1. Cold call - it really works
One day I was at my desk reading the local paper’s business section, and I noticed mention of a fellow at a major chip manufacturer who had recently been promoted into some sort of marketing position. I called and introduced myself and asked if I could meet with him sometime. He had never heard of our firm, but agreed to the visit, so I drove out the following week armed with my laptop and some printed project summary sheets of work we had recently completed. I discussed our firm and its capabilities for about 30 minutes and left. On my way out to the car I estimated the chances of ever hearing from this guy again at about 1 in 10.

Two days later he called and asked if we could do a couple Flash projects. I said yes, although we had only done one Flash project prior to this. He then told me he had $50,000 to spend before the end of the week (it was the end of their fiscal quarter), so could we invoice him for that amount right away?

2. Cold email works, too
I read voraciously, and one side benefit is discovering new contacts. I often will email an author of an article complimenting them on their work. This usually opens the door for further dialogue, during which you can introduce your services or products.

I did just that with Purina. Their director of interactive media had published an article about what they were doing; I wrote to him and mentioned that in light of their efforts he might be interested in the online communication work our multimedia development company was doing in Flash. He was intrigued, and sent one of their team members for a visit. This opened the door to propose work for Purina, which never would have happened if I had not made that initial contact.

3. Get your name in print
It never hurts to get your name and, more importantly, your company’s name, in print. I wrote an article about the characteristics of good multimedia software which was published in two nationally-distributed education technology magazines. I was very careful not to mention our company name in the article, but the byline clearly did, and we received numerous inquiries (which were very viable business contacts) from the article’s publication. It was no coincidence, however, that our software embodied the traits I discussed in the article. This exposure led to invitations to speak at and exhibit in several conferences we had not even considered previously. One such conference was a higher education gathering, a market we had not really focused on, but one which did eventually generate income and one we might have ignored were it not for the invitation.

Unless you write something contentious or highly charged emotionally, this type of free exposure almost always pays off.

4. Always be loyal to your company
If you can justify not being loyal to the company you work for, then you should not be working there.

A perfect example of this occurred while I was working for Compaq. At the time, I had a boss I thought was too aggressive in his supervision. Rather than tell him face to face like an adult, I sent an email to a friend I had at Dell to see if they had any openings in their education division. Silly me, I used the Compaq corporate email to do so. If you ever think no one is reading your company emails, think again. I was called on it the very next day; all I could do was apologize and promise it would not happen again. The bond of trust was broken forever between me, Compaq, and my boss, from one carelessly sent email. Moreover, I am certain that Dell thought twice about telling me if they had an opening because of the foolish way I had contacted them.

If you have a problem with someone, talk to them about it first, in person, and directly confront the issue.

5. Be yourself
Good salespeople act naturally and say things from their own hearts and minds – not from scripted nonsense put together by a marketing communications team. Customers can tell if you know your own business, and if you speak from memorized scripts or use phony “sales speak”, they will pick up on it immediately.

When I worked for Compaq my manager thought I needed some help with my sales calls, so he began to tag along with me on customer visits. I will never forget a “debriefing” that the two of us had following a customer visit. His biggest critique was that I had worn a short-sleeved shirt with my tie and jacket (it was summertime and very warm that day, by the way). On the other hand, my customer later asked me, “Why did that guy come with you? Who is he? What did he want?” The whole sales call was unnatural because I felt like I was under a microscope. The manager did not add anything valuable to the visit and discussion, and the client was confused about why this stranger had suddenly shown up.

In short: be yourself, know your product, don’t read from scripts, and don’t endure “on location” help from managers who think they know better than you how to communicate with your customers. And feel free to wear that short-sleeved shirt – especially if it is hot and sunny outside!