We released a new product one year ago. Initially, we spent a lot of time cold calling and chasing down leads. We noticed pretty quickly that almost all of our new clients were coming from referrals. We also noticed that the sales cycle for clients we initiated contact with was about 6-9 months (or more!), but those companies that found us via referral or internet, signed on within a month.

So here’s what we’ve done… we recently created a really cool referral promotion (ipod shuffle give-away) and rewrote and optimized our website so that those clients looking for us can find us more easily and quickly. Also, we’ve started using online press releases.