September 15, 2017
Outreach Braindump
It has been almost exactly six weeks since I started planning and executing an outreach campaign for my mobile consulting business to folks in the target market (i.e., credit unions).
On July 31st, I had fewer than a dozen good solid contacts in the CU space. I was pretty much at square one.
These are some of the things I did early on to get the ball rolling:
- Googled around for information about credit unions in my most desirable cites (i.e., Atlanta and Chicago).
- Started to compile a list of basic info about each CU (e.g., amount of assets, number of members, number of FTEs, number of branches, mobile app ratings and reviews, mobile-friendliness of website, annual reports, recent news, etc).
- Searched LinkedIn for friends who were connected to CU execs. I asked for and received introductions.
- Posted daily on LinkedIn with items of interest to folks in my target market.
- Started sending connection requests to 2nd level connections who work in the CU industry.
- Started sending one useful email per day to someone in the CU space.
- Started using a CRM to keep track of everything I had going on.
Six short weeks later, I have accomplished the following:
- Had a Why Conversation via phone with a VP at a CU with $1.2B in assets and 90k members. Given their desired outcome, we agreed that a 1.5 day strategy workshop makes the most sense. They requested a proposal, which will likely be in the low to mid five-figure range.
- Connected on the phone and established a collegial relationship with a senior manager at a CU with $300M in assets and 18K members. We have continued to interact online.
- Scheduled a Why Conversation with the VP of a regional bank with 2,600 employees (not a credit union, but it’s worth having a phone call).
- Directly connected on LinkedIn with four credit union CEOs, including one who leads the one of the largest CU trade associations in the U.S. (i.e., a “super connector”). This means that I can now send connection requests to something like 100x more executives in my target market.
- Had a senior executive suggest that I speak at one of the leading conferences in the CU space. I plan to follow up relentlessly on that suggestion.
- Connected with a leading podcaster who serves credit unions. I plan to reach out to request a guest spot.
- Connected with an author who serves credit unions. I plan to reach out to compare notes.
Furthermore...
Now that I’m paying more attention to tech news that is of relevance to CUs, I’m no longer having to actually try to come up with topics of interest for my outreach. Obvious stuff is just falling out of the sky. For example:
- Apple’s FaceID announcement
- Experian data breach
- U.S. House of Reps voted to keep NCUA out of appropriations
(That last one is a great example of why it’s so powerful to niche down on a vertical. I’d be willing to bet you have no idea what NCUA even is, never mind why it matters that the House voted to keep it out of appropriations. But inside the credit union industry, this is headline news.)
Moral of the story
Six weeks might sound like a long time, but I’m doing at most an hour per business day of outreach. So to me, it feels like outreach has started to take on a momentum of its own in a very short time.
K, that’s enough for now... stay tuned!
Yours,
—J