Every part of building and growing your business requires thorough care, planning, and attention, and your networking is no exception. Entrepreneurs will often make the mistake of thinking that getting new clients is a two-step process: you meet somebody and they either instantly become a client, or they don’t.
But it doesn’t really work that way! Getting new clients is actually a multi-step process of re-engagement. A “client journey”, if you will. When you put in the extra work to keep in contact with your potential clients, it’s a way for them to self-select and stay in the running for a meaningful connection for both you and your business. It’s like a friendship with possible benefits.
Having a great client journey will make your sales calls so much easier! The more you engage with your prospects, the more they’ll get to know you, and the conversation for conversion will be much more comfortable. By the time you’re making the call, your lead will already have interacted with you or your business several times, even if it’s just through consuming your content.
Once you’ve made the choice to commit to re-engaging with your contacts, what do you do next? Good news! A lot of these re-engagement steps to reconnect with people you already know, because they are the same things you’d do when trying to meet new people.
Step 1: Think ahead.
The first step is thinking ahead to what someone needs or wants. You’re probably already doing this to try to capture new leads, so just be sure to include the people you already know when trying to anticipate their pain point. And of course, listen! You’re trying to provide the solution to their problem, but you can’t do that if you don’t know what the problem is and the best way to find out is by listening.
Step 2: Keep consistent.
The next key factor is keeping your messaging consistent, and presenting that message in different ways. For example, if you host a webinar and invite people to reach out to you, and you do a Q&A session, and you share some pieces of those on social media, people can see your message from various sources. You’re not dependent on potential leads seeing you in only one place.
When your message is consistent and widely available, it’s easier for your hopeful client to get to know you, then get to like you, then get to trust you, and your chances for conversion become that much stronger.
Step 3: Give them some freebies.
You can also re-engage with your connections by offering them something of value. Invite them to subscribe to your email list, and let them know exactly what that gets them — whether it’s a newsletter, access to your podcast, or any other form of free content that can enhance their current operations and entice them to attend your events, or move further along the client journey with you.
Each of these steps increases your know-like-trust factor with a potential client, and it gives you the opportunity to continue engaging on a regular basis and a wide scale. It would be amazing to make a personal phone call or reach out directly to everyone in your network, but that’s a lot to manage. A solid re-engagement campaign can leverage your time well, reach a range of contacts, and present an established and polished face for your business.
I know — it sounds like a lot! It’ll take work, but the key isn’t to make it complicated, it’s just to be consistent. And once you invest in re-engaging with the contacts you have, your sales process will be much smoother and your growth potential will increase.
Need help getting your re-engagement campaign in motion? Contact Erin to get started!
