Tactics for Growing New Company Sales

By JOE CONNOLLY

Looking for new ways to build sales? Consider these suggestions from small-business owners:

Throw in-store parties to launch new products. Leonora Burton, president at the Country Goose, a custom-made gift-basket store in Cold Springs, N.Y., says her store has hosted several. As a result, local residents who may have shopped at big-box stores have become her customers, says Ms. Burton. "It takes a lot of planning, but the end results are worthwhile," she says.

Consider partnering with a nonprofit. Patrick Sciarratta, executive director at Friendship Ambassadors Foundation in Greenwich, Conn., a nonprofit that promotes cultural exchange, says his foundation helped a company that was expanding to England run a tour there with a local school. The effort benefited both the school and the business. Mr. Sciarratta also helped a local meat vendor take a few clients to Italy.

Jack Rahmey, a founder and president the New York Cartridge Exchange, a printer-cartridge recycler in New York City, hands out breath mints in a wrapper that says: "Does the high cost of ink leave a bad taste in your mouth?" He says it works every time.

Here are two more ways business owners say they win new customers:

• Ask for referrals while the client is most enthused, early in your relationship, rather than at the end of a project.
• If you don't get a contract, bid for just part of the contract, or price out a job by the day.