Your Best Prospects Are Hiding In Plain Sight
When the heat is on to bring in new business, most consulting firm owners go looking for new leads. Content marketing, website traffic, cold outreach; all aimed at people who’ve never heard of them before.
That’s a lot of energy to spend on a stranger when your best next client usually isn't a stranger at all.
It's someone you’ve already met; you just haven't talked to them in a while. They're sitting in your CRM, buried in a spreadsheet, or just floating around in your head.
Your existing network is closer to a "yes" than anyone you meet cold
Think about what it takes to get a total stranger to take a meeting with you. You have to capture their attention, build basic familiarity, and prove you have something valuable to say just to get them to put a phone call into their busy schedule.
The people already in your network are past all of that.
Maybe they were a client a few years ago, or maybe you had a great call last quarter before their budget got frozen.
Whatever the history, they already trust you enough to take your call. One of the hardest hurdles in business development - getting them willing to invest their time in a real conversation with you - is already done.
So why don't we keep them warm?
Most firm owners avoid this because they think they have to do it perfectly for everyone, or not at all.
Let's say you decide to get back in touch with your network. You sit down, look at the list, and immediately realize how many people are on it.
You want each message to feel personal and relevant, and that's a good instinct. But you’re running a company, serving clients, and trying to meet a payroll. The whole thing feels impossible so you set it aside.
Or you could toss everyone into a marketing newsletter hoping something sticks. That doesn't feel right either, and it shouldn't, because it mostly doesn't work.
The list keeps getting colder, and you go back to looking for new leads.
You don't need more hours in the day to fix this. You just need to split that list.
Instead of facing an unmanageable single list, divide it into two groups and treat them differently.
Group 1: The Inner Circle
Start with the contacts who genuinely deserve your full attention. The relationship is warm enough, or the potential real enough, that a personal note from you once a month is worth the time.
In my experience, that’s usually between 10 and 20 people. If that still feels like too many, start smaller. Reaching out to some of them is better than reaching out to none.
Once a month, you sit down, spend a few minutes on each one, and write something that shows you've been paying attention to them.
The starting point is simpler than it sounds. Loos at what's going on with them right now, and ask yourself what you know that might actually be useful to them. That's enough to get started.
Group 2: The Radar List
The connection here is real, but the relationship hasn't developed to the point where a customized note each month makes sense. They just need to know you're still there.
Think of a short email that reads like a note from someone who knows them. Less formal than a newsletter, no header or footer, just a useful insight or perspective in their inbox once a month. Same message for everyone, but written like it’s personal.
More work than Group 1, but much of it is admin and easy to delegate.
Suddenly, it’s manageable, and with greater return on effort
The consultants I work with find that once they split their list this way, the whole thing starts to feel manageable. The first group is small enough to give real attention. Getting some outside help with the writing or logistics of the second group is where the real time savings show up.
The new strategies you spin up to reach total strangers take a long time to pay off. But the opportunities sitting right under your nose are a lot closer, and they're just waiting for you to reach out.
What would change if you blocked out twenty minutes to message three of them tomorrow morning?