Prospecting is the most important part of your job. If you do it properly, you are 90% finished with your assignment and that much closer to your first paycheck!
After you have assigned yourself a zip code area or territory, you must drive to the assigned zip code area or territory.
Enter a local hotel and look around the lobby for any advertising, pamphlets, flyers, etc.
Then go to the local neighborhood newspaper office. If it is a weekly paper, ask for the last 8 weeks issues. If it is a daily paper, ask when the biggest advertiser day is, ( other than grocery ), and get 8 weeks back issues of that day. YOU WILL USE THESE NEWSPAPERS TO GET LEADS! LOOK FOR ADS WITH GRAND OPENINGS, NEW OWNERS, MOVED LOCATION, ETC.
Then go to the local grocery stores. Check the store bulletin board for display advertising, revolving tear sheet stands with ads, bascart advertising, TV guide type magazines with ads, business cards, etc. See if they have register tapes with coupon advertising on the back. COPY DOWN ( or tape record ), ALL ADVERTISERS NAMES AND PHONE NUMBERS.
Then go to the local chamber of commerce, if you are in a smaller community, and get a map of the area, ( most maps have ads on them ). Explain that you are in town to help the local businesses with a new business service to stimulate business for the area. Ask for a new list of businesses for the last 12 months and a chamber directory. Ask for a phone book cover, ( these usually have ads on them ).
Go to the local bowling alley and copy down the names from the bulletin board, the overhead score sheets, and the paper score sheets.
Go to the local catholic church and pick up a copy of the weekly church bulletin. The reverse side usually has 20-60 advertisers on it. Stop at the local gas station and ask if they have a free city map. These sometimes have ads on them too.
All the time that you are driving, you are prospecting. Make a list of businesses that surround the hotels and those within two miles in every direction. If the hotels are located far from a business area, ( such as an airport property ), sometimes it is good to prospect an area of concentrated businesses more than two miles away ( possibly in the downtown area ).
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