It’s all about the follow-through

Welcome to all of you who have joined in the past few weeks. If you’re opening this for the first time - I write weekly on insights and tactics around building an incredible network of clients, collaborators, and community.

You’re getting ready to get up from your table after finishing the last dregs of your coffee, as the person you’ve been sitting with for the last hour does the same. As you’re walking away from the table, before you exchange a handshake, hug, or “foot five” (circa 2020 replacement for 🙌🏼), you mentally or verbally recite the list of agreed-upon actions. Send this book, make that introduction, follow up with that document.

You never do.

It’s a common issue, and one of the lowest-hanging fruits to deepen relationships with people you care for.

Just… do what you said you were going to do.

“Actually doing what you say you’re going to do will put you in the top quartile.” -Chris Fralic

Taking Action

Here are three simple tactics:

Send a follow-up email instantly, listing your commitments. The act of writing it down and communicating it will solidify your commitment.

Set a time once or twice a week to dedicate to reviewing your recent meetings, using that time to condense any notes and store it in your CRM, and, obviously, act on any tasks.

And the BEST solution? Do it right on the spot. Send an introduction request while sitting across from them. Take an extra minute to find that book. Future-you is a lot less reliable than Right-now-you - they have a lot on their plate already.

Further Reading

Chris’ article is still one of my favorites to share. Fun fact - for a while, that single article was one of the better traffic sources we had for my last company, Contactually.