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4 Ways to Cultivate Relationships with Companies that Aren’t Your Clients (Yet)

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At 8THIRTYFOUR, we understand that it takes client engagement to build and cultivate relationships. Even if we aren’t currently providing work for a company, we aim to build meaningful relationships with them. This means thoughtfully connecting with past, current, and future clients.
Meaningful relationships don’t happen overnight, but they do happen through active and sincere engagement. Some of our favorite relationships are with companies and individuals we don’t directly work with at the moment, making it more of a challenge – but we actually view it as an opportunity.
Here are our top four tips for engaging with companies and organizations that you might not currently be working with, but that you want to love you as much as you love them, because you never know when they might need you and your kickass team:

STAY IN TOUCH

Staying in touch can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. No matter how much time you put into staying in touch, make all your efforts genuine and memorable. Send notes of congratulations when companies are in the news. Take advantage of holidays (well known and obscure – did you know that National Pizza Day was on February 9? Imagine dropping off a pizza to some of your favorite organizations…maybe your favorite integrated communications company…). Custom gifts are another great way to stay in touch, but even a simple email recognizing someone’s birthday or work anniversary can help build that foundation.

ATTEND EVENTS

Getting involved in organizations and attending events can provide new opportunities for your team to cultivate relationships. Our team enjoys attending networking and professional workshop events where we’re able to meet new people and reconnect with others. Life is busy, so make this a priority. Around here, we love everything to be measurable, so each member of our team has a personal weekly goal and a monthly average of events to attend so we can make sure that we are making time.

(SOCIAL) NETWORK

Engaging with companies and individuals can also take place online. Follow your clients and favorite companies online, engage with them and start a conversation. Like, comment and share the things they are posting. Be genuine while being intentional in connecting with them – this is especially helpful if you are able to work with companies that aren’t geographically near. You can connect with companies anywhere on social media.

CELEBRATE WITH A PARTY

In January, 8THIRTYFOUR threw a party to recognize the power of small businesses and to celebrate our eleven years of business. We love any excuse to get our favorite clients and individuals in one room. Rather than just throwing a party for ourselves, we chose to throw a party in honor of some of our favorite people – a mix of clients and companies that we would love to work with in the future. In the end, events can help you develop better relationships.
How do you connect with organizations that aren’t currently on your client roster?

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