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192 - The Fastest Path to Revenue: Reignite Dormant Relationships Without the Awkwardness · Amplify Your Marketing Message with Christine Campbell Rapin

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  If you are a B2B service based business owner and you are
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  looking to gain more clients, create more impact and more
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  revenue in your business, TuneIn to amplify your marketing
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  message with Christine Campbell Rappin.
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  Every week we're going to take you through how to build an
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  audience of buyers, mastering your marketing message and
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  making offers. My friends, sometimes we make
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  finding our next client way harder than it needs to be
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  because we focused on the hardest path, cold outreach.
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  Today, we're not going to take you in that direction at all
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  because I want you to have a win fast.
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  And so today, I want to talk to you about reconnecting to your
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  warm network and give you 5 particular scenarios and how to
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  approach them so that you can open doors with warm traffic.
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  Welcome back. To amplify your marketing
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  message, I am your host, Christine Campbell Rappin.
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  And today I want to talk about the elephant in the room, which
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  is your next opportunity is hiding in a conversation you
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  simply haven't started yet. Your known network is the
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  fastest way to win, and yet most people don't prioritize this and
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  don't know how to approach a relationship that's gone cold or
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  dormant. So if that's you, this is an
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  episode you should save, make notes on, and start implementing
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  immediately. Because the truth is that people
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  are busy. I know the busy badge is
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  everywhere, but busy doesn't mean I'm not interested.
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  It means it's just not on my radar.
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  And so for us, it's good leadership to put things on
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  other people's radar. That's the leadership piece that
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  will eventually lead to asks, invitations, and doors to be
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  open. Because these people that
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  already know you have a shared history with you, which means
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  you have immediate context, immediate warmth, and they have
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  some opinion. They should be positive as an
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  overall group because I remember who you were, how you made me
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  feel in the work we did together.
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  And a warm connection will outpace out, deliver out, move
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  cold outreach. And that's why I always kind of
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  giggle because seriously, I giggle when people come to me
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  saying I've spent so much money on cold leads and it's not
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  working. And I said, well, no wonder it's
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  the least effective way to do it.
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  It's a volume game, 1% effective for 99% noise.
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  I don't play there and people go what?
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  And I'm like, no, seriously, I don't play there.
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  We don't play with cold traffic. We always warm it up and we
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  always focus on our warm traffic because it's what works.
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  And that doesn't mean that we don't do paid ads, but paid ads
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  lead to a place to warm up the relationship before offers and
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  conversations ever can happen. So we don't go from awkward, I
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  don't know you to a marriage proposal.
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  And that's what most people do when they hire agencies to go
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  bring them cold traffic. So let's not do that, my
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  friends. Today I want to talk about how
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  do you reconnect with the warm network?
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  Even if it's gone dormant, or you've ignored it or haven't
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  prioritized it to date, today is the day that changes everything.
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  People who have shared history don't forget other people.
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  We never forget how we made others feel, or we received how
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  others treated us, and if we created shared value.
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  It always has a beautiful warm Halo and there's an opportunity
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  to leverage that Halo to open wide doors.
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  And I'm going to show you exactly how to do that with five
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  different scenarios in today's episode.
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  Because the truth is when people say, well, but I, I don't know
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  what to say. It's been so long, it's all
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  awkward. And I'm like, it's not awkward.
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  You are making it awkward. Not anymore.
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  Going to show you how to. Not to make it awkward, but
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  remember when people have a shared history, fear shouldn't
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  be at the table. You shouldn't fear reaching out
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  to someone you have a shared history with.
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  If you have fear, it's because you're intending to pitch slap.
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  Well, my friends don't do that. We don't like bitch slapping.
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  We don't want to be the perpetrators of that either.
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  The fact is it doesn't need to be awkward because the lack of a
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  close relationship doesn't mean people are uninterested.
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  What it means is we've lost sight of the proximity because
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  we've been busy. So take all the awkwardness off
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  the table and build around the examples we're going to teach
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  you through today. So the first thing I got to
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  remember is when you're pulling up, who do I actually talk to?
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  I'm like, think about your shared history.
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  And here's a couple of different contexts that work really,
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  really well. And I particularly think social
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  media has made this so much easier.
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  You just have to choose to do it.
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  So think about projects you've worked on or employers you've
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  shared in the past or or work environment or a charity
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  contribution that created an environment for you.
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  Secondly, you could look at events you've attended and you
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  should be as certainly as an entrepreneur, really active in
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  event space because things move faster when we're in person.
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  Things move faster when we're in a shared room because the fact
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  that we're in the shared room gives us context.
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  We have like mindedness around it.
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  It could be that you had a conversation that was super
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  memorable and that can be both a business conversation, a
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  personal conversation. It doesn't matter.
