Imperfect Marketing
Imperfect Marketing
312: Why You Don't Need More Leads (Do This Instead)
In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, host Kendra Corman dives into a common challenge many business owners face: the constant pursuit of new leads at the expense of nurturing existing relationships. Drawing from multiple client experiences, Kendra shares why hiring another salesperson isn’t always the answer—and how email marketing can be a game-changing solution.
We explore:
The Burnout of Always Chasing
- Why relentless networking can drain your time and energy
- The hidden costs of depending on a salesperson to replicate your passion
- How inconsistent follow-up causes valuable connections to slip through the cracks
The Power of Nurturing
- Why your best salesperson will always be you
- How email marketing bridges the gap between networking events and lasting relationships
- The difference between one-to-one meetings and building relationships at scale
Making Email Marketing Work for You
- The importance of writing like you’re talking to one person—your ideal client
- How consistency (weekly or bi-weekly emails) keeps you top of mind
- Using stories, examples, and even AI to make the writing process easier
- Why “B+ work” and consistency beat waiting for perfection every time
Key Takeaways for Business Owners
- Great relationships beat relentless hustle—every single day
- Systems will always outperform people when it comes to consistency
- Email marketing is not automation—it’s relationship building at scale
- Staying visible and top of mind means being the first call when clients are ready
Whether you’re an introverted business owner tired of nonstop networking or a leader wondering if you should hire a new salesperson, this episode will inspire you to rethink your approach. Instead of chasing, learn how nurturing your existing connections through email marketing can transform your business.
Are you ready to stop chasing and start nurturing? Tune in now and discover how consistent, authentic communication can help you grow without the burnout.
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Hi, I'm Kendra Korman. If you're a coach, consultant or marketer, you know marketing is far from a perfect science and that's why this show is called Imperfect Marketing. Join me and my guests as we explore how to grow your business, with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned along the way. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. I'm your host, Kendra Corman, and today we're going to talk about stop chasing and start nurturing. So if you think I'm talking about you in this episode, I probably am, because what I have put together is a little bit of an aggregate of about six different situations I've found myself in over the past year with prospective clients and clients. So a friend of mine thought he needed to hire a new salesperson. Now, I'm saying a friend of mine, but there's like six of them. Like I said, I told him he was wrong, flat out wrong. He does not need any new salespeople. What he needs to do is stop chasing and start nurturing the business and the network and the connections that he already has. So let's just talk about the burnout of constant networking. Right strategy. If you're sometimes working in your business just with one chamber of commerce, you could be going nonstop five days a week with different networking groups and one-on-ones. If you're following up and then the referrals that you're getting introduced to right, you could fill up your calendar and do nothing. But sales calls all day, every day. Not all of us have the capacity to do that right, hence why a lot of people think that they need to bring on a salesperson so that salesperson can do that. But a lot of times when they bring that person on, they're disappointed in the results Because, number one, that person doesn't have the same passion and connection to the business that they do. They don't have that passion, so they're limited on. You know, maybe they don't go to meetings before eight or nine o'clock in the morning, or they don't want to go to networking ones that are after five or six o'clock at night. Or you know they have to meet the bus at two and drop off at 8.30 or whatever that happens to be right. And a lot of founders and a lot of successful business owners run into problems where those expectations just aren't meeting, and so hiring a salesperson is not always the right solution.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's really just about nurturing the people that you have. Sometimes it's really just about nurturing the people that you have. So I believe and I've talked about this numerous times before in email marketing, right, we know this huge time commitment. It's an energy dream. If you are an introvert, which a lot of the business owners I talk to they're introverted, right. They get burnt out at the end of the day when they've talked to 800 different people, right. Sometimes they're just too tired and they're at a networking event at the local watering hole and they're sitting there and they're like I don't even know what to say anymore because I just need a nap, right. So that's great, because you're meeting people and those people want to learn more about what you do and what you offer and how maybe you can help them and they can help you. I get all of that. It's fantastic, right. I truly believe in the power of networking.
Speaker 1:But now that meeting is done, maybe you met them at a chamber networking event and then you went off and you did a one-on-one meeting, got to know them better, they were interested, but maybe it wasn't the right time. So how do you stay top of mind? How do you make sure that they don't go to another chamber networking meeting, have another one-on-one with somebody that's a competitor in your category, and now only think of them when they're thinking about whatever problem that they have that you solve. It's about staying top of mind. That's what email does. Email helps you stay top of mind. Okay, so there's a gap there, right, between meeting people and between nurturing that relationship. Email done right feels like it is nurturing that relationship right, because it feels like you're writing to one person. It's like you're having a conversation just with them, because when you're writing that email, you have one person in mind and that is that ideal client that you have, which really, really helps.
