Follow-Up with Your Contacts

What happens when you meet a potential client at an event and you do not follow up?

So now the event is over and you have collected a number of business cards, taken notes on the best prospects, divided the cards into Y(es), N(o), and M(aybe), now what? It is time to follow up. The best follow-up is immediate - they will remember you best if you go home that night and enter their information into your database and send a personal email or hand-written note. E-mail is much faster and you will be surprised at the fast response you get. This gives you instant contact and you can then ask how they felt about a certain event. You are sure to get a response. This gives you an immediate relationship with the individual.

Fast response gives you an edge on the competition. You had a reason to follow up (the event) and then a further reason to set that all important appointment with the right individual. It may be that you have talked with this individual extensively at the meeting and now want to discuss your business relationship further. The ultimate goal of attending an event is to get to the next appointment with certain individuals you feel you would like to do business with. It is not rocket science that you will have a common goal in business, after all, that is the type of person you sought to be introduced to in the first place. You have a quasi-relationship in the fact that you were both at the same event and the fact that you followed-up promptly. Sometimes when talking to someone at an event, they may want to talk at a later time; then write it down and follow up.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite, She decided to find the best ways to get people's attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the "Networking Queen".

Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in June 2005. For more information visit http://BlueprintBooks.com