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In the 1930's, outlaw Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks. His now-famous reply was "That's where the money is."

What he understood is one of the most important things any salesperson should know--go after the easiest money first.

In this business, this translates into targeting those accounts who are already interested in running. You'll find these either from your activity reports or, if you're in a geographical territory, by simply looking through the last issue of your newspaper.

It's always best to stop by their place of business, but if you can't, call them up. Tell them you're their new advertising representative and you just wanted to make sure there weren't any ads they were planning on running that you weren't aware of.

Also tell them you'll be in touch shortly to set up a time where you can get to know their business better.

You'd think that the salesperson who used to be in your territory would have let someone know which accounts already wanted to run in an upcoming issue, but as you may learn, this doesn't always happen.

By the way, also don't be surprised if a few things happen when you introduce yourself.

First, many advertisers will love to complain about the turnover of staff at your newspaper. Don't be too concerned, it happens everywhere.

Second, advertisers frequently like to complain about the last ad rep. About how he stopped by too often, or never at all, or how he lost all their artwork. In every territory I ever took over, it always seemed as if the previous rep did nothing all day.

Third, the advertiser will probably tell you all the special agreements he had with the previous ad rep, such as guaranteeing a certain position in the newspaper (page three, upper-right-hand corner, for example), not requiring money up front, or allowing later deadlines. Be careful. Most people are honest, yet there will always be some retailers who will try to take advantage of a new rep, somehow hoping to get a deal they never had before.

In any case, your immediate goal is to keep these advertisers running, which shouldn't involve too much work since they were planning on running already.

The harder part is going to be successfully navigating through all the paperwork and deadlines, which can seem daunting at first. Don't worry. They'll be second nature in no time. So before we talk any further about territory management, let's talk about exactly what you'll need to do to get your ad in the newspaper.

There are really two categories of things to do--get the production/creative services department to make the ad look the way the advertiser wants it, and get all the paperwork through to reserve space for the ad. Let's talk about the making the ad first.

Next: Ad layout