Speaker 1:Doesn't matter how great your salesperson is. They cannot scale themselves infinitely, right, there's only so many meetings they have because there's only so many hours in the day, and I haven't met a lot of people that want to have networking meetings at midnight. I've done some podcast guesting that has come close to midnight, but that's not really my best time of the day. So you need to rest, you need to recharge, you need to sometimes work in your business, not just on it and not just bringing people in, right, and that's that's a struggle.
Speaker 1:So let's go back to my example of my friend, who built a business and doesn't do email marketing, but he's a salesperson, right, he's the best salesperson. No matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter who he brings in, nobody is going to match him. They're not going to match his passion for the business. They're not going to match his pace. They're not going to manage the flexibility and the ideation that he gets from having those sales meetings or those one-on-one meetings to learn more right. A salesperson is going to feel like they have a prescribed list of things that they're supposed to do and stick inside that box a lot of times. Now, no, yes, good salespeople are going to ask questions, things like that, but they don't come up with the same number of ideas and don't fully know what's possible because they're not living it day to day. Right, they didn't build it from the ground up like you did, and so they're not going to do as well when it comes to selling you and your business. You're always going to be the best at that.
Speaker 1:So, if you're thinking about, are you stuck in the always hunting mindset? Are you always looking for new leads? Is your business just really strong in the ebbs and flows, without any true seasonality to it, because it just depends on when you're going out and having meetings and, more importantly, what connections are slipping through the cracks? What business are you missing out on because you're not having that follow-up conversation? Email marketing can have that follow-up conversation for you on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:Now there's a lot of the word value thrown around. I should take a look at the podcast schedule coming up here. So even last week, when I had Eric Smith on the podcast, you know we talked about podcast advertising. But you know, almost a month ago now we had Zach Zeller on the podcast and he talked about emailing three times a week. Right, and you don't need to go that far. Right. Pick weekly, start simple, pick every other week, whatever is sustainable for you. But you can stay top of mind with that right. It doesn't fall through the cracks. We're talking about value, we're providing value.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to always feel like selling, because part of what we're it's about nurturing the right people. So you don't necessarily need to meet more people. You need to stay on top of mind with those people that you already have met, who can refer you into your ideal client or who may be your ideal client in two months. It just wasn't the right time when you guys met, right. Then, all of a sudden, you know one problem was solved and one fire put out. Now there's a different fire and pain point that you solve and you want to be the one that they remember for that, not whomever knew they met because you were at some other networking event. Right, your new hire is never going to match your passion and your expertise. So sticking with something like email marketing over hiring a new person to join the team if you're doing the sales like it's not going to match.
Speaker 1:Email marketing is a fantastic, fantastic way to solve that problem. And systems are going to beat people at consistency all day, every day. So if you have a system to get a weekly email out, if you have a story to tell and a story to share, that's going to help you get that out consistently. And I think that there's just. It's so important there and I think the people what they don't realize about email marketing is it's all about relationship building. That's the point, right, social media is great. It's reach. Networking events are great. Again, reach, one-on-one meetings are relationship building, but so many hours in the day, right, email marketing is relationship building at scale.
Speaker 1:So I want you to think about what could happen if you could stay connected with the people that you meet on a regular basis without a huge time commitment. Just let that sink in. How many great connections have you made and been like, oh, I never followed up with them, and if you're like me, that list is probably. That number is probably a lot larger than it should be, even with email marketing, because sometimes I forget to follow up with them at all and even get them on my email marketing list, and so I think it's really important to do that Now. I have personally taken on stalking, which I do believe is a true skill set to marketing and advertising, but I stalked and emailed every day until these people that I've been talking about got their email marketing started, because it is that important to me and that important to their business that I know that they're missing out on so much stuff.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about that commitment factor, because you're already overwhelmed, right, you already have too much to do, and the reason you're looking to hire this person is because you want more off your plate. Well, let's think about what email marketing looks like. Right, you could bulk schedule four of them at once. Right, you could do a month's worth in one sit down With AI helping craft that first draft for you. There's just so much you can do. You want to create stories that connect. You want to act like you're talking to one person when you're writing the email, not act. You really want to talk to one person when you're writing the email so that they are drawn in by you. And what you do I would say I probably spend it depends on the day anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes per email newsletter I send.