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  The point is, it had a lingering memory for you.
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  The fourth way you can think about is mutual interest and
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  mutual interest. I want you to think lateral
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  here. Yes, we have mutual interest in
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  business, but perhaps we had shared teams, shared hobbies,
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  shared focus for our children, shared truthfully frenemies or
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  maybe even rivalries. All of what I'm asking you to
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  stir in your mind and to invite you to create a system around is
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  every week in your business and want you to think about one
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  piece of shared history and outbound call, message, connect
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  to people in your already known circle.
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  And that's so important that discipline around this will move
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  your business because reconnections will open doors
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  you didn't know could be there and were still there until you
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  made the decision to do this. And here's the invitation.
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  You go first, start the conversation.
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  So when you're starting the conversation, here's how to do
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  it without that awkwardness being present.
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  Number one, keep it light, which means for the love of God and
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  all of holiness, please do not pitch to somebody you have a
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  shared history with without first determining if it's
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  welcome needed. And it's not something that's
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  easy to be effective with on the very first go out.
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  So don't pitch and don't force relevance.
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  I think that when we're reengaging with somebody who we
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  have a shared history with, it should be the equivalent of a
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  wave across the street. But if all we do is wave at each
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  other and we walk by, we've really missed a golden
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  opportunity to warm up to any great depth of degree of
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  relationship. So wave across the street for
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  sure, but invite and exchange. Give people a reason to respond,
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  a reason to connect, and don't get any of your ego involved
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  with it. Timely Ness of the response
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  because some people I said are busy somebody might not
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  immediately respond and it doesn't mean anything and it
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  doesn't give you a reason or shouldn't be a reason why you're
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  simply don't move it forward. Money is in the follow up and
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  the follow through and so don't be caught up in what happened on
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  their side. I want you to instead focus on
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  what you can stir. So that also means I want you to
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  be human and not perfect in this.
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  Please please please for the love of it, please do not go to
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  ChatGPT any kind of AI say tell me how to reach out to my warm
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  market who I haven't talked to in six months because there
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  isn't a perfect opener. You need to be you, you need to
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  be recognized as you, and you need to be using language that
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  the other person would recognize as your voice.
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  Don't script, be genuine and approach things with Ice
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  Breakers that are warm, clear, short and have 0 awkwardness.
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  You're not writing War and Peace on a reengagement.
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  So I'm going to take you now through 5 circumstances and
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  reasons why you may have shared context and how I would
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  personally give you a script to go and approach them.
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  This is not perfect but it will give you some ideas.
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  So the first context is if you have worked together in any
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  capacity that could be both a peer-to-peer capacity.
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  You could be also a supervisor or an employee, it doesn't
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  matter, but it's a shared work environment or seeing it shared
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  project environment. So you write an e-mail, you
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  would give a message, voice note, something.
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  It sounds like this. And if you're really brave, make
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  a phone call. Hey so and so I was thinking
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  about Project X where we work together on company Y so much as
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  time has passed since we last connected.
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  Would love to hear what you're working on these days.
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  Simple opportunity to engage and give context to somebody who may
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  need a few dots connected to remember who you are and what
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  was going on. Second type of scenario that I
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  do a lot with my clients because my clients are all entrepreneurs
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  and I encourage them to get in front of more people.
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  And the biggest, easiest way to do this at a volume and scale is
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  to attend, participate, lead, facilitate or speak at events.
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  So this is what we would say to our clients, hey, we met at
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  event X and we had a great conversation about topic.
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  Why? Just wanted to reconnect and see
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  how things have evolved on your end since that event.
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  What I love about this is you've not just said you were there,
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  you've helped anchor to them you a dialogue that was you and them
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  together. And what makes this effective is
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  that you actually have to document this.
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  And so it's important if you're going to be attending events
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  that you schedule time, post the event to capture relevant
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  information. You can do this in Excel
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  spreadsheets. You can do this in documents,
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  notebooks, but even better would be your customer relationship
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  management tool, your CRM. And this also impresses people
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  with your memory, right? So if you can be really specific
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  around the topic, it immediately gains trust and it immediately
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  separates you from the crowd as a whole.
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  So don't forget to just attend the event, but make sure you've
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  taken good notes. But who you met with, what was
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  the conversation, and what was your next step?
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  Because perhaps if you've missed following through on the next
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  step, one of the other 4 examples I'm going to give you
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  today will help you overcome that missed or delayed response.
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  So that's how we do events. The third type is if we simply
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  have a relationship that we haven't talked with, connected
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  with in maybe months or years. So let's just start with by
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  addressing the elephant in the room.
