A Better Way to Get Clients

I call it the "Lumberjack Strategy," and it's more effective (and faster) than networking.

- CHUCK BLAKEMAN

I was exhausted. My B2B fulfillment business had grown rapidly and was doing $1.2 million annually, but finding new clients was a grind. I was trapped in an endless cycle of networking events, cold calls, and business card exchanges that yielded minimal results.

Then I discovered what I now call the "Lumberjack Strategy"-and I started getting clients with ease. Better yet, I never had to attend another networking event again.

Here's how it works: Instead of hunting for individual customers in a vast networking forest, I realized I could connect with people who had already chopped down all the trees.

These are people who spent years building relationships with exactly the clients I wanted to serve-and now I just needed their help reaching their clients.

How? By playing a long game with relationships, and strategically hinting at how we could do more business together.

For example, here's how I did it with Gary (not his real name). He was a marketing manager I'd done some work with, who then moved into a mid-level job at Microsoft. We sent him a huge bouquet of lollipops on his first day. He said no one else did anything like it.