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Lesson 10: The Basic Sales Call
Part 8: Overcoming Objections

I have no money
With the thousands of presentations I've made to advertisers, in all types of areas--in some of the smallest towns to the largest cities, to extremely depressed areas to booming markets, I don't think I've ever ran into an advertiser who actually didn't have any money. They're really saying "don't sell me because I'm not in the mood to buy anything". I usually say, "that's OK, I just wanted to introduce myself. There might be a time in the future when you do have money and give me a call then. By the way, you have a great place here. What do you sell most of, anyway?" and begin the sales call information gathering process. I guarantee that if you take that information back to the office, make up a great spec ad and go back and make a presentation anyway, then more times than not the advertiser will end up buying.

I have no time
You'll know if the advertiser really has not time by looking around the store. If it is really busy, then get out of their way and return another time. But if it's empty, you might want to tell them to call you when they do have time, and then slide into your question and answer part of the call once their resistance has lowered and they're more willing to talk to you. Then, just like the I have no money objections, you'd continue with the two meeting sales process, returning later with a presentation. I'm running with or I have a contract with another paper/radio/tv station.

Say something like "Good, I hope its profitable for you. But I'm not here to get you to spend more money. I just want to get to know you and your business better and if I think I can come up with a way for you to make money with our newspapers, I'll come back with a strategy and show it to you. But I'm only going to suggest you try us if we're going to be a revenue producer, not simply another expenditure. So who do you compete with anyway? And then launch into your first sales call."

The truth is, advertisers break contracts all the time if they see something else they think will be more profitable.