We have worked with address-lists provided by a company called
Fastinfo, an online sales tool that present to your company all startups that have been registered in the Domestic Database in Norway. The great thing is that this sales tool with highly relevant contact details to potential customers is for free.
There are most likely equivalent directories over all established companies or startups in your country as well. If you do not find such tools search for partners that you know will be contacted by a newly established company, e.g. telecommunication companies or office relocation firms. Perhaps you could team up and split direct mail marketing costs between eachother. Another effective marketing channel is sites or companies for used office furnitures. These companies are in daily contact with companies that change office location or startups that are focused on keeping their costs to a minimum - these are the perfect customers for Optimalprint at least.
The power of Fastinfo's list is that it provides your company with addresses, telephone numbers, name of CEO/Founder, Industry Segment and Shareholder capital. Address and name of CEO is obviously a pre-condition for contacting the potential customers. Industry segment for the startup company is also very valuable information since industry segment helps you to screen companies depending on your product or service relevance to each individual industry. Proper evaluation will increase your hit rate and return on investment (time & energy).
Shareholder capital is interesting. We have found a strong postive correlation between the size of equity and hit rate for our sales pitches, the more equite the higher hit rate. It is actually not that strange - if you invest a significant part of your financial assets in a new company, you will do what it takes in order to succedd because there is simply no alternative. So if you have a product or service that, in comparisment with your competitors, is of equal or better quality at significantly lower price - then this type of direct communication with founders/startups can become highly effective. Furthermore, large equity means larger order, at least that is our experience.
So when we have a list of startups - call them directly! Our experience tells us that this is the most effective way to close the deal. You will come in direct contact with the founder. In addition, sending e-mails directly to another person, will in many countries be regarded as spam, unless you have an agreement before hand with the recipient. The fact that you actually call the companies is the primary reason for a good professional scanning of the address-list, you want relevant calls with high percentage of closings.
Put all of the contacts in an mail-merge software. I will come back and recommend a tool that we use for this. A mail-merge software program is an excellent tool for FOLLOWING-UP on the calls you made a couple of weeks ago. You will be amazed by the amount of revenues you can generate by a short and relevant follow-up mail. In addition, mails with relevant links to your products and services will safe time and energy for your potential customers. Finally, a potential customer that you have called and then sent a follow-up mail to will seldom delete your mail (as long as you have been professional in your contact) but instead either order or save for later.
Good luck!
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