Got some interesting news from a friend of mine this week.

She reported that she'd “bitten the bullet” and made a bunch of cold calls to promote her services (or more accurately, to offer a free showcase of her services).

And although she hated every minute of the cold calling process, it worked.

She got a number of showcases set up.

Now cold calling isn't my thing, but I think this example demonstrates a couple of things.

Firstly the power of a strong offer.

Many people fail miserably with cold calling or other outbound marketing approaches simply because what they're offering (usually a sales meeting) just isn't that attractive to the vast majority of their potential clients.

An offer of a free showcase training session, a briefing meeting, strategy call or other session where you give something valuable to a potential client is much more attractive.

Of course, you have to be picky. There has to be a strong chance of that potential client becoming a paying client.

But if you're confident of that, then a good offer makes all the difference to get you in the door.

Secondly, it also shows that sometimes you have to suffer a bit of discomfort to get the results you want.

I'm all for “pain free marketing” as you know.

But let's not pretend that life is always a bed of roses. Sometimes we have to grit our teeth and just do what's needed when we're in a tight spot.