Leveraging A Pet Project Into A Major Network Upgrade

A client of mine, a consultant, had a very strong desire to write a book. His expertise in an area of business management is renowned. He wanted to write about best practices so that clients and potential clients would make better decisions about how they were leading and doing business.

This same client also wanted to reach more decision makers and leaders in certain business sectors. He didn't have access to many of them at this time.

His options for objective number 2 was to have someone in his sales group start cold-calling to develop leads with the decision makers or begin networking steps to get next to these decision makers.

My recommendation: Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Why not leverage the book project into a relationship builder with these decision makers?

This client made a list of the decision makers who would be great interviewees for the book.

He reached out to about 20 of them and told them about his book project. Almost every leader agreed to be interviewed for the book!

When all was said and done, this client actually met with about 10 of these decision makers for an interview, and these interviews led to 2 prospecting conversations and ultimately one client.

And 20 direct connections with decision makers were made, with these 20 still in Mr. Client's data base. Mr. Client sets up his Outlook alerts to remind him to ping each and every one of them every 6 months. This pinging process has also resulted in one very substantial new client.

The book project ultimately morphed into a white paper of best practice interviews which Mr. Client promotes on the company website and provides as a handout after presentations.

This is a great example of LEVERAGING both a creative marketing project and a lead generation project. It demonstrates how we can use our time innovatively, and build genuinely productive relationships WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE.

What projects can you leverage in order to upgrade your network?
If you are telling yourself that you are not a writer and have no intention of writing a book, then perhaps you've missed my point.

Whatever your interests or desires, they are an opportunity to leverage your objective of improving the caliber of people in your network.

Here are some possibilities to consider:

• How about leveraging a passion for a cause to get on a non-profit board and get to work with decision makers?

• How about leveraging a desire to play in a band to get a group of other business leader /"rock star wannabees" together to jam (I didn't think of this one - I know a group of business guys who met through an online group and now play gigs together as well as refer business back and forth).

• How about leveraging a desire to be in a think-tank environment with forming a personal "board of directors" comprised of people you'd love to be networking with as your advisors. By hosting monthly "board of director" meetings you can expand business opportunity for everyone if you keep these meetings focused and succinct. (A colleague did this very successfully - it's led to new business for 60% of the people in the group and a highly upgraded connection base for him)

Leveraging your "wishful projects" can be a deeply fulfilling way to attract ideal new relationships into your business and life. Leverage away!