I can tell you that every person who I reached out to in the last couple of weeks was gratefulto me because I reached out. Not one person turned down the opportunity to talk with me! Not one!
I can’t take full credit for coming up with the idea. When I learn from others, I like to share. Pat Mussieux of ConfidenceandCourage.com had suggested it in an on-line forum that I’m a member – and from there I took action.
On-line forums and social media are places where we can find our ideal clients, but we do need to engage in a personal relationship in order to truly build our business.
Here are the easy steps that you can take today to begin to build your relationships:
- Schedule 30-minutes each week in your calendar, I like Friday afternoon.
- Set a target of 3-5 people to reach out to.
- Search through your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, On-line Forums, emails for people who have commented on a discussion that you posted, have asked you a question or you have been seeing that they are having great discussions with others and you want to meet them.
- Locate their email address, either through the forum, social media, or their website.
- Write a short 3-4 sentence email (**tip:save this as a signature in MS Outlook so you can use it again, or in a file so you can copy and paste):
- how you are connected
- your intention – to talk voice-to-voice to get to know each other
- include possible dates/times you are available
- ask for their phone number so that you can phone them
- Press send!
The first time you do this, you may experience some anxiety. But I can tell you that I sent 5 messages and within 30 minutes I had 2 appointments set up.
Add this strategy to your weekly networking and I can tell you that in no time these calls will be easy-peezy.