There’s an activity that the Barrel partners have been doing for a while: reaching out to a couple of contacts per week. These have typically been former clients, industry acquaintances, other agency operators, investor types, old friends and classmates, etc. It’s been a practice we’ve kept up weekly since 2017.

In recent months, we decided to up the number. We went from 2 to 4 for a few months, then from 4 to 6 for the month of September, and from 6 to 8 for the month of October. We plan to level off at 10 in November and stick to it. The gradual increase has allowed us to work up to the effort and maintain it vs. making a sudden leap.

The difference between going from 2 to 8 weekly contacts has been huge, and I’ve kicked myself for not doing this sooner. The amount of serendipitous exchanges, calls, and intros that have come from the increased effort has been very obvious. And the numbers make it really plain to see: we’ve essentially gone from 8 outreach touches per month to 32 touches. It’ll be 40 touches in a few weeks and if we can keep it up for a year, that’s 480 vs. 96 – a staggering increase.

When I think more about the time spent in crafting these outreach emails, getting on calls to catch up with folks, and then writing follow-up emails or facilitating helpful intros, it’s so clear that this is probably one of the most valuable things I could be doing for the business. The network that brings us leads, talent, knowledge, and other opportunities gets stimulated, nurtured, and fed.

It’s definitely a grind at times, but I believe it’s a necessary activity to get the results we want to achieve.

Check out my related posts on networking lessons and tactics as well as growing different lead referral sources.