27 Ways to Dig Up New Business

Includes 2 FREE Bonus Marketing Campaign Strategies!

By James McNamara Founder of The Impact Factory 1300 790 150 | impactfactory.com.au

James McNamara, 2011. All rights reserved.

About James McNamara

James started in sales at the age of nineteen selling university exchange programs during his undergraduate years. From there he has worked as a telemarketer, sales representative, business owner and state manager. For the past decade he has spent his time as a leadership trainer and business growth adviser. By combining many years of practical experience with his formal and informal studies James provides a refreshing feet-on-the-street approach to gaining sales and building businesses. James understands that the key challenge in sales, customer service and team leadership is knowing how to get others to willingly follow your lead. Those who can lead, influence, teach and inspire others will create fantastic lasting results. It pays to never forget that you are in the people business.

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Introduction
Maybe youve heard the story of the miner in the famous Aussie gold rush who tied his horse up to a large bolder (about the size of the filing cabinet). While he was toiling away prospecting for gold, his horse kicked the rock and reviled that the plain looking bolder was in fact solid gold. This just goes to show that there can be gold right under our noses! This booklet is packed with simple tactics for digging up new prospects for your business. To ensure a constant flow of new sales to your business, prospecting must be part of your weekly activity. One of the greatest challenges facing small businesses is cash flow (and not enough of it!). Securing a constant flow of new sales will ensure that your business has the ready cash you need to grow your business and build your dream. There are 27 practical strategies for identifying new prospects for your business outlined in this booklet. While you may find that some of these dont suite your individual business, youll also find plenty that do. The key is to be proactive in your pursuit of new business. Ive also included a special bonus at the end this book. Starting on page 10, there are exact copies of two successful lead generation strategies. You can freely take these and adapt them to your business. To your positive success!
James McNamara

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Here Are 27 Ways to Dig Up New Business

1. Linked In Join Linked in (and other social media for that matter). Linked in is a business only social networking site. Go to www.linkedin.com.

2. Jigsaw The worlds largest data base of complete and up-to-date contact information. Information is downloadable and you either pay for or trade prospect information. Go to www.jigsaw.com.

3. National Library of Australia You can access the famous Dunn & Brad Street Australian Business Whos Who database (now called Company 360) for FREE! You will firstly need to order your free library card from www.nla.org.au. Once you have that card and your unique ID, you can gain free access to the online databases at the National Library, including Company 360.

4. Qld State Government Executive Directory For an extensive list of contact details for every Qld Government department, go to www.qgd.qld.gov.au , then click on Departments.

5. Qld State Government eTenders email list To be put on the email notification list for Qld Government tenders, go to www.qgm.qld.gov.au and click on eTendering website for government suppliers

6. Before, After & Parallel Typically people will buy a number of products/services in order to solve their problem/achieve their goals. Think about a renovation project for example. Start by

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identifying all of the potential suppliers your customer could be dealing with before, after or at the same time as they are dealing with you. These other suppliers serve the same target audience as you but do not compete with you i.e. a potential referral match made in heaven. Form relationships and alliances with these specific suppliers for the purposes of cross promotion and lead sharing.

7. Tradeshows You dont have to be an exhibiter at a trade show to pick up leads from a trade show. Go as a delegate/attendee and look for opportunities with the exhibiters. It could be $30 well spent (after all youll have a captive audience)

8. Industry Magazines Look for who is active and undergoing change or growth. You can glean this information from the ads and stories in the magazine. Often there is an advertisers/contributors list at the back of these magazines which can be a useful source of contacts.

9. Google Alerts Set up a Google alert for key words related to your industry. You may needs to put a geographic key word such as Brisbane or Australia in your search term to avoid getting alerted to opportunities in Albania!

10. Your Customers Competitors There is every chance that your customers competitors have similar needs to your customers. You have a proven experience in their industry which should interest them.

11. Testimonial Pages on Websites These often give the contact names of senior decision makers. All you need to do is call the companys general number and ask for the decision maker by name.

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12. Collect Brochures and Flyers This is a good way to make contact with companies who are proactively trying to market and grow their business.

13. Courier Mail (and other newspapers) Besides reading the paper itself, there are a range of information RSS feed categories that will send information directly to your email from the Courier Mail website. Other major papers have the same facility.

14. Quest City News This paper has a New Appointments section. This is a good way of finding out when decision makers have changed in companies. You can plan your prospecting calls accordingly.

15. Seek.com.au If you were selling to Marketing Managers for example, you could set up a notification on Seek.com.au for every new Marketing Managers position that is advertised in a certain area. Some of these will be handled by recruitment agencies and it will be impossible to get details, but for those who are employing internally you will be able to make contact with the manager when they are just new in the role and looking for what they will change/improve.

16. Whos Moving & Whos Under Construction Cordlell Report is an online database of future, current and past construction projects in Australia, including details of companies and contacts involved.

