You want more clients.

To get more clients you need to connect with more people.

“Succeeding in business is all about making connections.” Richard Branson

The mistake many business owners make is to focus most of their attention on making connections with strangers.

Strangers don’t know you so it will take more work to get their attention than it will to reach out to people who are more familiar to you.

Plus, it’s more fun to connect with people you already have something in common with.

Who are these people already in your sphere and where can you find them?

Where to Find Kindred Spirits

They are all around you. Think about all of the groups and communities you belong to.

This includes online as well as offline groups.

They could be networking groups, groups on meetup.com, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn groups, organizations, associations, conferences and more.

Grab a pen (or Evernote) and jot down all of the places you are a member. How many are there? How many people are members of each group?

Let’s be super conservative and say you have five groups and each one has 200 members. That is 1,000 people.

Do you know them all? No.

Do you have something in common with them all? Yes.

At the very least you are both members of the same group.

And because of that, there are probably other things you have in common as well.

Things like common interests and mutual connections with other members of that group.

See where I’m going with this?

How to Connect With Them

Go back to your list and pick one group. Scroll through the list of members and reach out and select the people you see a connection with.

Choose a platform that the person you want to connect with is already using: email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. and connect with them there. And then continue doing this with people in your other groups.

And by connect, I don’t mean pitch, sell, or make offers.

I mean connect and say hello and ask how they are or about their work.

Get to know each other and ask how you can help them?

Yes, give first instead of asking to get something first.

And of course not everyone you connect with will become a client; that is normal. In any case, you’ll probably make some new friends.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” Dale Carnegie

Build Relationships

Keep in mind, this is the just the start of a relationship.

Relationships develop over time as trust is built.

Because of that, you’ll want an efficient way to keep track of your contacts and interactions. Find out more about how to do this in my post, Why You Need to Keep Track of Your Connections & How to Do It. 

“Build trust, build trust, build trust. Then you can worry about the rest.” Seth Godin

So after you reach out the first time, be sure to continue to pay attention to, and nurture, the relationships you have started.

I hope you’re starting to see how many people are in your orbit and would be happy to connect with you.

So instead of spending time and money trying to reach strangers, make time to connect with people that you are already in close proximity to.

© Stephanie Ward

Stephanie Ward is the Marketing Coach for Entrepreneurs who want to create meaningful and prosperous businesses. Grab your FREE copy of the special report ’7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Time’ plus business building tips, at: https://www.fireflycoaching.com.

Are you willing to reach out to people who are already around you? Share your thoughts and questions below in the comments section. I respond to every single one.