5 Tips for Working with Local Account Executives

Our Account Executive’s responsibility is to secure the advertising that underwrites the cost of your Guide Book & Directory. Therefore, we ask our Account Executives to work closely with the congregations we serve to make sure that the advertising will fit the needs of your members, and local businesses.

Setting Up the Meeting

You will receive a call on a Wednesday from a Guide Book Publishing Account Executive that they would like to meet with you on the following Monday to start selling advertising for your book.

What should you do between now and then? What type of information do they want to discuss at the meeting? Here is a quick guide to getting ready for an Account Executive Meeting.

Tip 1: Church Demographics

We will be asking you some basic questions such as the average age of your members, the number of kids in the congregation, how many weddings and funerals have you held in the last year, etc. We are trying to get a feeling for your congregation since it isn’t possible to attend your services throughout the year to get to know them ourselves.

Having this basic information ready will speed up the meeting, and make us more successful at reaching businesses of interest to your members.

Tip 2: Potential Advertisers/Vendors List

If you can put together a list of members that you know own businesses such as insurance agents, realtors, etc., we appreciate it. The other helpful item for our Account Executives is a vendor list of companies that already work with the church. Both of these items help us offer your members and partnering companies the best advertising locations before moving on to other businesses.

Tip 3: A Place to Work

Most of our Account Executives do not have local offices to work from and will greatly appreciate a place at the church office, if one is available.

They will be making local calls in order to set appointments to meet with potential advertisers for your book. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter, and our Account Executives are happy to work with you regarding any telephone restrictions you may have.

Tip 4: Sales Presentation

If you have questions about how we do our sales presentations to potential advertisers, our Account Executives will be more than happy to go over a mock sales presentation with you.

Tip 5: Production Questions vs Sales Questions

Our Account Executives are not involved with the actual production process of the book, so if you have production questions (how to send my copy, etc.) please contact our office directly and talk with your Church Coordinator.

However, the Account Executives are more than happy to answer any sales questions you have, and will gladly keep you up to date on which businesses have purchased an advertisement.

 

For more information on our FREE services, visit our website at http://www.guidebookpublishing.com/publications.html.

If you are interested in finding out more about advertising in a local book, visit http://www.guidebookpublishing.com/advertisers/html.

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