We had a great interaction this week, a story worth sharing. We heard from a guy who had been in one of our workshops in 2005, back when he was with one of our biggest client companies. He left that company in 2007, which is probably the last time we had any contact with him at all.
He tracked us down this week, and asked for a proposal on a project they are working on.We spent some time catching up on the phone, and then he described the help they need. And during our conversation, he mentioned several times that he was glad we had worked hard to stay in touch with him. As he told the story, it sounds like we had kept track of his changing email address (probably via Linked In) and kept him in our database for our occasional email blasts to clients and friends. He thanked me for staying in touch, and how we always seemed to find a way to stay top-of-mind with him. It was really great to catch up, and he still values the work we did together in 2005.
It is not a definite yet whether we will end up working together, but that’s not the point of the story. The point of today’s writing is the importance of staying in touch with your network… and how you stay in touch with your network. I am sure there are some in our network who think we reach out too much. And I am sure there are some who think we need to reach out more. We’ll never keep everyone satisfied. But the goal with our marketing contact is to remind people that we are there, and to share ideas of value. And we try to do it enough so they that we stay top-of-mind, but not so much that it is annoying… a tough line to straddle.
At least in this case, we did it well. And after ten years, we heard from a former client and friend, and he reached out to us about the possibility of a major project together.
There are lessons here, for all of us. How you stay in touch will depend on your situation. But staying in touch with your network, for your next job, your next assignment, your next sales call, your next anything is a critical decision for you and your business.
We spend a lot of time thinking about it and working at it here at The Latimer Group. And you should also.
Have a great day.
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Photo by Lea Latumahina used under the following license.
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