I am a freelance consultant specializing in high-end customized
business software development, including complex data-driven web
sites.  I have a small but profitable set of clients, some of which I
bill in the 30-40K range a year.

I'm very good at the following: 1) closing a new client once a lead is
opened up (e.g. a potential client is found with some interest in
customized software development) and 2) servicing and maintaining my
clients.  Most of my clients have been with me for years.

I have very little propensity for marketing, especially cold-calling. 
I've come to realize that to grow my business I need to combine forces
with marketing-capable entities (whether these are people, services,
or automated tools), so I can focus on my strengths and not become
mired in the elements of my business where I am weakest.  However, I
am conservative, and I do not want to simply dump a bunch of money in
advertisement.

My question is basically this:  Where do I begin?  I am not looking
for a list of the top marketing firms.  I am not looking for
newsgroups (I've tried these and have gotten no response).  I'm not
looking for a way to write a want-ad for a marketer.

What I am looking for is either:

A) A way to find someone who has the ability to market (cold-call,
provide openings, etc.), who might be willing to work on commission
basis (I could offer this person a 10-15% of a clients take, which,
per client, will most likely be in the thousands).

OR

B) A very cost-effective method to end up with the same result, which
basically is a continuing list of potential leads to clients
interested in customized software development.

I don't want a one-off solution.  I need a continuing process.  In
that regard, option (A) above would be preferable.  However, I am open
to anything that will provide me leads.

I am based in South Florida and a client in my region is always
preferable, but I can service clients anywhere in the country.

Intersting question because I was looking for the same services
exactly.  We are engaging a firm out on the west coast -
www.dunning-advertising.com who provides this service, although it is
not in the form of "regular" sales.  They do very good web and
traditional marketing.

We found a traditional sales effort would be too expensive.  Nobody
will sit and cold-call for commission, we found.

Hello,

It seems that youa re not alone. one of my clients is looking for the same. 
The words cost-effective caught my attention. I have just started a
site for that aprticular client´s business. The site is
http://cost-effective-marketing.com

I am not refering you to the site rather sharing with you what we are
doing. She is doing her share dealing with her marketing expertise.
I am the webmaster for the new site and I am in charge of driving
traffic to the business. It seems to me that an internet presence and
well built link campain on your website will help you find lots of
marketing partners. They will drive traffic to your site as well and
help you own business..

Good luck,

If you wish to avoid cold-calling and want to combine forces,
Collaborative Marketing is a process designed for business
professionals. You can find information about this at
http://www.we-q.net/marketing/professions.htm
You can download and Adobe Acrobat file showing a map of the process they use.

A few ideas and comments:

1.  Outsource lead generation to a marketing firm.  The firm will then
use various means to generate qualified leads back to you.  Probably
has the highest lead generation potential, but the diasadvantage is
cost.  Also depending on your resources might be overkill.

2. Have a marketing firm design a marketing communications plan,
strategy and materials and then execute it yourself.  This would
likely work similar to the above but it would depend on you (or
someone else) staying on top of things.  In particular marketing
campaings are rarely perfect the first time through - they usually
require someone to stay on top of them and tweak them to get the best
result.

3. Commission a hunter.  Most major cities will have Independant Biz
Dev people that you pay only if a lead passed by them is sucessful. 
This may be your best option; however it depends greatly on the
services you are selling.  Most Independant Biz Dev people work at the
C-level of companies (CEO, CFO, etc), if that isn't your target market
then they may not be effective. My company (a marketing firm) has
recently worked a contract with a local (Houston) Huntress and we have
high hopes/expectations of its sucess.

4.  Hire a Call Center to cold call.  I have no experience with this
but from what I understand this is exactly what you are looking for
(Except I don't know about the paid on comission part).  My firm is
investigating this as well (I have a call scheduled for next week). 
One company in Houston is called the "The Early Bird Company".  I am
reluctant to give their contat info out over this medium, and I do not
think they are on the web, but there should be others out there.  Try
searching for "call center" and "cold call".  If that doesn't work
send me an email and I will send you the contact info for Early
Bird....  My email is sanford@pdq.net

Hope that helped!  

Best regards,
Ronnie Sanford
Sanford Group Marketing Consultants