Ever since Anu Shukla launched RubiconSoft Inc. three years ago, she and her team have been so busy building the business that there’s been precious little time to hunt for new clients. The online marketing service didn’t even have a full-time sales executive until early this year.Yet the company has managed to land a dozen or so big-name clients, including Tower Records and Ritz Interactive Inc., which manages a host of retail Web sites.
Ms. Shukla’s secret? Software tools and online services that help her generate sales leads without the usual legwork and the often-inefficient cold calling. For instance, she used an online social-networking service to get a foot in the door at Tower and Ritz. The service, from LinkedIn Corp. of Palo Alto, Calif., allowed her to search through lists of her contacts’ contacts for potential leads. When she found names at Tower and Ritz, mutual acquaintances gave her an introduction.
For Ms. Shukla, services like LinkedIn, as well as Jigsaw, Spoke and iProfile, are much more effective than simply cold calling. “You know who you’re calling and who they report to, to make the call more fruitful,” she says.
Photo by Chris Campbell.
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