The more people you’re connected to the easier business development becomes!
I get asked the same question time and time again by my clients “why should I connect to my colleagues in the firm?” A fair question and one that has a resounding yet simple answer.
I was recently asked it by one of my leading clients and drafted up the email you see below to go to all partners. I thought this may serve as both an explanation and as a template should you want to email your colleagues for the same reason.
I hope you find it useful.
Subject: Why do I need to connect on LinkedIn to my colleagues in the firm?
I get asked this all the time and fully understand the concerns you may have so I thought it might be worthwhile explaining why we encourage everybody within the firm to link to everybody else. Let me do this by using an example.
Employee A has decided to target company X to sell her services to but doesn’t know anybody there or, in fact, much about them at all.
Employee B happens to know Contact X, who works at company X, from a previous life.
Now if Employee A and Employee B are connected on LinkedIn as soon as Employee A searches for company X on LinkedIn she will see that Employee B has a contact there.
She will now be able to speak with Employee B to ascertain how well he knows Contact X and if well enough perhaps set up a fact-finding meeting to understand who the decision makers are, the incumbent suppliers, their budget and so on. This information is crucial when targeting a new company.
The purpose of all of us linking together is to create a firm-wide super network which not only speeds up the capture of new clients but will also make that all important “first contact” a good deal easier.
One of the biggest assets any firm possesses is the combined networks of its people – why not make the most of it.
