The One Thing Missing

Dear Voornaam,

Over the years you’ve tried a number of business development initiatives. You go to networking events and eat stale bagels while exchanging business cards. You post cute colorful memes on LinkedIn. You speak on panels to professional organizations and join the board of a local charity.Â

Occasionally, you get a lead.Â

A couple of times each year, those leads become clients.

If you work for someone else, that might be enough. After all, there are other people who bring work into the firm, so your business development efforts are “a bonus.”

But what happens if you’re an entrepreneur? What happens if the entire firm is largely dependent upon your ability to develop relationships and convert those relationships into business? What happens if you need to bring in $100,000 in new business each month just to make payroll or to achieve your financial goals?

How would your approach change?

More on that in a minute…

The other day I was in a networking meeting with a lawyer and he was lamenting business development. He said:

“There are two types of people in the networking group. Professionals and salespeople. The salespeople can spend all day following-up and so they get more value out of their membership. We lawyers (and CPAs, and bankers and financial advisors) have to actually do some work, so we have less time to build our books of business.”

This is stagnant thinking.Â

If you want to take control of your future, business development (RELATIONSHIP development) must be a top priority. If you don’t bring in the work, you have no control over what happens to you. ANYBODY can do the legal work. ANYBODY can do the accounting. ANYBODY can quote interest rates and talk about insurance products.

Doing the work is a commodity. The differentiator is the RELATIONSHIP you have with the clients and the referral sources.

So now we come back to my original point: The Thing That’s Missing

You want to be a rainmaker (if you don’t, someone else will always control your fate) but after all of the activity you’ve undertaken you cannot understand why people just don’t drop bags of cash on your desk. You met them. You ate the stale bagel with them. You laughed with them. And nothing ever happened.

Why?

Lack of consistent follow-up.

This is where even the aspiring rainmakers fail.

Consistent follow-up is essential to your ability to develop new relationships that result in money in the door.Â

Monthly, no, weekly, communication that provides value, is what is required. Here’s the thing: You need to remind the people who know you, like you, and trust you, of the value you provide.Â

That’s what’s missing.

Over the years, I’ve initiated relationships on behalf of my clients. I brought the prospective clients and referral sources to them. And then nothing happened because the client didn’t follow up for a long enough time.

So this is the “BIG SECRET” to my success over the years. This email article. This communication. This follow-up with you. It takes me one hour each week to share educational information. Every time I send this email, I receive at least one reply with a new piece of business or a new opportunity.Â

Your call to action:Â

Here’s what you must do now: Organize all the contact info you have - everyone - and start communicating with them. Deliver valuable educational information. Do it religiously. In six to eight months, you’ll notice that business starts rolling in.

And for those of you who worked with me and did this but stopped once you got busy, I say: COME ON!

Get back to it.Â

This is the one thing that is missing.

Have a great week.

Warm regards,

Dave Lorenzo

The Godfather of Growth

(888) 444-5150

P.S. My April Sales Sprint is now sold out. Thanks to the seven people who enrolled and thanks to everyone who expressed an interest.Â

If you would like to be added to the waiting list for the next sales sprint class, email or call me and I will add you. More info is available at davelorenzo dot com /sprint replace the words with the actual “dot.”