(Part 3/3 articles explaining Townfolio, you can also view Part 1 or Part 2)
The Power of the Network
I’ve done enough cold calling to know that it sucks. It sucks for the caller and the recipient. I believe, slowly but surely, digital marketplaces and networks are eliminating cold calling. The beauty of a marketplace is that sellers get to be in front of an audience that potentially want their product, and buyers spend less time searching for what they’re not looking for.
Think how targeted digital marketing can be and how un-targeted billboard ads are. How about searching for new talent? LinkedIn covered that. How about searching for a new partner? Online dating has disrupted that.
We’ve spoken with communities who have paid over $10,000 for a “ contact list” of companies in a particular industry. No guarantees that the companies are expanding, or interested, or that the phone number even works.
Likewise, in the digital age, why should an expanding business or entrepreneur have to go through a painful search for data to help shortlist communities for their next location? There’s probably dozens of communities that fit the criteria. Shouldn’t you be able to find that one piece of info for site selection with a quick search?
These are the questions we’ve been asking ourselves ever since Townfolio was just an idea. As our network grows, Townfolio will eliminate the need for useless qualifying phone calls back and forth.
A Touch of New
If you need another excuse for a network of communities, consider that when most international investors think Canada, they only think of a couple major centers.
With the traditional system of searching, website by website, if your community is not on their mind, you will probably be missed.
That means a solid opportunity could be missed on both sides.
We’re building Townfolio according to most industry standards while throwing in what we like to call a “touch of new”. In other words, we like to dream big on upcoming features to shake things up. We’re keeping most of it a surprise 🙂 .
Something we have already we’ve included on Townfolios is the “Business Wanted” section. It’s open to both LITE and PRO customers and has been a huge hit for our communities and the users.
Target industries are also great identifiers, and we’ve included them, but why not include the talk of the town or coffee row. Every EcDev and citizen knows what businesses they really want opening up in their community. It’s not to say that your community isn’t open to others (all communities dream of a major employer creating hundreds of jobs) but if you’re proactively wanting or needing a dry cleaner or a dentist or even a wind turbine refurbisher, for example, why not let profile visitors know?
As we launch across Canada and Internationally, with a searchable database of “Businesses Wanted” it will better connect communities and companies and that’s just the starting point.
As mentioned in the prior post, we will soon be building our network to include companies (expanding companies, RFPs, entrepreneurs looking to launch franchises, site selectors, etc).
The thought is, both sides are already looking for each other, why not make it easier for them and connect them through a network? Giving communities leads that may be an actual fit, while reducing the search time for companies.
This is how we plan to achieve our goal of helping communities and companies find new business opportunities in a globalized economy.
Communities, if you want to help us help the industry, join our network today and claim a Free Townfolio for your community! Then we don’t have to cold call you 😉
Companies, are you interested in being part of our network? Contact us for more info!