“I don’t want to cold call,” Robert, a financial advisor in Michigan who I had been working with, began. “But I don’t know how to fill my time.”
We were discussing Robert’s current career — his second — for which he had proclaimed his passion, but for which he just hadn’t been finding enough clients.
“Let’s start with the people you already know,” I advised.
(Related: Focus on Service, NOT Standings)
“Well, I know a lot of people who could use my help, but I haven’t spoken to some of them in years,” Robert exclaimed. “And a lot of the ones I’m closer to are avoiding me now because I think I came across as too high pressure when I started, and it really turned them off.”
“That’s two different groups,” I told him. “The second one is going to take some time to rework, so let’s look first at the ones—the people you know you haven’t yet spoken with.”
“Well, they taught us to just call them up and offer to sit down with them,” Robert offered. “But I’m not comfortable with that. How would I be able to convince them that I care about them if I called them up out of the blue after five years to ask for an appointment?” he asked.
An easy way to ask someone you haven’t had contact with in a long time if she might be interested in working with you is just to tell her that you wanted to reach out to everyone you knew and that you included her: