The Good News about Effective Cold Calling – You don’t have to do it!

If you are a small business owner, I know some of you are very excited to hear that news. But some of you who may have heard the name Bernadette Doyle in the marketplace may have in the past, associated it with effective cold calling training. So how can I now claim that you don’t need to do it?

I’m not anti-cold calling at all. If I felt it was the best way to promote my business I would do it in a heart beat. In fact when I started my business I was doing effective cold calling training. There is a place for it with large businesses selling their products and services because they have the resources to make it work effectively.

But what I found is that as a small business owner there are downsides to cold calling. More importantly there are more effective ways to attract corporate customers.

You can set up an internet online marketing advertising business and you may even be an expert in providing creative marketing solutions. But if you are the person cold calling your prospects to tell them that, it doesn’t really align with the positioning of you being an expert in the industry. They’ll never say it, but what they’re thinking is: “If you’re such an expert, why haven’t I heard of you?” An expert is someone you hear about from a colleague of friend. You read about them in the local newspaper. You hear about their talks and seminars and you can read up about them online. If you want to market yourself more effectively, you need to position yourself at an expert.

Cold calling unfortunately is never going to be as effective or deliver the same results. There is a big difference between cold calling clients or have them call you. Attracting corporate customers is all about expert positioning.  As a small business owner you have limited resources but your expert positioning is possibly your biggest asset. Your knowledge and expertise is at the heart of your business to business selling success. And your expertise is much more believable if other people are talking about it rather than you selling yourself in a cold call.

So how do you let corporate customers know about your expertise if not by cold calling?

There are a few methods I’ve used that I have found to be very effective. It’s part of my one-to-many marketing strategy.  Here are three examples of strategies that have worked for me:

• Take out classified adverts for specific target markets. Not big glossy adverts. I am not trying to sell in the classified adverts, I am just trying to get customers to raise their hands and say “Yes I am interested in that”

• I have used direct mail advertising very effectively. Even though it requires some investment, I know it gets my name out there and it gets customers calling me.

• I also use articles which I get printed in targeted trade publications. This gets my voice out to my target market and helps my positioning as an expert.

Using these methods is far more effective because you are getting corporate customers to step towards you. The best part is that this is possible with small business resources and you can target anyone, even large corporate customers.

You are not chasing after them. Instead you are getting them to call you. Every incoming call is a potential customer who is already presold. What a great sales opportunity!

Now, I’m going to make it real easy for you.   If you want to say “Bye-bye” to cold-calling – then I’m inviting you to listen in to this amazing FREE Success Series (FREE for limited time only) =>  10 big B2B Selling Experts are sharing their secrets with you.   Register here:   www.sellingtocorporatessummit.com