The dictionary defines the verb “prospect,” as “to search or explore (a region), as for gold.” When you prospect for clients, you are exploring your region – whether you define that as your town or your market niche – to locate the gold that may be buried right under your nose. It’s a good bet that there are prospective clients all around you. You just need to identify them and get in touch.

Launching a prospecting campaign can produce several useful results beyond the obvious one that it may result in landing new clients. Prospecting will get you into action immediately. If you’re writing letters and making calls, you’re going to feel proactive and productive instead of disheartened and stuck. The information you discover and contacts you make will suggest many new possibilities for marketing your business. And in making these approaches, you’ll gain valuable experience in what works and what doesn’t to pitch your business.

Here are 25 ways to start building a prospect list and accelerate your marketing today.

In Your Office

1. Use advertising directories. Look up companies by category in the Yellow Pages and other directories, such as your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau.

2. Review membership directories. You can find both consumer and business prospects in the membership directory of any group you belong to. Don’t forget your alumni association.

3. License a compiled list. Services like AccuLeads or Zapdata can provide you with targeted lists for direct mail or telemarketing.

4. Explore “top company” lists. Publications like Forbes, Fortune, and your local Business Journal regularly publish lists of the top companies in many industries.

5. Read the press. Notice who is being quoted as an authority in your community or market niche. Compliment them on their ideas when you make contact.

6. Publish a print newsletter. Producing a complimentary newsletter gives you a persuasive reason to ask people for their contact information in any environment.

7. Launch a survey. Create a survey for your target market and offer to share the results with everyone who completes and returns it with their contact info.

8. Compose a white paper. Researching a white paper on best practices in your field will give you an excuse to seek out prospects, interview them, and ask them to refer you to others.

9. Write for periodicals. Write letters to the editor, guest editorials, or articles aimed at your niche. Include in your signature or bio slug a mention of your newsletter, survey, white paper, etc. to encourage readers to make contact.

10. Add everyone who contacts you. Don’t forget to add to your list people who call or write YOU. Even those who are selling their own wares can be valuable prospects.

On the Web

11. Use the search engines. Search for companies in your target market and geographical area, e.g. “Portland hospital” or “Atlanta restaurant.”

12. Explore online directories. Use Google Directory or Yahoo! Directory to find organizations listed by category.

13. Subscribe to business directories. Dun and Bradstreet, Hoover’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Thomas Register all offer online editions with some services complimentary and more for a fee.

14. Offer a free bonus. To entice people who visit your site to subscribe or register, offer an ebook, audio download, ecourse, or other exclusive content in return for their name and email.

15. Publish an ezine or blog. People who like what you have to say will forward it to others. Those people will come to your site or contact you to subscribe.

16. Publish articles online. Submit your articles to sites or ezines your prospects read. Your bio slug should offer readers a gift if they visit your site.

17. Post to message boards. Answer questions people ask on message boards aimed at your market niche. Include in your signature a mention of your complimentary bonus, ezine, or blog.

18. Ask for people to opt in. Provide a way for people to subscribe or register on every page of your website and suggest that they do so in the signature of every email you send.

Out in the World

19. Find lists at the library. Libraries subscribe to business and membership directories you can’t afford and librarians will help you find the kind of prospects you’re looking for.

20. Attend networking meetings. Focus on collecting business cards, not just handing them out. Pick up any flyers or brochures you see displayed; those people may be prospects, too.

21. Join a leads group. Meet regularly with a group of other business owners to share contacts, leads, and referrals. If you can’t find a group you like, start one.

22. Canvass on foot. Visit office buildings or industrial parks, and collect information about the tenants. Pick up literature you see displayed or ask the receptionist for it.

23. Sponsor a contest. Ask people to enter a drawing for some valuable prizes or a competition where you will acknowledge the winners and publicize the results.

24. Exchange lists with a colleague. Trade contacts with someone who shares your market but isn’t a competitor. Or jointly sponsor a campaign using each other’s lists to promote you both.

25. Offer rewards for referrals. Affiliate programs, referral fees, and discounts on future services can all be incentives for people to pass along leads.

Is making cold calls from a compiled list of prospects the best way to get clients? Usually, no. But you’ll notice that many of the ideas above incorporate relationship-building tactics into your prospecting. Prospecting will get you out of your own head and into the habit of talking to people, and that will naturally lead to getting to know them better. Every relationship has to start somewhere.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the June 2007 issue of AORCP Newz-Bytes, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

“How can I help?” is one common question. “What will this economic downturn mean for my business?” is another. I also hear people asking, “Is what I am doing really meaningful? After all, if I don’t know that I’ll be alive tomorrow, is this work where I truly want so many of my waking hours to be spent?”

It all adds up to a time of doubt, rethinking, even total confusion about where you are headed and what to do next. For me, what uncertain times require is the assurance that only comes from being firmly grounded in your personal values and a sense of purpose. What does that have to do with marketing your business, you might ask? I think it has everything to do with it.

