ITList Information Technology Blog » Cell Phones http://itlist.com Current IT field related information Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:40:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Cold Prospecting – Which Medium to Use? http://itlist.com/cold-prospecting-which-medium-to-use/ http://itlist.com/cold-prospecting-which-medium-to-use/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:05:00 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/cold-prospecting-which-medium-to-use/ Many marketers look at cold prospecting tools with much disdain. They contempt the use of such tools, but many among them secretly use some of these as well. My stand at this should not be seen either as in favor or against it, for the mere goal of this article is to tell you what tool to use, if you have to use cold prospecting to grow your business.

What are the tools of cold prospecting?

Ideally, any tool that connects you with your audience could be uses for cold prospecting, but practically, many of those tools cannot be used because of the expense involved. Typically, a business will use one or more of the following communication tools for cold prospecting:

  • Call on cell phones
  • Call on landlines
  • Text messages
  • E-mails
  • Direct mails on home or office address

Each of the above tools are also overused (read abused) tools, and that is why all the unsolicited attempts to get in touch with your future market are considered spam or junk. This perception is not too far from reality. It is such perception that renders these tools useless?

Then how to use any?

This is a natural question that springs out in the mind. But the good news is that there is a way to put these tools in use, which I going to outline below.

  • The very first rule of cold prospecting is moderation. Do not go on steroid. Everyone equally hates, and some hates more, cold callers. But not all the time. At times people are receptive to the messages they receive. Do not bombard users with multiple calls or multiple variants of your message. They are already too bogged down by such messages.
  • Once a user expressed his unwillingness to buy your product or services, strike out his or her name from your database. Your database software should have a list of out of bound contacts, whom you should never contact.
  • Instead of cold calls, send emails, text messages, and creatively done postcards to suspects. These are less intrusive mean of communication.
  • Never call in the peak time or the peak season when your suspects are busy doing their important works.

Take the above precautions, and you will increase your chances of acceptance. Your cold calls will not remain as mindless.

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Secure Your Gmail http://itlist.com/secure-your-gmail/ http://itlist.com/secure-your-gmail/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:16:53 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/?p=1855 If web provides us with opportunities, it also provides us with threats, and at times the threats are more dangerous than we suppose. There are many people on the net who earn their livelihood by making our life miserable. People who fall prey to the burglars’ attack are those who are most innocent and do not suspect anyone.

This brief post will help you secure your Gmail account from the burglars who are out there to steal your mail IDs and other information. Securing Gmail is an easy task. Just follow the things written below and your Gmail will become secure.

Forcing Gmail to use https connection

The very first thing you need to do is to force Gmail to open a secure channel for all your online communication by using https instead of http. Using https is free. To use it, all you need to do is make a slight change in the settings. Follow the following steps

  1. Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account as you regularly do.
  2. Step 2: Click on the “settings” that appears at the top of the page.
  3. Step 3: Make sure you are on the General Tab under settings.
  4. Step 4: On fifth position from top, you will find “Browser connection”.
  5. Step 5: Check the Radio button beside “Always use https”.
  6. Step 6: Click save changes at the bottom of the page.
  7. Step 7: Restart your Gmail. Now you will notice that your Gmail has https prefix in place of http.

Sign out all other sessions

How many times did it happen to you that you logged in our office or home PC and forgot to log out when leaving office or home? And how many times we asked our family or colleague to log you from your Gmail? And do you remember where all you logged in: Cell phones, cybercafé, friends’ PC, your bosses’ laptop?

There is no need to panic. There is a way in Gmail to log you out from all the devices you logged in at other places. Follow the following steps and you can easily do that.

  1. Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account.
  2. Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the page.
  3. Step 3: Find “Last account activity: X minutes ago on this computer.  Details” written at the bottom. You may or may not find This account is open in 1 other location at this IP (122.162.225.247)”this written before the “last login” text.
  4. Step 4: Click the “Details” link.
  5. Step 5: A window will pop up.
  6. Step 6: Go to the window and click “Sign out all other sessions” button.

That’s it. You are done. Your Gmail is secure now.

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