Originally Posted by GordonJ

Wasting time talking to NON decision makers is one of the biggest complaints of all salespeople calling on businesses.

Specific to your case, you have a host, a REALTOR, who does he/she use as their go-to TITLE company, or which banks do they like for home loans, who would they use if they bought a house to rent, as an owner-agent, who would they get to fix the roof, redo the plumbing, the wiring. See, you have to make it something profitable for them...so the Realtor should be willing to call, or let you use his name, Joe Johnson of Realty One sent me over to see (Da Owner)...and if he is not in...

You get the name of the person, leave something behind, and get a best time to reach da owner. Leave a sample card so they know what it is.

If your host won't cooperate, you need to rethink this, and go back to alter your presentation so they know you expect them to give you some referrals.

I suggest a phone call. Mr Pizza Man, Mr. Realtor is doing a mailing and he thought you might have an interest, it will only take 5 minutes to show you what he's doing, would an afternoon or morning be better for you?

Standard sales technique to get an appointment, a phone will save you hours of time. If cold calling, and you leave behind the sample card, you GET THE NAME of the person you left it with, tell them you will be back to pick up the sample and ask when the best time to do that after the boss has seen it.

WRITE the name in your daily planner.

IF you are giving the host the front or big space for free, you have to let them know up front, you want some referrals, and as mentioned in the post, Don Alm and others would sit there and make them get out the rolodex and make a few calls, but few of us are persuasive as Don.

Say it is going to take 20 calls to get the 6 or 8 advertisers, so you call on the phone, or if out and about, you drop off and pick up. Either way, you always ask for a best time to either call back, or drop in, and see if that helps.

Gordon