A game plan to get your phone to ring with qualified prospects.

Basic vision and understanding: Writing and getting published are two different things. Most people think of them as the same — nothing could be further from the truth.

Here’s the goal:

1. Get in print. Ads don’t work 1/100th as well (or as credibly) as an article about you or your company. Create a scenario where your business, product, or people are newsworthy. One story about your company is worth immediate business, and has a residual value when reprinted and mailed to prospects and customers. KEY: The column must be newsworthy, or of interest, to THE EDITOR. Know the impact before you start.

2. Get published. Write on the subject of your industry or your specific expertise. Keep your articles to a single topic. The more you publish, the more credible you become. Your best areas are local papers, business journals, city magazines, trade publications (of your target industry), and newsletters of target clients (newsletter editors are always looking for contributors).

Ask yourself these questions:

Who am I trying to get in front of?

What do they read every day/week/month?

What topic could I write on?

What impact could I have?

How does that tie in to our business?

What response mechanism can I use?

Who will write — edit?

What’s the name of the article?

3. Get the article professionally laid out for reproduction. The paper or magazine that published your article will help you.

4. Decide how you will use the article. Reprint to customers. Reprint to prospects. Reprint to sales team. Reprint framed. Reprint laminated. Reprint in ads. Quotes in brochure. Use as direct mail piece. Pass out at networking events.

OK, now I have the article. What do I do with it?

Answer: Maximize exposure by professional duplication and distribution.

Here’s the formula:

1. Get a theme. (Mine is sales and customer service)

2. Title the column. (Mine is “Sales Moves”)

3. Select your target “prime” publications. (Mine is weekly business publications)

4. Decide how often you want your stuff to appear. (Mine is weekly)

5. Decide how long you want each column to be. (Mine is 750 words)

6. Decide you are writing in the third person.

7. Write two articles.

8. Develop snappy titles that catch the eye and capture the attention.

9. Develop ten or twelve more titles of articles.

10. Develop a method and reason to contact you (at the end of the article) so you can get direct leads — this is one of the two big secrets. (The other secret is getting through to editors who are sure they know everything)

11. Develop a “one-pager” about the column, what it contains, and who it will impact. The most important aspect to the editor is who it will impact (and how the reader will benefit and make the publication look good).

12. SEND THE PACKAGE TO A PAID PROFESSIONAL BEFORE YOU SEND IT TO AN EDITOR. Get feedback first — then take it to a friendly editor to get their HONEST reaction.

13. After their reaction, brainstorm a plan of attack.

14. Write a sales script that’s guaranteed to work in just a few short years.

14.5 Then you will become king/queen (a well deserved position for a person of your stature).

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts internet training programs on sales and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com

c 2006 All Rights Reserved – Don’t even think about reproducing this document without written

permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer 704/333-1112 www.gitomer.com