Guide to Generating More Customers

Good old-fashioned shoe leather

More than a few businesses start off literally as walking-about-weekends, selling at fairs and shows or from a rented cart. You can get your name and product in front of thousands of faces by registering as a vendor at big community events. Set up a booth and chat up prospects! Chiropractors do this religiously; you can, too.

I recommend: Festivals.com and Festivalnet are exhaustive geographic guides to events large and small across the United States. AOL CityGuide also lists events, including state fairs.

Remember that people simply prefer to buy from a friend

Join the local chamber of commerce and volunteer to speak publicly to groups that match your target market: Sell investments? Then hit the retirement communities, or instance; herbal supplements, present at a small bookstore. Never miss a cocktail, luncheon or charity event in your town and you can bet people will come to you for your product or service. Every wonder why Avon works so well?

I recommend: Toastmasters International is the granddaddy of public speaking organizations; famous members range from actor Tim Allen to brewer Peter Coors. Dale Carnegie, of course, has built an empire out of this idea.

Get referrals to do the work for you

It seems corny, but tell your best clients you need their help. It simply might not have occurred to them to refer you, and certainly they will — especially if you do the favor back.

I recommend: Business Network International has made a formal system out of referrals, but you can get much the same effect from joining three or four local groups in which you already have a motivating interest and to which your clients belong: your child's school PTA, the Rotary Club or similar, a tennis or golf club, and the United Way, for instance.

Market like you mean it

The Web is full of databases that promise to solve your lead-generation problems by pinpointing who and where your customers are, whether in corporate hives or down the street. You can't reach out to people you can't find.

I recommend: Selectory, part of Dun & Bradstreet, and Hoovers offer ways into the maze of corporate contacts. MelissaData can give you detailed information about homeowners near your small business. No money to spend? Hit the U.S. Census Bureau's new American Community Survey.

Reconsider your product line

One reason small businesses stagnate is that they become too good at what they do: They quickly sell to every potential customer they can reasonably reach. Small business history, too, is full of stories of secondary products that soon, and often accidentally, eclipse the original business plan: Home shopping famously began when a radio station manager offered can openers on air to pay outstanding bills at the station.

I recommend: The Product Development Institute, a consultancy, has a lot of background on the how-to of getting new products off the napkin and onto the shelf. Sequent Learning and Lean Advisors focus strictly on product management. Check with your local business school; you never know what kind of marketing guru is teaching just down the road.