Speaker 1:So this is going out to several thousand people, right? So I've got an email newsletter. It's going out to several thousand people for 30 minute investment. I've got an email newsletter. It's going out to several thousand people for 30 minute investment. For me to meet with several thousand people is going to fill up a year, right? So there's not enough hours in the week for me to connect with these people on a weekly, sometimes not even on an annual basis, but I can when they're in market and ready to move, because I've stayed top of mind with them with email. That's the key. So the difference between a sometimes once in a while newsletter that I must admit, and I've talked about this before that I've had and committed email marketing is very different, right, the results are very different. Oh, I tried it before. Oh, I feel like I'm bothering people. No, commit and send.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that you have to commit to sending daily, twice a week, once a week or once every other week at a minimum is what you need to be sending out to stay consistent. You have enough stories, you have enough successes. You have enough examples or questions that you're being asked that you're providing answers to. That can help somebody else and even if they hit delete, just seeing your name in their inbox keeps you top of mind. I think that that's super important and, again, it's not about a ton of time. It can outweigh any one-to-one marketing meeting out there, right, because it's at scale. It's relationship building at scale. So what does your current follow-up process look like? What's involved with that? How often are you following up and checking back in? To stay top of mind? I know it's not weekly, so if you can add something that people want to read and get them to want to engage with you and follow up on a regular basis, that's key. But you've got to be willing and able to show up consistently.
Speaker 1:We're talking about building that know like and trust factor, right, and that's always a big piece of the relationship building, because people do business with people that they know, like and trust, and so being consistent builds that trust factor. Being consistent with email marketing and sharing part of who you are lets them know you right and then, of course, they like you because they didn't unsubscribe right and then, of course, they like you because they didn't unsubscribe right, and then that consistency built that trust that leads to business. Email marketing leads to business. So email marketing is not automation, all right. It is relationship building at scale.
Speaker 1:I want you to maintain that personal passion that you have for your business. I want you to keep that connection that you have with those people that you're meeting again through email, because you're talking to them, you're sharing your story, they can feel your energy and you can do this through email just by writing. If you don't think you're a strong writer, again work with AI, help it, help you get a little bit stronger, and this can help you turn casual contacts over at the local watering hole for a chamber evening networking event into a lucrative relationship, without burning you out. This gives you consistent touch points, leaves you top of mind, with no additional burnout, no additional resources beyond what I would consider to be reasonable. So when you're thinking about this, I want you to think about how can you bring your personality into your emails right? How do you bring that passion in there, and what relationships do you have that you could strengthen with some consistent communication? It's probably a lot if you just pause to think about it. So great relationships beat relentless hustle all day, every day.
Speaker 1:So I want you to think about shifting from chasing to nurturing. Right, we want to stop chasing leads and nurturing the contacts and the leads that we already have. You might not need to hire somebody new. You might just need to nurture the relationships that you've already been building, because there's nobody better at what you do than you. So I want you to take a couple of steps here. Number one I want you to audit your current follow-up process. How are you following up with the people you're meeting with on a regular basis? Then I want you to think about okay, if I'm going to do this, what's a realistic schedule? Is it weekly? Is it every other week? I wouldn't go any less than that. I used to do monthly, but it's just not often enough, I don't think, to stay top of mind. So figure out. What kind of schedule. Are you willing to commit to, and can you commit to, and then set up your email system and start sending? Do not wait for it to be perfect.
Speaker 1:The show is called Imperfect Marketing for a reason. Right, Progress is better than perfection. All day, every day, move forward with B plus work. For a lot of us who got A's in school or lived for our A's on our report cards and were rewarded for those, that's hard to do, but your B plus work will outperform somebody that is sitting and waiting to finish at 100%, all day, every day. And then start with the connections you already have. Start with those people that you've met with that you just haven't completed, maybe, work with, or that you want to stay top of mind. Maybe they were a client and they might be in the market again soon. Right, that's who we wanna be thinking about. So if you're ready to stop chasing and start nurturing, definitely let's connect. I'd love to help you set up your email marketing system or talk to you about what email marketing systems I recommend for the type of email marketing that you're planning to do. So thank you again for tuning in to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. Until next time, have a great rest of your day.
