The Costco Connection - January/February 2007

Staying
in touch
year-round

SENDING CARDS to business clients is always a nice thought, but there are other creative ways to stay in touch year-round, advises Costco member Keith Ferrazzi, a marketing and sales consultant based in Los Angeles. Here’s a list.

■ Write or call to celebrate events that matter: birthdays, wedding anniversaries, a child’s graduation and even ethnic or religious holidays.

■ Write or call to offer congratulations on company milestones, such as the anniversary of the company’s founding.

■ Offer to help the client’s child in high school or college get a summer internship.

■ When you’re in the same town, do something together outside the office. Perhaps go for a run, or offer an invitation to a non-business dinner with several interesting, fun people.

■ Make an unsolicited introduction— even over e-mail—to someone in your network whom your client would benefit from knowing.

■ Call to ask for advice on something the client is particularly knowledgeable about. Perhaps he or she knows how to play the guitar and you want to start, or is a great parent and you are having a child soon.

Ferrazzi is author of Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets To Success, One Relationship at a Time (Currency/ Doubleday, 2005). For more, see his Web site at www.ferrazzigreenlight.com. C

SUMMER 07

sures to support regions that are remote from economic centres,” says Gratien LeBel, Network president, who believes this initiative will have a real leverage effect on CFDCs and venture-capital firms in their work with entrepreneurs.

The new measures are part of the regular programming of Canada Economic Development, whose mission is to promote the long-term economic development of the regions of Quebec, paying special attention to those where slow economic growth is prevalent or where opportunities for productive employment are inadequate. For more information, visit www.dec-ced.gc.ca/ and search “Venture Capital Fund.” C