McKee hits the ground running

The next time you step in to the Shopping Guide News office in Rochester, you’ll be seeing some new faces. One of those faces belongs to Andrea McKee, the new sales representative for the paper.

A native of Rochester McKee is a 2006 Zebra graduate. She and her husband, Jeremy, share five children together ranging in age from 9-21, and a dog.

As sales representative, McKee’s job is to sell advertising space for each week’s paper.

“I want to get everybody’s businesses out there to bring in new business for them,” she said.

This is McKee’s first foray into sales, but she seems to be catching on very quickly to the new role. Prior to coming to the Shopping Guide, she worked with first graders at Columbia Elementary in Rochester. Before that, she was a stay-at-home mom, raising her children,

“I look forward to meeting people in the community,” she said. “I love getting involved and checking out other businesses.”

In her free time, she and her family enjoy swimming, shopping and biking. She and Jeremy also love attending their children’s multiple sporting events, with each of the kids having their individual favorites, including volleyball, track, basketball, cheerleading and baseball.

McKee said she is hopeful to maintain the many accounts established by her predecessor. She also has her own ideas on how to ingratiate herself and the paper to new businesses throughout the area.

“I plan to keep in contact with everybody, being involved and being in the loop,” she said. “I’ve stopped at businesses and introduced myself. Since I’m new to this I wanted to meet everybody. We haven’t gotten to all of the businesses yet, but we’ve reached out to many of them in person or by email. People who haven’t heard from me yet certainly will soon.

“There are definitely some new businesses that I’d love to approach and check out. So many people get the Shopping Guide. So many people see it. I think that’s a perfect way to advertise. Everybody’s looking at it, everybody wants to learn about new businesses and what’s going on in the community.”

“It’s a wonderful job to have,” said Bill Hays, advertising manager for The Papers Inc., which owns the Shopping Guide. “It’s not a high-pressure kind of thing. The biggest thing I wanted someone in this job who was local, who knew the people. I felt strongly that Andrea would fit that perfectly, and she’s done well. A lot of people do know her. It’s important to get in meeting people. That’s an easier step if you already know these people. I think she’s going to be perfect at this job. Learning the ins and outs (of the job) is secondary to knowing people and being around them. She’ll be great.”

“I love Rochester,” McKee said. “That’s why I’m still here. I love raising my family here, in a small town.”

To contact McKee, call (574) 223-5417, or email amckee@thepapers.com. You can also stop by the office, located at 617 Main St., Rochester.