Cold Calling Tip - List, List, List
As we say at B2B, “A list is to outbound calling what location is to real
estate.” Even the best outbound caller in the world will be
unproductive if the prospect list is of poor quality.
So, how do you create a good list? First, you need to determine your target
market. This sounds simple, but many companies, even large ones, aren’t
always good at identifying their entire target market. Depending upon who
you are trying to reach, here are a few basic things you need to identify:
- Type of industry (standard industry codes)
- Type of organization (private or public)
- Titles of decision makers
- Annual revenues
- Number of employees
If you don’t already know these parameters you can take your top 10 customers,
or the top 10 companies you would like to have as customers, and profile them to
obtain this information. This is readily available from Hoovers and D&B.
Once you have identified your target market, you can begin the process of licensing
your list. There are tons of list providers. You can license lists from
Hoovers, Info USA, D&B, trade organizations and associations, as well as independent
list brokers. A quick Internet search will reveal a plethora of possibilities.
When licensing your list, make sure and read the small print on the Licensing Agreement
for use limitations.
When beginning a telephone prospecting effort, I always recommend that clients begin
with their own prospect list. These lists are typically compiled from contacts
uncovered from trade show events, webinars, and web site inquiries. Any that
have not been contacted in the last 90 days are ready for a call.
If you need a good quality list we can help. B2B is a third party list broker.
We can help you research, select and license a list of your target market.
So, before you dial, dial, dial, remember it’s all about the list, list, list.
Call us toll-free at 888.424.9224 or email us at
info@biz2bizmarketing.com for more information about our Cold Calling with Class™ techniques
and seminars.
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