I Sold My Skills--Now How Do I Sell Ads? By Anne Fisher
(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: I was out of work for eight
months after a layoff, and now my brother-in-law (who owns a
small chain of community newspapers) has offered me a job as an
advertising sales rep. I've never done sales before. Can you
recommend any good books on how to sell stuff? --No Huckster
Dear N.H.: However serendipitously, you're making a smart career
move here. Lots of studies over the years have shown that, even
in recessions, experienced salespeople are always in demand. And
how to sell stuff, as you put it, is a perennially hot topic.
Amazon.com lists 69,309 books on the subject. Yikes!  One good
place to start, my friends in ad sales tell me, is The Instant
Sales Pro: More Than 600 Tips and Techniques to Accelerate Your
Sales Success (Amacom, $17.95), by Cy Charney. It's a crash
course in cold-calling, closing, managing client relationships,
and surviving office politics. The author starts by quoting Wal-
Mart founder Sam Walton: