Mack Powers

In his book Rainmaking - The Professionals Guide to Attracting New Clients, Ford Harding, clarifies that business relationships require regular and consistent contact.   With everyone being so busy, you can’t just stay in touch to stay in touch without creating value when you do.  Here are a number of value creating contact reasons that might assist you in staying in touch with other business acquaintances on a regular basis.

1. Request Advice on a project that you are working on (such as writing an article or book)
2. Thank someone for referring business to you
3. Congratulate or promote someone
4. Request the name of a vendor
5. Refer a possible job candidate
6. Thank you for their payment for services rendered
7. Offer free consultation
8. Provide assistance on a professional association project
9. Provide information on a potential customer
10. Call about a new lead or business opportunity that you have become aware of
11. Request coaching on a prospect or lead development idea
12. Forward an article that you think might be of value to the client
13. Recommend a vendor who provides excellent service
14. Invite to a workshop or webinar
15. Forward a blog post to them
16. Notify them when you or your firm posts a press release
17. Notify them regarding trade events
18. Invite them to sporting events or group activities
19. Offer to meet this person over lunch to discuss any of the above
20. Offer to share your contact list with that person to help them develop business
21. Use Social Media such as facebook, linkedin and twitter to stay connected to your network

Have you recently made a sales call and your customer said to you that they weren’t going to engage with you because they were waiting to see what is going to happen with the economy?  Well, what exactly are they waiting for?  Are they waiting for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to go above 10,000?  Are they waiting for the price of oil to go to $ 15 a barrel? 

 It is fair for each of us to define the right set of metrics for how and why we make business decisions, but my question is this…how many people and/or companies have actually defined those metrics.   If they have great, find out what those specifics are, and then track them for your client or with your client.  When the strike price has been reached, you will be ready to move forward with your client.  If they haven’t identified those criteria then maybe they are just generally nervous.  If this is the case then we can as true professional consultants, provide them with accurate industry data that will help them determine when they should re-engage and why it makes great business sense to do so.  Make sure your facts are truthful, accurate and relevant and help them build a solid business case for moving forward.  Hopefully, the date to proceed and engage will be sooner rather than later.  If not, you might need to find a new value proposition for your products and services.

Either way, you will be better prepared to serve your customers by knowing when to work with them and when to wait for them.  Ambiguity and uncertainty for you and your client will benefit neither of you.