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  Hey person, it's been a while. I saw your recent post about
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  topic X and it reminded me of our last conversation.
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  Hope everything's well. What's new with you and your
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  family? This is really important because
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  again, sometimes again, we are busy.
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  We don't not care. It's just been a lack of
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  proximity. And so I want you to be really
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  open to seeing people being curious about other people's
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  lives and using that as a reason to reach out.
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  Be the exception, think about the topics, think about other
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  people. And if you're going to be
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  scrolling on social media, do it with an intent to find people to
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  re engage with, not just to scroll and scroll and scroll by
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  people and things that are not known to you.
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  If your goal is forming up a relationship to open a new door,
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  the fourth thing I want you to give you a scenario around is if
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  it's somebody you admire. So somebody you see as a thought
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  leader, somebody that you respect, and how do you approach
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  somebody which you see as somebody with an authority
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  figure. So here's how I would do it.
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  Hey person X, I've always appreciated your insight on
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  topic X or topic Y. Came across your recent update
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  and thought I'd reach out. Would love to catch up when you
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  have a moment, but notice here the theme in all four examples
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  we've given you to date. We're tying context to topics.
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  We're showing people the reason, the insight, the connection
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  piece that is stirring our curiosity.
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  We're also showing somebody. We see them, we hear them, and
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  we want to engage and learn more.
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  This is really important because if you received a message like
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  these, how would you personally respond?
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  Hopefully with warmth and you would show the courtesy to
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  actually take time and complete the response.
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  This is our fifth scenario I want to talk about and this is
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  something that you've engaged with but potentially lost
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  momentum. Maybe you said you would follow
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  through, you provide something you were hoping for a next step
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  in the next step stalled. This is really common in the
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  world of business and I will tell you we know it the fortunes
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  in the follow through. So we have to address the
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  elephant in the room. Hey Person X, your name popped
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  into my mind today and I figured it was the perfect reason and a
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  sign to reconnect. What are you currently excited
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  about and tell me all about it. What this does is puts them on
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  spotlight. People love to talk about what
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  their priorities are, what their focuses are, what their current
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  excitement is stirred around. And so give them the forum to
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  say, hey, tell me more, tell me all about it.
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  Tell me what's got you excited. I can't wait to celebrate you,
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  see you, and if appropriate, maybe I can support it in some
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  way. All of this works effectively
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  when you keep detailed notes on other people.
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  And this is the discipline of great selling.
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  This is something that I was really lucky that I was taught
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  in my early career, way before things like Salesforce came
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  around, Willie, way before those technical tools of CRM became
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  bread and butter and big business.
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  I was taught to pay attention to not just the person, but the
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  human and all the facets of their lives, like who were they
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  involved with? Did they have children?
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  What were their sports interests, What were their
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  hobbies? And so that there was always
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  details around ways we could care for the human Right now, we
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  want to bring the human back into business.
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  We want to build relationships and enrich the personal
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  connections. And so this topic and the reason
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  I wanted to bring it to our podcast in this week's episode
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  is because I see it all the time from clients.
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  They're so much opportunity in our known network.
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  And if you're going to connect to another human being, take it
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  beyond the surface, pay attention, listen with both ears
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  and capture insights and have the patience for engagement.
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  People are distracted, but they never will forget how you made
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  them feel, that you made the effort.
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  And I know for myself, you know, one of the earliest goals I had
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  was to build relationships and build my own version of the
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  United Nations, which means I'm very intentional about how are
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  you, what's going on? Tell me what's your priority.
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  Gosh, we haven't seen each other in three years, but I'm in town.
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  Do you want to have coffee? There's no awkwardness to this
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  because it's a muscle I have chosen to build.
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  And it certainly makes me as a human feel amazing, a love
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  reconnecting with people. I have a shared passed with and
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  I know for sure it's also open doors and created opportunities
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  I just never imagined. But it all comes down to this.
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  And so as we wrap up today's episode, I hope this has been
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  super helpful because we don't often give scripts.
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  We don't often be this specific. But I did hear the need in my
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  conversations with my clients as we started a new year.
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  And I hope it's a value to you. So if it was, please use the
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  episode. Go first, start the conversation
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  and recognize this. Do it because you care. 1st, you
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  might not have all the responses that you sent out, but the ones
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  that come back have so much richness to them.
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  The world is made better by you reconnecting and you doing this
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  and leading this. I hope this has been helpful.
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  We'll see you all on our next episode.
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  That's a wrap on another amazing episode of Amplify your
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  Marketing Message with me, your host Christine Campbell rap.
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  And be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you
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  don't miss another great episode.
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  And be sure to visit christinecampbellrappin.com/podcast
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  to get a free resource on how to master your marketing message.
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  We'll see.