With no in-person conferences, meetings, or events, what are you doing to develop your relationships in our virtual world?
Firstly we have to be able to get people’s attention. Everyone is suffering from Zoom fatigue, decision fatigue, and inbox fatigue.
To cut through the clutter here are some ideas we have been sharing in sessions with sales and marketing teams, entrepreneurs, and associations to help pay attention to business development in virtual times. We brainstormed as a team on how can we make sure we leverage digital and physical options to stay in touch and deepen relationships. Here are a few of our fun ideas:
- Convert Zoom calls to phone calls – we are so tired of being on camera
- Send video text messages instead of plain text messages
- Use a video email service to add more fun and surprise your recipient
- Send lumpy mail (everyone loves getting presents and surprises in the mail)
- Organize favorite treats delivered by Uber Eats
- Send postcards from your city letting people know you can’t wait to visit them in theirs
- Purchase fun games you can play as a team
- Send gifts for people’s new quarantine fur babies
- Comment on social media posts with thoughtful, personal responses
- Invite to attend a virtual conference with you as your guest
- Host a virtual wine tasting with a sommelier and winemaker
- Send a subscription box of their favorite things
- Meet up for a socially distanced walk and talk (masks of course)
If you’d like to read more ideas about business development ideas and building relationships during COVID some of my speaker friends and clients, you can read below:
Stacey Hanke personalizes every call, she takes very detailed notes, and also adds value to every conversation. She never just sends an email to ‘check-in” – she always shares extra value.
Allison Shapiro does wellness checks with her clients and she even started a hashtag you can follow #WhyYou to showcase her fabulous clients and their stories.
Jon Petz realized his clients needed guidance in the world of virtual, hybrid, and safe in-person events so he has strengthened the bonds with his clients by helping them with the planning and meeting decision and all the technology selections required.
Ramon Ray is a genius with video emails (and he recommends bomb bomb) and he is always checking in without selling anything.
Brian Wagner invites people onto his podcast to share their brilliance.
Thom Singer and Matt Ward are huge fans of sending handwritten notes (you can see why I like them both) as that’s one of my fave ways to stay in touch.
Linda Swindling created survival kits for her clients filled with aspirin, sanitizer, and she also created a great website to negotiate mental toughness.
Nicole Paul from the DiJulius Group created wonderful Mystery Boxes for their CX Executive Academy and they even had a graduation ceremony remotely.
One of the reasons I wrote Attention Pays, is because one of my core beliefs is every person wants to feel seen and heard.
These simple and fun strategies help people know you SEE them and they are important to you.
What would you add to this list?
