Wanna sell a car to a man? Try getting through to him via his wife!

This is the general theme of Rick Spence's idea for off-target marketing. If you're a salesperson, don't aim for the target; aim beside the target.

Rick Spence is a writer for Profit Magazine and in his latest article he describes an idea for B2B selling wherein you don't cold call your prospect. Rather, you use Seth Godin's mantra of permission marketing and take it to a different level.

Corporate executive decision makers don't want to be bothered by cold callers. So, Rick's strategy is to get prospects to agree to meet with you by first being referred to them by, for example, the prospect's secretary. Cold calling an executive is difficult because you need to go through the various gatekeepers and their guards are constantly up. But cold calling the secretary should be quite easier. Nobody expects that. In fact, I think a secretary wouldnt mind such a call; it could make him feel important.

Once getting through to the secretary, or whoever it is that you speak to, the trick is to get your marketing material in friend of the prospect via a referral from her. That way, you get the referral, and the prospect gets your marketing material in his hands before you ask for a meeting all without a single cold call to the prospect.

You seek referrals from other points of contact within the company of the prospect that you target. That's why Rick Spence calls it "off-target marketing." I like to call it "the anti-cold-call." It's a selling technique and it' different. I like it!