David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR says that there used to be three ways to generate business: Buy, Bug, and Beg (aka The Three B’s)

Buying Advertising
Bugging  Sales Prospects
Begging the media for coverage

The Three B’s no longer work so well. Buyers are tuning out advertising messages. Sales prospects are increasingly [...]

“I like variety”
“I want to work on all kinds of projects.”
“I’ll do whatever a client asks”
“I don’t want to miss any opportunities”
“I don’t want to limit my options”
These statements argue for the broadest possible positioning: Being many things to many people. After all, in tough times, you want to appeal to everybody. Right?
Wrong. Without a [...]

You’re going crazy trying to reach Ms. Prospect. You’ve called her four times but she hasn’t picked up the phone.
You’ve left three detailed voicemail messages describing your services. She hasn’t called you back.
You sent her an email with your slide presentation.  You even sent a Fed-Ex letter with your brochure.  No response.
Ms. Prospect hasn’t called [...]

Your first meeting with Ms. Prospect just ended. You realize that she has lots of problems and buckets of money.  This could be a whole year’s worth of work. What a bonanza! Time to propose a six figure mega project.
Not so fast.
There is one little problem: she doesn’t know you.  She’s not going to risk [...]