Selling advertising

My experience thus far in trying to start this publication has been trying. Since I am not one who considers myself to be a salesperson, it is most awkward to call people up on the telephone and ask them to advertise in my magazine. Even much more difficult is the fact that I am asking them to advertise in a magazine that 1. they have never seen and 2. has not yet been published. Talk about a tough sell. I remember quite vividly the first time I heard someone say "I am not interested!" That should have been a deflating moment but instead what I heard was "You are in the game now." So I grabbed the next number and proceeded to call.

My advertising strategy was to separate all the companies that I could get a hold of in the South Florida area that might be interested in the Caribbean population into tiers (Most likely, likely, probables etc) and call them in that order. That way I would spend the most time on the most likely ones first. At the top of my list was an airline (which will remain nameless). To this day I have not been able to speak with anyone there. So what is worst than hearing I am not interested?" Answer: not hearing anything at all. Well it is my hope to go on producing this magazine and then mail them a copy and make the pitch from there. But I was quite certain this particular airline would be all over this idea. Well I firmly believe that they will be; just not yet.

I am going to close with a thought that a business owner in Lauderdale Lakes said to me not long ago. He said that Caribbean business owners do not want to spend the money to market themselves properly. I wonder if that is true. I will share my thoughts on that in the near future when I hit him up for advertising! But maybe he has a point. From my point of view, only time will tell.