It's time to Connect

​Throughout my career, the months of September and October have been my two favorite months to connect with my contacts. School is back in session. Most everyone has returned from vacation, and folks are more readily available to meet. Additionally, people are eager to meet in person while the weather is still nice and Covid is somewhat behind us.

Having said that, many professionals are busy. Almost too busy to dedicate any meaningful time to business development. Ironically, this is the best time to connect with your network. Your confidence is high. You have more to talk about. Most importantly, you are not “reaching” for any new work in your conversations which could come across as desperate to your contacts.

I often hear from people “I don’t have the capacity to take on any new work at the moment, hence my reluctance to reach out to anyone.” I understand this dilemma, however how often does one land new work from reconnecting with their contacts? Business development is typically a long-term game that takes many touch points until new work comes in.

Too many professionals use the excuse of “being too busy” as a convenient reason to push business development off to a later time. The “I’ll do it next week” turns into multiple weeks, and often months. The result – the pipeline dries up and when you come back up for air, you scramble to try to bring in new work.

The professionals who have a steady stream of work are typically the ones who are always thinking about business development. How much time does it take to reach out to one contact first thing in the morning before the day gets away from you?

Take advantage of these next two months before we hit the holiday months to build on new relationships and rekindle old relationships. It doesn’t have to involve meeting in person although that is the ideal way to connect. It can be as simple as sending them a quick note telling them you are thinking of them.

The most important thing is to not overthink your outreach. Do it when you are thinking about it versus pushing it off to a later time that might not happen. So much of building a successful business boil down to focus and consistency. As you may have heard me say in the past – It is not always the best attorney or consultant who gets the business, it is the one who is best at staying top of mind.