Written by Jamie May
How to Find New Customers: Using Sales
Finding new customers is hard. It’s roughly twenty times harder than keeping an existing one, most people are terrible at it, and almost nobody enjoys it. But if you want to grow, you have to do it.
This is the first post in a series where we go deep on every meaningful way to prospect for new business. Not theory. Actual methods, how they work, and when to use them.
Here’s every channel worth knowing about.
Building Your List Prospecting is simply creating a list of potential customers and contacts. Everything else starts here. No list, no pipeline.
Phone Cold calling is ringing people who don’t know you. Warm calling is ringing someone you’ve had some contact with. Both work. Neither is dead. Hunting is a step further, very specifically targeting one individual or company and pursuing them deliberately.
In Person Canvassing is walking into local businesses and introducing yourself. The plus one is booking a second meeting near every meeting you already have. Meet the neighbours is dropping in on businesses around a client visit. Networking is showing up anywhere people gather and having real conversations.
Digital Social media, email campaigns, LinkedIn. Useful for staying visible and for second touch follow ups. Cold email alone rarely generates new business at small business volumes but it has its place.
Referrals and Reviews A recommendation from a past client is still the warmest lead you’ll ever get. Online reviews influence purchasing decisions before you’ve even had a conversation. Both deserve more attention than most businesses give them.
Events and Education Conferences, seminars, lunch and learns, drinks with prospects. Getting in a room with the right people, sharing expertise, and letting people see how you think is one of the most underrated ways to build a pipeline.
Partnerships and Introductions Complementary businesses sharing leads. A friend or contact making an introduction. Two people who should know each other being connected. These cost nothing and convert well.
Niche and Geography Being the recognised expert in an industry or a specific region is a long game but a powerful one. Be the IT company that only does law firms. Be the accountant everyone in your suburb calls. Owning a patch beats competing everywhere.
Other Methods Worth Knowing Add-ons, selling something small and expanding the relationship over time. Advocacy, teaching your client how to sell your solution internally to their own management. Philanthropy, raising your profile through community involvement. Gifts and entertainment, which have always been part of business development and always will be.
The Takeaway
Most small businesses rely on one or two of these channels and wonder why growth is inconsistent. The businesses that find customers reliably use several methods running simultaneously.
Over the coming weeks we’ll go deep on each of these. In the meantime, pick the two or three that feel most natural for your business and make sure you’re actually doing them, consistently, every week.
If you want help working out which channels suit your business best, that’s exactly what Outsold does.
