An excerpt from Chapter 16: Christmas Cards Don't Work: Meaningful Strategies for Keeping in Touch, of The Connectors (September 2009, Wiley)
As anyone who has ever been in a relationship of any kind (and that would include everyone) knows—communication is critical. But corresponding effectively and keeping in touch with people with whom we have or want to have business relationships can be especially challenging. Mass exchange of ideas is an efficient way of communicating, but it cannot and does not replace the connection made through more personal methods of interaction. When connecting with our business contacts, we need to determine whether or not this back-and-forth is 1) impersonal with general information or 2) personal and connects to the person who receives it.
Consider the following scenario:
You meet someone at a business meeting and begin an interesting conversation about the synergy between your businesses. You discuss the very real possibility of working on a few projects together in the future. You even end up talking about perhaps getting together to play golf at your club when the weather improves. You feel that the two of you have really connected, and you are excited about the opportunities that this business relationship may bring in the future.
The next day, you send an email to your new acquaintance recapping some of the conversation, and adding a few of your thoughts on working together. But instead of a response to your email, you receive an electronic newsletter from the company. You’ve been successfully added to his mailing list. Every week, you receive another e-newsletter, but still no personal message, even after three weeks. The connection is broken, the relationship is invalidated, and you are left disappointed. There was communication, but not any that was effective or impactful.
Great connectors and communicators would say, “I’d never do that!” And it is likely true. But this type of a situation has happened to many, including myself, and is more the norm than the alternate. Face-to-face relationships need to have follow-up. Without a systematic approach for personal communications, such follow-up can fall through the cracks of our already busy lives. It is like sending a birthday card to your mom without signing it. You sent it, but it probably has no long-term effect except a negative one. It is an attempt, but an impersonal one. And let’s face it, a relationship is a relationship, and a lack of personal touch in your business connections means they really aren’t true relationships—even in the business sense.
The Ward Group is an advertising agency located in Dallas, TX. The firm—and the industry as a whole—has a fairly long sales cycle. Prospects are not in the market for advertising services on a regular basis, and it might be years before they decide to change agencies. “I think the longest courtship I have experienced was six years from the first point of contact to the point at which we actually did business with the client,” said Rob Enright, president of The Ward Group. “After making initial contact with the decision maker and discovering the he was pleased with his agency at the time, I began a series of ’touch points.’ I was unaware that this would continue for years to come.”
Without ever trying to sell anything, Enright stayed in touch with this prospect through birthday cards, articles about things in the prospect’s industry, research about trends in that industry, and anything else he could think of that might be of interest and/or value. “One day, I got a phone call from him and we met. Over a glass of iced tea, he assigned us his account without a competitive review or any proposal on my part. All it cost me was a glass of tea—and six years of staying in touch.”
Success stories like Enright’s do happen, but far too often we move forward without a plan and give up on staying in touch, sometimes even after just a few months. But the cost of connecting is more about time than money. The relationship existed because Enright stayed in touch with relevant information that kept him top of mind and at the forefront, and he won the business when the time for a change came.
www.redzonemarketing.com
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