Getting Customers...

What's the best way to get new customers? Sales executives said referrals are hot and gave the cold shoulder to cold calls in a study by NYU's Management Institute and The Nierenberg Group. Ranking choices on a scale of 1 to 5, here are the averages from best to worst: references (4.8), one-to-one marketing (4.5), direct mail (3.8), tradeshows (3.2), and cold calls (1.5).

I think the survey left out some obvious choices like advertising and PR leads. (My guess is they rank far ahead of cold calls.) And I wish I knew what one-to-one marketing meant to them. It's a pretty broad term.

What I find interesting, though, is that referrals are number one with a bullet. That parallels any research I've ever seen. When did you last ask a customer for a referral? Find it hard to do face-to-face? Try a personal note. Send along a nice gift -- like an ad premium, thank them for their business, and ask them to pass your enclosed card on to anyone they know who you might be able to help.

- Phil Sasso