by Ilise Benun

It may seem obvious, but when you introduce yourself to a new market, the most important tool at your disposal is a list of your prospects. Without that list, there’s very little you can do.

With that list, there is much you can do. You can make cold calls. You can send personalized e-mail messages. You can do a mailing of your brochure or promotional package. Or, you can do all of the above. In other words, you can use that list for a marketing campaign.

Where do these lists come from?

There are many resources for a list of prospects, especially if you don’t need thousands of them. But the most effective list for most independent professionals is one you create yourself, based on the criteria you’ve chosen, such as the industry focus, size of the company, revenue or the number of employees. Although it requires a bit more work on your part, compiling and collecting names for your own list will make for a much more effective and profitable list.

You probably have access to lists that you may not be aware of, so look first to your own resources, which may include:

• Industry and trade group directories. Almost every trade group publishes a directory, either online or printed. As a member of a group, one of the benefits you get is access to (and inclusion in) the member directory. (Some groups make their directories available for a fee, so you don’t even have to join.) You may not realize it, but this is one of the most valuable resources and best reasons to join a group. Directories are invaluable because they pre-qualify your prospects and give you the name of someone to start with, which saves your valuable time. Calling a company and trying to find the person who hires or buys the services you’re offering is very time-consuming.
  
  
• Attendee lists to industry events. Often, a list of attendees will be published and distributed to attendees of an industry event or conference—it’s one of the perks of attending. This is another invaluable resource that you should do more than just glance at to see who’s in attendance. Make this list your bible. At the event, use it to find the people you want to talk to. Get familiar with the names. Mark it up. Write notes to yourself about who you met, as well as who you didn’t meet but can follow up with later. Then, when you get home, use that list. Make cold calls using the conference as your connection. If you didn’t meet them, your opening line when you call or e-mail could be, “We both attended the AMA meeting last night but we didn’t have a chance to meet, so I thought I’d call and see what I can find out a bit about what you do.” That connection usually makes them open to listening or reading further. (There is usually a caveat not to use the list for “mass marketing,” but you can use it to make contact with people.)
  
  
• Resource lists published in trade publications. Many trade publications offer (usually around year-end) annual lists of the top players in a particular industry, complete with contact information and details about the products and services offered by the company. This is not only a great source of prospects, but also a good overview of an industry that you may be considering getting into.
  

Be wary of someone selling “prospect lists” because although these lists may sound good and are often very inexpensive, the people on the list may be someone’s prospects, but they usually are not yours.

Ilise Benun is co-founder of Marketing Mentor, a presenting sponsor of the Creative Freelancer Conference.