One of the most crucial aspects to networking is having a good plan to follow up. It is important to to do this with the people you’ve met and most importantly with referrals that have been offered to you.
Referrals Offered
Yogi Berra is rumored to have said, “If somebody offers you a referral, take it!” I recently attended a high end networking event where a group of us participated in an exercise where we each offered introductions to other people at the table. After listening carefully to who the people at my table wanted to meet, I offered a specific introduction opportunity for everybody at the table. The only catch to the introduction was that they had to send me an email with their contact information in order to get it. Out of nine people, I only received one email. I retold this story a few times and learned this is a common problem that everybody experiences. What this tells me is that there are many people that are networking but not doing it well. Use this knowledge as a way to separate yourself from the pack. If you become good at following up, then you will earn a reputation as a great networker and everybody will want to work with you and bring you introductions that will eventually lead to new business.
People You Meet
Many people attend networking groups or events and accumulate a stack of business cards. This can be a curse or a blessing. Having a handful of business cards can be intimidating to when you don’t have a good plan of action to follow up with the people you’ve met. Anybody that is networking to increase their business must have a good contact management system and/or CRM (Client Relationship Management) system. After meeting somebody you should follow up within 24 hours to reaffirm the connection you made and set a time to meet or speak again on the phone. Many people don’t do this because they don’t know where to start with their huge collection of business cards they accumulate throughout the days and weeks. Remedy this problem quickly by stop collecting so many business cards. You should only keep the business cards of the people you want to meet. Those people are your networking capital. Only ask for a person’s business card if you truly want to meet them. If its offered, then you should politely accept it.
If you are going through the effort to attend networking events to meet people and get introductions then you must have a thorough plan to follow up. If not, then you are just wasting your time. Networking is a full time job and should be treated as such. You should utilize the same tactics with your networking contacts as you do with your clients to earn and keep their business. Make a game out of it. Keep statistics on how many referrals you get of new clients and how many introductions you receive. Compare these results to your networking events and eventually you will see a pattern develop. Try these ideas over the next few weeks and report your results back on this blog and let me know if it worked for you or if you have other ideas to share.
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