Associates followup – should I?

Associates are yet another group of people that we would benefit from staying in touch with. But who are they? To me they are all those people I’ve had some connection with through my business or community involvements.

In my business world they may be suppliers, people in a related field, those I have mentored or who have mentored me or competitors I’ve developed a relationship with, to list just a few who might fit into this category.

In my community service world they may be fellow volunteers, individuals in other organizations, and sponsors or any other interested stakeholders I’ve come to know.

These people are very easy to get lazy with from a staying connected perspective (and I’m speaking from personal experience when I say that) because we tend to rely on connecting with them through the course of our normal activities. Because we may see them on a somewhat regular basis we tend to feel there’s little need to do anything else to stay in touch.

The problem is that with some of these people we interact regularly for a while and then they drop off our radar screen for long periods, often years, and what was once a relationship fizzles out to nothing.

But what’s the big deal, why bother making an effort? In my view it’s for many of the same reasons that apply to other groups we’ve identified, reasons such as …

• Shows you have an interest in them as a person, that you care.
• Keeps the relationship alive.
• Enables you to know when things change in their organization or personal situation.
• Provides potential access to their network.
• Makes you memorable because few others do it.

The thing is it takes very little to keep these relationships alive, just a small effort once or twice a year can do it, and you never know when they might be just the person you need in some future situation.