hi there
cold calling -- business to business, -- it delivers fresh upto date information, and provides the info to allow you to build your database of potential clients, you can then also see the physical size of the property. its really about communicating the message about the services that you can provice, it may not be needed now, but may at sometime in the future.
email marketing, does work, but it needs to be managed and consistent, again its about delivering the message, and getting the company name recognised so that when they need a service they are more likely to rign you than your competitors.
lists-- can be purchased, but creatintg your own is the best idea, they are the most accurate as you have either spoken to them or cold called them.
all of the above takes a whole lot of time, and must be done religiously, but in essence that is what sales is all about.
at the same time i totally agree that it is very difficult to run a small business, and undertake a formulated sales and marketing process involving some or all of the above.
large organisations have systems in place to monitor the CRM, and have programmes that can send automated emails, and prompt for follow ups, and then drive promotions. smaller companies have to create those systems and processes so that the sales and marketing processes can be worked thoroughly.
regards
martin