Find your next sale in your (past) network


We’re all looking to find new business, but how many potential sales sit in your existing network?

If you had to send a short email to everyone you have been dealing with over the last five years and told them you’re still around, still focused on solving the same problems, only difference: you’re now better and more experienced - how many of them will re-engage with you? Essentially this is what a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool is all about - extracting value from relationships.

The more I am building my own consulting business, the more I realise the importance of going back to reap, where I have already sowed. It is not just about establishing new fields.

In your company, do you keep a list of who you have been dealing with and periodically touch base again? Interestingly, I don’t believe it matters whether these contacts had a good or bad experience working with you. There could have been a massive fallout, or a disastrous outcome - the fact is time is the great healer. A new start is always possible.

No matter whether you are in the B2C or B2B space and whether you sell products or services, there’s money in your network, and it is typically much easier to re-establish old bonds than forming new ones.

Aren’t we all too focused on finding new business?

We should value our social capital more and nurture our connections. Time to reconnect and say “hey, I’m still around…. just better…how about a coffee?”


Popular posts from this blog

The rise and fall of Drip sneakers in South Africa

Choose both a target market and a target product

Lessons learned from running my own consulting business for a decade