Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Ask Yellow Dog: Outdated contacts

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facepalm_picard2[2]Last week I received a few great marketing questions after I spoke at a luncheon. Here’s another great question I received that I think may be helpful for you…

What do I do about the piles of biz cards drawing slips and old mailing lists of companies we used to belong to?  I feel like I want to come clean with them and say I did not have a system and now I do. My current company has a monthly email that I ask people if I can add them to but I have not been good at adding them.

It’s never too late to come clean to folks and to reach out to them!  Here’s what I’d suggest:

Send an “announcement” email to your network, pull all those business cards & email addresses and everything and send one email to them (probably as a BCC email and probably you’ll have to do this in clumps) and let them know what you’re doing:

Dear (friends/ family/whatever),

I know it’s been a long time since some of you have heard from me, and I thought it was high time I sent you an update! As some of you may know, I’m working this this great product line and I’d love to share more with you about it…(a couple sentences about it, and a link to your sales page where they can learn more).

If this is of interest to you, I’d love to setup a time to talk about it. We also have a monthly newsletter that goes out and you can signup here (link to it) or just reply to this email and I’ll get you signed up. And if it not, I promise you won’t hear from me again about it!

(Signature)

It’s never too late to come clean, and as I always say: I can’t help you if I don’t know what you need or are up to!

Another Reason to Follow Up Again (AKA I Screwed Up)

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IMG_20141013_174212Yesterday I was running between meetings and I had seen an introduction exchange that I had facilitated come through my  inbox. Great, they’re following up. And then I saw a 3rd email name on the exchange I didn’t quite recognize. So I clicked into the emails on my phone and realized OH CRAP I USED THE WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS. It wasn’t that bad, I introduced two friends because one is interested in a position at the other’s company. But I used my friend’s old work email where he’s no longer employed.

Luckily the email was being forwarded to the company admin who is the one that responded and forwarded the exchange to his personal email. This all happened in a 2 day period, so it’s not a big deal. But this is a great example of why you need to follow-up AGAIN with someone.

If I had received an email from my friend in the next couple of days asking if I’d had a chance to forward the introduction, I would have said I had, then looked and realized what happened. Instead of him thinking that I’m all talk and no follow through (geeze, that’d be bad for my brand).

Human error is part of the equation folks, and this is your friendly reminder to give the benefit of the doubt, and make sure you follow-up again.

I Just Referred You To…

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No need to wait, they'll come to you when ready
No need to wait, they’ll come to you when ready

Twice in the past month I have received an email that started with, I just referred you to…

Sometimes people in your network aren’t ready for an introduction, but they’re ready to know who can do what they need. And these people will reach out to you. When they’re ready. I am grateful for these emails from colleagues who trust me with their clients or someone in their network, but more grateful that they give me the heads up. “Hey this person may not be ready for your right now, but here’s who I referred you to, and just a heads up they’ll probably call or email you in the somewhat near future.”

If you give someone’s information to a client or someone in your network, send a quick note and give that referral a heads up. Depending on the person, it may make sense to let them know to wait to be contacted.

Of those two referrals, one is now a client, and the second referral happened at 10 last night, so no pressure. Referrals are great, and a heads up is even better!