Cold calling strikes fear in the hearts of small business owners, new and old alike.  But even if you’ve found other ways to generate sales, mastering the art of cold calling can help your business to succeed.  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 a positive response as people everywhere are busy, but more often than not 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.  Most people limit their exposure to these possible alliances to those people they meet at meet up groups and other networking events, and possible referrals that come through those events.  

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.  While stalking them out is an option, a more direct approach may be to give them a call on the phone.  It would be easy to feel them out with a few research questions, and if their responses are positive you could suggest a meeting to talk over how you could help each other out more. 

Those business people willing to try new techniques for forming strategic alliances and learning as much as possible about their industry will thrive, even in today’s economy.  One cost effective way to achieve those objectives is to reach out through cold calling.  

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