For all you salesman out there (which is just about anyone who tries to influence others), here are three of the most consistent prospecting methods:

1. Asking for referrals. Remember to always ask clients, colleagues, even prospects if they know anyone who could benefit from your services.
2. Executive Networking. Let your work speak for itself. Get your client CEO’s to call or email others in their industry on your behalf. Executive-to-executive sales will always outperform seller-to-executive sales.
3. Cold Calling. Yup. That’s right. Contrary to popular belief, the reason this method keeps re-occurring in sales is that it works. No other method can increase your prospecting efforts like cold calling can. (I have personally closed many profitable clients this way.)

There are lots of other ways to build your pipelines, but hopefully this will prioritize them and remind you of what works.

[Source: Power Prospecting by Patrick Hansen]