Kelly McCormick's Business Tips

1. Upload the ‘Know You, Love You!’ Crowd

Upload your email database into Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Then invite people from your past jobs, school, etc. into those social networks.

We tend to do business with people we know and like. And if your friends aren’t potential clients for you, they may know someone who is!

2. Leverage Relationships to Build Relationships

You could be one degree of separation from your next opportunity. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn. Don’t worry if you don’t know them. You will in a minute.

To get in front of a key decision maker, do a search for them on LinkedIn. If you don’t know their name, you can do a company search instead. Simply type in the title of the type of a person you’d like to find. You can narrow the search even more by specifying a geographic area.

When the key decision maker’s name comes up, look in the connections panel to see who in your network is connected to them. (If you’re researching leads in your current field or industry, the chances are good that someone you know is connected to them.) Call the person from your network that’s connected to the key decision maker. Ask for an introduction.

3. Follow, Friend then Follow Through

Follow the streams of key people you want to do business with. Not to stalk them, but because you’re looking for opportunities to connect.

You can use a tool like Google Alerts to get daily updates emailed to you whenever the name of a person that you want to connect with shows up on the web. This can include their appearances in social network posts, blogs, videos, discussions, articles, news stories, etc.

Look for openings to be able communicate and connect. For example, the person you’re researching could have won an award, been quoted, or made some type of announcement.

Respond by making a comment, sending a note of congratulations, or forwarding an article of interest or something that you wrote. The sky is the limit. However, the key is to make it relevant and communicate over a period of time. NEVER try to sell. The goal is to build relationships and trust. Give them a chance to get to know you. When they’re got a problem to solve, your name is in front of them!

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Hi, I’m Kelly McCormick, a Business Growth and Marketing Strategist. I help entrepreneurs & companies to identify opportunities for growth. Plus, I develop targeted branding, marketing & sales strategies. I can help you too!