By Jeff Dostal

If you are reading this blog entry, there is a good chance you own a small business and you make decisions about how you will advertise your business. Chances are good you are bombarded on a daily basis with one or more media sales people wanting to “show you the way”.

If you are like most business owners, you do all you can to remove the sales person from your business as quickly as possible. Over the years I’ve seen a variety of ways utilized to achieve this. The most common is the “I just don’t have time right now”. A close second is the always popular “My budget is spent for the rest of the year.” But there are many more that you may want to share. The one that always makes me laugh are the business owners who will actually buy what the person is selling just so they will leave. We need to help you learn how to say “No”.

Let me offer a suggestion from someone who did the media selling for many years. At some point, you are going to have to bring one of those sales people into your confidence. You are going to have to let someone come inside your circle and actually learn something about your business. Don’t make yourself do it on your own. In many instances, you are too close to your business to see what you need to see. A media sales person, one that you trust and one that is willing to work hard for your success, can help you see things that would have otherwise gone undetected by you alone.

At some point, you are going to want another view point on the messages you share, the places you invest your advertising dollars, the amount of money you invest. I’m not saying you are going to follow everything this person suggests you do. I’m saying that you should not go it alone. Not when it comes to something as important as the livelihood of your business.

Marketing Firepower is a wonderful tool for you to use. We can offer services that will give you what you need to be successful advertising your business. We offer support that will help you know you are not on your own. However, there is a valuable benefit having a local person who understands your community as part of your “marketing team”.

Allow yourself to trust, but not blindly. Make that person earn your trust and respect. Provide assignments and see if they get the information back to you in a timely manner. Ask them to call you back in a month, perhaps two months and see if they do. If they value you and your business, they’ll call. See if they put down their competition or other media (not a good thing). See if they are knowledgeable about media and their medium specifically and then give what they say the common sense test. If it doesn’t make sense, don’t believe them.

You need people on your team. A good media sales person can be a very beneficial person to have on your team.

Jeff is President of Marketing Firepower and an experienced marketing professional. He has helped many business become successful through the effective use of advertising.

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Tags: advertising, marketing, small business, trust