How (and Where) to Find Your
Actual Clients & Prospects
by Ilise Benun
It may seem obvious, but when you introduce
yourself to a new market, the most important tool at your disposal is a
list of your prospects. Without that list, there’s very
little you can do.
With that list, there is much you can do. You can
make cold calls. You can send personalized e-mail messages. You can do
a mailing of your brochure or promotional package. Or, you can do all
of the above. In other words, you can use that list for a marketing
campaign. (For more on this, listen to the podcast on "How to Find
Clients and Prospects" at iTunes here: http://tinyurl.com/478guf)
Where do these lists come from?
There are many resources for a list of prospects,
especially if you don’t need thousands of them. But the most
effective list for most independent professionals is one you create
yourself, based on the criteria you’ve chosen, such as the
industry focus, size of the company, revenue or the number of
employees. Although it requires a bit more work on your part, compiling
and collecting names for your own list will make for a much more
effective and profitable list.
You probably have access to lists that you may not
be aware of, so look first to your own resources, which may
include:
- Industry and trade group directories.
Almost every trade group publishes a directory, either online or
printed. As a member of a group, one of the benefits you get is access
to (and inclusion in) the member directory. (Some groups make their
directories available for a fee, so you don’t even have to
join.) You may not realize it, but this is one of the most valuable
resources and best reasons to join a group. Directories are invaluable
because they pre-qualify your prospects and give you the name of
someone to start with, which saves your valuable time. Calling a
company and trying to find the person who hires or buys the services
you’re offering is very time-consuming.
- Attendee lists to industry events.
Often, a list of attendees will be published and distributed to
attendees of an industry event or conference—it’s
one of the perks of attending. This is another invaluable resource that
you should do more than just glance at to see who’s in
attendance. Make this list your bible. At the event, use it to find the
people you want to talk to. Get familiar with the names. Mark it up.
Write notes to yourself about who you met, as well as who you
didn’t meet but can follow up with later. Then, when you get
home, use that list. Make cold calls using the conference as your
connection. If you didn’t meet them, your opening line when
you call or e-mail could be, “We both attended the AMA
meeting last night but we didn’t have a chance to meet, so I
thought I’d call and see what I can find out a bit about what
you do.” That connection usually makes them open to listening
or reading further. (There is usually a caveat not to use the list for
“mass marketing,” but you can use it to make
contact with people.)
- Resource lists published in trade
publications. Many trade publications offer (usually around
year-end) annual lists of the top players in a particular industry,
complete with contact information and details about the products and
services offered by the company. This is not only a great source of
prospects, but also a good overview of an industry that you may be
considering getting into.
Be wary of someone selling “prospect
lists” because although these lists may sound good and are
often very inexpensive, the people on the list may be
someone’s prospects, but they usually are not yours.
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