A Bird in the and is Worth Two in the Bush.

• Author: Green, Vince
• Position: Marketing

Your best source of future business may be I past business. Those who have dealt with you previously are always the people in the best position to bring you more business. Too often, when small businesses need to grow, they forget who helped get them to their current position.

As a marketing consultant focused on small- to medium-sized tech-oriented firms, Ed Roberson of ER Squared Inc. in Sandy spends roughly 50 percent of his marketing efforts on past and present clients. "The key is knowing what you are asking for, and then clearly and concisely asking for it," he says.

Remember, it will always cost more money to attract a potential client than it will to communicate with a past or existing client. Get in touch with these clients, then ask them three basic questions:

* Do you need any mare of what you bought before?

* Could you use anything else we have?

* Who do you know who might benefit from what we have to offer-just as you have benefited in the past?

How often should this happen? "Our staff is on the phones to our past and existing clients on a daily basis," says Kristie Mc...