Scaling Up Magazine Scaling Up Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 13

SUMMER '18
TOP OF MIND FOR STAKEHOLDERS
BECOMING TOP
OF MIND FOR
STAKEHOLDERS
By: John Hall
SCALING A company is no easy feat. For
example, a McKinsey analysis showed
that in the software and Internet services
industries, only 28 percent of companies
reached $100 million in revenue, while
just three percent managed to reach
$1 billion. One of the most important
contributors to success is building
productive relationships with the people
around you. Dedicated employees, great
clients, reliable partners, and trusted
investors all play a role in bringing new
opportunities to your business. Therefore,
it’s important to keep them engaged
and worth some investment to ensure
that you stay top of mind with them.
Here are three keys to staying relevant that
can be applied to any type of organization:
1. Being helpful – Individuals that employ
selfish ways of thinking create short-
term relationships that don’t last or bring
long-term value to the company. It is much
more important to purposefully search for
ways to bring value to others—perhaps
by providing a business introduction,
sharing constructive feedback, or
dispensing valuable job advice. People
remember those that care about their
best interests, so make an effort to learn
about people and then connect with them
in ways they will truly appreciate.
2. Using personal touchpoints – Recently,
I sent a survey to twenty friends asking
how they would make their business
relationships more meaningful. Nearly
everybody said some variation of “staying
in touch and showing consistent interest in
our relationship.” It’s helpful to check in
with clients occasionally without any sales
agenda—merely to see how they’re doing.
I started this process in my own practice
by initiating discussions with clients and
meticulously tracking these efforts in
Excel. Each quarter I return to my previous
spreadsheet as a refresher before initiating
my next contact with the individual.
3. Scaling your content – Much as
you may try, there is only so much time
available to develop personal touchpoints.
The only way to truly scale in this area is to
implement a content plan for disseminating
information about your company, its
products and services, and your industry.
You can set a goal of developing one or two
content pieces each month to share with
your audience—not only to remind them
you exist but also to position yourself as a
thought leader in your industry. As people
begin to recognize you as a leader, they will
have a much better chance of approaching
you with their next business problem.
Building a content program takes effort
and possibly an investment in hiring a
content strategy team or ghost writer if you
don’t have expertise in this area. It’s a lot
more involved than merely doing research
online and repackaging what is already out
there. Yet, through these outreach efforts,
you may succeed in transitioning from
your target’s short- to long-term memory
in the role of a trusted industry resource.
These relationships will gradually pay off
as prospects seek you out to help solve
complex problems, building your base of
clients and helping to scale your business.
MEET JOHN HALL
John Hall is the CEO and co-founder
of Influence & Co., a tech-enabled
content marketing agency that helps
brands and individuals extract and
leverage their expertise to create,
publish, and distribute content
to gain influence, visibility, and
credibility with their key audiences.
In 2016, John was a recipient of the
EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award
for Best Emerging Company and was
recognized as one of the Business
Journals’
Top
100
Visionaries.
Influence & Co. was ranked No. 239
on the Inc. 500 and No. 72 on Forbes’
list of the Most Promising Companies
in America in 2014.
IT'S ONLY A DRY
PIECE OF BREAD
John has been called “one of the
most powerful people in media
who you’ve never met” by Inc. and
a “must-see keynote speaker” by
Forbes. He is consistently mentioned
i n major publications as a top
influencer, leader, and speaker. John
writes weekly columns for Forbes
and Inc.
and has
contributed
to more than
50 online
publications,
including
Harvard
Business
Review,
Entrepreneur,
Fast Company,
and Mashable.
YET TO SOME IT
MEANS SO MUCH.
www.influenceandco.com/john-hall
Catch John at our ScaleUp
Summit this Fall in Denver, CO!