prospecting for customers

[Alan Barnard]

Well, never say never. Your book's policy may not apply in his area.

 I used to design ads for an independent but locally popular YP company so
I learned quite a bit about the business.

Independent books, for sure, don't care what your phone number is. They'll
sell you the back cover in full color if you want! 

Also, phone company books (Sprint, General Tel, Southwestern Bell, for
example) may have different policies. So I'd ask. 

The principle business of the YP book is to sell ads, not to sign people up
for phone service. Surely by now SOME of the phone companies have realized
that local phone monopolies are now as dead as the national Bell monopoly
is, and may liberalize there book policies just to get the revenue.

The cost vs. benefit ratio of using YP ads also depends on your locale. In
a big city environment, where you have much competition, the ads will be
very expensive but YP ads are sadly necessary. Out here in the boondocks, I
have paid only for bold-face listings, never column ads, and currently am
not paying for any YP ads.

A couple of local books, including McLeod--a very large independent, list
me without billing me a dime. What the books often do is buy mailing lists
of area businesses, build the basic book from that, then send sales reps
out to sell the ads. Other, smaller, independent books actually have people
sit down and type in business names, addresses, and phone numbers from the
larger books in the area.

The actual local phone company book, of course, is built on their internal
database of phone subscribers; so they are not going to automatically
include you.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


> [Original Message]
> From: David Love <davidlovepianos@comcast.net>
> To: Pianotech List <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 01/26/2006 7:58:43 PM
> Subject: RE: prospecting for customers
>
> They won't let you advertise without a phone line that you pay them for.
>
> David Love
> davidlovepianos@comcast.net