If you want to sell someone else on something, you had better believe in it 100%. If you’re having doubts; if you’re no longer sure that the business you are in is the right one to be in, how can you possibly be sincere in your marketing?

We’ve all been sold to by an inauthentic salesperson — and hated the experience. As an independent consultant or professional, what you are selling is you. You have to believe in yourself or no one else will. When you find yourself in a place of questioning, perhaps it’s the time to better align what you do for a living with what you want to do for a life.

So many people have told me in recent years that they want to be of service in some way. I don’t think there is any more powerful way to be of service than to earn one’s living at it. Why? Because it’s where your vocation meets your avocation, your labor intersects with your values, and the purpose of your day joins with your purpose for being alive.

This is the concept of right livelihood, well known to Buddhist teachers and modern writers such as Marsha Sinetar, who describes it as work “consciously chosen.” She also assures us that it doesn’t have to mean vows of poverty.

Here’s what I know. My own work is consciously chosen to honor some of my highest values: being of service, creative expression, human connection, and independence. Until I found this work over fifteen years ago, I wandered from one career and business enterprise to the next, with minimal success at any of them. Marketing was always a struggle. I was afraid to do it and procrastinated to avoid it.

When everything turned around for me was the moment I declared I would start a business that honored my values. As soon as I did this, marketing became effortless, and more than that, overwhelmingly successful. I could speak authentically about my belief in what I was doing, and people I had never met suddenly believed in me.

Some of you reading this are working in a business you don’t believe in. My prescription for you is simple: get out, and find something else. You want a competitive edge in a tight marketplace? Finding and following your right livelihood will give it to you. (I’m speaking from experience — the U.S. was headed into a recession at the time I redirected my career path.)

For my other readers who believe you truly are on the path of right livelihood already, I gently invite you to look again. What action have you not taken, what territory haven’t you entered simply because of fear? Please notice that the fear is still there whether you take action or not. If you have to be afraid anyway, wouldn’t it be better to be moving in the right direction?

Copyright © 2001-2005, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the October 2001 issue of the Get Clients Now! E-Letter and updated in 2005. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

1. Know-Like-and-Trust Factor – When making a buying decision about professional services, the number one factor clients consider is how much they know, like, and trust you. It’s more important than how much you charge or even how much they need you. What clients are asking is: How much contact have they had with you? Did they recognize your name beforehand? Are you credible as a competent professional? Were you referred by someone they know?

You can influence this factor by focusing your marketing efforts on meeting clients through networking, referrals, and public speaking. If you haven’t had prior contact with prospective clients and weren’t referred, give them copies of any published work or media coverage you have, and provide them with client testimonials. Be prepared to stay in touch over a period of time so they can get to know you better.

2. Match between your offer and their needs – If you pass the first test of seeming credible and trustworthy, potential clients next look at how closely what you offer matches what they are looking for. Do they have a pressing need for your services? Do they understand exactly what it is that you provide? Do they grasp the benefits of working with you?

The best way to address this issue is to ask plenty of questions. The more you can find out about what the client needs, the better you can explain specifically how you can help. The biggest mistake professionals make when selling themselves is to offer themselves as a solution when they don’t yet know the problem. Be sure also to communicate the benefits of hiring you — not just what you do, but what the client gets as a result of what you do.

3. Justifying the purchase – An often neglected component of the buying decision is whether the client will be able to justify spending money on your services to their spouse, boss, board of directors, or even themselves. In business environments, this is critical. The purchaser must be able to support their decision to hire you with verifiable facts. When selling to consumers, keep in mind there may be a naysayer in the background who will need to be convinced of your value.

Give your prospects the evidence they need to justify your value to others. Provide statistics or examples of results achieved, money saved, or performance improved in your former projects. Share a case study, your client list, or a portfolio of your successes. Help them find the language they need to reassure everyone involved that hiring you is the most practical solution available to the problem at hand.

4. Price vs. budget – The last element prospective clients consider is the price. Yes, cost is important, but if they trust you, your offer is a good match for what they need, and they can justify hiring you, then the only significant issue about the price is whether they can find the money.

Suggest ways they can evaluate their investment in you, such as comparing it to the cost of doing nothing, measuring it against another more expensive solution, or weighing the drawbacks of doing it themselves. For corporate clients, help them look for unused funds in other budget categories or propose the project for the next budget cycle. With consumers and small businesses, how much they can afford depends on where else they are spending their money. If funds are tight, suggest other expenses that your services might replace or reduce, offer a payment plan, or accept credit cards.

The next time you’re wondering why a sale isn’t going through, check how you’re doing on each of these four factors. See if you can discover the missing ingredients that will convince the client to buy.

Copyright © 2003, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the December 2003 issue of the Get Clients Now! E-Letter, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.