17. Vacant Buildings / New Developments

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Find the leasing agent and offer a welcome pack to all new tenants. You can also get results by slipping your card under the door when it is picked up by the new tenant on moving in day. Sales people of office equipment, phone systems and photocopiers often report generating leads this way.

18. The 3 x 3 x 3 Drop If you are seeing a client, why not drop a card or flyer into the businesses 3 doors to the left, 3 doors to the right and the 3 doors opposite? This only takes a few minutes to do and consistent application can yield decent results.

19. Industry Association Websites Members can be listed on these websites. Its also a good idea to check out any associate memberships to look at the movements of your competition as well as any other advertisers on the site.

20. Fax Outs This crosses the line into direct response marketing. It may be worth testing a 1 page business-to-business fax out. There are companies that can supply the fax database and fax service for less that 20 cents per page for a minimum run of 1000 faxes. Dont expect huge response rates from faxes. However with a very low delivery cost, low response rates can still make fax campaigns very profitable.

21. Queensland Business Reviews Book of Lists This is worth its weight in gold if you are prepared to pick up the phone and call! You can easily locate and contact the top 25 players in most industries in Queensland using this information. The same company also publishes the Business Queensland Top 400. This is a listing of the top 400 privately owned companies in Queensland. Go to www.qbr.com.au to find out more about their books of lists.

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22. Networking Go to networking events and show an interest in others, they will soon show an interest in you. Find out from people who their ideal client or referral partner is Where you can, introduce people you meet at these networking functions to people in your own circle. This is a way of giving to receive... what goes around comes around

23. Profile Your Existing Customers There is more to your customer profile then their demographics. Look for all of the reasons why your customers buy from you. Then see if you can find other potential prospects who have a similar profile.

24. Be Proactive About Seeking Out Referrals The one thing that can be frustrating about referrals is that there is never enough of them. To get more referrals you have to ask for them consistently. In addition it is also a great idea to incentivise the giving of referrals. See the sample referral request letter later in this booklet

25. Make it Known Simply let people know about the type of prospect that you are after. Ask them if they know anybody that they could introduce you to. Ask lots of people, dont be shy.

26. Commercial Real Estate Agents and Business Brokers These can be a great source of information on new businesses coming to an area or relocating (with change comes opportunity). The beauty of information from these sources is that it comes very early in the piece, enabling you to be one of the first ones in. Be warned though it may take lots of courting to secure an ongoing relationship with players in this industry.

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27. Write a Special Report Pick a topic that is near and dear to your prospects heart. Give the report away! By publishing a document of this type you will raise your credibility and put yourself in a much different light in the mind of your prospect. Here are a couple of examples of such reports; 14 Secrets That The Telcos Dont Want You to Know The 7 Most Important Things You Need to Know Before You Buy Your Next Investment Property A special report can give you much more credibility than a glossy brochure and its far cheaper to produce. You could also work with your Printer and Designer to make your special report look world class too if you want to spend a bit more money.

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2 Special Bonuses
Bonus 1: Sample Proactive Referral Letter
Hello Name, Id like to first of all take this opportunity to thank you for your years of investment in our working relationship. Its been a pleasure doing business with a professional company such as yours. Our Company isnt one that deals with hundreds of clients at any one time and so we carefully select quality companies to partner with for mutual benefit. At present our company has the capacity for 5 more top quality clients, which is where you could possibly assist. In a recent team meeting, we realised that birds of a feather flock together and that the best type of enquiry comes from a referral. With this in mind we discussed the principle that one good turn deserves another and from this we have developed a simple reward program for those who refer clients to us (rewards are outlined over the page). The type of client that suits Our Company best is one that is open minded to new markets, quality service and one that is looking for first class (insert your product / service description here). A simple introduction from your own company with a mention of our name is all that is needed. From there you could either suggest they call me to explore a relationship, or pass their number onto me and Ill gladly follow them up promptly. When you refer people to Our Company who become a client you can select one of the gifts on the following page as a token of our appreciation. I hope that you can see your way clear to recommend us to a handful of your contacts. Over the next couple of days Ill give you a call and see what you think of our new Proactive Referral System. Kind Regards
Your Name
(NB: Insert your company name in this letter in place of Our Company)

7 Sensational Gifts For You to Enjoy

When any one of your referrals to Our Company becomes a paying client you will be given a choice of one of these 7 sensational gifts thats our way of saying a BIG THANKYOU!

[From here simply choose 7 great quality gifts to the value that you are prepared to give away for a converted lead and list them out in a table below. Some ideas for good gifts are; bridge climb, 12 months magazine subscription of their choice, vouchers to Myre, Tiketek, Borders, Day Spa, and on and on the list goes.]

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Bonus 2: Sample of 1 Page Fax Out

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