The Dollar Factory

You Can Find the Business Partnerships You Need Through Cold Calling

Cold calling strikes fear in the hearts of small business owners, new and old alike.  But cold calling can be very useful to your business success even if you don’t use it for direct sales.  Here are some ways to use cold calling you might not have thought of:

Market Research 

While most people think of cold calling only as those annoying telemarketers that interrupt you at home, cold calling tactics can be used to find out just about anything that you need to know to make your small business more successful. 

You can get the answer to any number of questions that might come up simply by calling local businesses that would know the answer.  You may not always get an answer, these folks are busy too, but many times you do.  And you can always make more calls or do some additional research on your own to fill in the blanks. 

Strategic Alliances

Now more than ever a successful business person will focus on strategic partnerships to grow their business.  Traditionally, business people have relied on networking functions such as meet-up groups to form such alliances.  

Maybe you have a particular person or business in mind that you would like to meet, but you haven’t had the opportunity to connect with them.  One option might be to hunt them down and ambush them, but it would be more effective (and professional) to just pick up the phone and give them a call.  The phone is a very non-intrusive way to feel them out through general market research questions, and if the connection is there suggest further meetings to talk over possible strategic partnership options. 

The small business people who will survive today are those that are willing to try new techniques that will give them unique insight into their field and will help them form the alliances that will help them to profit.  An effective, low cost technique for achieving those goals is learning how to reach out through cold calling.  

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Tags: cold calling, joint venture marketing, market research, Marketing, networking, small business, strategic alliance