The Edge Marketing

A consultant new in the city asked me how I managed to get business so fast. Working for that marketing company definitely gave me a jump start. That's because I already knew about press releases. Only in business a few months and I already had been in two of the local papers. However, it was my male mentors who introduced me to telemarketing.

At the suggestion of calling strangers on the phone was enough to terrify me. There was no way I could just dial up people and sell myself like a product. I was sure people would hang up. I insisted that I could not do it. Tim termed it "telephonitis." Yes, that was it; I was scared of the telephone to use it in that way. I was given this advice. Don't sell yourself, sell your company. Look at the company as a separate entity. Pretend you are telling people about your company.

Okay, I agreed to give it a try. I failed miserably. I stuttered, forgot what I was going to say and hung up on many people. Thank goodness, the phones back then didn't have that return call back button. But I did realize that this is a great way to do marketing so I had to come up with a plan to jump this big boulder on my journey's path.

I remembered back a few short weeks ago, when I answered the phone and was told by a female voice she was a college student, and was doing a survey. I did not feel she was being intrusive and answered her questions. At the end of the survey, she was very friendly and thanked me for my time. Therefore based with that memory, I decided to try a new approach to my telephonitis.

My first call was made to an accounting firm. I advised the voice on the line that I was a student doing research and did she have time to answer a few questions. The voice returned a polite yes. I had prepared a list of ten questions about her job title, did she work with a computer, the programs she worked on, etc. When finished, I thanked her for her time and hung up. You see with funds being limited, I needed to send flyers only to those who had computers. What I now possessed was a target market, As I got bolder with my surveys, I discovered that people were friendly and I could interject other stuff.

Many times, they were frustrated with their computer or their computer consultant. Bingo, I then would tell them all about this person I heard that had a great reputation. I would go on and on about how this consultant has many clients and they all just love her. Of course I was telling them about myself. It worked like a charm for me. Therefore I started my own rumors, and created my own tactic in the game.

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Gina Novelle (copyright 12-2004)

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