[Jeremy Chin]

Hi Everyone:

Thank you for reponding to this thread.

My partners are former employees of IT Service company Accenture. We have recently started a new business and are in the process of business development. We are marketing ourselves to small and medium size businesses as experts in the industry with low cost benefits.

Questions:

1. What business development strategies have you found to successfully generate new leads and sufficient work flow?

2. Are there any freelance websites you would recommend?

Thank you for your responses

Sincerely

Jeremy

[Day2]

I ran a custom high web app development company for about 10 years... Never had any luck with any marketing strategy other than networking and direct sales (the dreaded cold/warm call). Network through friends, family, clients, other professionals with big client bases (lawyers, accountants), etc. If you don't have a big network, start developing one. Join lots of organizations and go to all the meetings.

Google adwords got us a few clicks (regional/city searches). Having our link on the bottom of all of the apps we created also definately got us some business.

Professional services are usually trust-centric businesses... Hard to establish trust in an advertisement.

[akula]

Originally Posted by Day2

Hard to establish trust in an advertisement.

it sure is

[Outta Hand]

Originally Posted by Day2

I ran a custom high web app development company for about 10 years... Never had any luck with any marketing strategy other than networking and direct sales (the dreaded cold/warm call). Network through friends, family, clients, other professionals with big client bases (lawyers, accountants), etc. If you don't have a big network, start developing one. Join lots of organizations and go to all the meetings.

Google adwords got us a few clicks (regional/city searches). Having our link on the bottom of all of the apps we created also definately got us some business.

Professional services are usually trust-centric businesses... Hard to establish trust in an advertisement.

I think most businesses now are turning more and more "trust-centric" but there are a few good ways to build trust over time....

1. Use the BBB(Better Business Bureau) affiliate program
2. Use D&B - www.dnb.com
3. Use Trust Seals from Security Certificates
4. Customer Testimonials

Anyone else think of any?

[thinkcomp]

Jeremy,

I have to agree with the other posts--unfortunately, networking seems to be key (something I'm not particularly good at, either). There are a lot of middle-man-type sites that want to charge thousands of dollars for leads, but I've found that really the best leads come from people who trust you, and inevitably people trust someone whose face they know.

Best of luck,

Aaron