Overcoming objections
Objections are concerns that your potential advertiser expresses that might lead to him not buying the ad. Many of those that you'll encounter on the first sales call are nothing more than smoke, hiding a different, and more easily dealt with objection.

I once sat at a chamber of commerce meeting at a round table with a few businesses. Once I identified myself as working for a newspaper advertising department, one merchant said, "that's interesting, do you know how I get rid of ad salespeople when they come into my store? I tell them I don't have any money and that almost always gets rid of them." Another advertiser at the table piped in "Well I get rid of ad salespeople by telling them I have no time" Then another said "I tell them I just signed a 12-month contract with the other paper and so come back in a year and maybe we can talk."

This is why you should never pay too much attention to what they tell you when they initially meet you. To them, you're just someone trying to get at their money who has nothing more to offer than all the other reps who have come before you. So, as we said earlier, push these objections aside until you can get more information from the account, build rapport in the process, return later with a spec ad, and show them why the newspaper and the spec ad will fit their specific needs and make them money. Then deal with the objections.

But just so you know what the common objections are you'll be getting out there, here they are along with the standard answers.