Cold calling strikes fear in the hearts of small business owners, new and old alike.  But cold calling can be very useful to your business success even if you don’t use it for direct sales.  Here are some ways to use cold calling you might not have thought of:

Market Research 

Cold calling has a negative reputation from those pesky telemarketers that call right at dinner time, but the truth is that you can use cold calling to get the questions you need to successfully grow your business answered. 

Just by picking up the phone and calling local businesses that should know the answers, you can resolve any number of problems that might come up.  True, these people are busy and you don’t always get a positive response, but you will be surprised at how often you do.  And by making more calls or independent research based on those answers, you can fill in the blanks and learn more than you can imagine. 

Strategic Alliances

Today, success in business is all about forming strategic alliances that benefit all parties.  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.  You can always resort to the stalking technique, but often much more effective is to pick up the phone and reach out.  The phone is a very non-intrusive way to feel them out through general market research questions, and if the connection is there suggest further meetings to talk over possible strategic partnership options. 

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.  Cold calling can be an effective strategy to achieving these goals.  

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