to best use your time.

Once you made sure that the contract accounts and the accounts that ran last week are running this week, who do you go after next? Well, you might want to check to see who you can't go after first.

Many newspapers have certain accounts that are off limits. These would include accounts that a specialist at your newspaper would work with. As we discussed before, most newspapers have dedicated automotive, real estate, and recruitment sales forces that deal exclusively with these types of accounts.

You might want to check to see if that's the case at your newspaper. Another category that might be off limits to you would be major accounts. Many newspapers have a group of salespeople who specialize in the larger accounts, called major accounts. These salespeople are usually more experienced and therefore better at dealing with the larger accounts, though the mom and pop businesses are certainly no walk in the park, either. Major accounts may include the bigger businesses such as supermarkets, banks, consumer electronic stores, department stores, and anyone else spending a lot of money.

Also, depending on your newspaper's size, you might have one or more ad reps who sell national accounts. These are similar to major accounts in that they're big advertisers, but typically advertise nationally and contain simply a toll-free number or Web address instead of local information. This category would most likely include airlines, car rental companies, computer manufacturers, and hotel chains. Again, check on this.

Another category of accounts you might want to check on are what many newspapers call house accounts. These are advertisers in your territory that for whatever reason are handled by the managers or a senior ad rep. These accounts are usually ones established long ago or ones that can cause a lot of trouble.

It's also not uncommon for certain accounts to have built up a relationship with a more senior ad rep years ago, and although that rep is now working in another territory, you might find an odd account in your territory that has made arrangements with the newspaper to always have a certain rep handle their account.

The good news is that most likely you'll find that the number of accounts you can't call on are minimal. Do your best to find out about any conflicts like that, but if you're unsure, make a sales call on the account, sell him, and if it works out that it's not your account and you lose the commission, then at least you showed your manager that you can sell, and sell better than whoever was supposed to be handling the account. Your manager will be impressed that you made the sale when the rep handling the account couldn't, and the rep will be happy that you earned him the commission.

Next: Going where the money is