Keep Your Business Connections Alive

There’s no point in spending our time looking for new contacts, making new connections online (and offline), and networking, if we fail to keep our business relationships alive. People often concentrate on building their network so much, that they forget to keep the core function of the network alive — having valuable relationships with professionals in your field and beyond, so that you can reach out to them whenever you need, and vice versa. Here are some tips to ensure you’re keeping your business connections alive and well:

Group Your Valued Contacts Together

Begin by handpicking the most valued contacts from your phone book, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, your mailbox, and any other channel where you find and store your connections. You want to collect those into one comprehensive and easy-to-update list. Who they are and what their business is, what is their prospective value for you, what can you offer them, when was the last time you were in touch, etc. This will take some time to assemble, but don’t panic — it will be worth the effort once it's done.

Provide Value

The golden rule of connection maintenance is to give them a reason (preferably many reasons) to see you as a valued connection, too. You already have a list, and ideally, you can filter that list by industry, company, or field of interest. Then, whenever you write or find a relevant article, blog post, study, or video, you can share it with the group that will find this most valuable. Just keep in mind that a personalized message makes all the difference, and don’t overtax them or you might end up on a block list.

Replace Emails with Face-To-Face Meetings

Staying in touch virtually is great, and it does work, but meeting in real life is always better. If you want people to keep you top-of-mind when something new and exciting comes up, you need to stay in their field of vision. If you (and they) can find a few minutes to go for lunch or coffee, it’s a terrific tool for relationship building and bonding that is always better than any electronic or digital connecting.

Follow Up

No matter if you're sharing an interesting article, going to lunch, or if you've just done some business together, you've got to keep the pathways open by sending a thank you note afterwards, and keeping them in mind for the days to come for sharing insights and ideas that came from the meeting.

This may seem like a lot to keep track of, and it might be overwhelming at first, but you'll get the hang of it very quickly and work it in your daily routine. Then, your efforts will be rewarded with consistent networking filled with stronger relationships and more referrals.

If you’d like to talk more about keeping your connections alive, or if there’s another matter I can be of assistance with, please get in touch. I’m always happy to set aside some time to connect.