Do you ever wonder about the ROI on all the time you spend networking? About the effort you put into e-mail marketing? Or volunteering? Is it worth it?
Just when you might think it’s not worth the time and effort you get a week like I had last week. Here are the highlights:
Monday:
- I made the final delivery of a trade show backdrop to a new client I had met a couple of months earlier at a Constant Contact seminar I presented. (There were only 4 attendees at the seminar and I wondered at the time if I had wasted my morning!)
- I sent out my monthly email newsletter.
Tuesday:
- One of the recipients of my newsletter asked me to prepare a quotation for his new website. I had met him about 2 months previously at another networking event where I had been the featured speaker.
- I got a call “out of the blue” from someone who had found me on the internet (!) searching for someone to build a new website for him. We met the same day and I made my proposal.
- I completed another one-on-one
- Attended a technology meetup.
Wednesday:
- Early morning networking one-on-one
- Mid-project call to one of my clients
- Met with another new prospect for a website. This prospect was referred to me from one of my SCORE contacts where I’ve been volunteering for the past 12 months.
Thursday:
- I signed a new contract with one of my LeTip colleagues for a new website.
- Straight from my LeTip meeting I went to visit a potential new client at a local dentist’s office. I had been sitting next to the dentist’s office manager at a networking lunch a couple of weeks previous and we exchanged business cards.
Friday:
- Up early and off to another networking event…
So in one week; 1 completed project, 1 signed new contract, 2 one-on-ones, 2 networking events, 3 proposals and 4 new prospects.
Why am I relaying this info to you? Because it illustrates two principles I’ve come to truly believe: 1. You never know where your next lead is coming from and 2. Sometimes you have to “work it” beyond your comfort zone, attending and/or presenting events that might not have immediate, obvious payback.
Posted by John Tully
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