Me and a few other former Microsoft employees have started our own consultancy company.
What we did as a first step was to crawl through all our microsoft inboxes and plug anyone we have worked with in a CRM. We managed to get a few projects because of this, but in many cases people just don’t reply and one can only follow up x many times.
What do you guys think would be our best next step? We are currently finishing our website and had planned to hire somebody to help us generate leads using both email and LinkedIn. Is this a good approach or do u have any better ideas?
I would need more background information before being able to answer this question. Did you get permission to crawl through the inboxes? Is this ethical/legal?
Seems like there would be ethical issues there. Legal possibly.
I am personally not too crazy about adding everyone you have worked with to a CRM. It is very sales-y and can be off putting. You are supposed to obtain permission before adding anyone to a CRM.
I would honestly start with your LinkedIn connections, work down the list to connections you had a good connection/rapport with over the years (even if it was a connection of a connection) and combine that list into one. Even then, it is good practice to obtain permission to add them to a CRM.