Alumni Club

Remember Agnes? You know, that woman we met on the Farriman project? I just saw on LinkedIn that she’s the new EVP at Cashburgers. Is anybody here still in touch with her? No? Too bad. That would be a great account. Really? Nobody is still in touch with her???

Today’s conundrum is our general lack of outreach to former clients and former business partners. These are the same people we spent untold hours and dollars courting on the way in, hoping we could transform a bit of networking into a profitable relationship. As with many courtships, there was no amount of effort that was too great in our zeal to be loved. By the time these people became business colleagues, we had expended enough resources in our pursuit to assign an asset value to the relationship.

Passions cool, though, especially when circumstances change and our relationships are tested. A team member leaves, a client defects, a referral source is downsized, and we move on to our next courtship. They were here. Now they’re gone. Who’s next?

Too frequently, we consider a changed relationship to be a dead issue. That’s a mistake. Clients who leave can come back. Business contacts who fall on hard times will frequently reappear elsewhere in the same industry. And when they reappear, they will remember who dropped them and who stayed in touch.

Does your company have an alumni club? Do you find a way to stay in touch with former clients, vendors, advisors and others who just might turn out to be valuable contacts in the future? Most companies don’t. In fact, a large percentage of companies don’t truly engage with their current contacts. Blogs and newsletters are fine for keeping our names in front of people, but real engagement requires a conversation, a two-way street.

Productive engagement with clients is tough enough already. The daily fires and mini-crises and distractions that fill up our time push out that lunch we meant to have and the call we intended to make. How, one might ask, can we keeping in touch with former contacts when we can barely stay connected to the current ones?

There’s a simple way to address the issue, and it applies to both current and former colleagues. Put it on the calendar, working backwards from whatever you’re planning. Let’s say, for example, that you want to have a “reunion” with former colleagues. Set a date six months from now for the program. Set a date five months from now to send out the invitations. Set a date three months from now to put together the invitation list and book the venue. Set a date two months from now to create the program for the event.

If we’re talking about current colleagues, with a need for more intensive conversation, the same rule applies. Lock in a few dates that are two months away. Set aside time two weeks from now to figure out the agenda for the meetings, who should attend, how much time will be needed, the right venue, etc. Send out your invitations three weeks from now.

The key to success here is to block out time far enough into the future that your calendar is not already full. Many of us make the mistake of attempting to act as soon as an idea occurs, putting a date on the calendar without allowing for the time we need to prepare, complete and follow-up on the process. In the end, we schedule too many things at the last minute, leaving too little time to do the job right.

Former colleagues, like current ones, are absolutely worth the effort. The secret to fitting everyone into our schedules is to build in enough time, and enough lead time, to make our connections happen.