10 Things to do with Every Business Email You Receive

CHECK OUT THEIR PROFILE ON LINKEDIN to learn more about them. Do this to determine if there is something you can do to help them first, then determine if they can help you.

SEND THEM A CONNECTION REQUEST if you're not already connected. At the very least they could possibly see your WHAT'S HAPPENING updates.

ASK THEM FOR A RECOMMENDATION on Linkedin. Use their experience with you and what you do to give something to your prospects to see.

WRITE THEM A RECOMMEND ON LINKEDIN if you're familiar with their work and you feel comfortable endorsing them.

INVITE THEM to your Facebook, Youtube and/or Pinterest business page if you have one. It plugs them even further into your network.

ADD THEM TO A GOOGLE+ CIRCLE and/or find and follow them on Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account, open one today.

INVITE THEM TO JOIN A LINKEDIN DISCUSSION GROUP you moderate or are active in. If you don't moderate a discussion group, consider starting one now based on your subject matter expertise.

CONNECT THEM WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR NETWORK who may be able to help them in some aspect of growing their business, and do it via email.

ASK FOR THEIR PERMISSION TO ADD THEIR NAME TO YOUR MAILING LIST. Doing it without asking them is bad business.

SEND THE ORIGINAL EMAIL TO YOURSELF MARKED AS AN ACTION ITEM if something further is needed before you delete it.

Bill Corbett is the founder and organizer of the HARTFORD SPRINGFIELD SPEAKER'S NETWORK and an award winning professional speaker who has been speaking since 1995. He has been on stages across the U.S. for everything from brief lectures to keynote speeches to multi-day training events, and will be the featured speaker at a conference in The Netherlands this Fall. He is a regular contributor to network television affiliates and provides one-on-one speaker coaching for business professionals. Learn more about him and his top-selling Amazon books.

How to Find Your Next Prospect in Linkedin Junk Email

I’ve heard some call it junk email; I don’t. What I’m referring to are the email messages we receive that inform us of when our contacts get a new job, celebrate a birthday, or have a work anniversary. The sender is listed as LINKEDIN UPDATES and these messages arrive in our inboxes (sometimes) daily. In the beginning and like many busy professionals, I use to quickly delete them first, just to be able to see the important messages in my box. But then I realized how valuable they were to finding my prospects; it was like finding diamonds in the rough.

Recently, I opened this update from Linkedin (LI) to see if there was someone celebrating something that I could say congrats for (Linkedin provides a little tab that you can click to send a quick congrats). One person listed in the JOB CHANGES section was promoted into a position that made them an ideal prospect for me. I clicked on her name to see her profile and then clicked on the RELATIONSHIP tab so I could see if I had filled in the HOW YOU MET section; sure enough I did!

We had met several years ago at an event and had exchanged business cards. At the time, she was in a position that would have made her somewhat of a peer to me, but we didn’t stay in touch. The difference in our companies and our geographical region didn’t really create much reason to collaborate or to stay connected about. I do remember her commenting or LIKEing my updates and posts on LI from time to time.

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Reading through her profile, I was able to confirm her promotion and read more about her new position. She was now the ideal professional who could potentially hire me for my services or purchase my products. I quickly clicked the SEND A MESSAGE button and drafted a message to her, congratulating her in her new position. I also reminded her of my services and asked her to keep me in mind for future opportunities. In less than 30 minutes, I received a reply back from her, thanking me for my congratulatory wishes.

Then, a few days later it happened. I received an LI message back from her, telling me that she had a need for someone with my skills for a gig in Boston. After a few back and forth messages, I sent her a contract for some work that I will be doing for her company in the near future. Making time to open the LI message and congratulating her put me on her radar. 

Who says you can’t get work from Linkedin? I can show you lots of ways of finding your next prospect there. Visit my site at http://The20Entrepreneur.com and contact me for more Web 2.0 marketing ideas for finding YOUR prospects online.