Your best clients, closest friends, strongest business contacts, people who know, like, and trust you and with whom you communicate most—your “strong ties”—are often your primary source of referrals and opportunities to grow your business.
What about everyone else?
What about former clients and business contacts you haven’t spoken to in a long time? People who know your name but aren’t now actively involved in your life? Experts say these are your “weak ties” and if you’ve been around for more than a few years, there are far more of them than your weak ties.
And they represent a potential bonanza of business and prosperity for you.
They can provide you with valuable information about your (their) market, introduce you to people you’d like to know, send traffic to your website, promote your content and events, provide you with a testimonial or endorsement, and otherwise help your practice grow.
But their value isn’t so much what they can do for you, it is how easy it is for you to get them to do it.
You don’t have to spend time or money to identify them, and meet and get to know them. You just have to reconnect with them. You don’t have to win their trust, you just have to kindle it.
And it can be as simple as digging out their contact information, reaching out and saying hello.
Is that it? Just call or write and say hello?
Yes.
Acknowledge the passage of time, ask how they’re doing, and wish them well
You can do more. You can also send them something, perhaps an article you found (or wrote) and thought might interest them. You can offer to meet and buy coffee or lunch, or invite them to your upcoming event. Or find out what they need or want and help them get it.
What’s next? Perhaps you’ll get together with them and continue the conversation. Or invite them to sign up for your newsletter so you can keep in touch. Or simply calendaring a few months and contact them again.
You might not need to do anything else.
How about contacting them and finding out?
