What is a Prospecter?

In the fall of 2007, a Connecticut rep, Rich Carpenter, approached me about creating some brochures/flyers/newsletters that SOLD our products and services. He said that in his territory, competitors were constantly dropping off printed pieces about products and services that thought they could provide better than he could. He wanted something he could use to leave in their schools to put some heat back on them and to get the schools to let him in their door so he could make a presentation.

He felt that other than the single sheets from our Yearbook Solutions box (that he and I both use in our proposals) there was nothing that we could use to put something in our prospect schools that really SOLD us. We both agreed we liked the single sheets as part of a proposal but they were not the hard attack we were looking for. They also are written from more of a corporate viewpoint than a rep viewpoint. We wanted something that came from the REP!

I must confess that I was intrigued and challenged. So I created a single, full color piece that I then sent out to Rich as well as about 25 other reps (both novice and vastly experienced) to get their take on them. The response from them was good and they had much to add to how these pieces could be created, on what topics and how I could improve them.

So I went back to the drawing board and produced an actual printed piece that I ran copies of and took with me to our national meeting in Anaheim in January 2007. I passed them out to a few of the same reps as well as new reps who had not seen the original ones.

The response was overwhelming. I had orders coming in from many of those reps. They wanted the first (which was on YTO) right away. The only problem was, there was no actual product yet. Just a sample.

Well now there is an actual product. In fact, there are eight of them.

I decided to call them Prospecters. Not prospectors (like the guys who pan for gold) but Prospecters because they can do some prospecting for you. Their reason for existence is to get you in the door and drive your competitors nuts.

There are currently Prospecters on YTO, YearTech for InDesign, Your Jostens Team, Elementary School Yearbooks, Selling yearbooks the Jostens way, Yearbook Avenue, Personal Service and Jostens Educational Tools. We would also be happy to hear about any other products or services we could create one for.