Here goes guys...

A few weeks ago I attended a CIO summit and was lucky enough to convince the organizer to give me a copy of the database. It has about 571 people, ok?

CIOs, Presidents, VPs, and Directors were the only people there and are mostly the only people listed in the DB. I met quite a few directly and took their cards, the others I have on the DB>

I have been thinking about what I can do with this database. It has everything....Work address, work number, home number, home address, cell number, email address , birthday, etc...

Do you think people appreciate cold calls? Can I just call these people up? Should I send an email or a mass mailing?

Any ideas on how I can try to take advantage of this database?

Thank you in advance!

EGMAA,

Every business owner has to cold call to some extent whether it be following up on their own mailings to contacting targeted businesses etc. My recommendation is to send a letter and then follow up with a phone call. If you email those prospects, that can be considered spam and that is the last thing that you want to do! :-)

Also, be careful with the database, some tradeshows do not release attendee information for privacy reasons and your prospect may be wondering where you got their name. I would double check with the event sponsor about that...you just never know!

Good luck and happy prospecting!

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

From everything I've read, cold calling is (or should be) a thing of the past. At least as an initial contact method.

Have you figured out yet what your target market is?

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Amanda Moore
Virtual Assistant
VagabondetteVA Blog

Thank you both for your feedback. I may very well send the letter as suggested and maybe follow up with a phone call..Thanks....

571 people is a lot of letters. But sounds like there may be some ideal clients in there? Are they in the same area? (Are the first 3 #'s of the postal zip the same?) If so you should consider doing a bulk mail. Right now rates are about 27 cents a piece for bulk letters and oversized postcards.

PS I utilize oversized postcards a lot in some of my different marketing ventures. I can create them and upload them to vistaprint to be printed then drop them off at the post office to be bulked mail and it's under $130 for 250 printed and mailed. I actually believe it's less than that but don't have the exact #'s in front of me.

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-Amanda
www.virtualsolutionsmadesimple.com

Originally Posted by VagabondetteVA

From everything I've read, cold calling is (or should be) a thing of the past. At least as an initial contact method. Have you figured out yet what your target market is?

I agree. I don't like cold calling at all. When I mailed my post cards, I did follow up with a phone call. With the Do Not Call List in place, I was actually scared to cold call because I didn't want any trouble.

Hello there, I do cold calls. I cold call for clients and for myself. Let me offer this as a suggestion, take your database and use it to your advantage. Develope a system where by you take for an example 5 names per week. Your first 5 you would send an introduction letter on week #1. On week #2 you would make a follow-up phone call to confirm receipt of your information and make a formal introduction. You also want to send out 5 more letters in the 2nd week. Note the results of your phone call from the week #1 letters.Catagorize the response, i.e. warm conversation, left msg, did not seem interested etc. On week # 3 you make follow up calls from the previous weeks letters and note the response. Send out 5 more letter as well.

The goal is to take 20 leads per month and work them. If at the end of that month you have those that were not interested or you got bad reception, then you take them off your list for now and start fresh the next month with another 20 leads.

Just a thought.

Cynthia Clark

Cynthia,

I've done that but I didn't consider it cold calling. So, if you put it that way, I guess I do cold calling.

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Bobbi Dust
http://virtualbizconcepts.com

It takes at least 3 contacts for your name to recognizable to people (or so I've heard). I would do a postcard campaign. Might be cheaper than a letter and may get their attention faster.

As I'm seeing that other avenues of marketing are working for me, I'm definently shying away from cold calling and direct mailing.

I also know how irriated I am when someone cold calls me.

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

I've heard that as well Tamika. When I first started marketing, I did a post card campaign and the postage was much cheaper than mailing letters.

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Bobbi Dust
http://virtualbizconcepts.com